Religion in Star Wars and Post Modern Interpretation

Contemporary Religion: Review of Caputo’s On Religion

Part 1

Caputo’s On Religion is a review of how religion is experienced in the contemporary world. It does not begin with a contemporary view, but rather a depiction of what religion is, what has happened to religious belief, and how religion is communicated today, particularly in media. The first part discusses the idea of religion as love. This is important because the religious experience is much like that of the experience of lovers who are separated. For example, two lovers who are separated will write or send expressions of love to one another to keep the love alive. They will use their imagination and their energy to reflect, meditate on that love, and act on it in some form of communication. The same is true in religion. God is the recipient of the love from man, and man is the recipient of the love from God—yet both are separated in some way and so there is this distance to cross and that makes the demonstration or act of love so much sweeter.

Once Caputo establishes this basic understanding of what religion is, he next goes on to discuss what happened to religion in the modern world and why it tends to be viewed in such polarizing ways. On the one hand, religion is mocked and scorned; on the other hand, it is seen as the end-all, be-all of life; the point of existence. First, there was the sacral age in which the sacred was esteemed, and the mystery of God was valued in society. Religion was interwoven into the fabric of society and communities worshipped as a whole. It was important that everyone believe in and share the same faith. The Age of Faith was the period of the West when Europe was known as Christendom.

Then came a change in society; the Reformation happened; people began fighting about what to believe; the unity of faith was shattered; and secularists began finding ways to maintain cohesion in the community without religion. Religion itself became anathema. It was seen as the problem rather than as a helping glue. Too many people were fighting over religious issues, and so leaders thought that keeping government focused on secular politics would prevent the wars. The Enlightenment Age and the Romantic Age came out of this move towards secularization. Nietzsche declared that God was dead and that there was no need for anyone to engage in religious belief, which in his view got in the way of self-determination. Nietzsche believed the Christian and Jewish faiths were slave faiths that made men want to be humble and low, when men ought to be proud and mighty—such was Nietzsche’s idea.

Caputo also talks about Kierkegaard, who decided that God was really an either/or question. God either existed and that meant everything, or He did not exist and nothing of any importance really mattered. This made the question of religion into something supreme and seemed to suggest that life should either go back to the way it was, if God was true, or it should proceed in its current “progressive” course, if God was untrue.

Then Caputo discusses desecularization, which is the turn away from the secular back to religious ideas and expressions. This can be seen in the rise of evangelicalism and other modes of popular religious expression. This part of the book is quite interesting to read, and it acts as a foreshadow of what Caputo will talk about later when he discusses the topic of religion and Star Wars. For instance, Star Wars is a film about science-fiction—basically space cowboys and heroes and aliens and villains that represent true evil.

The point the author makes is that even in Star Wars, particularly in the Phantom Menace, there is a special emphasis on the aspects of the Christian religion—such as the virgin birth, and the idea that there is a chosen one. The allegory in Star Wars is somewhat sloppy and sentimental, but Caputo’s point is not necessarily that the allegory is impactful but rather that the fact that it is made at all and in a popular film signifies that there is still a need for religion in modern world. People still respond to the claims of religion. It is not something that has disappeared altogether.

This is why Caputo goes on at length about the “force” being with people. The idea of the “force is with you” from Star Wars is one that resonates because it speaks to a person’s innate spiritual sense. The force in the movie is a spiritual force; it is not something that comes from technology or even knowledge and books; it is instead something that is sensed and felt. One uses the force for good or for bad. It is like taking the great gift of free will and doing big things with it. In the film, Darth Vader represents what happens when the force is used for bad. Luke Skywalker represents what happens when the force is used for good.

The same ideas prevail in religion. That is a most important point in the book and it is well done by Caputo: religion is about using free will to work with God’s grace for good or to oppose God’s grace and work with the evil one for some bad purpose. When people work with God’s grace they can become good or saints; when they work against it they become like devils. This is a basic concept in religion and it is found in Star Wars throughout.

Caputo also discusses the film The Apostle, starring Robert Duvall, which is about a Pentecostal preacher, who kills his wife’s lover, and flees the state; he starts up a new life for himself in another state, but his past catches up with him. He does not try to hide anymore but continues preaching, even after he is arrested and sent to work on the chain gang. What the movie shows is that people can pursue holiness even while at the same time being fallen and prey to sin. That was an important concept in this part of the book, and Caputo likens the Apostle to Augustine, who was also being called to God even as he ran away from God.

Part 2

So this is an interesting point about religion: it is not always something that one does or engages in but sometimes rather a fact that one cannot get away from. Flannery O’Connor touches on that idea in Wise Blood, as the main character in that story is kind of like the Apostle, who is guilty of a crime but still believes all the same. This was another very interesting part of Caputo’s book and made the reading here particularly enjoyable.

The book concludes with a discussion religion in the post-modern era and what faith looks like for the man who has no need for religion. In the post-modern era, all needs have been satisfied and the idea of salvation is something that seems far away. What could a man who has a house, a car, a job, wealthy, family, friends, happiness and peace want with salvation? Why should salvation even seem like a thing that people need to talk about? There is no thought of death or dying. It is unpleasant to think about for the post-modern world, so it is not discussed. What happens when you die is a question to be considered macabre and unusual. Why should anyone think about what happens when you die? What does that have to do with anything? That is the way of thinking of the post-modern world. Post-modernism is often associated with the Absurd, and in the Absurdist way of life there is no sense in anything.

This portion of the book is somewhat difficult to get into because the perspective is a difficult one to follow. If one is in a post-truth world, how does truth even enter into the discussion of anything? So there is a true religion, or no? Truthful religion—is that something different? What is the purpose of religion if God is irrelevant? How is truth an issue since everyone has his own truth and it is nothing more than a subjective experience? These are the troubling questions that are raised.

The book overall does well to discuss religion from multiple perspectives and it is worth reading for this point alone. It is not something that is going to appeal to every reader, because it does not really make a point about religion that a lot of people who already have solid thoughts on the matter are going to find appealing. For instance, a strict Roman Catholic might take issue with Caputo referring to Catholicism as reactionary.

Nonetheless, the book does do well at probing what it means to be religious or to have religion. And the book does this best in the beginning, when it discusses religion as something about love and purpose. Love and purpose are so interconnected and important to people, no matter what age they are living in, that it is really insightful to relate this to religion. The idea of religion as being something associated with love is also a good one.