Christian Scholarship
I was talking to a friend the other day and some how we started talking about Star Wars. My friend told me that he didn’t like the Prequel Trilogy. I couldn’t believe it. Who does he think he is? Has he studied the Prequel Trilogy? Does he have a degree in it? What scholarship has he read about it? He couldn’t even name one Star Wars scholar and yet he has already formed an opinion about the Prequels.
While I do take my Star Wars very seriously and I do love the entire Star Wars Saga (episodes I-VI) that is not what today’s blog is actually about. Because as much as I love the Star Wars Saga (sometimes even dogmatically) I am aware that it is fiction. Even though I can’t really prove that Darth Vader never really lived a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I am still reasonably certain that it is fiction. I don’t need to study the latest Star Wars scholarship to know that. Nor do I need to have a degree in Star Wars-ology.
However, many Christians seem to think that just because they can create universities, seminaries, and even museums devoted to the study of their fictional book that this some how makes their fictional book less fictional. Someone can study the Bible intensely for an entire lifetime and that still wouldn’t make it any less fictional. Sure, an intense study of the Bible may yield some interesting insights and perhaps even a little wisdom here and there as well, just like an intense study of the Star Wars Saga would. I will say that there is probably much more insight and wisdom in the “Holy Saga” than there is in the “Holy Bible,” but that is another debate for another day.
Filed under: Religion