I finally got around to seeing Zootopia over spring break. It had the best trailer of the movies showing before Star Wars- The Force Awakens, but it ended up low on my “need to see” movie list. I’m glad I saw it: it was colorful, creative, and even kind of challenging in its storytelling. I did find it a little heavy-handed ideologically, more so than most animated movies in the 21st century.

I saw Zootopia while reading Kevin VanHoozer’s Faith Speaking Understanding, which had its own interesting play in words with the idea of utopia (which means “no where”). In his discussion of the role of the church, VanHoozer asserts:

Neither heaven nor the church is utopian. However, the local church is indeed a eutopia (lit., “a good place”) because it is the place where disciples gather as the domain of Christ . . . Eutopia refers to the disciples’ “place” in the drama of redemption: the local church is empowered by Christ’s Spirit to enact scenes now of the not-yet kingdom of God. Put differently: the church’s “place” is the space between two ages, the old and and the age to come . . .

. . . the church’s mission is not to seek utopia but to be a eutopia: a good place in which the good news of reconciliation in Christ is exhibited in bodily form. The church participates in Christ not by partaking of his substance but by continuing his history and by exhibiting the history of his effects . . .

The local church is charged with turning every space where two or three are gathered into a eutopia: a place that practices and thus exhibits the reign of God. This is not the same thing as taking land, for the kingdom of God is ultimately not of this fallen world. Rather, the church’s placemaking mission means taking every word, thought, and activity captive to the broader drama of redemption (2 Cor. 10:4-5). Doing church means living out, in all the activities of everyday life, our identity in Christ . . . Where is Christ? He is in individual disciples and in the space between disciples, the “place” where scenes of his peaceable kingdom are played out.

I like the idea of eutopia. It reminds me of what Purdy said about good work being found in good places. The church and the daily space between disciples should be such places. I’d trade Zootopia for Eutopia any day.