The Jedi Community is a loose confederation of groups and individuals who, inspired by George Lucas’ Star Wars movies, have adopted an identity as Jedi Knights. Contrary to Star Wars fans who may... Show moreThe Jedi Community is a loose confederation of groups and individuals who, inspired by George Lucas’ Star Wars movies, have adopted an identity as Jedi Knights. Contrary to Star Wars fans who may occasionally and temporarily play as Jedi, members of the Jedi Community aim to simply be Jedi Knights – always and everywhere. They will even say that they are the real Jedi – as opposed to the fictional Jedi of the movies. Members of the Jedi Community also believe that the Force, the cosmic power from Star Wars, actually exists in the real world. An important part of the practice as Jedi Knights is thus to study the Force and connect with it in ritual. This article provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the Jedi Community. It sketches the history of the Jedi Community since its emergence from the online Star Wars roleplaying community in the late 1990s, and presents an overview of the Community members’ core beliefs and practices. Throughout, due attention is paid to the divergent views on issues of doctrine, practice, and identity held by the two main factions within the Jedi Community, the Jedi Realists, for whom the Jedi Path is a spiritual way of life, and the Jediists who seek to develop Jediism into a full-fledged and legally recognized religion. Show less
Voorbeeldlessen bij Davidsen, Markus Altena & Jeannette den Ouden (2016), “Star Wars in het religieonderwijs: Religiekunde in de lespraktijk I”, Narthex: tijdschrift voor levensbeschouwing en...Show moreVoorbeeldlessen bij Davidsen, Markus Altena & Jeannette den Ouden (2016), “Star Wars in het religieonderwijs: Religiekunde in de lespraktijk I”, Narthex: tijdschrift voor levensbeschouwing en educatie 16(2), 64-71. Show less
A curious aspect of late modern religion is the emergence of fiction-based religions, such as Jediism, based on George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, and Tolkien spirituality, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s... Show moreA curious aspect of late modern religion is the emergence of fiction-based religions, such as Jediism, based on George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, and Tolkien spirituality, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary mythology about Middle-earth. This article draws on narrative semiotics to explain why some fictional narratives (and not others) afford religious use and have hence given rise to fiction-based religions. I show that to afford religious use it is not enough that supernatural fiction tells about supernatural agents; it must also, to some extent, construct an aura of factuality around these supernatural agents. The main aim of this article is to identify and discuss those textual ‘veracity mechanisms’ that in various ways can help achieve such a sense of factuality. Each veracity mechanism is discussed and illustrated with examples from supernatural fiction, especially from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. I furthermore show how conceptual blending theory can be used to analyse the cognitive processes involved in the religious interpretation of supernatural fiction. While the empirical focus is on supernatural fiction and fiction-based religion, the wider implications for the study of religious narratives are discussed throughout. Show less
This article discusses how ‘believing’ works in Tolkien spirituality, a fiction-based religious milieu that uses J. R. R. Tolkien’s narratives, in particular The Lord of the Rings and The Silmaril...Show moreThis article discusses how ‘believing’ works in Tolkien spirituality, a fiction-based religious milieu that uses J. R. R. Tolkien’s narratives, in particular The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, as authoritative texts. Members of this milieu engage in rituals communication with the supernatural beings from Tolkien’s universe, including the elves and the Valar (gods). After presenting the history of Tolkien spirituality and describing the main groups, I develop a model for analysing religious rationalisation. By this term I refer to the process through which theology is developed within religious traditions as a second-order reflection on ritual practices and authoritative narratives. I demonstrate that contrary to what one might expect the strategies of religious rationalisation in Tolkien spirituality are not that different from what we see in other new religions. While one might think that members of fiction-based religions (can) believe only in a cautious and playful manner, practitioners of Tolkien spirituality in fact tend to believe literally and to legitimise their beliefs with supposed proof. It is striking, however, that they tend to believe in a ‘cosmological’ rather than in a ‘historical’ mode, i.e. they believe in the existence of the Valar as spiritual beings, but not in the historical factuality of Tolkien’s narratives. In this sense, Tolkien spirituality may be a good illustration of a broader ‘dehistoricising turn’ in contemporary religion. The development of reflective beliefs in Tolkien spirituality is further shown to be governed by three principles that together seek to reduce tension between conflicting ideas within the tradition and to strike a balance between fabulousness and plausibility. It is suggested that these three principles of belief elaboration govern religious rationalisation also in other religious traditions, at least in traditions with a low level of institutionalisation. Show less
