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More than ever, as The Phantom Menace makes clear, Lucas seems intent on making that goal overt so that audiences cannot mistake his point. Indeed, it is easy to see Lucas trying to construct his own sci-fi versions of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings or C. S. Lewis's protracted fantasy in The Chronicles of Narnia. Some conservative religious people have fretted extensively about supposed "New Age" influences. But it is best to take the series as Lucas intends it: an exploration of what it is like to live amid invisible realities that shape individual lives and that care, radically, for the fate of this whole world.

Roy M. Anker is professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is also the editor of Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture, and the Electronic Media, and author of the two-volume Self-Help and Popular Religion in American Culture.

Reprinted from Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies (Eerdmans). Used by permission. To purchase a copy of Catching Light, click here.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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In his book,Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, author Roy M. Anker writes about finding meaning and morality in the intergalactic saga. Part 1 of 4.

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In his book, Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, author Roy M. Anker writes about finding meaning and morality in the intergalactic saga.Part 2 of 4.

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Star Wars Spirituality: Part 3	Printer view
In his book, Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, author Roy M. Anker writes about finding meaning and morality in the intergalactic saga. Part 3 of 4.