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Such an understanding of human destiny is clarified by the contrast between the religion of the Force and the secular view that the primary means for achieving human goals are provided by science and technology. The opposition of science and technology to the religion of the Force is presented from the start in A New Hope. Obi-Wan is training Luke with the aid of a robot ball that hovers in front of him, shooting laser beams as Luke attempts to defend himself with his lightsaber. Han is skeptical. “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” Luke comments, “You don’t believe in the Force, do you?” “Kid,” says Han, “I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful Force controlling everything. No mystical energy field controls my destiny. It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.” In the face of this skepticism, Luke demonstrates the reality of the Force by blocking the laser attack with his eyes covered. Han calls this luck. “In my experience,” says Obi-Wan, “there’s no such thing as luck.”

There’s no doubt in the minds of the audience that the Force is something real, and that Han’s reliance on empirical evidence and technological force is missing the deeper picture. But how seriously should we ourselves take this idea of a mystical Force? When we think objectively about it outside of the film, when we ask ourselves what is really real, don’t we live most of our lives as Han Solo does, relying on external technologies of power and control to achieve our goals, with little or no confidence in the inner power of our own consciousness? With his idea of the Force as an external controlling deity, Han fails to understand its profound connection with the inner power of the human spirit.

For both the scientifically minded and conventional religious viewers who believe in such an external deity, the Force is magic and make-believe, not something to be taken seriously outside the realm of film and fantasy. However, this understanding of the Force only pushes the question of its nature to a deeper level. What is the appeal of this magic? How does the fantasy of Star Wars, with its magical drama of the Force, cast its own spell on its audience? If we dismiss this force of fantasy itself, aren’t we too acting like the skeptical Han Solo, dismissing in our minds as inessential and irrelevant the power of imagination that we nevertheless can feel—a power that holds us in its thrall throughout the many hours of artistic wizardry that makes up Star Wars? In his lightsaber training lesson, Obi-Wan tells Luke: “let go your conscious self and act on instinct . . . Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them … Stretch out with your feelings.” It isn’t by thinking that we understand the Force. It’s by feeling. But feelings too are real.

Each episode of Star Wars begins with the same opening lines: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .” We’re put in mind of the opening lines of the fairy tale, “Once upon a time.” Under the surface of a technically advanced galactic society, we’re invited to enter a deeper realm of myth and magic and ancient religion. With Star Wars, George Lucas has created a myth for our time, the germ, in fact, of a new religion—one clothed in the garb of the future and the ancient spirit quest of the hero. As the civilizations of our own time clash over rival theologies inherited from the past, mankind is in need of an empowering belief for our time, one that provides a unifying distillation of all the world’s religions. To appreciate the way in which Star Wars, with its heroic drama of the Force, responds to this need, we must first of all to let go of our conscious minds and all dependence on empirical evidence, and stretch out with our feelings and imagination. We need to let ourselves be captured by the spell of magic.

Spirit: Hegel’s Distillation of the History of Religion

Like Lucas, Hegel attempts to distill the essence