Star Wars And Religion Analysis

According to religious studies scholar Jonathan Z. Smith, religion “is an anthropological not a theological category” and “is a category imposed from the outside on some aspect of native culture.” Smith believes that this was the work of scholars that wanted to categorize these facets of culture for academic purposes. There was never a consensus reached for a universal definition of religion. As a result, the definition of religion is incredibly ambiguous.

In addition to Smith, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein provided further explanations in definitions and the use of language. He believed that “In order to discern the meaning of words, therefore, it is best to see how they are actually used, rather than trying arbitrarily and theoretically

to come up with a definition.” It appears that from Wittgenstein’s perspective that definitions and the act of defining is merely a linguistic construct. This opens the door for authors to be able to define and classify words as they see fit.
This provides an explanation as to why many scholars giving their own interpretation of what constitutes religion, as well as what actions would be considered religious. The conventional point of view is associated with the transcendent. However, various interpretations of religion would eventually make their way back into the realm of secular culture, specifically popular culture.
There seems to be little doubt among academia that popular culture has the ability to influence the thoughts and actions of people that engage themselves in it.

The question remains as to how this phenomenon should be classified. While the stories have captured the minds and hearts of the audiences, the religiosity of Star Wars is lost on the majority of its followers. Although much research has been conducted by scholars on the religious elements of the movies, as well as the connections and the parallels that they have with institutional religions, not much has been conducted when it comes to the effects that Star Wars has on its viewers and followers. These scholars will acknowledge that Star Wars contains parallels to conventionally recognized religion. However, they do not acknowledge the capability of Star Wars being religion. Moreover, these analyses do not include the religious elements and instances that are present in recent releases of the

series.
In addition to the beliefs of the scholars, the creator of the successful, series appears to agree with them. In an interview conducted by Bill Moyers, George Lucas responds to the question of whether or not he sees Star Wars as being profoundly religious, saying:
I don’t see “Star Wars” as profoundly religious.

I see “Star Wars” as — as taking all of the issues that religion represents and trying to distill them down into a — a more modern and more easily accessible construct that people can grab onto to accept the fact that there is a greater mystery out there. When I was 10 years old, I asked my mother — I said, ‘Well, if there’s only one God, why are there so many religions?’ And over the years — I’ve been pondering that question ever since. And it would seem to me that the conclusion that I’ve come to is that all the religions are true, they just see a different part of the elephant. A religion is basically a — a container for faith. Faith is the — the glue that holds us together as a society. Faith in our — in our culture, our — our world, our — you know, whatever it is that we’re trying to hang on to is a very important part of, I think, allowing us to — to remain stable. Remain balanced.

However, as the works of scholars have pointed out, these religious elements and its effects are present, regardless of Lucas’ intent. Therefore, this thesis will serve the purpose of substantiating the claim that Star Wars is religion because it functions as one. This will be done by engaging in a functionalist analysis of the movies, as well as building off previous studies on the

topic.