ToC

Table of Contents
Introduction

Episode IV: A New Hope

1. Luke Skywalker on the mound – Sehnsucht.
2. First scenes of Star Wars. Droids in the desert. Coincidence as an agent of the Force to bring about what is possible versus what is probable.
3. Old Ben Kenobi finds Luke in the Jundland Wastes. How to recognize the Force moving in your life.
4. The Jedi concept of time.
5. Luke’s response to Ben Kenobi. To love parents or to hate them; understanding our primary relationship
6. Real life Death Stars and their makers: how to identify them and what to do about them.
7. In Ben’s hovel, Luke hears about the Force for the first time. Ch’I, Christianity and myth.
8. Bad guys arguing in the Death Star conference room. The good versus evil thing is good to celebrate when represented well.
9. Striking a balance instead of extremes, even when Imperial Stormtroopers slaughter and burn your aunt and uncle? You must be crazy.
10. Luke and Ben at Mos Eisley. The Jedi concept of place.
11. Jedi mind tricks. The Force has a strong influence on the weak-minded.
12. Yield to adults at play.
13. The Death Star: the act and image of a complete lack of faith. Sensing a great disturbance in the Force.
14. Lightsaber training on the Millennium Falcon. “Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.”
15. Luke practices the lightsaber with his blast shield down. Letting go of your conscious self in the Western world.
16. The Force of Han Solo.
17. The tangible quality of using the Force.
18. “Your destiny lies along a different path from mine.”
19. “The Force will be with you … always.”
20. “Escape is not his plan. The Force is with him.”
21. A cost/benefit analysis of Ben Kenobi’s sacrifice.
22. “If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” The power paradox of Christ, this is.
23. Luke zooms through a trench on the Death Star: A perfect metaphor for the practice of faith.
24. Han Solo is like Jesus, especially when it comes to his sub-culture.
25. The small band of Rebels is strikingly similar to the early Christian church.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

26. Han Solo’s unfinished business.
27. Han and Luke in the snow and ice of Hoth. No greater love has a man than this … .
28. A young Jedi, not mindful where he is or what he is doing, is mauled by a wampa ice creature.
29. Luke’s vision of Ben Kenobi just before Luke faints in the blizzard.
30. Dagobah 1—The simple to confuse the wise.
31. Dagobah 2—Yoda’s first lessons to Luke and Luke’s testing.
32. Adventure. Excitement. Action-adventure movies crave not these things … Wait … no, maybe they do. Then Yoda tells Luke to be afraid. Isn’t fear from the dark side?
33. Dagobah 3—A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force.
34. Dagobah 4—The light side/dark side and how George Lucas is like God.
35. The light and dark side in all of us. How we use the Force of God’s image.
36. The Jedi pursuit of happiness and the folly of political correctness.
37. Balancing what appears to be contradictory in the light side and the dark side of the Force. As in, what is right about the light and dark sides being one.
38. What is wrong with the light and dark being one? Sin, entropy, and the divine Force: the duality of the Force.
39. Dagobah 5—The domain of evil cave.
40. Dagobah 4—“Do or do not. There is no try.”
41. Dagobah 7—“My ally is the Force.”
42. The growth of Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and Lando Calrissian.
43. A weeping and gnashing of teeth.
44. What we do not know.
45. Luke sees the future … maybe.
46. Darth Vader traps Luke.
47. Luke lets go.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

48. More fear tactics, from the top down. Vader speaks to Commander Moff Jerjerrod in the new Death Star at the beginning of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
49. C-3PO and R2-D2 at Jabba the Hutt’s Palace: How do you know when we are in a bad place … isn’t it obvious?
50. And God saw that it was good. Evangelism in the post-Christian world.
51. Luke arrives at Jabba’s Palace. More Jedi tricks Skywalker has learned.
52. The Emperor arrives at Death Star II. How to know when the leader of your religion or government has gone too far.
53. Dagobah revisited.
54. Yoda and Luke discuss Vader.
55. The Great Jedi commission
56. … from a certain point of view. Luke talks to Obi-Wan after Yoda’s death.
57. Feelings. As in, nothing more than.
58. Separating the wheat from the chaff. General Solo and General Calrissian bid each other good luck.
59. The emperor’s integrity. Vader and the emperor discuss Luke’s arrival on the forest moon of Endor.
60. Those adorable, little third-world Ewoks.
61. Vader’s admission.
62. “In time, you will call me Master.”
63. The way love wins. “You have failed, your highness. I am a Jedi Knight, like my father before me.”
64. Fighting with our souls. The horn blast of the Ewoks.
65. It is all in the uniform
66. Death for kids.
67. Jedi fighting
68. The world rejoices.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

69. How to discover things from a mid-level bad guy.
70. The Naboo naiveté.
71. Don’t Jedi Knights ever get the hot sweats? Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn on Naboo.
72. Evil wants to be legitimate.
73. The paradox of warriors being agents of peace.
74. The qualities of the Force in little Ani (Anakin Skywalker).
75. Qui-Gon Jinn gives Anakin some Jedi tips before the pod race.
76. The church of the Empire of the United States?
77. Bucking the system, Qui-Gon style. “That boy will become a Jedi. That I promise you.”
78. A dissenting opinion.
79. The sad end of Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

80. Behind the scenes.
81. Great bad guys.
82. The way a Jedi disagrees. Anakin in front of the Jedi Council.
83. The way a Jedi loves. Anakin and Queen Amidala pose as refugees.
84. To the center of gravity’s pull.
85. Jango Fett, just a man in the world.
86. Anakin and Shmi Skywalker.
87. Jedi blindness. “It is time to inform the Senate our ability to use the Force has diminished.”

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

88. Iron sharpens iron.
89. Anakin’s dreams, again, and a flawed view of death.
90. Use your feelings, Anakin. In the Jedi Temple, upon appointment to the Jedi Council and at home with Padmé.
91. Palpatine makes his move to recruit Anakin. Part One.
92. Palpatine makes his move to recruit Anakin. Part Two.
93. What have I done?
94. In touch with the cosmos and, at the same time, in touch with reality. A difficult thing to do, this is.
95. Vader's first and last lies to Amidala.
96. Absolutes versus extremes.
97. The philosophy of magnetism?
98. How to avoid Anakin’s fate. Practical application of Jedi principals.
99. The spiritual disciplines of the Force.
100. Evil is beautiful.
101. Age of Reason + Age of Myth = Golden Age?

Conclusion: The persistence of myth

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