Barack Obama's “Authentic Self” as a Spiritual Warrior: Discipleship to the Apostolic

Abstract

The rhetoric of Barack Obama is characterized by Biblical references, quotations, and images. In a global context, Obama's 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt, which contributed to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in religion in 2009, honored 3 major religious traditions, as he read from the Bible, the Talmud, and the Koran. Building on the religious framing of Barack Obama's rhetoric as jeremiad by communication scholars, this article asserts the view that Barack Obama's rhetoric also finds meaningful contextualization in religious apostolic framing, a theology-as-practice framing that reflects his personal values. Pauline theology and apocalyptic discourse images lend support to this article's theses. Obama was “called” by destiny to be all that he has become, a public leader with an apostolic vision that was ontologically predictable by his early personality and “authentic self” as a “spiritual warrior.” My reading of Obama is a case in cultural rhetoric.