星球大战与保罗神学

主讲人：德国海德堡大学教授罗伯特·朱厄特博士

题目：星球大战与保罗神学

时间：2007年10月11日晚6：00-8：00

地点：第三公共教学楼3306

主持人：文学院院长杨慧林教授

翻译：武竞 文学院07级博士研究生

美国系列大片“星球大战”自上映起，马上在美国观众中造成巨大影响。Robert Jewett通过对观众的构成、观看次数、观看后的感受及电影内容进行详细分析，认为大众传媒在民族意识形态的建构中起到了重要作用。美国一向称自己是基督教国家，而电影中所反映出的正义完全消灭、战胜邪恶的思想与保罗神学所倡导的“爱的神学”明显有相悖之处。Robert Jewett从电影中最经典的台词所表达出的思想入手与保罗神学进行了详细的对比、分析，认为不仅是美国、整个世界要实现一个和平美好发展未来，仅靠强大的武力征服所谓的敌人是不够的，而是要在一个相对公平、民主的法制环境下处理问题，以爱的宽大胸怀容纳敌人的存在，而不是将他们完全消灭。

提问与回答：

1、 提问：保罗神学中强调“爱”的力量，而星球大战中所表达的思想是：凭借强大的武力可以战胜敌人。那美国电影中所隐含的这种思想倾向明显与保罗神学相反，但甘地所实行的“不抵抗运动”可以说是很好地贯彻了基督教爱的思想，但事实证明也并不成功，那么，爱的力量如何能在现实的社会中充分发挥作用，怎样才能发挥作用？

回答：美国这种强调武力战胜敌人，完全的消灭敌人，实际上是对保罗神学思想的偏离，因此现实当中，民主的议会制才显得非常重要。当然，在爱实施的过程中必然存在着两难的困境，但民主的方式可以在一定程度上使爱的力量发挥作用，这也是民主的最重要之处。

2、 提问：“星球大战”是导演最初拍摄的电影，但在后来的几部“星战前传”中，导演试图也在反思前期那种完全依靠武力消灭敌人的思想，在“前传”中电影展现了在“共和时期”星球的美好情景，但由于一些分过分迷恋武力和权力，使星球走向了帝国时代，导致了星球大战的发生。所以是否可以说，导演自己也在反思这种美国的情形，希望在电影中尝试提供新的解决方案。

回答：的确，“前传”是可以看作是美国人对自己的反思，这种反思目前还在进行当中。但“星球大战”中的思想总还是诱惑着一些人，因此仍要警惕这种思想，并尽可能避免这种情况的发生。而且“大战”的拍摄是在美国越战失败后的那段时期，所以也要注意到当时电影的巨大影响在很大程度上起到了治疗美国人心理创伤的作用。

【讲稿】

STAR WARS AND "THE FORCE" OF PAUL'S GOSPEL[i]

For I am not ashamed [of] the gospel:

it is the force of God for salvation to all who have faith,

both to the Jew first and then to the Greek,

for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith,

as it is written,

"He who through faith is righteous shall live."  (Romans 1:16-17)

Luke Skywalker, the young superhero of Star Wars,[ii] is putting on his flight gear for the climactic battle with the Death Star that threatens to destroy the last remnants of a brave rebel force.  His somewhat cynical friend, Han Solo, who is packing a space freighter to escape before the uneven battle, pauses for a moment and then says with a kind of awkward voice, "May the Force be with you!"

Skywalker's X-wing fighter then negotiates the dangerous course along the seamlike corridor on the surface of the giant space station, the Death Star. He succeeds where more experienced pilots have failed. He turns off his targeting computor in response to "the Force" addressing him in the voice of his mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi: "Trust your feelings, Luke!"[iii] By allowing "the Force" to pull the trigger, Luke fires the torpedo that blows the enemy globe into a billion sparkling fragments. Theater and living room video audiences all over America have cheered this scene. "The Force" has triumphed over evil; good and right have prevailed just in the nick of time. A nuclear blast like that which seems so problematic when used against earthly cities turns out beautifully in the story, restoring peace and honor to a corrupted galaxy.

There is a compelling gospel in this film, one that deserves to be compared with Paul's words in Romans. I speak of "deserving" to be compared, to be taken seriously. Not only is it a great film from the cinematic point of view, because of its brilliant photography, excellent acting, and witty screenplay; but it is also great because of its impact on audiences. Like most popular films in modern America, particularly ones that attract audiences to see them repeatedly, it reveals the formative values of the culture, and to some degree forms those values as well. In the years since Star Wars was first shown in 1977, its huge audiences have generated some of the largest profits in the history of American film. Millions have seen it repeatedly. I read a survey several years ago indicating that many people in the U. S. saw it as many as 20-30 times. This indicates that a kind of ritual was being experienced. I know from personal observation that there were church families that attended the film a dozen or more times by the early 1980's because Star Wars seemed to embody the ultimate Christian value of right triumphing over wrong. It was perceived to be an ideal form of good, clean family entertainment, with authentic religious value. One woman reported to a columist that she had seen Star Wars more than 40 times. Every time she got depressed, she would go again, and it would cheer her up.

This kind of filmgoing is more than mere entertainment. It involves a ritualistic reenactment of a story of salvation, comparable to the function of religious rituals studied by anthropologists and theologians. This was certainly not intended by George Lucas, who said he simply wanted to create a modern fairy tale. But judging from its repetitive appeal to many Americans, to say nothing of its symbolic embodiment in the Strategic Defense Initiative during the Reagan Era, we are justified in treating the Star Wars Gospel with full seriousness. By reflecting on its relationship to the gospel in Romans, we will be able to gain a clearer understanding of each. By moving back and forth on the interpretive arch between the modern and the ancient gospel, the contours and implications of each will come more clearly to light for the contemporary audience.

Two Gospels and Two Forms of Salvation

Our starting point is the reference to "the force" in the thesis statement of Romans. Paul writes that "the gospel. . . is the force of God for salvation to all who have faith, both to the Jew first and then to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. . ." (Romans 1:16-17). Paul speaks first about what the force of the gospel achieves, namely "salvation." The gospel achieves the release of humankind from the threat of sin, death and the law. The gospel proclaims Christ as the savior who brings freedom to the world through his life, death and resurrection.

George Lucas' film depicts an Old Republic in a distant galaxy corrupted by ". . . restless, power-hungry inpiduals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce."[iv] An evil conspiracy led by Darth Vader is now seeking total domination of the galaxy, so that salvation requires the miraculous escapes and victories of Princess Leia, Skywalker, Solo, Kenobi and the two super-robots, R2D2 and C3PO. The cosmic scale of the conflict and the ultimate weight of the issue in the film throws light back onto the theme of salvation in Romans, warning against the prevailing interpretive tradition that overlooks such cosmic dimensions.

Despite significant similarities, there are important difference between these two gospels, both in the nature and the means of salvation. For Star Wars, it is achieved by laser beam blasters, nuclear torpedoes, and speedy space craft. The galaxy is cleansed by the annihilation of the Nazi attired horde. This is the classic American myth of "regeneration through violence,"[v] consistent with the Cowboy Westerns and the Cops and Robber tales that have dominated American popular entertainment. For Paul the means of salvation is the "gospel." "The gospel is the force of God for salvation," he writes. What he had in mind was that the good news about God's love shown in Christ has the power, the force, to turn life around. A key issue in Romans is where the true force may be found. Paul insists that it does not lie in the power to destroy adversaries, or enforcing conformity to a single law, but rather in the message that God's love is unconditional and that the human war against God should therefore cease.

It also follows that the nature of salvation differs substantially in these two gospels. For Star Wars, it consists of the restoration of a hierarchical order of princesses and subjects, warriors and traders. It features a relationship with "The Force" that is accessible only to selected warriors and saints like Obi Wan Kenobi, affording them the ability to destroy their enemies.[vi] The similarity to European Fascism is particular striking at this point: the Italian Fascist Palmieri described such warriors as capable of "that magic flash of a moment of supreme intuition" that comes "to the hero and to none other."[vii] Lucas defines "The Force" in this heroic sense as "a nothingness that can accomplish miracles"[viii] in the sense that it guides the military instinct that can save a civilization from domination by a venal and ruthless horde of oppressors who must be annihilated. The public's participation in this salvation is limited to celebrating its triumph, because they could play only the role of passive spectator in the martial drama. Their participation in "The Force" matches Mussolini's vision: "The Fascist State, the highest and most powerful form of personalilty, is a force, but a spiritual force, which takes over all the forms of the moral and intellectual life of man."[ix]

For Paul, salvation consists of the restoration of an egalitarian order including male and female, slave and free, Greek and Jew, educated and uneducated. It is based on a new relationship that all persons may have with God, based on faith rather than inheritance or merit. It involves freedom from unrighteousness, sin and death, which afflict everyone. And participation in the "righteousness of God" involves membership in a faith community marked by mutual edification and responsibility. There are no passive spectators and no incorrigible enemies in the new age established by Paul's gospel, because it calls everyone into accountability and transformation.

So the first question that our comparison poses is this: which gospel, which form of salvation is more humane and healthy? Is it the flashing light sabers and nuclear blasters of Star Wars? That kind of salvation promises that the differently attired adversaries will disappear from the scene. The alternative that Paul offers is a gospel of the impartial love and justice of God that comes to friend and foe alike. This gospel is most powerfully experienced when people experience weakness and defeat. So which kind of salvation does this world really need?

The Target of Salvation

Paul draws the target circle very large in his letter to the Romans: "the gospel is the force of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." This formulation includes the opposing groups that tended to view each other as enemies. There were widely shared feelings of cultural and religious superiority in Paul's time between Jews and Greeks. Each side was proud of its superiority over the other; each tended to view its adversaries as degenerate, wicked and stupid. It is similar to the ethnic hostility that is surfacing all over the world, now that the era of the Cold War no longer holds such impulses in check. Evidence of such hostilities surfaces at a number of points in Paul's letter to the Romans. Yet Paul refrains from taking sides. The salvation of which he speaks is for everyone, the good folks and the bad folks, from which ever side you prefer to set the equation. Each side needs to be transformed by internalizing the challenging gospel.

Part of the appeal of Star Wars, of course, is that only the bad folks are targeted for blast gun salvation. A few of the virtuous rebels are killed, to be sure, in the course of the battle. But the film does not allow anyone with whom the audience has developed a close attachment to be killed or mutilated. When the old Jedi knight Kenobi is killed in the light-saber duel with Darth Vader, he crosses his arms and gives up his life willingly to distract attention from the escaping space ship carrying his friends. And he reappears as the voice of "The Force" in the climactic torpedo scene. There is no sadness in his death, only a certainty that "The Force" has somehow prevailed.

In contrast, Darth Vader, the Grand Moff Tarkin, and their Nazi-attired cohorts are targeted from the beginning for destruction. A reviewer in The Christian Century describes our reactions as viewers: ". . . though we continually teeter with Luke and Han on the abyss of death, we know from repeated forays into this region that things are going to work out all right, that Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader will be defeated and the salutory order of the republic restored."[x] This is appealing not only because good wins out in the end but because we identify with the heroes and heroine. We take comfort that they do not have to change, or suffer unduly, or receive the brunt of the peculiar means of salvation in the film--nuclear annihilation.

This narrow targeting of salvation is great--so long as the right side wins the superbowl, so to speak. There is something very partisan about the Star Wars religion, and the system only holds up so long as the team one identifies with wins. If it is defeated, the entire system collapses, bringing  "The Force" right down with it.

Paul's gospel is more fair-minded and impartial. His insistence that the "gospel is the force of God for salvation" is for "everyone, both Jews and Greeks," is also more democratic. Paul resists the pretensions of those who feel superior. He assumes there is no cosmic force weighing the scales to the advange of the home team. Whereas Lucas' film has princesses and hereditary senators who naturally take control because they are superior to others, Paul holds to the equality of all persons before God. This question of equality is particularly clear with regard to religious abilities. Only the Jedi Knights are pictured as really understanding "The Force." As Kenobi told Luke while the young knight was in training, "Knowledge of the force and how to manipulate it was what gave the Jedi his special power." Even Princess Leia is excluded from this extraordnary ability.

 The contrast with Paul's premise is marked: "To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good." (1 Cor 12:7) Paul was convinced that the force of the spirit was given to each Christian as they used their abilities and gifts for building up the body of Christ. The inclusive quality of this Pauline orientation will be developed in relation to the movies Tootsie and Ordinary People in subsequent chapters of this study.

This emphasis on equality is carried out in Romans with a powerful realism. In contrast to the claims of Greeks and Jews, religious or secular persons, Paul shows in the first three chapters of Romans that everyone falls short. People cannot rely on their accomplishments when facing the holiness of God. Victorious battles melt away into nothing before the holy love revealed in Christ, so that in the end all must all affirm what Paul proclaims about the human race: "For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. . . ." (Rom 3:23) Jouette Bassler has demonstrated the centrality of this doctrine of the impartialilty of God for the entire argument of the letter to the Romans.[xi] This means that each person on earth needs salvation. Everyone becomes a target of Paul's gospel. And all may become recipients of that salvation if they open ourselves to its force.

The Cosmic Scale of Redemption

When Paul's gospel overcomes partial vision, breaking down arrogant feelings that particular groups deserve favoritism, then and only then does the cosmic dimension of redemption become a reality. His claim in Romans is that the gospel is the force of God in which "the righteousness of God" is revealed. That is, God restores the creation to its righteous order and harmony when the gospel succeeds in bringing rebellious persons to salvation. In the words of commentator Ernst Käsemann, the reference to pine righteousness "speaks of the God who brings back the fallen world into the sphere of his legitimate claim. . . ."[xii] There is a cosmic scope of redemption in this sentence that matches the cosmic scale of the battle in Star Wars. In Paul's case, the spread of the gospel message is viewed as a decisive phase in the revelation of God's righteousness, restoring inpiduals, groups, and the creation itself. This is why the verb is in the present tense: "the righteousness of God is revealed." Commentator James Dunn is on target in suggesting that "Paul's experience of evangelizing the Gentiles gives him firm confidence that in the gospel as the power of God to salvation such early converts are being given to see the righteousness of God actually happening, taking effect in their own conversion."[xiii]

A clearer grasp of the theme of pine righteousness in Romans allows us to see the thematic link with Star Wars more clearly. A healthy yearning for cosmic righteousness is central for the film. The Old Republic destroyed by the evil conspirators on Darth Vader's death ship had been marked by peace and justice. The Jedi Knights ". . . for over a thousand generations" had "served as the guarantors of peace and justice in the Old Republic" until they were "exterminated through treachery and deception," to quote from the novelistic version of the film.[xiv] The ascetic old Kenobi, the last of the Jedi, passed on their passion for righteousness to the young Skywalker:

Remember, Luke, the suffering of one man is the suffering of all. Distances are irrelevant to injustice. If not stopped soon enough, evil eventually reaches out to engulf all men, whether they have opposed it or ignored it.

This eloquent call for righteousness resonates with American and British political rhetoric in the recent generation, and part of the enormous appeal of Star Wars is in allowing us to imagine such goodness to triumph. This contributes to the ritual effect of the film for persons who want to see it over and over again: it rehearses the vivid triumph of righteousness over wickedness, thus fulfilling a very real need in audiences.

Reflecting on the relationship with Romans helps to articulate the dilemma--that such visions rarely seem to match reality. Quests for absolute righteousness that begin with violence and assume that someone else is a justifiable target usually end up in disaster. All over the world in recent years we see this kind of righteousness resulting in suffering and pain--in the torture chambers of Argentina, Iran and Iraq; in the death camps of Uganda, Cambodia and Bosnia; on the battlefields of Lebanon, Afganistan and the Persian Gulf; on the streets of Northern Ireland and the jungles of Nicauragua and El Salvador. The Star Wars approach to righteousness tends to lead each participant to be certain that triumph through the elimination of the enemy will restore peace and justice.

In view of recent history, Paul's message about the gospel as the means by which God regains righteous rule over the world offers a viable alternative. The righteousness of God revealed in the cross of Christ marks the final judgment on zealotism. It stands against narrow definitions and partisan loyalties. It transcends economic, social and political systems. It lays claim to every area of life, from family relations to political preferences, from leisure time activities to daily labors. The righteousness of God implies a pine will to regain control over a corrupted creation, thereby restoring the very environment that humans have defaced through exploitation and war, recovering its originally intended beauty and balance.

How is this to be achieved? Paul says it is a matter of leading the world by means of the gospel toward genuine "faith." The gospel is "the force of God for salvation to everyone who has faith. . . for in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith." The usual explanation is that faith is a matter of holding fast to the gospel concerning the love of God, living in response to its word of mercy, and thus enjoying a proper relation to God. If the fall of humankind was the result of human pride in trying to act like arrogant gods, defining good and evil for themselves, the restoration comes when humans accept their limitations and live in faith as sons and daughters near the heart of their pine parent. This explanation firmly grasps the inpidualistic dimension of faith but tends to overlook that the expression "from faith to faith" within the context of the thesis of Romans implies participation in faith communities.[xv] Paul hopes that the gospel will continue to spread through the establishment of Christian cells that would become the beachheads of righteousness in a fallen world. In these small groups, living together in the tenement spaces of Rome and in the house churches provided by patrons, Christians would share their food and resources, cooperate in facing the challenges of maintaining families in a difficult urban environment, and participate in the mission to the ends of the world. In contrast to the almost exclusively inpidualistic understanding of faith and salvation in modern Christianity, Paul refers here to the creation of a tolerant, inclusive and responsible society sustained by early Christian churches. In the radically egalitarian life of such churches, the originally intended righteousness of God was to be lived out, which could transform the world.

The Gospel and the Movies

Could the "force" of Paul's gospel become a significant resource in approaching the other movies of our time? His idea of the righteous living "through faith" (Rom 1:17) involved communities of faith being guided by the gospel. As we noted in the last chapter, Paul's admonitions about not conforming to the world and ascertaining the will of God were addressed to communities rather than to inpiduals. He trusted the process of discussion and group evaluation, informed by the gospel, to determine what was "the good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2). We find the same reliance on communal evaluation when he urges the Thessalonians to "test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thess 5:21). Even in connection with inspired utterances, Paul urges: "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said" (1 Cor 14:29). The process seems comparable to groups of friends or class members gathering to discuss an inspired film. It requires the intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual resources of transformed groups to come to terms with materials as potent as contemporary movies.

It is this rational, communal dimension that is conspicuously missing in Star Wars. It relies on the leadership of royalty and the martial instinct of an inspired few rather than on public, moral reflection as the keys to action. Skywalker is instructed to pull the visor down over his eyes and thus to rely on pure intuition while dueling with the light saber. "You must try to porce your actions from conscious control," Kenobi tells him. "You must cease cogitation, relax, stop thinking."[xvi] The idea is that "The Force" will guide the knight through pure instinct to strike home at the right instant, killing his adversary. In an earlier conversation Kenobi had explicitly identified "The Force"  with "instinct" while describing Luke's father as the "best pilot I ever knew. . . and a smart fighter. The Force. . . the instinct was strong in him."[xvii] The celebration of this martial capacity is reminiscent of Mussolini's words:

My program is action, not thought. . . . We think with our blood.[xviii]

War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it.[xix]

I am not implying that George Lukas consciously intended to recommend this kind of Fascist ideology. We may be dealing with unintended implications here. And there will continue to be persons who interpret this instinctual aspect of "The Force" within the framework of some proper form of religious mysticism. But one thing is clear: the issue of group rationality and discernment raised by Star Wars needs to be clarified if people are going to enter into a healthy discussion of films and Biblical texts.

I believe the Pauline gospel is more adequate than the Star Wars gospel, in part because it encourages and sustains the resources of the many rather than the few. The kind of righteousness that can redeem the world "is revealed from faith to faith" (Rom 1:17), from person to person and group to group. The gospel calls believers to enter into the charged arena of magical images and stories that shape our modern cultures, discerning together how peace and honor may truly be restored to a corrupted galaxy. This is a critical discussion that requires partners in many countries, because at the moment, my country is blindly following the path of Star Wars while claiming as a "Christian Nation" to be following Paul. We need insights from others to discover where we have gone wrong. May the force be with those who help us find our way again!

ENDNOTES FOR "STAR WARS AND "THE FORCE" OF PAUL'S GOSPEL"

[i] This lecture is adapted from chapter 2 of Saint Paul at the Movies.

[ii].Star Wars was a Twentieth Century-Fox production of 1977 by "Lucasfilm Limited Production." The videotape of the film is distributed by CBS/Fox Video. An additional video concerning the production of the film is entitled, The Making of Star Wars: As told by C3PO and R2D2, produced and distributed by CBS/FOX, Video, 1987. A comic book version of Star Wars was published by New York: Marvel Comics, 1978.

.George Lucas, Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (New York: Ballantine, 1976) 207.

.Lucas, Star Wars, 1.

.Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860 (Middletown: Wesleyan Univer­sity Press, 1973).

[vi].Robert E. A. Lee overlooks these details in his contention that "Star Wars has an undergirding religious premise that is theologically simplistic but nontheless impressively reverent and sincerely introduced. Alex Guiness calls his god "the Force" and inspires young Luke also to become a disciple of and a believer in "the force." It is a combination of the mysticism of ESP and the New Testament doctrine of the Holy Spirit." The Lutheran (July 13, 1977).

[vii].Cited by Carl Cohen, ed., Communism, Fascism and Democracy: The Theoretical Foundations (New York: Random, 1972) 346.

[viii].Lucas, Star Wars, 120.

[ix].Cohen, Communism, Fascism and Democracy, 332.

[x].William Siska, "A Breath of Fresh Fantasy," The Christian Century 94 (July 20-27, 1977) 667.

[xi].Jouette M. Bassler, Divine Impartiality: Paul and a Theological Axiom, SBL Dissertation Series 59 (Chico: Scholars Press, 1982) 121-70.

[xii].Ernst Käsemann, Commentary on Romans, tr. G. W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980) 29.

[xiii].James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (Dallas: Word, 1988), 48.

[xiv].Lucas, Star Wars, 79f.

[xv].In his pathbreaking study, Glaube as Teilhabe. Historische und semantische Grundlagen der paulinischen Theologie und Ekklesiologie des Glaubens (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1987), Axel von Dobbeler shows that faith involves participation in Christian communities, involving solidarity between cultural groups.

[xvi].Lucas, Star Wars, 121.

[xvii].Lucas, Star Wars, 77; elision in the original.

[xviii].Cohen, Communism, Fascism and Democracy, 314.

[xix].Cohen, Communism, Fascism and Democracy, 334.