{"id":134,"date":"2010-05-24T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html"},"modified":"2010-05-24T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T03:00:00","slug":"lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Lost&#8217; Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like <a href=\"http:\/\/forums.televisionwithoutpity.com\/index.php?showtopic=3195807&amp;st=0\">many &#8220;Lost&#8221; fans<\/a>, I&#8217;m not sure what to think about last night&#8217;s series finale, but the show certainly continued to mine religious concepts &#8212; forgiveness, sacrifice, communion, purgatory, nirvana, etc. &#8212; until the very end, even literally gathering most&nbsp;of the characters in a church to say their final goodbyes.<\/p>\n<p>I was hoping to see Mr. Eko among those seated in the pews, figuring that he could even&nbsp;logically be there as the parish priest. But, I guess the show couldn&#8217;t bring back everyone &#8212; or, is it that he, along with folks like Michael, Walt,&nbsp;Danielle, Alex, and Ana Lucia&nbsp;weren&#8217;t &#8220;ready&#8221; yet?&nbsp;Ooooh&#8230; I think I&#8217;m onto something now, especially since Ben opted to stay outside. What do you think?<\/p>\n<p>Here are some links to coverage of &#8220;Lost,&#8221; as it relates to religious themes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.episcopalcafe.com\/lead\/popular_culture\/lost_a_religious_text_read_in_1.html\">&#8220;Lost&#8221; &#8212; a religious text read in the public square <\/a>(Episcopal Cafe)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.religiondispatches.org\/archive\/2658\/what_the_lost_finale_is_really_about\/\">What the &#8220;Lost&#8221; finale is really about <\/a>(Religion Dispatches)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/2010\/05\/23\/1964712\/the-key-to-understanding-lost.html\">The key to understanding &#8220;Lost?&#8221; Religion and spirituality <\/a>(McClatchy Newspapers)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/bradley-b-onishi\/i-once-was-found-and-now_b_586861.html\">I Once Was Found and Now I Am Lost: Reflections on the Religious and Spiritual Dimensions of&nbsp;Lost <\/a>(Huffington Post)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/05\/things-ive-learned-from-watching-lost.html\">Eight Things I&#8217;ve Learned From Watching Lost <\/a>(One of Little Faith, for Beliefnet)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.chron.com\/believeitornot\/2010\/05\/after_lost_and_the_afterlife.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+houstonchronicle\/believeitornot+(Believe+It+or+Not)&amp;utm_content=Twitter\">The afterlife, after &#8220;Lost&#8221; <\/a>(Houston Chronicle)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-purgatory-heaven.html\">&#8220;Lost&#8221; Series Finale: Moving from Dark Purgatory to Heaven&#8217;s Light <\/a>(Idol Chatter, for Beliefnet)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/?p=34421\">Faithfully &#8216;Lost&#8217; <\/a>(GetReligion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ll add more as I see them pop up today and tomorrow. Check back for updates, and share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many &#8220;Lost&#8221; fans, I&#8217;m not sure what to think about last night&#8217;s series finale, but the show certainly continued to mine religious concepts &#8212; forgiveness, sacrifice, communion, purgatory, nirvana, etc. &#8212; until the very end, even literally gathering most&nbsp;of the characters in a church to say their final goodbyes. I was hoping to see&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Lost&#039; Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Lost&#039; Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like many &#8220;Lost&#8221; fans, I&#8217;m not sure what to think about last night&#8217;s series finale, but the show certainly continued to mine religious concepts &#8212; forgiveness, sacrifice, communion, purgatory, nirvana, etc. &#8212; until the very end, even literally gathering most&nbsp;of the characters in a church to say their final goodbyes. I was hoping to see&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-24T03:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Lost' Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Lost' Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes - Belief Beat","og_description":"Like many &#8220;Lost&#8221; fans, I&#8217;m not sure what to think about last night&#8217;s series finale, but the show certainly continued to mine religious concepts &#8212; forgiveness, sacrifice, communion, purgatory, nirvana, etc. &#8212; until the very end, even literally gathering most&nbsp;of the characters in a church to say their final goodbyes. I was hoping to see&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2010-05-24T03:00:00+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html","name":"'Lost' Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes - Belief Beat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-24T03:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-24T03:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/lost-series-finale-spiritual-themes.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8216;Lost&#8217; Finale References Purgatory, Nirvana, Forgiveness, and Other Spiritual Themes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously written for The New York Times and other media outlets. She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}