Customer Reviews

The Gospel According to Lost

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(75)
3 star:		(51)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

From the very beginning LOST was a complex show. Amongst its many layers of story telling were themes related to religion such as faith, destiny, spirituality and sin. One of the great things about the show is that it did not shy away from these topics, but voiced opposing viewpoints directly through skillfully written dialogue. LOST provided ample material to speculate about these themes and The Gospel According to LOST by Chris Seay begins to do just that.

The simplest way to summarize the book is that it explores the spiritual themes of LOST. It does so in the same way LOST does: through it's characters. Twelve of its seventeen chapters are character specific. The other five chapters provide background and set-up the topics that follow them. Most of the material simply explores critical plot points throughout the characters' lives. However, there are some more interesting points of exegesis. For example, the chapter on Eko looks at the various Bible verses inscribed on Eko's stick and considers what they might mean for the plot of the show.

I have two criticisms of the book. The first is that it was published before the final season aired. Probably the best explanation for this is that the book is far more likely to be successful while the show is running than after it ends. But the premature timetable necessarily limits how far the author can go in his reflections. The other problem I have is with the title, The Gospel According to LOST. LOST's "gospel" was never really elucidated, and my guess is that the title turns away readers who would otherwise find the book insightful. It sounds like one of the hokey religious books that reads religion into everything. Seay does a good job of avoiding that sort of hazard.

The Gospel According to LOST is a worthwhile read for any fan. If you care about the characters and the nuances of LOST's narrative, this book will definitely interest you. Chris Seay is a pastor, and he doesn't shy away from being pastoral, but he also doesn't try to shove anything down anyone's throats. This book is a great way to delve a little deeper into the many complexities that constitute LOST.

A Review of 'The Gospel According To Lost' by Chris Seay
It took me a while to finish this book. I was able to put it down, and come back to it after periods of time. Each chapter is separate from the others, which is good, because some of the content was deep.
I came to this book as a fan of the show, Lost. If you are not a fan, some of the content will be hard to follow. It is a very interesting book. Chris does a great job of tying things from the show to the Bible.
Although I think some of the content may be hard to understand or see in the show, I think this is a good book, and I would recommend it.

I am a member of Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger's Program, which can be found at [...]

Thank you, and enjoy.

Exploring the Biblical and spiritual themes of pop culture phenomenons is nothing new. We've had a Biblical look at Peanuts, the Simpsons and 24 and well as a previous book that looked at the deeper issues of what we can find in ABC's "Lost."

"The Gospel According to Lost" is another exploration of the values and characters exhibited by the hit series but unlike the book "What Can Be Found in Lost" the book feels a deeper and more thought out. Both are good and will give fans and Christians new insights into the show and its characters, all while creating a desire to go back to the source material for greater refection and study. In this case, you may find yourself wanting to dust off those old "Lost" DVDs and your Bible to examine some of the questions and issues raised by this book and the series.

Written heading into the final season of the show, the book offers some intriguing insights into the past and future of the show.

The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay elaborates on the series' main characters, their greatest weaknesses and strengths, and what they represent in humanity. It doesn't lay out every detail of the connections from one person to the next and from one story line to another, but it does remind the reader/viewer of some of the connections they may have missed. More than that, though, it celebrates the depth of the television series and the artistry of its creators. I love that about this book. Rather than giving us answers to our questions, it encourages us to embrace the mystery and appreciate the journey. I loved that too. Chris Seay proves to be a person who experiences popular culture with great thought and intense appreciation. This book encourages its readers to do the same.

I was recently given a copy of Chris Seay's "The Gospel According to Lost" to review. I had never read or even heard of Chris Seay, but I was willing to give a fellow Christian Lostie a chance to see what he had to say. I wasn't expecting any spoilers for the show, but was interested in what Seay had to say about Lost and Christianity. Unfortunately, everything that Seay said was nothing new. It was almost like some college papers I've read in the past where students try to make a short topic appear to be deep and insightful.

Seay's writing style was very clumsy. He tries to joke around on one page, and then tries to sound very deep and insightful on the next. In my opinion, he failed at both. There were several things that were disturbing, the first one being that for a book that is supposed to contain the Gospel, Seay felt it was ok to curse. The curse words weren't used very much at all, but just the inclusion of them really made me think that Seay is just about sounding hip and not concerned at all about the true presentation of the Gospel.

Another disturbing part of the book is even though the book is called "The Gospel According to Lost," the true Gospel is hardly mentioned. Part of the Gospel is mentioned, but it's almost like Seay remembered "Oh yeah, I've got the Gospel in the title of my book. I'd better include it." Instead, his book almost seemed like his own personal contest to see how many thinkers or philosophers he could quote in one book, such as Hemmingway, Oscar Wilde, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

The last part of the book that disturbed me was the author himself. He is very arrogant in some parts. In the chapter that is devoted to Kate, he asks "So how could educated people fixate on such a character?" I'm not sure if he's saying only uneducated people should be attracted to Kate or if educated people that are attracted to Kate should be ashamed. As a Lost fan, Seay even gets parts of the show wrong. Again, in the Kate chapter, he says that "Locke, Ben, Hurly, and even young Walt are all praying that Kate will play Eve to their Adam."

Seay arranges the book (very clumsily by the way) by devoting a chapter to certain key characters from the show. Each chapter briefly described that character's story, life challenges, and then tried to connect them to the Bible. Any insight that Seay offered about the characters was obvious to anyone that watches the show. Each chapter stood alone with no overall theme and felt repetitive. All of Seay's chapters were stretched and felt like he was struggling to make some kind of length requirement.

I found Seay as a poor writer trying desperately to be a cool, young fountain of knowledge. However, after reading through several pages, Seay fell flat in my eyes. I honestly did not learn anything from him, but was more frustrated by the way he presented is ideas, which were more or less just recaps of Lost with a few quotations from great thinkers and a light sprinkling of the Bible. I can't honestly recommend this book to anyone. I feel that Lost has some great Bibical imagery and doesn't need any assistance form Chris Seay.

There are thousands of interpretations on what LOST the TV series was really about. This book gives a very interesting religious take on the characters, the location, etc. It's written in a very respectful, but light tone. It is not meant to offend - and it does not, as far as I am concerned.

When I saw that The Gospel According to Lost was available for me to review through Thomas Nelson, I requested it immediately. Of course, I didn't take into consideration the fact that I was, at that point, a season behind on Lost and reading Chris Seay's book would spoil me.

And so it sat on my shelf for the better part of a year.

I really enjoyed it. It was a quick read and, honestly, it reminded me of a novel-length column by Entertainment Weekly's resident Lost guru, Doc Jensen. Doc Jensen's weekly columns quickly became part of my Lost routine -- I'd watch the episode(s) and then read his corresponding columns to see what I had inevitably missed.

Likewise, Chris Seay nicely broke down what it was that made me love this show for six years -- that Lost is not at all what it seems. That there are layers upon layers behind every character, every incident, every name, every seemingly throw-away camera shot of even a book laying on a table. Lost has been, to date, the most profound television show I've ever watched.

J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse have mentioned several times that the Bible was one of the many influences behind their brainchild, and Seay pulls those threads out and admirably dissects them: John Locke as Moses; the parallel between Jacob and the Man in Black and the Biblical Jacob and Esau; Penny and Desmond the epitome of the famed 1 Corinthians 13 love chapter. Seay contends that the series mirrors the Old Testament book of Exodus, with the characters wearing emotional rather than physical shackles.

I am a Christian and also an avid pop culture enthusiast. It was suggested earlier this week that one cannot be both (to which I just rolled my eyes, as I often do whenever this person makes similar pronouncements), and I have to heartily disagree.

In fact, Brian McLaren's quote in the beginning of the book perfectly sums up my thoughts on the matter: "I'm an enthusiastic fan of Chris Seay's work -- his ability to see patterns of truth and wisdom in the artifacts of pop culture, and his desire to highlight what's good and right instead of merely lamenting what's shallow or shabby."

When I dove into The Gospel According to Lost I was hoping that it would present the gospel using characters and stories from one of my favorite shows, Lost; what I expected I never received.

Chris Seay does a great job of taking pieces of the hit show Lost and explaining them - pulling out spiritual aspects and relating them to scripture. Though there was nothing really bad about this, I did not like it and can't quite figure out why. Reading this book I was hoping for more than to hear that Locke is kind of like Moses, Penny's unconditional love for Desmond is kind of like God's unconditional love for us, Jack is kind of like Jesus, and Jacob may or may not represent God or Jacob of the Bible.

One of the biggest weaknesses of The Gospel According To Lost is that it was written after season five of the show. A lot of stuff changed during Season 6, the final season of Lost, which changes some of the discussions in the book.

Overall, though not what I was expecting, Seay does a fine job of presenting a discussion about Lost, but does not present the Gospel according to Lost.

This is a great book that makes ties between the best TV series ever and the Bible. I caight may of the biblical references from the show, but the author caught many I did not. Other's that I did catch, he did an excellent job of expounding on.

Now that the LOST series is over and many fans were left disappointed, I am finally getting around to reviewing the book that took much of what the series did offer throughout its creation and life and used it to explain spiritual concepts.
This was a more difficult read for me to get into than I thought it would be, not due to poor writing or a bad plot, but rather, because my personal life had been so hectic.
Once I got into the book, I was glad for it. I enjoy the books' take on a television series which left its audience asking what the ultimate meaning was, for the show and for life. It was hard not to ask that question every week as the t.v. series progressed and the ideas expressed in the book are as interesting and intriguing as the show had been.
Exploring each of the main characters, plot-line and many other aspect of the show, this book touches on the spiritual implications within LOST before the final season.
While the show itself left most its audience feeling let-down, the ultimate message of The Gospel According to LOST is encouraging and thought-provoking. While this is not a shelf-keeper for me personally, it was a worth while read. Especially for fans of LOST, the show.