Episode 41: The Greatest Showman

On this week’s Technicolor Jesus, Matt and Adam welcome Jill Duffield, editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, to talk about outcasts, the circus, Palm Sunday, and The Greatest Showman. In our first segment, Justification by Faith, the group discusses The Greatest Showman and its themes of family, ambition, and the making of true community. The group also discusses the role of hagiography in our corpus of sacred stories. In the second segment, Preaching to the Choir, the group discusses the intersection of The Greatest Showman and the lectionary passages for Palm Sunday, Year B. Intrigued by Jesus’ journey into the temple, the group discusses the role of crowds in the Palm Sunday story and the ways in which our expectations need retuning. Finally, in the last segment, Postludes, Matt tells us all about his great South by Southwest discovery Liz Brasher, and Adam extols the virtures of the great Pina Bausch.

Jill Duffield is the editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, the preeminent magazine and curator of conversations in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Pina

Liz Brasher