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Josh Parks grew up loving all things Disney. The Magic Kingdom has been his happy place since childhood.
But these days, through his work toward a Master of Theological Studies at Princeton Seminary, he’s now thinking about the world of Disney – and the man who created it – as a sort of religion, one dedicated to perpetuating a fantastical world where dreams come true, evil never triumphs and the endings are always happy.
Parks is writing a religious biography exploring Walt Disney’s own tenuous relationship with Christianity, the religious themes that run through Disney media, and the ways many Christians have clung to the universe Disney built.
Disney was born into a Congregationalist family but did not regularly attend church past age 5. But his life’s work created a vision of America that became synonymous with traditional Christian virtue and moral certainty.
“Disney fans love all of these things in complicated, overlapping, harmful, and life-giving ways — and that complexity is part of what makes religious studies matter, I think,” Parks says.
The Holland, Michigan, native came to Princeton Seminary with a serious interest and education in cultural history. He has a Master’s from Western Michigan University and a BA in English literature and music – he is a gifted violinist – from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“I think cultural history takes people’s entire beings seriously as actors in history,” he says.
“And that is an important theological conviction to me: We are not just brains or minds or souls. We’re whole people created by God in the image of God, and there’s meaning and value in every part of our being. And history that takes all of that seriously, I think, is an important way to contribute to understanding creation.”
He also earned a grounding in his work as a research assistant for author Kristin Kobes Du Mez as she wrote Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.
“That was my first chance to look at pop culture and ‘secular’ media through the lens of American religious and cultural history.”
His studies and his research into Disney’s world, coupled with “a new circle of friends with wildly different theological backgrounds, religious experiences, and ministry goals,” have expanded his worldview.
“It’s really exciting to be in a place where people have such different insights from each other.”
He came to Princeton Seminary with his wife, Bethany, who is studying for her Master of Divinity.
“We both came from Reformed-ish backgrounds, and we were excited about the combination of the Reformed tradition and a more ecumenical vision at Princeton,” he says.
That, coupled with his music, has opened new ways of thinking.
“I do think my experience as a musician has taught me on an experiential level that things that aren’t words can affect how we live. And that our lives and our decisions can be shaped by the things we find beautiful. For many people, including me, one of those beautiful, complicated things has been Disney media.”
He had an idea from the start of what seminary would mean for him. He wrote about it in an essay for the post calvin (a Calvin University alumni blog) on the evening of his first day at Princeton:
“I believe that my beliefs will be shaken, my heart broken, my soul stretched but not snapped. I believe that every want I’ve expressed here might be frustrated, every conviction challenged. I believe I will fail daily to learn, to love, to live. I believe there are many more confessions in my future. I believe, alongside theologian Marika Rose, that ‘Christianity is a binfire, but it’s my binfire.’ I believe, most fundamentally, that God is love, and that if we get that right, nothing else matters.”
