A Progressive Christian Star Wars Fan

The basic idea of Christian Wisdom of the Jedis is a good one. Some of the quotes from the different Star Wars movies that writter Dick Staub uses don't really relate to anything spiritual in nature sometimes. For example..in one Chapter he quotes Yoda from Attack of the Clones telling the Jedi younglings that Obi-wan lost a planet and how embarassing this is. I am not sure how this dialog connects to anything spiritual at all. Now, if he were to quote maybe Yoda from Empire strikes back discribing the nature of the Force to Luke and then compare this to Holy Spirit..then this would have made sense.

Although slight, there is positively an Evangelical Protestantism slant to this book. As a Progressive Christian who also subscribes to bibical unitarianism.. .I found that I disagreed with the writter's rejection of Star Wars' take on the Force being like the impersonal Holy Spirit. I concure with the view that Holy Spirit is the active Force of God, rather than viewing Holy Spirit as person.

WISDOM OUTSIDE OUR OWN

At the end of the Revenge of the Sith Master Yoda tells Obi-wan that his old Master, Qui Gon Jinn has discovered the path of immortality from a collection of writtings known as The Journal of the Whills. The Star Wars Resource Guild explains that this Order of the Whills is a group of people OUTside the order of the Jedis Who record the history of the universe. The Order of the Whills have libraries all over the galaxy, and they welcome collections of writtings from others orders, cultures and insititutions other then their own. In this way, they expand their understandings of universal views. This shows that interesting fact that the Jedi embrace the basic fact that OTHER individuals and orders can and do come to understand wisdom of the Force and nature of things that they themselves have not come to know.

A study into our own earth's collections of cultures and their own collections of recorded history, acconts, stories and myths shows that many well known stories in the Western civilizations can also be found all over the world. For example the story of the the great Flood and an Ark. Not is it found in Western Judeo-Christianity, but also is found in the Hopi tribe of Arizona. The Hopi culture has been around long before the white Euro-American people ever encountered them. The Ark story is also found in the deepest heart of Africa. If belief stories such as these can and have traveled all over the earth then just imagine how likewise such belief stories could spread across the make-believe universe of Star Wars. Sure, the characters names and detials might differ slightly, but the heart and message of the story remains.

"MANY OF THE TRUTHS WE CLING TO ARE HELD FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW"

Many of us are raised in a faith system that tells us that there is only one true way and all other beliefs are false. It is our own human interpretations that differ. In Return of the Jedi Luke seems a little taken back when Obi-wan Kenobi tells him that, "Many of the truths we cling to are held from a certain point of view." Is this not true?

Each person of a faith wonders if there is but one true faith path..then which is true? Is the Higher Power of the Universe/The Force...God? Holy Spirit? Or The Buddha Nature?

Many Christians often quote Jesus words, "I AM the Way, The Truth, and the Light. No one comes to the Father (God) except through me." More often then not, the devote (Evangelical Protestant) Christian will then go on to explain that this means that there MUST be a collection of religious people and that all other collections of religious people must be wrong. However, Christ here was speaking about a relationship with Him to God and NOT a church or religious group.

THE SON OF THE GRAND MASTER OF THE FORCE

Second, Christ goes by different names which varies from culture to culture. In Hebrew Jesus is Yeshuah. In Spanish it is pronouced as Hose-zeh. Do you have to know the precise correct name of Christ and his nature for him to be your Savior? Well, what about the story of the repentive thief? He came to accept Jesus even though up untill that moment, he did not know precisely know he was.

THE NATURE OF THE FORCE & THE GRAND COSMIC MASTER

In the Star Wars Universe this Higher Positive something that causes inner peace is called The Force. Just as our own understanding of God or our Higher Power differs greatly from one person to another, so too would it likely be also in the universe of Star Wars and their understanding of The Force.

On earth we have the Buddhists who view The Force as an impersonal energy field and then we have the Christians who view The Force as Holy Spirit and that there is One Grand Master and Lord over this Force and Owner of it. So, it makes sense that in the universe of Star Wars there would also be different views on what the nature of the Force is. You would have some Jedis and Orders that would view The Force like the Buddhists and then you would have some other Jedis and Orders that would view The Force as Holy Spirit and Having a Grand Master and Cosmic Lord over it. Visit My Web page and read more on these topics:

Contents

1. The Force - Holy Spirit
2. The Order of the Whills
3. Yahweh, The Grand Master Over The Force, Master Yeshula & The Force
4. The Journals of Grand Master Yeshula
5. The Nature of Force Persons/Saints/Angels & Spirit Beings
6. The Servents of Master Yeshula
7. Qui Gon Jinn Discovers Immortality

My Web Page:
http://www.angelfire.com/al4/progressivejws.html/ChristianJedis.html

About time Christians stop critiquing Star Wars!

When I was a teenager, I remember at Sunday School, we used material from Focus on the Family (Dr. James Dobson's organization) and when one lesson critiqued Star Wars as a pagan-influenced film and "Empire" especially for its "Buddhist concepts", our Sunday School class voted to drop use of Focus on the Family for our lessons. That was back in 1989 and I've never liked Dr. Dobson since (as I've learned more about him).

In the late 1990s, when I learned about how George Lucas was inspired by Joseph Campbell and his study of ancient mythologies to create the brilliant "Star Wars" saga, that got me interested in learning Joseph Campbell. There's nothing "evil" or "pagan" or even "anti-Christian" in learning about how other mythologies influenced story-tellers and religions through the ages. Unless Christians realize this fact, they will continue to lose out to popular culture and become as irrelevant as Zeus and Medusa.

I saw this book and it piqued my curiosity. I wanted to see if the writer had an anti-Star Wars bias or was he willing to examine the ideas in the film series in relation to Christian viewpoints. Fortunately, he is not like James Dobson...that is to say, he's not threatened by the big ideas presented by Star Wars. This book is amazing and necessary, as the writer ties in ideas to Christian ideas without stretching the point to where it doesn't fit. Fortunately, the writer seems to be advocating a kind of Christian life I'm familiar with...one consistent with Jesus' call to help the poor and afflicted, the commitment to peace and nonviolence, etc. He doesn't try to distort the message of the Star Wars films by advancing the conservative/fundamentalist Christian line that supports wars, unfiltered capitalistic greed and compassionless economics...he sticks with the Jesus of the New Testament and early Christians who stood up to the Roman Empire. Thus, the writer has good credibility with me and this is a book I'd love to teach in my church's young adult Sunday School class.

The reason I subtract a star is because the writer totally got "karma" wrong. In one chapter, he criticizes George Lucas for his decision to change Han Solo's firing at Greedo first in the special edition of "Star Wars: A New Hope" because Lucas believes that killing without reason means there can be no hope of redemption (which isn't true if you follow the trajectory of Anakin Skywalker to his ultimate redemption). The writer tries to say that this view is what karma is. That is not true. Karma is simply the Golden Rule...a universal law much like the law of physics (for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction). Karma is any action that returns to the originator of such action. If you do evil, evil will come back to you. If you do good, good will come back to you. That's all it is. To distort it as something else hurts one's credibility a bit. To me, it seems like a lot of Christians are threatened by karma...even though no one should be. Jesus taught a principle of karma and if we all lived by the law of karma, we would have nothing to fear. Only people who commit evil acts want karma to be untrue, because they don't want to pay the price of their sins.

Other than that one glaring error, I recommend this book for study, as it will help people become better Christians and that is a good thing. Too many people have fallen away from Christianity because of the hypocritical leaders. Anything that helps people understand what Jesus really was about is a good thing.

A Unique Integration of Theology and Culture

At the end of the 20th century, Paul Tillich tried to integrate theology and culture so that a world come of age could connect with Christian faith. While his attempt was brave, his failure may be explained by a departure from the concrete and radical teachings of Jesus, favoring instead the obscure language of ambiguous religion.

Dick Staub's book is successful precisely because his integration of Christian theology, history, philosophy, culture and biblical text embodied within the popular Star War myth retains the radical claims of Jesus for thinking and living Christianly.

As I read the book, I felt I was immersed in a meditation or devotional guide for the day. The reader is introdcued to mini-vignettes of church history, world culture, spirituality, history, politics and philosophy as the Jedi story is woven throughout the book. At other times I felt as though I was offered a study guide in refreshing language into the basics of Christianity with no requirement of prior religious knowledge.

Whether part of the Jedi following or not, Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters assures the reader that her quest for spiritual reality is only superceded by God's historic seeking of all humanity through the cross of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is conveyed to both mainline liberal, conservative evangelical or for most others who are spared the use of religious labels---all of whom desire spiritual fulfillment created by the nihilism of North American consumerism barely challenged by an equally commodified Christian(?) church.

What Dick Staub has accomplished is a new paradigm for communicating the historic Gospel story of God's love for the world. His book is an effective interplay of both medium and message without the one subsuming the other. Its fast-paced, succinct medium written humanly and vulnerably strips away the usual barriers that often accompany usual theological discourse. At the same time, its message is precisely retained without regrettably dumbed-down reduction that often characterizes today's religious parlance in a misguided attempt to trade off truth for "relevance."

All future 21st century theological discourse is now challenged to grapple with Staub's linguistic paradigm when confronted with contextualizing the Gospel into an increasingly post-human culture.

Paul O. Bischoff, Ph.D.
Wheaton, Illinois