Star Wars as Religious Experience


Lyden, John C. “Whose Film Is It, Anyway? Canonicity and Authority in ‘Star Wars’ Fandom.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 80, no. 3, 2012, pp. 775–786.

In a 2001 census, 70,000 people in Australia identified their religion as Jediism. This was not a phenomenon singular to Australia, but one that has swept the world as the Star Wars films have firmly entrenched themselves within pop culture and become a global phenomenon. Description of yourself as a Jedi may sound like a joke that some fans of the films said in place of saying they were not religious, but as John C. Lyden details in this work, the fan culture surrounding these films often reflects that of religious followers. Lyden looks to ideas like communal identity, a system of belief and values, myths and rituals as hallmarks of religious practice, and Star Wars fan culture as well. (775) The moral themes in Star Wars films, based in eastern religious practices, have them been lifted by many in the western world who are now experiencing them for the first time. A force connecting everything in the universe together immediately makes many western viewers immediately think of the Star Wars films, but someone who practices Buddhism or Hinduism or countless other eastern religions and practices would see that as something they already believed far before Star Wars displayed in on the silver screen. Lyden argues that studying fan culture towards films in comparison to religion not only illuminates the ways fans operate, but also how religion is practiced in the modern world. Films like Star Wars are opportunities to see how religion and popular culture often intersect, and how they evolve with new additions to canon, or new discoveries or theological doctines.

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