This episode is all about Soul. That’s because Garrick and Timothy recently headed to the theaters to watch the Soul movie, a new cinematic feature produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. And by “headed to the theaters,” what they mean is that each of them headed downstairs to their respective home theaters, where the screens are far smaller but the seats are much larger and the popcorn is much cheaper. Your intrepid cohosts’ goal in watching the Soul movie was to discuss the theological nuances of this film, but Garrick quickly derails that noble intention with his description of a “Giant Bug Zapper in the Sky” (which would, by the way, be an amazing name for a bluegrass punk fusion band).
(Also, by the way, there are a lot of spoilers in this episode, so you may want to listen to this episode later if you haven’t seen the movie yet.)
The Story the Soul Movie Tells
In the end, Timothy manages to wrangle enough focus out of Garrick to discuss how Soul tends toward Greek dualism while simultaneously critiquing the secular notion that happiness is found by discovering your “thing.” Along the way, the dynamic duo explores Andrew Root’s book The End of Youth Ministry? and considers how Josh Chatraw’s Telling a Better Story might help Christians to draw from the storylines of popular movies to make their case for God. In the end, it becomes clear that, despite being packed with pop mysticism and Eastern spirituality, the Soul movie is able to provide viewers with a meaningful resolution only by borrowing from the Christian metanarrative.
Links to Click
Cultural Intelligence: book by Darrell Bock
Soul: trailer from Pixar Studios
MY N.Y.: album by Jon Batiste & The Stay Human Band
Smokin’ at the Half-Note: album by Wes Montgomery
Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?: book by Oscar Cullmann
The End of Youth Ministry?: book by Andrew Root
Telling a Better Story: book by Josh Chatraw
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The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B and H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
