No doubt some filmgoers will be more than a little surprised by the overtly religious themes explored in "A Serious Man," the latest film from brother-filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, which recently debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.

After all, the Coens are best known for their Oscar-winning pitch-black drama "No Country for Old Men" and cult classics such as "Fargo" or "The Big Lebowski."

"A Serious Man," which is scheduled to open in theaters on Oct. 2, is a black comedy set amidst an academic Jewish community in the Coens' real-life hometown of St. Louis Park, Minn., in 1967. The film tells the story of Larry Gopnik, a modern-day Job --- or so he believes.

Gopnik, played by newcomer Michael Stuhlbarg, is a physics professor at a local university. Gopnik's suburban serenity begins to devolve when his wife announces she's leaving him for Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed), a bloviating, faux-pious fellow professor.

A series of minor, if life-altering, calamities lead Gopnik to question the existence of God and the meaning of life --- and of suffering. He turns to three rabbis for answers to his questions, all of which are, the filmmakers seem to be saying, essentially, unanswerable.

Since their directorial debut in 1984 with the neo-thriller "Blood Simple," the Coens have created some of the most enigmatic and enduring films of my generation.

The cinematic styles, periods and themes of their films are so varied, some critics have wondered whether there is an overarching vision to the Coens' work. I would argue that it is the spirituality --- the theological notions, the existential questions, and the religious ideas. To paraphrase one of the oft-quoted lines from "Lebowski" (a flick so spiritually significant and influential that it literally has spawned its own religion, the 60,000-strong Church of the Latter-day Dude), the Coens' spiritually really ties the room together.

Each of their 14 films is marked by theological, philosophical and mythological touchstones that enrich even the most slapstick of moments.

Their films probe confounding ethical and spiritual quandaries, giving us a tour of nuanced moral universes that may be individual (in the case of "Barton Fink"), geographic (as in "Fargo"), or historic (such as the Depression-era "O Brother, Where Art Thou?").

Judeo-Christian scriptural truths run rampant throughout the Coens' 25-year cinematic oeuvre.

The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons. The love of money is the root of all evil. Love conquers all --- even death. And that's just in "Fargo" alone.

Whether you've seen only a couple or every single one of their films, you know Joel and Ethan Coen make movies like no one else in cinema. The Coens' quirky and sometimes confounding films are rich with meaning --- much of it hidden just beneath the surface; they are gems of spiritual insight waiting to be excavated.

They have created moral universes in which some of life's essential questions are asked --- if not always answered. These queries run the gamut from the meaning of life and enlightenment, to the fundamental nature of grace, truth and love.

There is a moral order to the world, the Coeniverse, if you will. Whether the story is a farcical crime caper or an American gothic tale of betrayal, there always are consequences to the characters' actions, for better or for worse. Bad guys are punished and the decent are rewarded for their innate goodness, though beware the viewer who assumes it will be easy to discern which is which. Sins come to light; lies and deception are revealed for what they are. It may even happen occasionally that the hand of God intervenes to restore order from chaos.

"A Serious Man" encapsulates all of the spiritual themes the Coens have examined in their past films and introduces audiences to one of the more intriguing (if little-known) theological notions from Judaism --- that of the lamed vavniks, the 36 righteous souls in every generation upon whom the fate of the rest of the world rests.

"A Serious Man" is seriously good filmmaking, and cements the Coens' reputation as secular theologians whose body of work one astute critic described as "the most sneakily moralistic in recent American cinema."

Cathleen Falsani is the author of "Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace" and the new book, "The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers." The USCCB and MPAA ratings for some of the films listed in this article include: "Fargo," A-IV, R; "No Country for Old Men," A-III, R; "O Brother, Where Art Thou," A-II, PG-13.