What a strange, provocative experience it has been to dwell with Kathryn Lofton’s Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon during…
Adrift on common dreams
spirituality
The evolution of a text
In his 1915 essay, “Thoughts for the Times on War and Death,” Sigmund Freud wrote, “It is indeed impossible to…
Surviving the secular
Whether you see “the secular” as a threat or a refuge, an option or an impulse, we are all trying…
Spirituality: what remains?
To use the concept of spirituality analytically is enormously difficult. There comes a point in reading this book when one…
“The hegemony of her sway”
Oprah’s “gift is not her interviewing strategy but her confessional promiscuity.” While claiming only to tell you what she herself…
Spirituality, mediation, consumption
Oprah is a compelling object for the scholarly study of religion as a contemporary phenomenon. She is mass-mediated, commercial, and…
When democracy alone is not enough
At Patheos, philosopher Roger Gottlieb discusses why "spirituality" is a necessary supplement to democracy.
Post-secular development
For most of the second half of the twentieth century development was assumed to be consonant with modernity and its…
Figuring American Spirituality
After attending a February 10th discussion with multimedia artist Laurie Anderson at Columbia University, Columbia Religion Professor Courtney Bender wrote…
Competitive theism at the Grammys
In anticipation of the Grammy Awards tonight, Neill Strauss asks, "Why do so many musical superstars think that their careers…