Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
–Job 38:4,7
“There are two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow.”
Terrence Malick’s magnum opus The Tree of Life is striving to be more than a film; it is a philosophical meditation. One which doesn’t unfold in the traditional narrative sense but drifts like memory, weaving between cosmic grandeur and childhood recollection, between whispered prayers and the silent weight of suffering. It’s a film that asks the biggest questions—why are we here, why do we suffer, and where do we find grace? In doing so the film places us in the vast timeline of existence, stretching from the birth of the universe to the fleeting moments of a single human life. It is no wonder why Terrence Malick’s films are consumed by these kinds of philosophical questions and meditations. His resume includes graduating with a philosophy degree summa cum laude from Harvard University, teaching philosophy at MIT, and translating Heidegger’s The Essence of Reason.
“Father… Mother… Always you wrestle inside me. Always you will.”
The tree of life as a philosophical and religious symbol or concept represents the connection between the material and spiritual realms as well as the cycle of life. At the heart of The Tree of Life lies a dichotomy: the way of nature and the way of grace. The film, through the words of Mrs. O’Brien played by Jessica Chastain, tells us that we must choose between the two. Nature is forceful, selfish, and concerned with its own survival. Grace is selfless, humble, and accepting. Nature struggles; grace submits. This distinction is not just a moral lesson but a profound metaphysical question—are we bound by the relentless mechanisms of the material world, or is there something higher, something transcendent, guiding us?
Malick’s vision here echoes the writings of Søren Kierkegaard, when he states, “A human being is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self. But what is the self? The self is a relation that relates itself to itself or is the relation’s relating itself to itself in the relation; the self is not the relation but is the relation’s relating itself to itself. A human being is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, of the temporal and the eternal, of freedom and necessity, in short, a synthesis. A synthesis is a relation between two. Considered in this way a human being is still not a self…. In the relation between two, the relation is the third as a negative unity, and the two relate to the relation and in the relation to the relation; thus under the qualification of the psychical the relation between the psychical and the physical is a relation. If, however, the relation relates itself to itself, this relation is the positive third, and this is the self.” This confusing word fractal I believe means that for Kierkegaard a human being is not just their physical body but also their spirit which is essential. This forms a complex existential synthesis of human experience and how we relate to this dichotomy also prosed by the film.
“Where were You? You let a boy die. You let anything happen. Why should I be good? When You aren’t.”
The film does not provide simple easy answers, but it does present the search for the divine as something deeply embedded in human experience. Jack played by Sean Penn, as an adult, wanders through a modern world that feels hollow, disconnected from the grace he once knew. His journey is one of longing, a search for the sacred in a world that often feels devoid of it.
Malick’s cosmic sequences, galaxies forming, cells dividing, dinosaurs roaming, serve as more than just visual spectacle; they remind us that the divine is not confined to a church or a doctrine. Enter Baruch Spinoza, who argued that God is not separate from the universe but is the universe, that the divine is immanent in all things. The Tree of Life resonates with this vision, suggesting that God is found in the burning of a star as much as in the touch of a mother’s hand.
At times, the film whispers its theology in the form of questions: “Where were You?”, “Why did You let this happen?” These are Job’s questions, ancient and unanswerable, but they do not lead to nihilism. Instead, Malick presents the possibility that unforgiving nature and God’s grace is found not in explanations but in experience itself, the sunlight through trees, the death of a star, the laughter of a child, an animal’s choice not to kill a weaker animal, the moments of connection that transcend language.
_____
Conclusion
In its final moments, The Tree of Life offers a vision of reconciliation or perhaps atonement—a place beyond time, where those we’ve lost are waiting, where love endures. It is a vision of eternity that mirrors Immanuel Kant’s notion of the sublime, the feeling of awe in the face of something vast and unknowable. Malick does not insist that this vision is literal, but rather that it is something we all seek, a glimpse of grace beyond the limits of human perception.
In the end, The Tree of Life does not answer its own questions. It does something far more radical, it lets us feel them and give us a chance to meditate and interpret them ourselves. It immerses us in wonder, in longing, in sorrow, in love. It asks us to choose between nature and grace, but in doing so, guides us to the end of time which was always the beginning, showing the symbol of the tree and the connection we as humans have to both nature and to grace.
Reading List
Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard
The Book of Job
Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant
