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    Where Has Oprah Taken Us?: The Religious Influence of the World's Most Famous Woman
    Unavailable
    Where Has Oprah Taken Us?: The Religious Influence of the World's Most Famous Woman
    Unavailable
    Where Has Oprah Taken Us?: The Religious Influence of the World's Most Famous Woman
    Ebook334 pages7 hours

    Where Has Oprah Taken Us?: The Religious Influence of the World's Most Famous Woman

    By Stephen Mansfield

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    New York Times best-selling author, Stephen Mansfield, traces the fascinating and influential life of Oprah Winfrey, profiling her quest for spiritual enlightenment?a well-publicized journey featuring a caravan of experts, mystics, and gurus?all claiming to have a prescription for inner peace and personal well-being. Mansfield shows how Oprah's story fits into our larger cultural experience and reveals why her spiritual discoveries have resonated so loudly in today's popular culture. In so doing, he sheds needed light on the dangers of a spiritual journey fueled solely by a desire for self-actualization.

    In the end, we find that the story of Oprah is, in fact, the story of us?of a generation searching desperately for something meaningful to believe in.

    "Wow. Stephen Mansfield reveals the Oprah story no other dares to tell?and with a two-edged sword that rightly divides the truth from the lies." ?STAR PARKER, nationally syndicated columnist and media commentator 

    "As a lens can focus all the sun into one searing spot of incandescence, Where Has Oprah Taken Us? focuses the vastness of popular culture through the lens of Oprah's amazing life to bring us this towering and insightful story. Stephen Mansfield offers us an unvarnished account of Winfrey's life (and our own spiritual wandering) told graciously and irresistibly. You will be thrilled, disturbed, and astounded, but ultimately inspired and uplifted." ?RABBI DANIEL LAPIN, American Alliance of Jews and Christians

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateOct 10, 2011
    ISBN9781595554154
    Unavailable
    Where Has Oprah Taken Us?: The Religious Influence of the World's Most Famous Woman
    Author

    Stephen Mansfield

    Stephen Mansfield is the New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln's Battle with God, The Faith of Barack Obama, Pope Benedict XVI, Searching for God and Guinness, and Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Beverly.

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    Reviews for Where Has Oprah Taken Us?

    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Mansfield explores the national phenomena known as Oprah Winfrey in this book.Having once been a close television follower of the icon, and later disillusioned by her, I really wanted to see how a Christian writer would interpret her.I am pleased to see that we share many of the same views.Mansfield writes: "And so we have examined four pillars of Oprah Winfrey's religious worldview and seven principles of her philosophy and I have disagreed with all of them. I can do no other. I am, as I admitted in the introduction to this book, a Christian, and what Oprah Winfrey believes cuts across every major doctrine of the Christian faith. In fact, it cuts across nearly every major doctrine of nearly every major traditional faith except Hinduism and a few other Eastern religions. Beyond my own perspectives, though, what she believes is illogical, inconsistent, arrogant, destructive, and amazingly naive."Mr. Mansfield, those of us who truly follow the beliefs as set out in the Scriptures can only agree with you.I would hope that every pastor in America would keep a copy of this book in his or her library, and share with those individuals who seem to have fallen in to the Oprah trap.That being said, the woman does teach a lot of good as well. Charity. Understanding. And love. But in the mistaken identity of her own narcissism and god-head.I give this book Five Stars and my Thumbs Up.****DISCLOSURE: This book was provided by Amazon Vine in exchange for review.
    • 2/5
      ** I received this book free from Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program in exchange for an honest review.**This book, the author claims, is an attempt to “understand and evaluate a recent brand of spirituality from the perspective of a more traditional, historic faith” (xxii). He does this, in the end section of the book, after first giving readers a biographical background of Oprah and giving us a look into those who have influenced her beliefs.As someone who, like Oprah, believes that there is more than one path to God, this book – at least, the critique section – was hard for me to read. Not because I agree with her so much, but because I disagree with the author on many of his points. I will admit, though, that because I’m not very familiar with Oprah’s show or beliefs, so I did enjoy the chance to have a look into both her life and the beliefs she holds.I did feel as though there was a strong Christian bias (it is much more than the "slight" bias he admits to in the beginning of the book), such as claiming that Christianity is proven and true in comparison to other faiths of the world, that tradition is right and valid merely because it is tradition. I don’t believe that just because something is tradition means that it is the most true or valid, nor do I believe, like he does, that Christianity is so “proven” and “true”. I may be Christian, but I obviously understand the idea differently than he does.I repeat that I enjoyed the biographical section, and the chance to look into those who have helped to form her beliefs, though I felt that at times the author was untactful in his criticisms, even dismissive and condescending at times, which leads one to see the author as more biased than he probably sees himself, in regard to such a criticism. He is obviously writing from an evangelical, almost fundamentalist mindset, one which I feel is no more superior than any other, and I don’t agree that he can claim his beliefs are any more valid than those of others, even Oprah's herself.Being a Universalist and syncretist myself, I see no issue with eclecticism, as the author seems to. So I have a feeling that the author would have issue with my faith, even though I believe it is more “traditional” and in line with the actual meaning of Christ than modern day orthodoxy – at least, based on my research and understanding. In fact, he keeps speaking of a re-working of Christianity, but, to be honest, that’s what many of us consider fundamentalism (literalism, etc), and other modern forms of Christianity, to be...One issue I had with reading this book was how much I disagree with his criticisms of faith based on love, when love IS the calling of the Christian faith, the root of the Christian message.... But, instead of going through all four pages of the notes I took as I read and listing every place I disagreed with him, I’ll just say that the author and I have vastly different ideas and understandings when it comes to Christianity and religion in general. This causes us to disagree greatly when it comes to Oprah and her faith – though I may not agree with everything she believes, I respect her right to believe it, and I highly disagree with much of what the author says in response to her beliefs. I did so enjoy the biographical part of this book, and the chance to learn about those who have influenced her, but I felt that the attitude shifted greatly when the author finally got around to critiquing her beliefs, and that there was more negativity and bias than he probably realizes. That made it hard for me to finish this book (though I did), especially since I felt as though my own beliefs were under attack merely for being different from his own.