Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon

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.

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.

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

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.

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.