{"id":474,"date":"2023-07-11T03:45:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T03:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/?p=474"},"modified":"2023-07-11T03:45:41","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T03:45:41","slug":"gospel-according-to-eli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/11\/gospel-according-to-eli\/","title":{"rendered":"Gospel According to Eli"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ares: \u201cSince the beginning of time, it\u2019s been warriors who have shaped the world!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eli: \u201cThat\u2019s about to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Seeds of Faith, #Xena Warrior Princess<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week I want to tackle the subject of Eli & the Elijians, the followers of his message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He died a martyr for preaching peace, slain by Ares so that the cause of peace would live on after his death. I think it\u2019s a relevant story to our times, especially for anyone looking to change the world in a real & lasting way, & why it moves me to write about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, it\u2019s not just something they came up with for season 5. I maintain it was there from the beginning: literally, the pilot. For that reason, I think it\u2019s an integral part of any future Xena\/Eve story. But I don\u2019t think this is something I can fully argue in a few posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m not going to go into great detail litigating this issue here. My main goal is to provide my rationale for using the Elijian storyline as a focus for my story, & explain why I think it should continue. My goal is to create what I think a canon Xena story should be, and not to prosetylize on behalf of any specific religion that Elijianism is seen to represent. According to the writer of the above ep, Seeds of Faith, Eli is inspired by both Christ & Ghandi, but shouldn\u2019t be read literally as one or the either. I think the Elijian cult has a number of ingredients to it which I will briefly outline, & I\u2019ve taken the stated sources used on the show & expanded on them as a way of giving a more thorough picture of the cult in my story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since my story is set after Motherhood, over 25 years after Eli\u2019s death that\u2019s plenty of time for rituals to develop, & indeed, we see Eve take part in one at her initiation: baptism. There\u2019s also time for growth of dogma, for legends about Eli to arise, & misconceptions & schisms in the faith. We see the beginnings of that, too, on the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly, though, I want to address any skepticism fans might have about the dramatic potential of the cult of Eli & its impact on an action show like #Xena. His teachings sound like a wonderful ideal, but maybe not entertaining to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myself, I\u2019m fascinated by the growth of religions, & the pacifist approach as a subject of drama, so I feel perfectly suited to tackle this difficult subject in what I hope will be an entertaining way. This week I\u2019ll be discussing the show\u2019s sources for Eli\u2019s story, how Eli\u2019s teachings mesh with the ethos of #Xena, where Eli\u2019s name came from, Eve\u2019s real-life model, St. Paul & how he\u2019s viewed today, how pacifism works, & why Elijians like green! I\u2019ll end the week with a music video of what I consider to be the perfect Elijian anthem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ares: \u201cSince the beginning of time, it\u2019s been warriors who have shaped the world!\u201d Eli: \u201cThat\u2019s about to change.\u201d \u2014Seeds of Faith, #Xena Warrior Princess This week I want to tackle the subject of Eli & the Elijians, the followers of his message. He died a martyr for preaching peace, slain by Ares so that the cause […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-xena"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}