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

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 decor, Osteen's discourse lends insight into an increasingly important way our social relationships are organized.