Salvation with a Smile

Starred review from September 14, 2015
Sinitiere (Holy Mavericks) explores the people, place, personality, Pentecostalism, and prosperity of Lakewood Church in Houston, Tex., focusing on its central personality, Pastor Joel Osteen, as an exemplar of evangelical Christianity and present-day American religion. Combining historical research, documentary investigation, and the observations of participants, Sinitiere situates the stirring success of Lakewood Church (the U.S.’s largest megachurch) and Joel Osteen Ministries within the broader American evangelical and neo-Pentecostal context. He depicts the church as distinctively positioned to benefit from currents in contemporary Christianity through its harnessing of multiple media platforms and the powers of positive confession and thinking in place of grander expressions of Lakewood’s historical “charismatic core”—divine healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy—under Joel’s father, John Osteen. Although Sinitiere does not talk to Osteen himself, he is able to deduce much from his sermons, conversations with Lakewood members, and the greater critique of Christianity’s “crisis of authority.” Readers interested in American Christianity, especially those who have seen Joel on television, read his books, or been blown away from the bombastic experience that is worshipping at Lakewood Church, will enjoy this work.

Starred review from October 1, 2015

Sinitiere (history, Coll. of Biblical Studies, coauthor, Holy Mavericks) has written a remarkable and trenchant study of Joel Osteen, senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, the largest Protestant church in the United States, welcoming approximately 40,000 worshipers each week. Following in the footsteps of his late father John Osteen, founder of Lakewood and an advocate of neo-Pentecostalism, or crossing denominational boundaries, Joel is an exponent of the "prosperity Gospel," a creed that associates enthusiastic faith with joy and success in the present day, almost to the exclusion of any mention of pastoral standbys such as sin or judgment. Sinitiere sketches Osteen's life and career, emphasizing his early experience as a television producer as well as the implications of being son to a prominent preacher. Osteen's sunny message has attracted much controversy, not least from other conservative Christians, but his megasuccess, Sinitiere brilliantly shows, says a great deal about the state of religion in America. VERDICT A fascinating, illuminating, and at times disturbing account from a shrewd observer.--Graham Christian, formerly with Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.