It\u2019s getting harder to visit office water coolers without hearing the whispers of the \u201cLost\u201d disciples who are bracing for the end of the world as they know it.<\/p>\n
The same thing is happening during coffee hours in religious congregations of every shape and size, which is a testimony to the complexity of the religious themes and symbols embedded deep in the show\u2019s mythology. Tough theological questions have circled the island of the castaways ever since the fateful crash of Oceanic Flight 815.<\/p>\n
Do absolute moral truths exist? Do good intentions ever justify evil acts? Does real love always lead to self-sacrifice? Can faith and reason coexist or even mesh? Can people change or are they doomed to commit the same sins over and over? What does it mean to be saved? To be delivered?<\/p>\n
Some questions are more plot specific. Biblically speaking, what would happen if a patriarch named Jacob was killed by a brother who may or may not be named Esau? Why do some of the island\u2019s inhabitants occasionally speak Latin? What is the significance of the fact that most of the characters had horrible fathers? Where do the female survivors get all those tight-fitting tank tops?<\/p>\n
\u201d \u2018Lost\u2019 is a religious parable with obvious biblical references trying desperately not to be a religious parable,\u201d according to Catholic writer Roberto Rivera y Carlo, who is best known for his work with the evangelical apologist Charles Colson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe religion that has been most straightforwardly stated on the show has been straight-no-chaser Christianity. People pray like evangelical Christians or faithful Catholics. There\u2019s no kumbaya-style religion. \u2026 Ultimately, \u2018Lost\u2019 is an exploration of free will versus determinism or human freedom versus predestination. Take your pick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see, the plots involve hope, doubt, reason, freedom, sin, virtue, salvation, damnation and seekers striving to find empirical evidence to back their often agonizing leaps of faith. No wonder there is a central character named John Locke, along with others named Milton, Hume, Rousseau and C.S. Lewis (a Charlotte Staples Lewis, this time around).<\/p>\n
The men who have been running the program for most of its life \u2014 Damon Lindelof, who is Jewish, and Carlton Cuse, a Catholic \u2014 have called themselves \u201cmen of faith,\u201d while confessing that \u201cLost\u201d has become a \u201cmash-up\u201d of their favorite Bible stories, college philosophy textbooks, fantasy novels and movies. Thus, it will be impossible to understand Sunday\u2019s finale without wrestling with its final, indeed ultimate, spiritual questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s one word that we keep coming back to, it\u2019s redemption,\u201d said Lindelof, in a New York Times<\/em> interview<\/a> that has caused waves of online fan discussions. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is that idea of everybody has something to be redeemed for and the idea that that redemption doesn\u2019t necessarily come from anywhere else other than internally. But in order to redeem yourself, you can only do it through a community.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, it\u2019s almost impossible to say that \u201cLost\u201d has one overarching theme, said the Rev. Chris Seay of Ecclesia Church in Houston<\/a>, author of \u201cThe Gospel According to \u2018Lost.\u2019 \u201c<\/a> However, if forced to choose, he said it\u2019s clear that the central characters have been forced to realize that they cannot survive as selfish, isolated individuals \u2014 they must \u201clive together\u201d or they are doomed to \u201cdie alone.\u201d<\/p>\n However, this also means they have had to confront the reality of their own flaws, he said. Over time, he said, the survivors learned that if they were going to be saved they would have to \u201cfear the evils they find inside themselves more than they fear what is out there in that jungle.\u201d That\u2019s the kind of message that works in a pulpit, as well as on a large-screen television.<\/p>\n While \u201cLost\u201d does contain its share of references to Eastern religions and direct references to Christian classics, Seay said recent episodes have reminded him of a defining event in the Hebrew Bible \u2014 the Exodus of the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a way, these years on the island have been their time of wandering in the wilderness,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve had to learn how to live in forgiveness with one another, to face their own sins and find some kind of healing and some hope for the future. \u2026 You have to ask, what would a promised land look like for this set of characters?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s getting harder to visit office water coolers without hearing the whispers of the \u201cLost\u201d disciples who are bracing for the end of the world as they know it. The same thing is happening during coffee hours in religious congregations of every shape and size, which is a testimony to the complexity of the religious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[68,184,518,666,844],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-apologetics","tag-chris-seay","tag-lost","tag-pop-culture","tag-television"],"yoast_head":"\n