Symbolism that resonates with the collective unconscious or just with the fact that the Christ story is so pervasive in our society doesn't mean the *story* is Christian. You can throw any sort of easily recognizable Christian symbol in there that you want -- and we all know they did* -- but that doesn't make the story Christian.
I suppose this is why the "all paths lead to God" thing at the tail end of the last episode irked me: Because so many (most?) of their religious symbols throughout the series were more Christian than anything else, and yet they never really understood the true nature of Christian faith (as opposed to other faiths). It's like being misquoted in an interview and the misquote stating a totally opposite view than the one you hold....
I don't mind good Christian symbolism, of course, but it felt a little cheap at times in this last season: as if they were playing off the emotional pull such symbols hold for a lot of people without having to do the legwork on actually making the symbols work beyond a gut reaction.
Also, as for faith being a main theme: Now that I've seen the finale, I'm left with a question: Faith in what? For Locke (the real Locke) it was faith in the island. In fact, that was a lot of the clash between Jack and Locke -- whether to have faith in the island or not. Jack thought Locke was crazy for most of that time, but we (who had seen the magical properties of the island in ways Jack wasn't piecing together yet) KNEW Locke wasn't all that crazy (well, except for blowing up the sub the first time and destroying the radio tower station, etc.). We knew there were good reasons to have faith in the island....
But was that the faith that was revealed in the final ten minutes? No - it was something far more mundane (in terms of storytelling). It was faith in friends, or love conquers all, or something else. I'm not sure we ever really did find out whether it was worth it to put one's faith in the island, because any old secluded island might have served the same purpose of bringing these people together to work out their issues.
And since everybody ended up in the same afterlife situation anyway, why bother with the distinction of faith in the island anyway?
Again, I feel as if they cheaply went for the lovely, serene images of our favorite Losties looking SO fulfilled and happy that we were left to wonder, "So should I NOT have cried with Hurley in that previous hour when he realized Jack was going to die? Because, honestly, who cares now? They're all dead here anyway and the playing field was a lot more level than we thought."
__________
*side wound, water/wine as a sort of Communion, Jacob/Esau twins, self-sacrifice to save others, Eko's walking stick, Jacob having a bunch of "disciples" that he sits and teaches (in the penultimate episode), etc. etc.
I suppose this is why the "all paths lead to God" thing at the tail end of the last episode irked me: Because so many (most?) of their religious symbols throughout the series were more Christian than anything else, and yet they never really understood the true nature of Christian faith (as opposed to other faiths). It's like being misquoted in an interview and the misquote stating a totally opposite view than the one you hold....
I don't mind good Christian symbolism, of course, but it felt a little cheap at times in this last season: as if they were playing off the emotional pull such symbols hold for a lot of people without having to do the legwork on actually making the symbols work beyond a gut reaction.
Also, as for faith being a main theme: Now that I've seen the finale, I'm left with a question: Faith in what? For Locke (the real Locke) it was faith in the island. In fact, that was a lot of the clash between Jack and Locke -- whether to have faith in the island or not. Jack thought Locke was crazy for most of that time, but we (who had seen the magical properties of the island in ways Jack wasn't piecing together yet) KNEW Locke wasn't all that crazy (well, except for blowing up the sub the first time and destroying the radio tower station, etc.). We knew there were good reasons to have faith in the island....
But was that the faith that was revealed in the final ten minutes? No - it was something far more mundane (in terms of storytelling). It was faith in friends, or love conquers all, or something else. I'm not sure we ever really did find out whether it was worth it to put one's faith in the island, because any old secluded island might have served the same purpose of bringing these people together to work out their issues.
And since everybody ended up in the same afterlife situation anyway, why bother with the distinction of faith in the island anyway?
Again, I feel as if they cheaply went for the lovely, serene images of our favorite Losties looking SO fulfilled and happy that we were left to wonder, "So should I NOT have cried with Hurley in that previous hour when he realized Jack was going to die? Because, honestly, who cares now? They're all dead here anyway and the playing field was a lot more level than we thought."
__________
*side wound, water/wine as a sort of Communion, Jacob/Esau twins, self-sacrifice to save others, Eko's walking stick, Jacob having a bunch of "disciples" that he sits and teaches (in the penultimate episode), etc. etc.