Lesson 7 – Part 2: Analyzing Jedi Literature – #1 of 2: A Modern-day Jedi’s Book of Change

Original journal entry from October 21, 2025 – Response to Lesson 7: Introduction to Learning (Part 2: Analyzing Jedi Literature). This was my critical evaluation of A Modern-day Jedi’s Book of Change by Pastor Carlos (source text available at https://ia601804.us.archive.org/32/items/modern-day-jedis-book-of-change/Modern-day%20Jedi%27s%20Book%20of%20Change.pdf — assessing its expertise/source level, era/context, extent/size vs. accuracy, biases, and potential for evolution.


#1 of 2 Examples of Jedi Literature

A Modern-day Jedi’s Book of Change

Expertise: 

Pastor Carlos generated the information. He describes how he undertook this as a personal spiritual exercise, inspired by a professor's challenge to translate holy texts into one's own words. The content is a chapter-by-chapter paraphrase of the ancient Chinese philosophical text Tao Te Ching (attributed to Lao Tzu, circa 6th century BCE) from a Jedi (Jeddist?) perspective. 

Pastor Carlos lists his sources on the last page, Steven Mitchell, Raymon van Over, Witter Bynner, Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, Richard Wilhelm, Thomas Cleary, who have created modern English renditions of the Tao Te Ching. With that in mind, A Modern-day Jedi’s Book of Change is a greater than tertiary source (maybe quaternary?) or could be considered an interpretive derivative. 

There’s definitely a substantial amount of bias since it interprets Taoist principles to align with Jedi principles. I suppose a heuristic error, faulty generalization, is present, since the content is interpreted without any historical and cultural background, generalizing from a modern context. 

Era:

A Modern-day Jedi’s Book of Change lacks a publication date. However, Pastor Carlos references the "Disney version" of "the Force," which points to Disney's acquisition of Star Wars in 2012, which in turn suggests a publishing date later than 2012 (and before the current date of October 22, 2025). 

The Tao Te Ching itself is unlikely to change over time, however, modern-day translations and interpretations are more likely to change as technology and better methods of interpretation are developed. Pastor Carlos also invites comments and a possible future publication which will likely bring changes with it. I’m not sure if I’ve been here at the temple long enough to know how fast things can change.

Extent:

If size is related to accuracy then A Modern-day Jedi’s Book of Change may not be very accurate, since it is not very large. However, it may be much more accurate on the basis of being specifically written by Jedi for Jedi. On the other hand, with Jediism being a syncretic religion, I suspect that accuracy could be added with size if the size directly comes from including more interpretations by other Jedi authors.

Umalohókan

House of Twin Suns
TM: Carlos Martinez

"You don't have to see the whole staircase just to take the first step."

(Signature links to IP Journal, Apprentice Journal, A.div Journal, and Degree Tracker omitted for brevity — these were forum navigation links at the time.)


Looking back now: This entry applied hermeneutic principles to modern Jedi literature — critically assessing source level, bias, context, and potential evolution. It showed how the lesson helped me approach interpretive works (even within the Jedi community) with humility, awareness of limitations, and openness to change.