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Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon Paperback – March 2, 2011

by Kathryn Lofton (Author)

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“Today on Oprah,” intoned the TV announcer, and all over America viewers tuned in to learn, empathize, and celebrate. In this book, Kathryn Lofton investigates the Oprah phenomenon and finds in Winfrey’s empire―Harpo Productions, O Magazine, and her new television network―an uncanny reflection of religion in modern society. Lofton shows that when Oprah liked, needed, or believed something, she offered her audience nothing less than spiritual revolution, reinforced by practices that fuse consumer behavior, celebrity ambition, and religious idiom. In short, Oprah Winfrey is a media messiah for a secular age. Lofton’s unique approach also situates the Oprah enterprise culturally, illuminating how Winfrey reflects and continues historical patterns of American religions.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fascinating study of the modern-day deity’s 25 years as the world’s most beloved BFF, exhaustively researched and elegantly considered. Buy it for the smartest Oprah fan you know.”

(Madison 2011-09-01)

“A fascinating new perspective on a media icon.”

(Vanessa Bush Booklist 2011-03-01)

“Budding and active scholars of cultural, popular, and religious studies will read with interest.”

(Jewell Anderson Library Journal 2011-03-15)

“If you read it [Oprah], you won't think about the connection between religion and consumer culture the same way again.”

(Thomas S. Kidd Patheos 2011-03-09)

“A unique analysis of the talk queen’s multimedia empire.”

(Shirley Bolden B.l.a.c. 2011-03-01)

“Makes a powerful case for viewing Oprah as a significant moment in religious culture.”

(Milo Yiannopoulos Catholic Herald 2011-04-20)

“Tantalizing.”

(Amy Frykholm Christian Century 2011-06-28)

“[Lofton’s] authorial voice is, by turns, instructing, funny, ironic, snide, brilliantly analytical, undeniably astute . . . and feisty.”

(Mary Farrell Bednarowski Feminist Collections 2013-02-20)

“Lofton’s careful and engaging work is sure to warrant responses. How wonderful that this book is the one to set the stage.”

(Jennifer Scanlon Journal Of American History 2011-12-01)

"Compelling and insightful. . . . [A] thorough and fascinating work that significantly aids our understanding of religion and spirituality in postwar America."

(Lerone Martin American Studies Journal 2013-06-01)

From the Inside Flap

"Better than celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, Kathryn Lofton exposes Oprah's secret―the religious resonance of her persona in popular culture. Brilliantly orchestrated, full of ah-ha and light-bulb moments, Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon takes us into the mediated spirituality, collective rituals, and everyday epiphanies of being Oprah and being in Oprah's world. If you are looking for sensationalism and scandal, read this book and find a sensational, substantial, and insightful analysis of religion and American popular culture."―David Chidester, author of Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture

“Lofton manages a rare feat. This book shakes and awakens our minds, compelling us to interpret and make sense of a multifaceted woman who has become a consumer and cultural phenomenon unprecedented in American and world history.”--Eva Illouz, author of Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture

"Lofton's Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon defies categorization, offering a brilliantly creative way to explore what religion is and where we look to find it. It's all here―fashion, celebrity, media, glamour, and spirituality, an analysis of the world that produced Oprah as well as the world that Oprah produces."―J. Terry Todd, Director, Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict, Drew University

"Lofton brilliantly analyzes the Oprah phenomenon in religio-historical context. Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon provides a new way of understanding how Oprah operates as a preacher and as a missionary in spite of the presumed secularity of her enterprises, and shows how her world successfully intertwines commerce and religion. It is a truly outstanding work."―Cynthia Eller, Montclair State University

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Product details

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; First edition (March 2, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520267524
ISBN-13: 978-0520267527
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #735 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Television > History & Criticism
- #1195 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Sociology
- #2096 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Christian Living > Social Issues

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Angela

Great Analysis of Oprah

January 11, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This was actually a very interesting book to read, and I loved Lofton's analysis of Oprah. Sometimes I thought that the sections were a bit long-winded for the ideas they were trying to get across, and at other times I felt like the structure of the book was a little questionable/confusing, but overall I had not read anything like this before and found it very well done.

The only problem that I had with this book is that sometimes the arguments seemed to be a tad far fetched. As someone who grew up when Oprah was in full reign, I didn't experience the devotional following she had firsthand as my family did not watch her show. I guess because of this I find it hard to believe that she was able to create this much of a hullabaloo, but I definitely could be wrong. I do know of her, and I have seen her product endorsements around everywhere, so the basic claim for her power is there, but is it really religious? This writer lays out her argument for this very well, and I very much enjoy the analysis. You should read it and find out if you believe it in yourself! It will certainly make you think of other aspects of your life that you dedicate time to, and the motivations behind why you might do that.

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djs

Provocative and compelling

February 27, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Lofton's work is challenging, provocative, and absolutely essential to the study of contemporary American religion.

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April 24, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Lofton thoroughly investigates and describes Oprah's actions in the world today as a religious icon. It is a fascinating read. I will read it again. There is a great deal to wrestle with in this book. Hopefully, other readers who write better than I do will provide some more thoughts here.

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Adam Loch

A self-described historian of religion, Lofton pioneers her first ...

March 9, 2018

Format: Paperback

A self-described historian of religion, Lofton pioneers her first book with shrewd and sometimes humorous insight into “the land of O”. In response to the oversimplification of “religion” and “popular culture” as discrete categories that can be untangled from one another, Lofton successfully demonstrates that religiosity (at least in America) and consumer culture commingle in icons such as Oprah Winfrey, who was transfigured “from woman to celebrity to star to holiness” through her multimedia enterprise (Web page, magizines, TV show). Analyzing Winfrey, her products and mediums of transaction, and the “spiritual” milieu generated by the Oprah empire, Lofton’s thesis is that scholarship of modern religion must move beyond “tax-exempt religiosity” and be widened to include cultural trends. As she states in the introduction, “the burden of this project is not to prove her weight in the world but to pursue the tactics of her production and postulate some of its consequences to the study of modern religion.” While her methodology may be unconventional, Lofton adopts a lived religion approach and explores how the O evolved as the taste of her product to an insignia of spiritual capitalism.
Incorporating historical backgrounds and anthropological inquires into how Winfrey’s products become practice, Lofton takes us to “Planet O” by expounding on the relations between Oprah and her audience. The “Oprah Effect” (real-time economic effects when she recommends a product, the gift of ritual makeover, the Oprah confession ritual on her show, book club revivals, framing the role of motherhood as spiritual work - each of these practices and effects illustrate the indissolubility of religion and popular culture in America. Lofton identifies historical trajectories such as the New Age Movement and the Holiness movement that have enabled Winfrey’s emergence as a icon. In understanding the cultural history of America, Oprah Winfrey’s ascent to power and the audience she has galvanized is made sensible. Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon pioneers a frontier of religious inquiry in this way by engaging the complex transactions between Oprah and her follows. Anyone interested in the relations between religion and popular culture will find this an informative perspective as to how religiosity finds its way into the public sphere, in this case the O brand.

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this is thoughtful and thorough scholarship, but it also ...

September 15, 2015

Format: Paperback

this is thoughtful and thorough scholarship, but it also misses a significant portion of what oprah's about: tele-visuality. oprah's show is primarily a visual media and secondarily (if not tertiarily after her web presence) a textual enterprise. it seems, to me, that oprah often riffed and came up with her own pseudo-spritual gospel live. sure, maybe this IS the gospel that lofton's talking about, but the lack of visual analysis is to the major detriment of what is for now the premier academic analysis of this american (and global) cultural juggernaut.

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