Introduction
According to J Z Smith, the reason that these facets of culture were given the term religion is to give scholars a way to categorize these facets 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.
This ambiguity leads to many scholars giving their own interpretation of what constitutes as religion, as well as what actions would be considered as religious. The traditionalist point of view is associated with the transcendent. However, the 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 what this phenomenon should be …show more content…
McDowell acknowledges that eastern religions have had a degree of influence on Star Wars. However, he says that the elements of the eastern religions should not be “overemphasized,” in order to grasp the Christian images. So, the religious elements from the eastern religions are not explored. As a result, the commentary of the religious parallels and religious elements can appear to be suppressed and incomplete.
This is where Matthew Bortolin’s The Dharma of Star Wars picks up the slack, although he appears to do it in a slightly different manner. Instead of using elements of a particular, traditional religion to explain movie concepts, as McDowell does, Bortolin uses the movie concepts as a means of explaining the elements of a traditional religion. He uses the philosophical and religious elements of Star Wars to explain the nirvana, the dharma, mindfulness meditation, and other Buddhist
According to J Z Smith, the reason that these facets of culture were given the term religion is to give scholars a way to categorize these facets 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.
This ambiguity leads to many scholars giving their own interpretation of what constitutes as religion, as well as what actions would be considered as religious. The traditionalist point of view is associated with the transcendent. However, the 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 what this phenomenon should be …show more content…
McDowell acknowledges that eastern religions have had a degree of influence on Star Wars. However, he says that the elements of the eastern religions should not be “overemphasized,” in order to grasp the Christian images. So, the religious elements from the eastern religions are not explored. As a result, the commentary of the religious parallels and religious elements can appear to be suppressed and incomplete.
This is where Matthew Bortolin’s The Dharma of Star Wars picks up the slack, although he appears to do it in a slightly different manner. Instead of using elements of a particular, traditional religion to explain movie concepts, as McDowell does, Bortolin uses the movie concepts as a means of explaining the elements of a traditional religion. He uses the philosophical and religious elements of Star Wars to explain the nirvana, the dharma, mindfulness meditation, and other Buddhist