In Turners Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, he says that “Pilgrimage provides a carefully structured, highly valued route to a liminal world where the ideal is felt to be real, where the tainted social persona may be cleansed and renewed” (30). Pilgrimage can be a means to healing and putting the past behind us. In class we talked about how several people hike the AT to start fresh and be relieved from the burdens they’ve been carrying. I think people going on pilgrimages and having to the chance to experience how life should be can really rewarding. They are able to be free from things that are holding them back. Turner states that it does not matter what position a person holds in the social hierarchy, all humans experience their guilt, sins and diseases in the same way. However, this “liminal world” freezes time in a sense, and gives the opportunity for restoration throughout the journey.
Pilgrimages are often made to well-known holy sites; these have been considered “holy” perhaps because of the reputation they hold on what has occurred there in the past. A pilgrimage to one of these places may give someone a sense that they are closer to God because they believe they have been purified in his direct presence. I’m not sure if I agree with this entirely because I do not think that God can be contained in one place. But I do agree that in a pilgrimage or powerful experience, it is easier to recognize the authority of God because you are separated from the mundane, routine way of life in society. At a sacred place you are more conscious of where you are and open to the effects of renewal.
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