John McDowell – Feeling the Force in Star Wars

Given that it is May the 4th, International “Star Wars” Day, I thought I’d link to John McDowell‘s article, “Feeling the Force”: Star Wars and Spiritual Truth.

In Star Wars the theme of responsibility for the life-­affirming care of all things makes sense through the surrounding and binding presence of the Force in and to all things. All things are symbionts with the Force and therefore one another, interconnected in some way in a complex web, and consequently to exploit any aspect of that arrangement for one’s own gain is to significantly risk the delicate balance of life. Described in this way, there appears to be more similarity between Lucas’ Force and certain Christian understandings of God’s presence than is admitted by those who are worried about its pan­theistic quality. Obi-Wan’s teaching that the Force ‘surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together’ (ANH) strikingly evokes Pauline imagery of ‘one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all’ (Ephesians. 4:6). When Christians read the agency of God in terms of God’s presence in Jesus Christ (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16) the will of the Creator is understood to have saving significance for all things. This idea shapes our understanding not merely of the intrinsic value and dignity of human creatures but also of the non-human creation, thereby resulting in a theologically informed ethic that recognises and acts for the flourishing of the non-human creation. Abuse of human and non-human creation, then, disrupts the proper and fruitful associations of interdependent relations among God’s creatures. And, finally, we must recognise that the Holy Spirit is the ongoing pres­ence of the cosmic and intimate Creator making all things new. ‘Clearly,’ argues Bryan Stone, ‘the Holy Spirit does bear some resemblance to the Force of Star Wars.’ Christians who unknowingly affirm dualistic cosmologies, and who construe salvation in terms of being saved from the world for another world, miss this.

John McDowell has written more extensively on Star Wars and spiritual truth in his book The Gospel According to ‘Star Wars’: Faith, Hope and the Force, published by Westminster / John Knox Press, May 2007. Buy it from Amazon.