Description
Book SynopsisScholars have been arguing for years that Star Wars is more than light sabers, Wookies, Millennium Falcons, and troubling familial relationships. Star Wars is an exciting space fantasy that we can explore from multiple academic perspectives, such as philosophy and psychology. This volume adds to that conversation by asking, “what would it look like if we analyzed the Star Wars universe theologically?” In Theology and the Star Wars Universe, contributors from various theological traditions take on this task by exploring the nature of the Force, the spiritual role of the Jedi, nonviolent and liberationist readings of the Franchise, and the enduring power of hope. Written for the restless, curious academic but accessible to diehard fans, Theology and the Star Wars Universe is an exciting foray into the study of theology and popular culture.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Theologizing Star Wars: Engaging the Galaxy Far, Far Away
Benjamin D. Espinoza
Opening Essay
1 The Word of God and the W(h)ill of the Force: Canon and Authority within the Star Wars Universe
James F. McGrath
Part II: Theologies of the Jedi
2 Use (the) Force: Jedi, Monks, and Unexpected Violence
Zachary B. Smith
3 And What More Shall I Say? Heroism in Hebrews 11 and Star Wars
Bethany Keeley-Jonker and Robert Keeley
4 Rediscovering the Sith and the Jedi: A Spiritual Analogy in Renaissance Humanism and Desert Asceticism
Nathan Garcia
5 From Padawan to Jedi: The Theological Premise for the Necessity of the Master-Apprentice Relationship in the Path of Spiritual Ascension
Abdallah Rothman
6 And Also With You: An Examination of the Demystification of the Jedi and the Clergy
Nettie Brock and Josiah Brock
Part III: Political Theologies
7 Subverting the Ancient Religion: The Gray Ecclesiology of Ahsoka Tano and Old Man Luke
Timothy Posada
8 In Defense of the Nonviolence Luke: A Confrontation between Niebuhrian Realism and Christian Nonviolence in The Last Jedi
Andrew J. Kuzma
9 Undoing the Memory Wipe: Metz, Droids, and the Victims of History
Edward Dunar
10 Mysticism and Resistance: Theology of The Last Jedi
Rostislav Kůrka
11 Bringing Balance to the Force: George Lucas’ Politico-Critical Refiguring of Salvation
John C. McDowell
Part IV: Engaging Classic Thinkers
12 The Modern Manichaeans: Binaries of Light and Dark in Contemporary Culture
Jonathan Lyonhart
13 Thomas Aquinas’ Account of Hope as a Hermeneutical Lens for Star Wars
Shaun C. Brown
14 An Archē Not Anarchic Enough: A Spirited Critique of the Force
Ryan G. Duns
15 Lifting Rocks: Camus, Sainthood, and the Anti-Heroic in The Last Jedi
Russell P. Johnson
