The Gospel Reloaded

Pop a red pill and journey with the authors down the rabbit hole to the burgeoning world of Matrix spirituality. Ever since Neo first discovered his true identity in the now-famous 1999 sleeper hit, fans, critics and philosophers have gone over every celluloid inch of ""The Matrix"" to pick out its intellectual themes. And, like any pop culture phenomenon worth its salt, the film managed to be all things to all people, claimed by Christians as an allegory of resurrection and by Buddhists as a metaphor of awakening. Seay and Garrett are primarily concerned with the movie's Christian themes--Neo as the Christ; Morpheus as the John the Baptist figure who prepares the way; and Trinity as ""the female face of God."" (That's not the only thing that may cause more conservative Christians to put on Agent Smith faces; elsewhere, the authors very thoughtfully entertain the idea that the Matrix that is oppressing people in our own society may well be organized religion.) The authors are clearly diehard fans (Seay even named one of his children Trinity!), but the book is far more than an extended fan fawn; it is quite intelligent and substantive, as well as engagingly written. The final two chapters (not seen by PW) will discuss developments in the second installment in the Matrix trilogy.