What Can Be Found in LOST?: Insights on God and the Meaning of Life from the Popular TV Series

by John Ankerberg, Dillon Burroughs

What can Christians learn from one of the most popular TV series of all time? In its first season, LOST averaged 15.5 million viewers per episode. The show features a cast that struggles with the eternal issues of identity, conflict, relationships, and spirituality. Though the show does not have a Christian foundation or theme, there is much believers can learn about social and cultural attitudes and perspectives through its episodes--such as... Many of the problems and difficulties of everyday life are captured succinctly in LOST--making it a useful "point of reference" for understanding how different people view issues of a spiritual nature. Ankerberg and Burroughs offer practical suggestions for Christians who desire to talk effectively to others about the various themes in the show.

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

John F. Ankerberg (born Dec 1945) is the host of a nationally syndicated evangelical Christian television talk show. The show is broadcast from Chattanooga, Tennessee via satellite and highlights contemporary Christian viewpoints and debates among well known Christian scholars.

Ankerberg holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary and is an ordained Baptist minister. He is the author or co-author of numerous books including Darwin's Leap of Faith: Exposing the False Religion of Evolution (Harvest House, 1998), and The Secret Teachings of the Masonic Lodge: A Christian Perspective (Moody, 1990).

He is married and has one daughter.

Reviews

[Justin Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. Being a LOST fanatic and a Jesus follower, I thought I'd like it more than I did. It was quite... basic. I'm not sure if it's because I already knew about everything they wrote about in regards to the show and its characters/details/mysteries/etc, but I found it to be too simple. There's also the big strike against this book being the fact that they decided to write and publish it after season 3, rather than wait until the whole series was over. There's so much more they could have added from seasons 4, 5, and 6. There were some chapters I enjoyed a lot, but others fell flat. I'm glad I read it, but I was hoping for more.

[Nicholas Coker · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is seriously great potential for an analysis of the spiritual and theological content of Lost, so when I came across this volume, I was stoked. Unfortunately, What Can Be Found in Lost offers little in terms of Lost’s spiritual applications and takeaways, even going so far as to merely list off the number of times certain words like “God” and “Destiny” are spoken on the show. It also doesn’t help that the book was written only after Lost’s third season, and therefore the show’s messages and themes had yet to be concluded. Thus, an unnecessary amount of the book’s pages are devoted to Lost theories and culture. Overall, there is little to be found in What Can Be Found in Lost.

[Kevin King · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this years ago, what I remember is it was a quick read with a decent understanding of the Characters and trying to view them in the lens of the real world.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was first attracted to this book last year, when I was becoming more and more interested in the deeper meaning of LOST, whether that be the philosophical meaning, religious meaning or so on. I'm not religious myself, but I've always been very interested in every religion and they way they think and operate.

I think that the chapters of the book were separated well, and I enjoyed the sections on theories and research. I found the Appendices very useful, and it allowed me to further look into the topics that I was interested in.

I only found a couple of things to perhaps improve on, since on the whole, it was a great book. Sometimes, I felt that the discussion was going off-topic a little when religious stories where being explained, and that sometimes it went around-the-houses to explain something. Despite this, I enjoyed the extra background knowledge. I felt that the questions at the end of chapters could have been intergrated into the text instead of having a list at the end, since I was finding myself skipping past them every time.

I thought that the last chapter, 'LOST...What to Do About It' was quite pointless, as the book isn't about the reader being religious, it's about the way religion is woven into the programme. I found this chapter quite off-putting, as it was almost as if it was trying to convert you to Christianity. I also thought that the other religions could have been more heavily featured, and with the chapter at the end, the whole book was very biased towards the Christian religion.

I hope that the book is reissued upon the final of the show, where the authors could perhaps incorporate the religions introduced after Season 3!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a born again believer and avid "LOST" fan, I was interested in reading this book as soon as I heard about it. Tackling subjects popular on the show, among them the significance of numbers and views on the afterlife, this book explores what the show presents and then how it stacks up with what the Bible says. There are lots of quotes and facts from the show sprinkled in every chapter. It is notable, however, that this book was published after the third season and therefore only covers up to that point. Some of its theories and/or conclusions are slightly out of date, though that is no fault of their own. A good resource for any fan who is interesting in discussing the show from different angles - and which "LOST" fan doesn't like that? :-)

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book being a huge LOST fan and it was such a great read about the deeper spiritual references the show protrayed!!! I loved how it covered a variety of different religions and not just Christian. This only covers seasons 1-3 and I hope they write a sequel for the final 3 seasons.

[Jagzier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the authors do a great job taking the elements of Lost that point to a higher power and put meaning behind it. I think it is a must for all Lost fans.

[Emlyn Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting philosophy of what the mysteries really meant from the greatest TV series of all time :)