Phillip Luke Sinitiere

I find Joel Osteen fascinating and even copyedited a book about him not long ago. (Not this book, another.)

Here is a young man, a TV producer without training as a preacher, thrust into the spotlight by his father's unexpected death. A young man who has since built his father's Lakewood Church into the biggest congregation in the USA, and doing it without preaching messages of hate or fear. That's pretty interesting stuff.

Osteen himself is pretty interesting too. Handsome, slender, buff, calm, smiling, non-confrontational. Married with children, he shares the Lakewood ministry with his wife and other members of his family. If I ever get to Houston I am going to trot right over to Lakewood.

"Salvation with a Smile" is history with smile. Mr. Sinitiere tells the story of John Osteen, Joel Osteen and others in the Lakewood family in a very pleasant Life Magazine prose. No stresses, no strains, no family bickering. I find it hard to believe that choosing Joel to succeed is father was not without controversy but then I wasn't there.

Mr. Sinitiere was not there either. His biography is unauthorized but we aren't told why. Was he refused access to the Osteens? Did he even ask?

Mr. Sinitiere doesn't analyze or critique Mr. Osteen's ministry, he reports it. The book has loads of references and endnotes, but peer-reviewed sources are few and far between. Mr. Sinitiere lists sermon transcripts and other primary and secondary documents he reviewed, but there is no hint of his analytical framework or methodology. Rather than load up the introductory chapters with the usual technical explanations of his own background, his research methodology, and his theoretical approach to the material, Mr. Sinitiere tucks them into brief endnotes where they are not much use. For example, endnote 2 of the Introduction begins, "The work of philosopher Nimi Wariboko helps to explain my conceptualization of Lakewood’s “Pentecost.”" The endnote proceeds to quote Mr. Wariboko's work as if that, in itself, explains Mr. Sinitiere. It does not, and offers no useful information on Mr. Sinitiere's conceptualization.

So the bottom line is that if you want an interesting story, this book is fine. If you want rigorous analysis, look elsewhere.

I received an electronic review copy of "Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity" by Phillip Luke Sinitiere (NYU Press) through NetGalley.com.

Buy the physical book, not the digital. I got quite annoyed trying to read the ebook because it is so difficult to read endnotes and to go back to an earlier spot and to jump around cross-checking things.… (meer)