The Imaged Other: Style and Substance in the Rhetoric of Joel Osteen

Abstract

Aesthetic images increasingly organize social relationships. Theorizing the constitutive potential of the aesthetic is a worthy task for communication and rhetorical scholars. This article integrates rhetorical methods with the critical instruments of Visual Theory to offer a comprehensive account of the relationship between the aesthetic image, social formations, and cultural constraints. I do so by analyzing the rhetoric of Joel Osteen, a popular evangelical minster. Osteen employs aesthetic rationales to construct an Imaged Other capable of separating what he calls God's favored from the unfavored. By deliberately featuring aesthetic dimensions including physical attractiveness, body shape, posture, hygiene, and de´cor, Osteen's discourse lends insight into an increasingly important way our social relationships are organized.Our social worlds are increasingly organized by the aesthetic image. The dominant mode of expression upon which meaning is created and exchanged now occurs on the terrain of the visual: Elementary schools teach fourth graders PowerPoint rather than critical writing and laud attractive presentations that get basic facts wrong; our houses of worship have learned to attract younger members by exchanging the substance of theological rigor and pious asceticism for the aesthetically pleasing spectacle; businesses increasingly use the aesthetic as the primary tool for generating sales and profit. And in politics, an understanding or why Sarah Palin and not Chris Christie has as much to do with hairlines and waistlines as it does with policy statements and political experience (Brummett, 2008, p.

'Overcoming' the 'Battlefield of the Mind'

“…By comparison, Osteen's testimony tells his story of his reluctant inheritance of his church from his father (who overcame poverty) to build America's largest church. His identity in part aligns with the 'gospel of prosperity' (Winslow, 2014;Henderson, 2013) and a populist version of the American Dream (Webb, 2017). Distinctively, both are controversial and significant figures in the field of Christian 'self-help' literature, a literature which seeks to bring about positive change in the emotional life of the reader (Baity, 2011;Ehrenheich, 2009;Truth & Fire, 2016;Winslow, 2014).…”

“…His identity in part aligns with the 'gospel of prosperity' (Winslow, 2014;Henderson, 2013) and a populist version of the American Dream (Webb, 2017). Distinctively, both are controversial and significant figures in the field of Christian 'self-help' literature, a literature which seeks to bring about positive change in the emotional life of the reader (Baity, 2011;Ehrenheich, 2009;Truth & Fire, 2016;Winslow, 2014). 5 Meyer is particularly popular with both US white and African--American women, boasts an extensive global female following (Frederick, 2016).…”

“…As such, representational discourses miss out key cultural and analytical components (Klassen, 2013;Mizruchi, 2001). In addition to these issues, with regard to our focus on Christian media, recent studies have focussed on the production of 'prosperity gospel', neo-liberal ideology and patriarchal rhetoric (Baity, 2011;Ehrenheich, 2009;Winslow, 2014;Bryan & Albakry, 2015). When viewed through an anti-dogmatic, psychoanalytically-informed lens, drawing particularly on object relations, we argue that what can seem like simplistic ideologically-riven discourse of its time, linking Christianity with neo-liberal rhetoric (Baity, 2011;Ehrenheich, 2009;Winslow, 2014;Bryan & Albakry, 2015), is more complex in its communicative tropes and theoretical implications regarding affect and identity.…”

“…Whilst a specific branch of media studies is devoted to the study of audiences, research into religious believers as a specific audience group has been limited (Webb, 2017), despite religious media being globally significant in cultural and economic terms. There has also been interest more broadly in the relationship between the digital and the role played by language and discourse in producing affect (Winslow, 2014;Massumi, 2015). Thus, we propose, a gap exists for a psycho-social approach to the engagement with and theorising of faith audiences in digital contexts.…”

Текстові Повідомлення Про Здоров’я У Релігійному Дискурсі: Психолінгвістичний Аналіз

“…Тараненко (2020) Загалом релігійні ЗМІ мають глобальне значення у культурному та економічному плані. Проте, існує також більш широкий інтерес до психолінгвістичних досліджень співвідношення між цифровими комунікаціями та ролі, яку відіграють мова та дискурсу у виробництві афекту (Winslow, 2014;. Огляд результатів досліджень психолінгвістів дає можливість сформулювати дві сфери інтересів: перша стосується фактичного дискурсу, "текстів" та їх наслідків; по-друге, яку роль відіграють медіатехнології у формах артикуляції афекту та сенсу .…”