Why Star Wars Can’t Live Within Its Own Worldview
There’s a contradiction between all the talk about “balancing the Force” in the Star Wars universe and the actualities of the films—and this conflict may reveal more about us than we think
Star Wars is a wonderful story, but it’s also a continuous contradiction.
That’s because its worldview simultaneously tries to pursue the pantheism of Eastern religions while continually gravitating toward a Judeo-Christian point of view in which fallenness is redeemed through sacrifice.
On the one hand, “the Force” is described in pantheistic, or at least panenthestic, terms; it’s “an energy field created by all living things” in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi. According to Yoda, “life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us.” This is particularly clear in Episode VIII when Rey senses the Force as a power that binds all life together and thus belongs to the entire cosmos, not only to the Jedi. The Force can be used for good or evil and includes both a dark side and a light side, somewhat like Shakti in certain strands of Hinduism.
Especially in the Star Wars prequels, much is made of seeking “balance” between the dark and light aspects of the Force. And yet, these Eastern religious perspectives are inconsistently applied.
Despite all the talk about balance between dark and light, the heroes aren’t really seeking balance at all; they are consistently seeking the triumph of the light.
And no wonder.
Let’s suppose for a moment that the films resolved with a permanent impasse between evil and good, accompanied with an announcement of, “We’ve finally gotten the dark and light balanced. The end”—that would be less popular than Greedo shooting first.
No one wants a resolution like that, because the human heart does not yearn for a balance between good and evil in the universe; we long for a resolution in which good triumphs over evil—and that’s ultimately what Star Wars typically delivers.
Another example of this inconsistency may be found in the fact that the Force is supposedly an impersonal energy field, yet—at least in the prequels—the Jedi seek to follow the “will of the Force.” A “will,” however, is something that only a personal entity can have! Once again, Star Wars is unable to deliver a satisfying story line while remaining completely true to a pantheistic worldview.
The Problem with the Force
Christians are theists—that is to say, we believe in a personal deity who is separate from his creation. The presence of pantheistic tendencies in the films doesn't mean that a Christian can't appreciate the sweeping saga of the Skywalker clan, of course. But this fact does call Christians to think critically not only about the images on the screen but also about the theological implications of the script.
Multiple forms of pantheism may be found in Hindu practices and pagan philosophies that predate Christianity. Modern pantheism, however, traces back to the centuries following the Protestant Reformation—and pantheism attracted far less applause then than now.
The Roman Catholic Inquisition executed Giordano Bruno for proclaiming pantheist perspectives; the Jewish community of Amsterdam excommunicated Benedict Spinoza on similar charges. In the nineteenth century, earlier trends toward pantheism mingled with the idealism of Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant to spawn “transcendentalism.” Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau promoted pantheistic ideals in American contexts, with Emerson declaring himself to be a “part or parcel of God.”
The problem with pantheism is precisely the same as its attraction. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “The pantheist's God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there for you if you wish for him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you.”
The pantheist “god” is a deity in the background, available in all things but interrupting nothing. And yet, it seems that some form of pantheism may be more common among people in the pews than most of us would care to admit. According to a Pew Forum study, nearly one-fourth of professing Christians believe there is “spiritual energy” within such natural entities as trees and mountains.
But, ultimately, balancing an impersonal energy can never produce a story that satisfies our souls. To deliver a satisfying story, the films must resort to a Judeo-Christian worldview with its linear metanarrative in which good triumphs over evil through sacrifice.
That’s because the Creator of the cosmos has etched on every human soul a longing for redemption, a yearning for good that triumphs over evil through sacrifice. Star Wars cannot tap into this yearning while still remaining true to a pantheistic framework that merely seeks balance between dark and light.
Further Hints of a Biblical Worldview
Here’s one more fascinating point at which Star Wars seems to take steps in the direction of a Judeo-Christian worldview in spite of itself: The revelation that there are authoritative Jedi texts.
The Jedi temple in Episodes II and III had a library, but it wasn’t clear whether the Jedi had ever relied on written texts. In Episode VIII, however, we glimpse a small canon of sacred texts that Luke Skywalker has preserved in his self-imposed exile. “Page-turners, they were not,” Yoda admits, but Luke sees them as valuable nonetheless.
When I saw the Jedi temple on Ahch-To go up in flames and heard Yoda say that Rey already had everything she needed, I inwardly groaned and assumed that the film was setting us up for yet another example of the overused cliche in which the hero discovers inside himself or herself everything that’s needed to overcome the enemy—but I was wrong.
At the end of Episode VIII, it’s revealed that Rey took the sacred texts when she left Ahch-To, which gives an entirely different meaning to Yoda’s words. She has taken the texts with her and thus she possess what she needs to found a new and different Jedi order. It’s worth considering what this perceived need for a canon of written texts means for us as Christians, who practice a faith that was grounded in written texts even in its earliest stages.