The Power of the Force: The Spirituality of the ""Star Wars"" Films

Judging by the arguments in this study, the power of the Force is thin stuff indeed. Wilkinson, the author of similar books on the X-Files and physicist Stephen Hawking, attempts to demonstrate that the Star Wars films explore key Christian themes: hope, transcendence, redemption, individual responsibility and the complex nature of evil. Why the author believes that these motifs are particularly Christian, and not Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu or Wiccan remains unclear. Wilkinson himself seems unconvinced of the films' spiritual messages. His text is loaded with caveats (Star Wars is not Shakespeare, George Lucas is not Billy Graham), and he dedicates comparatively little energy to developing his arguments. The first half of the book is devoted to plot synopses of the movies everyone has seen, fannish details about George Lucas's life and career and similar trivia. Wilkinson cites Joseph Campbell's theories about the universality of heroic archetypes and asks ""Is Luke Skywalker Jesus?"" Maybe not, he concludes, but Skywalker and Jesus teach many of the same moral lessons. Forty years ago, the theologian H. Richard Niebuhr once observed that attempts to find Christian morals in popular culture do so at the expense of Christianity itself. This volume proves Niebuhr right. (June)