A Pastor’s Perspective on Being LOST in a Metaphysical Universe… (SPOILER)
Anyone got that pic of him in front of the multi-faith stained glass window?
So I’ll bite; someone has to say something about last night’s epic closer. Many didn’t like it. I for one, thought it was elegant, deeply moving, and beautifully under-spoken. I’m now satisfied with the mystery of the origins of the light, Jacob, the Man in Black – although for a brief while the vagaries of it bothered me too, not to mention that entire episode about the origins of Jacob/M.I.B. After all, if they’re not the first, then who is?
But eventually I settled on the idea that there is something philosophical here; i.e., the Source of good and evil was never easy to explain anyway, and it is somewhat naive to assume that the Lost producers could give us these answers. We were asking the wrong people the right questions. We were duped into thinking that they could spoon-feed it to us like brain-candy; No – these hungry questions cannot be answered by the producers of Lost. Indeed, even for the ancient thinkers the Source was an ineffable idea; Plotinus’ One was above human capacity to grasp. And our attempts at apprehending the Source via ration or observation (hence Hume, Locke) can only come short of faith.
And of course, there’s the question of free will and fate. And this one hits home for me. If you can stomach some of the universalist strains here – you can get past it to see the deep significant religious themes here – yes Christian themes – although I’m sure that is not the intent of the writers. Nonetheless, what I’m saying is encapsulated in a past post:
Another application: how can we talk about God’s design in a parishioner’s life when there is no overall design? In a word, “Providence” is crippled when the universe is emptied of mystical significance. From where I stand, that is one of the most important concepts in a pastor’s toolbox; we have to believe there is meaning to what happens in people’s lives.
The loss of this mystical worldview is really the by-product of something – Descartes? Kant? Occam? Enlighten me please. But we’re often more apt to say that things just randomly happen – there’s no reason nor rhyme; bad things happen to good people and we’re all good people. Random happenstance reigns.
And I beg to differ.
Lost has re-asserted the meaningfulness of an apparently meaningless universe. And this is helpful.
Like
Not to mention some of the strong themes of
1. reunion (personal eschatology – and the possibility of being all together again!)
2. building a new society
Didn’t we just took a whole semester of History of Doctrine together?
I’m sure Hans made it very clear to us what led to the loss of this mystical/sacramental worldview
Right now I just feel like there’s so much to chew on. I’m waiting for the Blu-ray boxset to come out and perhaps re-read my notes from doctrine, world religions, and CTC.
@Anson
yeah I wanted to throw “nominalism” out there but that’s still a text-book definition for me. I need to understand really what it means for myself… kinda like Lost.
Don’t watch Lost, though sometimes am – but Grey’s Anatomy is a different story. It is so everyday and in your face with the pastoral issues of “normal” life, lust, success and falling short.
@Jay Johnson
that last episode (Grey’s) was a doozy in itself…
More and more people are posing the idea that “it’s time to let go” (Rose) signaled the moment Jack (and everyone aboard) died – coinciding with Jack’s death in the alter-universe on the island (Jack dying on the ground).
That’s pretty powerful – and meaningful. I relate to Jack – hyper-controlled of my surroundings, my life, destiny, trying to hyper-manage every aspect of life. Letting go is when destiny re-aligned itself – and in my scheme, God was allowed back in.