Abstract
The gospel of prosperity is not a new phenomenon. One of its most direct antecedents in North America, and certainly its most influential genealogical stream, can be traced through the charismatic renewal and the Latter Rain revival movements of the mid-twentieth century back to the teachings of popular writers such as Essek W. Kenyon, among others.1 Particularly in this broad tradition, prosperity was considered not just in financial terms but also in relationship to bodily health (hence the label “health and wealth”). Kenyon’s teachings, as mediated through Latter Rain personalities such as William Marion Branham and charismatic leaders such as Oral Roberts, Kathryn Kuhlman, Kenneth Hagin, and Kenneth Copeland, among many others, have not only informed the scope of discursive practices that fueled the spreading of the prosperity message across the “global South” in the last generation, but they have also motivated many critical assessments of the theology of prosperity.2
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Notes
See D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1988), esp. chs. 1–3. See also Dale H. Simmons, E. W. Kenyon and the Postbellum Pursuit of Peace, Power, and Plenty (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1997).
For example, Bruce Barron, The Health and Wealth Gospel: What’s Going on Today in a Movement That Has Shaped the Faith of Missions (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1987), and Stephanie Y. Mitchem, Name It and Claim It? Prosperity Preaching in the Black Church (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2007).
For discussion, see Ig-Jin Kim, History and Theology of Korean Pentecostalism: Sunbogeum (Pure Gospel) Pentecostalism (Zoetermeer, The Netherlands: Boekencentrum, 2003); Asonzeh F. K. Ukah, A New Paradigm of Pentecostal Power: A Study of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Nigeria (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2008); Berge Furre, “Crossing Boundaries: The ‘Universal Church’ and the Spirit of Globalization,” in Sturla J Stålsett, ed., Spirits of Globalization: The Growth of Pentecostalism and Experiential Spiritualities in a Global Age (London: SCM, 2006), 39–51; and Katharine L. Wiegele, Investing in Miracles: El Shaddai and the Popular Transformation of Catholicism in the Philippines (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005). Cf. also Simon Coleman, The Globalization of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the Gospel of Prosperity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Helpful discussions are found in Milmon F. Harrison, Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), and Shayne Lee and Phillip Luke Sinitiere, Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace (New York: New York University Press, 2009).
Deliverance from evil spirits is central to the prosperity message, especially in the “global South”; see, for example, Ogbu U. Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), esp. ch. 9.
In most instances, the lines between deliverance and healing are blurred; see, for example, Gary S. Greig and Kevin N. Springer, eds., The Kingdom and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today? A Biblical Look at How to Bring the Gospel to the World with Power (Ventura, Calif: Regal Books, 1993).
Of course, Jesus’s teachings on wealth have been subject to a highly contested set of interpretations, both historically and in contemporary biblical scholarship. For an overview of the issues, see Luke Timothy Johnson, The Literary Function of Possessions in Luke-Acts, SBL Dissertation series 39 (Missoula, Mt.: Scholars Press, 1977), and Sharing Possessions: Mandate and Symbol of Faith (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1981); cp. John Gillman, Possessions and the Life of Faith: A Reading of Luke-Acts (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical/Michael Glazier, 1991), and Thomas E. Phillips, Reading Issues of Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts, Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity 48 (Lewiston: Edwin Meilen Press, 2001).
This is, of course, one-sided. But see the overview of H. L. Bosman, I. G. P. Gous, and I. J. J. Spangenberg, Plutocrats and Paupers: Wealth and Poverty in the Old Testament (Pretoria, South Africa: J. L. van Schaik, 1991).
For example, as demonstrated by Elizabeth Brusco, in her study of how Pentecostal conversion motivated conformation to a way of life that repented from profligacy and promoted moral responsibility instead, resulting in gradual upward socio-economic mobility, and by Shayne Lee, in his research on upward mobility in the African American neo-Pentecostal ministry of T. D. Jakes; see Brusco, The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia (Austin, Tex.: The University of Texas Press, 1995), and Shayne Lee, T. D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher (New York: New York University Press, 2005).
For example, David Pilgrim, “Egoism or Altruism: A Social Psychological Critique of the Prosperity Gospel of Televangelist Robert Tilton,” Journal of Religious Studies 18, nos. 1–2 (1992): 1–11.
See Andrew Perriman, ed., Faith, Health and Prosperity: A Report on ‘Word of Faith’ and ‘Positive’ Confession Theologies by ACUTE (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press, 2003). Overall, this volume provides a fair and even-handed treatment of the prosperity gospel, yet it is also critical about its potential and existing excesses.
This appears to be the raison d’être behind churches such as Oasis Christian Center, whose evangelical mission is to bear witness to the gospel in Hollywood; see Gerardo Marti, Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2008).
The story of the fellowship is told by Matthew W. Tallman, Demos Shakarian: The Life, Legacy and Vision of a Full Gospel Business Man (Wilmore, Ky.: Emeth Press, 2010).
Another example is the World Reach and Operation Blessing mission organizations of the Christian Broadcasting Network; see David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Pat Robertson: A Life and Legacy (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2010), ch. 7.
For example, W. Meredith Long, Health, Healing and God’s Kingdom: New Pathways to Christian Ministry in Africa (Waynesboro, Ga., and Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 2000).
This is occurring even in extremely recessed economic regions of the world such as Zimbabwe; see the discussion of the growth and development of Pentecostalism in this country as documented by David Maxwell, African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism and the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement (Athens: Ohio University Press; Harare: Weaver Press; and London: James Currey, 2007).
The economics of renewal is here suggested by Isabelle V. Barker, “Charismatic Economies: Pentecostalism, Economic Restructuring, and Social Reproduction,” New Political Science 29, no. 4 (2007): 407–27; Peter L. Berger, “‘You Can Do It!’ Two Cheers for the Prosperity Gospel,” Books & Culture 14, no. 5 (Sept/Oct 2008), available online at http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2008/sepoct/10.14.html (last accessed 24 January 2009); and Robert D. Woodberry, “The Economic Consequences of Pentecostal Belief,” Society 44, no. 1 (2006): 29–35.
The unfolding of the Puritan work ethic across the global renewal movement has been brilliantly explicated by David Martin, Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).
See Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
See Lorna Gold and Dimitrij Bregant, “Case Study: The Focolare Movement—Evangelization and Contemporary Culture,” International Review of Mission 92, no. 364 (2003): 22–28, and Lorna Gold, The Roots of the Focolare Movement’s Economic Ethic, Journal of Markets & Morality 6, no. 1 (2003) 143–59.
See Luigino Bruni, “Economy of Communion: Between Market and Solidarity,” in J. S. Boswell, F. P. McHugh, and J. Verstraeten, eds., Catholic Social Thought: Twilight or Renaissance?, Bibliotheca EphemeridumTheologicarumLovaniensium 157 (Leuven: Leuven University Press and Peeters, 2000), 238–48, and “Economy as Love: The Experience of the Economy of Communion,” In Kala Acharya, Lalita Namjoshi, and Giuseppe Zanghi, eds., Bhakti: Pathway to God (Mumbai and New Delhi: Somaiya Publications, 2003), 174–84.
Hence while some altruists may be economically affluent, many others are not; many generous people derive from the middle and even the lower classes of society. See the data presented by Matthew T. Lee and Margaret M. Poloma, A Sociological Study of the Great Commandment in Pentecostalism: The Practice of Godly Love as Benevolent Service (Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009).
For example, Steve Brouwer, Paul Gifford, and Susan D. Rose, Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism (New York and London: Routledge, 1996).
See the critical analysis of Pradip Thomas, Strong Religion, Zealous Media: Christian Eundamentalism and Communication in India (Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, 2008).
Namely, Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
As brilliantly laid out by R. Andrew Chesnut, Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Mensa Otabil, Four Laws of Productivity (Tulsa, Ok.: Vincom, 1991); see also Mensa Otabil, Buy the Future: Learning to Negotiate for a Future Better than Tour Present (Lanham, Md.: Pneuma Life Publishing, 2002), which shows that Otabil is not a typical prosperity preacher but is better understood as a voice within the “balanced argument” in my typology insofar as he advocates also concrete economic and development initiatives in his proposals.
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© 2012 Katherine Attanasi and Amos Yong
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Yong, A. (2012). A Typology of Prosperity Theology: A Religious Economy of Global Renewal or a Renewal Economics?. In: Attanasi, K., Yong, A. (eds) Pentecostalism and Prosperity. Palgrave Macmillan’s Christianities of the World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137011169_2
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