(ANALYSIS) Earlier this year, I tried to pin down what I thought was a good definition of faith-based films — and, to some degree — faith-based fiction in general.

This is what I came up with:

I propose we define faith-based films as any film which affirms religious faith as one of its primary features.

This definition achieves the original intent of creating faith-based films, to highlight and curate movies that represent and affirm the distinctive worldview and experiences of people of faith, while broadening it to include a wider variety of expressions of that, wherever they are found.  

This allows “faith-based film” to include movies like “War Room” and “I Can Only Imagine” but also movies like “Signs,” “Les Miserables” and “Calvary.” These films may not have been made to be marketed specifically to devout moms, but they affirm and celebrate distinctly Christian worldviews.

As I had hoped, most really liked my definition — even some readers who have explicitly argued to me in the past that “faith-based films don’t exist.” This formulation of the genre (if one can call it that) raised a lot of good discussion as well. And some really interesting pushback.

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One of the most interesting challenges I received was whether or not science-fiction movies like “Star Wars” would qualify. I initially said “yes.” But after thinking about it some more, I did start to question whether every sci-fi or fantasy film that affirmed faith could qualify as “faith-based.” If “Star Wars” can be called “faith-based” because of its use of “The Force,” then would every Disney princess movie be “faith-based” because it affirms magic and the supernatural?

As I’ve mentioned before, lots of sci-fi movies have major faith-based elements in their storylines. Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon,” for example, has a prophecy of a savior as a major plot point in his mythology. At the same time, “Dune” centers around a group of witches who have been guiding and manipulating the galaxy to create a messiah and an army of religious zealot followers for him.

While one might dismiss “Dune” for being profoundly anti-religious in many ways (and I’ve written about it largely is as well). It’s also true it portrays the Bene Gesserit as having genuine magical powers, and, at times, acting surprised by how circumstances beyond their control conspire to bring about the prophecy–like there is a power guiding their actions beyond their control. 

However, there is something profoundly different about how sci-fi and fantasy movies deal with faith and religion and how traditionally “faith-based” films do. And that is, quite obviously, when you think about it, that these movies treat faith like fiction and fantasy, whereas faith-based fiction treats it as fact. It’s the same as how comic books like Superman treat aliens as “real” in their stories, but no one would actually pretend that these comics are making any truth claims about the existence of aliens.

The use of aliens in comic books and movies based on such characters is for fantasy — not truly affirming belief in aliens. This is why atheists watch superhero movies, Disney princess films and the sci-fi/fantasy genre like “Dune” and “Rebel Moon” as easily as religious people do because both atheists and believers know the creators are not affirming faith when they make this content.

In the same way, the use of faith in movies like “Star Wars,” “Dune” and “Rebel Moon” is for entertainment, not affirmation. The makers of “Star Wars” don’t actually believe there is something like “The Force” that you can tap into and will give you magic powers. They might believe that “The Force” is a good fictional metaphor for things about the universe.

Dan Filoni said this about how he sees “The Force” in “Star Wars”:

“The Force for me is always a kind of amplification of what we see in real life. It’s not a superpower. It’s just augmenting things we normally do. So when you say, “I sense a presence. A presence I haven’t felt since…” Well, you’ve probably been in a room and you go, “Something feels familiar” then you turn and see somebody you know.  These are real things.  They’re not as much fantasy, but we portray them in a fantasy way. ”

But that’s the thing: Something like “The Force” is a metaphor — or an “amplification.” It’s not meant to be taken literally, nor is it a metaphor for anything religious, but things that secular people can also affirm. In the same way, “Dune” portraying the Bene Gesserit as real witches with magic powers or even that the prophecy might have some supernatural truth, or “Rebel Moon” depicting the power of prophecy, doesn’t mean that the writers believe in any of these things.

That’s why, under my definition, sci-fi and fantasy can rarely ever be defined as “faith-based” films. Because the religious elements of them are meant to be fiction, and therefore it’s very rare that they will “affirm” the truth of religion in any meaningful sense.

There are exceptions. C.S. Lewis wrote both fantasy and sci-fi novels, which now would easily fall into the “faith-based” category because they are fictional worlds meant to affirm the truth of the Christian faith. Aslan — a major character in Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” series — is a version of Jesus, not meant to be a metaphor of broader, more secular truths.

Nor is it simply assumed to make an entertaining story. It is written that way because that’s what Lewis believed about the world and he was affirming that worldview in his story. Similarly, Lewis’s “Ransom” trilogy’s angels and demons that rule over the world are fantasy metaphors not for political or social phenomena, but for the spiritual world that he affirmed through his stories.

The faith-based sci-fi movie “The Shift” is also a good example because it features sci-fi elements — like the multiverse and villains like The Benefactor — but this world is also a metaphor for living in suffering while also trusting in a loving God. The Benefactor, it turns out, is a metaphor for the devil.

Defining faith-based films is about finding a way to move forward with making and discussing such content that affirms what it does uniquely, while also expanding its possibilities. Hopefully, seeing the ways where sci-fi and fantasy films can be faith-based — and where they are not — can help guide us in exploring those possibilities. 

Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.