Religion and popular culture : A hermeneutic study on religious themes in Star Wars

Today’s popular culture often implement’s religious themes or religious symbolism. Popular culture shows a lot of interest in the conflict between good and evil and existential questions. As do most beliefs of today. How to analyze the way religion is presented and regarded in popular culture will always be grounded in the definition of religion itself. The definition is there to pinpoint exactly what one wishes to examine. The definitions do not try to explain what religion really is, but rather, try to pinpoint the very thing you want to analyze about religion. How you define it, defines the analysis. Star Wars is a phenomenon of popular culture which started out as a mere film series but consists today of toys, books and TV-series. Star Wars presents religion in form of a transcendental power of the universe known as The Force. Through the Force, Star Wars handle the conflict between good and evil, as the Force is used by both sides in different ways. You can also find the debate between the believer and the non-believer, in which Star Wars seems as an advocate of the believer, as it is through belief in something higher, rather than trust in technological progress, one can achieve victory. The analysis shows that the characters of Star Wars view belief in something higher as something positive and good. The Force works as something holy and many characters has a personal relationship to it. Star Wars also presents a clear good and evil, however it also proclaims a gray area in the hero of Luke Skywalker. To follow one’s own path seems to be something important to Star Wars