How does Star Wars Spirituality relate to Christians?

This article will attempt, in brief to analyze and compare Christianity with a little recognized aspect of the Star Wars religion and spirituality.

So to begin, let me just say, I love Star Wars. It's a great franchise that has really brought what was once a laughable genre to the forefront of modern film, literature and music [don't even pretend electronica isn't sci-fi]. I greatly respect the influence it has had over American society and culture and was a favorite in my early days. However, this article is not here to laud the praise of Star Wars but rather to analyze and conceptualize to the Christian why its force is dangerous to an orthodox worldview.

First, this article will not deal with the typical problems of the Pantheistic qualities of the force, though that may be touched on in several details. It can be cleared up with one Bible verse: Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Here we see that creation is no synonymous our bound to God, but created ex nihilo [Greek: out of nothing] or in the Hebrew bara [God exclusive creation, rather than man-initiated forming from existing matter]. Done. Moving on.

Star Wars at its basis has the Force as a source of power and interconnectedness throughout the universe. It is supernatural, but also in a way measurable. It not only can transmit information across light-years in an instant, which is impossible according to the Einsteinian model of the universe where data can only travel at the speed of light, but enables the user to throw objects, extend life, heal, perform miracles, or even cast lightning. It is a pantheistic god that is heavily connected to the life force of the universe. It is strengthened by the presence of life and draws energy from every creature.

Now as I'm sure you know if you live in America, there is a Dark Side and a Good Side. Sith on one side and Jedi on the other. Reportedly, according to the movies, there is supposed to be a balance with the force, where Good and Evil are equally represented and understood or able to function. [That is another problem, that may need to be dealt with at some point.]

The Dark Side is able to take control and mar the good. It can cause it harm and bring it under its Iron Fist. It has the desire to dominate the light and does so by slaughtering the good and implanting evil in its strongest representatives. It has the ability to overwhelm and dominate the light and cover it as the ocean covers the land. The Star Wars Dark Side seems to be part of the force, but a crazy angry self-destructive separate personality. There is no promise that good would permanently overcome, but have to live in perfect harmony with it [if that is somehow possible.]

For all intents and purposes, the force most closely relates not to Buddhist or Hindu philosophies, but the Gnostic beliefs of Manichaeism. This is a bit complicated to wholly explain, but put most simply, there is a good side and a bad side, represented by light and darkness. The light resides in a purely spiritual sense of the word, and by some cosmic war or happenstance, the spiritual light was sealed in physical matter that is a product of darkness. They believe the physical is evil and that the body cannot be held responsible for sin, but their knowledge of the light within will save their soul from destruction. At some point in the future, though, the good will overcome the evil, however, not without losing serious ground and being defeated and hurt along the way. The Good is able to be deteriorated and lost and hurt by evil.

Manicheanism: Evil is able to mar and consume the in-omnipotent Good.

In Star Wars, similarly, evil is able to cover up and incapacitate the good and gain dominance on a cosmic scale.

Christianity, on the other hand believes in a God who is omnipotent, and remains above any attempt by evil to mar its perfect, immutable face. The Christian belief of evil is that it is routed and uprooted by light and the redemptive good. Good unveils evil and redeems it with the purifying blood of Christ. Evil has no eternal place in the Christian universe other than contempt, defeat and eternal punishment in Hell. There is a place for the physical realm, and that will also be redeemed in the new Creation. Creation itself began as 'good' [not of its own merit, but by God's decree] but fell into corruption. God, however, remains unchanged. Evil resembles an ant going up against us, futile and a bit silly.

Augustine understood evil in a very interesting way, that evil wasn't physical or powerful, but non-existent. Evil is a lack of good. Good is not a lack of evil, but a tangible righteousness. Just as light, in any place overcomes darkness with no fight, so also Good overcomes evil with the smallest iota of effort. Evil has no place, and once Jesus comes back, evil will be gone. He has never been marred by evil, while we have, and we are made perfect in his works and sacrifices. He fills up our evil deficiencies with his goodness and righteousness. Where there was death and darkness, he routs it with life and light.

In our beloved Star Wars, the fight between good and evil seems never ending, and likely that in many cases, evil will win and good can do nothing about it. But for the Christian, he is a living example of the destruction of evil and its destruction by the introduction of the light of Jesus Christ into our souls by the illuminating fire of His Holy Spirit.

I think John sums it up well in his gospel about the utter destitution darkness faces at the mere presence of goodness and light:

Chapter1: 

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, [1] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Goodness of the Lord alone is able to deliver us from darkness, and unlike the impersonal god of Star Wars and the Manicheans, his light pierces the darkness to save us from destruction. All of our efforts are in vain to overcome the darkness that scars our heart, soul and mind. So if you don't already, please trust in Jesus to be your goodness and joy, and lean into him for your righteousness.

Colossians 1:21- 23:
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he [Jesus] has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.


Please comment! :D

Tolkien and the Gospel

So, in lieu of the upcoming release of The Hobbit into theaters and my recent foray into Tolkien literary studies, I decided to blog about something that is close to my heart: the Gospel and Tolkien's understanding of it and how it is expressed in his stories, specifically, The Lord of the Rings.

Firstly, Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, who was very well trained in theology and philology, specializing in Nordic, German and Anglo-Saxon languages and literature. He is most well known for his Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, along with The Silmarillion.

Now, Tolkien wasn't an ordinary fantasy writer, who attempts to sit down, arbitrarily decide languages and histories that may effect the story as a whole, but moves on to another subject shortly after finishing. He spent years and all of his philological knowledge and theological understanding to mold a universe that is pre-Christian, pre-Judaic and largely Nordic while retaining elements of a God [in his universe: Eru or Illuvatar].

Tolkien, in writing LOTR did not set out to make a basic allegory of the gospel as CS Lewis slavishly did, much to Tolkien's chagrin, but instead used his understanding of human nature and pre-incarnational myth and story to mold a mythopoeia that speaks to humanity on an epic and multi-tiered level above race, culture, religion and creed. He made this to connect people to the transcendant, all-loving, all-powerful God who watches over the seemingly arbitrary chaotic events of time to mold a story of his own power, divinity and might.

Here is where we begin. Illuvatar, or Eru, sits alone, and in the beginning, creates the Valar, beings we would understand in our context as angels and Maiar, the lesser angels. He begins a melody, which he commands all beings to take part in and build on. In this he shows his power to imbue life and will, but remains in control of all of it. Each Valar has the ability to build on the Great Music, or tear it down.

There was one Valar, however, who wanted control over the song and over all things, his name was Melkor [Quenya Elvish for "He who arises in Might"]. Since Music was all there is in the beginning, he tried to take control of it. So, he drew other Valar to himself, including Sauron, and began to infect the song with a cacophony of noise and static to drown out Eru's making. In this, he failed, Illuvatar halts the song, and builds on and redeems the noise into his own song. Rather than utterly drown out Melkor, Eru brings it to himself to show his ultimate creative glory. At the third redemption, Eru halts the song, and reveals to the Valar that this song will be the theme of Middle Earth. Born in creative glory, marred by evil, redeemed and brought back to glorify the Lord.

See any parallels yet?

Melkor and several righteous Valar go down to Middle Earth to conquer or mold, respectively. Melkor constantly battles to destroy and conquer, marring all good things that the righteous Valar mold.

Here we should probably delve into Tolkien's understanding of evil. He understood evil in a largely Augustinian way. Evil itself did not have substance or power, but rather the ability to mar and stain the good. Evil is a force of destruction and unraveling. It cannot create, it cannot bind anything together, but fragments, shatters and breaks down. Good, however, has the ability to create and redeem. It builds great out of good and brings healing to broken-ness. It is growth, redemption, community and truth. Goodness is humility and also a yielding to the will of God, or Eru. Evil attempts domination of everything, and if it destroys everything, then it, in a way has made itself dominant.

Just as Jesus' mission was healing and redemption through humility, Melkor and Sauron's mission is destruction and rebellion through destruction. They cannot create community, they cannot heal, but give deceitful promises of riches and growth, if only to control and subjugate all things, even God.

This is why Sauron attempts so greatly to retrieve his ring. The Ring itself is power. It promises the ability to conquer all things, including Sauron. None of the characters in LOTR are lying when they say they want to use the ring for good to conquer Sauron. But multiple times, it shows us that this would only make them evil and the good they accomplish would be through coercion and power, rather than humility and good example and teaching. Gandalf even admits that if he used the ring, it would unravel him, in spite of his desire to do good for the weak. To paraphrase, he would empower the weak, but not strengthen them. To bring them out of weakness and despair would result in their reliance on him and on power, not on humility and Illuvatar.

The only good thing to do for the creatures of Middle Earth is to abandon all power and follow the will of Illuvatar, that is, to create and mold for good rather than evil and to give all power to the true creator, Illuvatar.

Just as Jesus gave up power to bring such great healing, so also the people of Middle Earth must abandon and relinquish power to become great. All must be laid down for the raising up of all good things.

This event is what Tolkien referred to as the "Eucatastrophe." Eu meaning "good" in Latin and catastrophe meaning "an unraveling or overturning" in Greek. These two seemingly contradictory terms from two opposed cultures comes together to make a beautiful, gospel centered paradox. The good catastrophe.

The Eucatastrophe of LOTR is in the unraveling of power, the destruction of the ring, and the sacrifice of Frodo and Sam's well-being, honor and dignity. They abandon all for the beauty of goodness and truth. They humble themselves and abandon power [which is complicated by the action as the Crack of Doom at the end of The Return of the King, but we won't get into that]. They stay the tide of destruction by unraveling the power to destroy and take pride in might. From this catastrophe, goodness flourishes in Middle Earth for a time.

The Eucatastrophe of Scripture is found in 3 places.
1. The Eucatastrophe of human history is completely changed at the Advent of Jesus in 0 A.D. Time itself now revolves around the birth of God into human history. The transcendant brings catastrophe to human history by becoming bound within time, relinquishing glory.

2. The Eucatastrophe of God is completed in the Cross and the Resurrection. At this point, Jesus relinquishes power and the glory of complete domination and justice in an instant for 33 years of torment, pain and torture at the hands of those who he comes to save. God himself is overturned by his own justice to bring mercy. But the greatest part of the catastrophe is found in the freedom and healing found in the cross and the new life brought by his conquering of sin and death at the resurrection, which promises new life, the availability of the Holy Spirit and eternal life.

3. The Final Eucatastrophe is God's return to Earth to bring judgement and end all the pain of time to bring endless joy to his people, dwell among them, and bring destruction to the unredeemed wicked. In this his "Great Music" will be fulfilled and all the cacophony will be laid to waste.

This is the Gospel according to Tolkien. Let me know what you think, leave some comments!!

Osama's Death: Triumph?

So I'm sure everyone has heard of the death of Osama bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda, mastermind of the 9/11 plot. He is a man who is unabashed and unashamed and open about his hatred of Westerners, Americans, Christians, Jews and nominal Muslims. He is an emblem of hatred of the same caliber as Hitler and Stalin, and sought nothing but the destruction of his enemies to glorify Allah.

Well... not anymore. He is now dead. Now Christians are forced to decide whether to celebrate or remain ambivalent about his demise. "God does not delight in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 13) and "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword" Matthew 26:52 are constantly jostling for position on the flood of Christian tweets about Osama's death.

I would argue that neither response exclusively is correct. Moderation, in this sense is the more appropriate response, especially in light of the person who died, the justice that was done, the safety that will come about it, and a chance for dignified conversation on the role of justice in the world to non-believers.

Total happiness in his death would be incorrect, because it would be to deny the Lord the glory due to him for being sovereign over the entire life of Osama bin Laden, and the acts the Lord permitted through Osama bin Laden for reasons we cannot perceive in this age. 

But we are surely not to rejoice in the death of the wicked, for God doesn't do that. To do so would be to pretend that we ourselves are not also worthy of judgment and justice - that we stand apart from Osama because he is "more evil" or "more deserving" of wrath. Apart from Jesus, we all deserve wrath, so to see him die apart from the grace of Jesus is indeed tragic for him.

However, there are other things to consider in this situation. We should be thankful that God exhibits his justice and that he is a just God. It says on several occasions in the Psalms that righteousness and justice are the foundations of God's throne. This should also cause us to fear and tremble before a God so full of unstoppable justice and righteousness that we cannot possibly be good enough for his law or standards. 

This is where we find a fountainhead of joy! For, on God's throne of Justice sits a God of Mercy. 

Let me set up an interesting Biblical example. The Ark of the Covenant was commissioned by God to be built as a seat of his glory where the sacrifices of the people would be atoned for on Yom Kippur. Inside the Ark rested the staff of Aaron - the first high priest, the Ten Commandments - the law, and a bowl of manna. Resting on the Ark was the Mercy Seat, on whose corners the blood of the Lamb would be spilled to atone for the sins of Israel. I hope this is beginning to sound familiar. 

God's Justice is satiated by the blood of a spotless lamb and received by Mercy so we may be in good standing with our Father.  In Jesus, the justice and wrath of God, which was saved for us, is fulfilled and satiated so that we can come into the presence of the Lord and so that his Mercy and Justice would be fulfilled and poured out with grace to the nations. 

So the death of Osama shouldn't be an occasion for celebration, but of introspection. The death of the wicked and the punishment of the unrighteous should remind us of the grace we have in the Lord, and point us toward his loving sacrifice to bring us peaceably to him.

It is neither celebration of Osama's death, nor mourning for his destruction.

I quote Dante, who in Hell, mourns over the torment of the damned. Here, Virgil reprimands him for weeping over the final judgments of God:

"...Who is more pathetic than the person 

Who agonizes over God’s just judgments?"

The poets emerge from Hell

 (Inferno, XX, ln. 29,30)

Instead of celebrating, reflect on your own sins and the mercy shown to you in Jesus. 

Instead of repeating Scriptures condemning those who celebrate, reflect on the nature of God's Justice and the mercy he shows you.

In essence, just look to Jesus, and use this as an opportunity to tell people about the God who forgave a sinner like you.