Mitch Horowitz

Oral Roberts and the Rise of the Prosperity Gospel

History & Biography

“No monochromatic portrait can ever capture Oral Roberts, America's premiere televangelist. Roberts was, to his detractors, a cynical pitchman; to his acolytes, an unabashedly sincere evangelist in whose presence miracles were not unknown. In this important and deeply contextualized biography, Jonathan Root meticulously portrays the Oral who defined the crossroads of modern American faith, combining deep sincerity and personal guile, yearning search and steely eyed shrewdness, salvific promise and practical help. Root meticulously portrays this religious pioneer as a fascinating, frustrating man who mirrors back the calico qualities of ourselves as seekers.”