“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.

Kathryn Lofton is the Sarai Ribicoff Associate Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at Yale University.

"What Oprah provides is not simply data to confirm certain modes of study, nor merely an exemplification of a trend. Lofton urges us to see Oprah as a context in which certain languages and sentiments are conjured and sustained. Beyond the complex weave of the religious and the secular, Lofton practices her own critical arts subtly, by attending to the drab architecture of cultural desires instead of merely hacking away at their most obvious expressions." —Jason Bivins, North Carolina State University

"Lofton’s scholarship is—whether she knows it or not—forging its own self-help meta-empire of scholars trying to come to terms with their own Oprah addictions in this, her first book. And what a tremendous study she has produced: ambitious and imaginative, critically cogent and rigorous, and yet (and quite delightfully) as quirky and unpredictable as popular culture itself. This book is in and of itself a pleasure to read, and clearly pleasure is a concept that lies at the heart of this study. Lofton consistently gives her readers new ways of considering the intersecting spiritual, cultural, and social politics of pleasure that dominate Oprah’s universe and that sustain and nurture her legions of followers." —Daphne Brooks, Princeton University

"In Oprah, Lofton is practicing cultural criticism in a world that does not (and never did) fit into the neat boxes of profane and sacred, lifestyle and liturgy. At a time when 'truth' and 'cute' serve increasingly similar functions and amount to increasingly similar things, Lofton’s is no mere examination but a relentless documentation of the conceptual vortex from which new categories of thought emanate, new styles of reasoning emerge, and new gods are born." —John Lardas Modern, Franklin & Marshall College

"Kathryn Lofton’s new book on Oprah Winfrey sparkles with coruscating turns of phrase and often glittering analysis of American religion and consumer culture. Oprah is one shrewd remapping of where we need to look for religion in contemporary American culture." —Leigh Eric Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis

"Thoroughly researched, engagingly written, deftly weaving together major currents of US religious and cultural history, Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon will hold great interest for students and scholars in religious studies, American studies, and media and cultural studies, but Winfrey's fans may also enjoy this lively exegesis of their heroine."—Jrnl of American Stds

“"Lofton’s prose is highly readable, making it accessible to not only those steeped in religious and cultural studies, but to a general audience as well. . . . The text is more than an examination of a popular talk-show-host-turned media magnate. It places Winfrey within a larger exploration on how religion has been commodified through history."—Jrnl of Religion And Popular Culture

"Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon is an important addition to the study of religion in America because it takes into account the religious impact of popular media. . . . What Lofton is advocating is that popular culture contains within it people and performances that shape religion in America."—Jrnl of Religion

"But the eerie feeling I had while reading Kathryn Lofton’s account of the TV maven is that I have been breathing Oprah’s reality, vocabulary, consumer choices and worldview in the cultural air all around me. I have not been immune to the Gospel of Oprah, and the fact that her influence on me has been unrecognized makes it no less profound."—Christian Century

“Vitally important, both as an addition to cultural studies in general, and a challenge to the question of how to study American religion. Not only does she break new ground in thoughtful cultural analysis of a complicated American icon, she helps to solidify the potential for a new category of interdisciplinary religious studies scholarship.”—Jrnl of American Culture

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

"[Lofton] is a historian and cultural anthropologist, psychologist and popular culture analyst, theologian and therapist...[she] deftly and expertly shows how Winfrey opens windows of meaning for millions and draws them into an inchoate community of believers who find in the array of products endorsed by Oprah the keys to the fulfilled life."—Church History

“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

“With ample alliteration and deft turns of phrases, Lofton (Yale) offers an excellent account of the 'Empire of O' that is required reading for multiple audiences. Neither simply a biography (though Oprah Winfrey's life is important), nor an interpretation of the "religious" dimensions of Oprah's television and media empire (though those are crucial as well), this book nimbly weaves together economics, the power of media, gender and race dynamics, and the spiritual seeking that in part defines contemporary US culture.”—Choice

“Tantalizing.”—Christian Century

“Makes a powerful case for viewing Oprah as a significant moment in religious culture: the embodiment of an empty, product-centric spiritualism that has, according to this academic, all but replaced religion for many Americans.”—Catholic Herald

“Lofton exemplifies the potential of religious studies by riffing on what the 'O' means in our culture, in which purchasing and consuming the right products has become inextricably spiritual, and our supposed path to the fulfilled life . . if you read it, you won't think about the connection between religion and consumer culture the same way again.”—Patheos

“Adds to the building scholarship on Winfrey by expanding on Lofton’s 2006 piece in the Journal of Popular Culture. Lofton here successfully provides further insight into the Oprah gospel by parsing out the omnipresent mechanisms through which the relentless admonishments and associated consumables are conveyed, as well as by extensively analyzing what that very act of conveyance overtly and covertly signifies to audiences . . .budding and active scholars of cultural, popular, and religious studies will read with interest.”—Library Journal

“A fascinating new perspective on a media icon.”—Booklist

“Lofton is at her best as a historian of American religion, insightfully locating Winfrey's signature confessionalism in the context of the 'anxious bench' of 19th-century evangelical revival. She also does good work in taking seriously and helping define the term 'spirituality' that is evident in popular beliefs about matters divine and transcendent. The book is a tenure maker.”—Publishers Weekly

"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