Blessed : a history of the American prosperity gospel

Blessed A history of the American prosperity gospel

Kate Bowler

Book - 2018

"How have millions of American Christians come to measure spiritual progress in terms of their financial status and physical well-being? How has the movement variously called Word of Faith, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It, or simply prosperity gospel come to dominate much of our contemporary religious landscape? Kate Bowler's Blessed is the first book to fully explore the origins, unifying themes, and major figures of a burgeoning movement that now claims millions of followers in America. Bowler traces the roots of the prosperity gospel: from the touring mesmerists, metaphysical sages, pentecostal healers, business oracles, and princely prophets of the early 20th century; through mid-century positive thinkers like Norman V...incent Peale and revivalists like Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin; to today's hugely successful prosperity preachers. Bowler focuses on such contemporary figures as Creflo Dollar, pastor of Atlanta's 30,000-member World Changers Church International; Joel Osteen, known as "the smiling preacher," with a weekly audience of seven million; T.D. Jakes, named by Time magazine one of America's most influential new religious leaders; Joyce Meyer, evangelist and women's empowerment guru; and many others. At almost any moment, day or night, the American public can tune in to these preachers-on TV, radio, podcasts, and in their megachurches-to hear the message that God desires to bless them with wealth and health. Bowler offers an interpretive framework for scholars and general readers alike to understand the diverse expressions of Christian abundance as a cohesive movement bound by shared understandings and common goals"--Publisher description.

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Subjects
Faith movement (Hagin) > United States.
United States > Church history > 20th century.
Published
New York : Oxford University Press 2018.
Language
English
Main Author
Kate Bowler (author)
Physical Description
xi, 337 pages ; illustrations ; maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-321) and index.
ISBN
9780190876739
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • 1. Gospels
  • 2. Faith
  • 3. Wealth
  • 4. Health
  • 5. Victory
  • Conclusion: An American Blessing
  • Appendix A. Prosperity Megachurch Table, 2011
  • Appendix B. Naming Names
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

In this brilliant book, Bowler (American religion, Duke Divinity School) traces the history of the prosperity theology of faith, health, wealth, and spiritual victory. Evangelists, linked by informal networks, appear in rich detail. Their core teaching was that believers acted by faith in divine principles to achieve divine blessings. Related streams of thought included mind cure, positive thinking, pragmatism, and Pentecostalism. Before 1900, Christian Science emphasized healing as did the Holiness movement, which embraced the "prayer of faith" despite lingering symptoms of illness. Healing revivals in the 1920s and 1930s were followed by postwar evangelists pointing to financial blessings. The "health and wealth" gospel of Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin in the 1950s began the modern prosperity movement, promising happiness and security by acting in faith. Bowler identifies a host of conferences, media outlets, and megachurches in the 1970s and, in the next decade, a Golden Age of televised prosperity preachers, including Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Since then, new celebrity preachers, e.g., Joel Osteen, have taught a "softer" link between faith and divine rewards. Bowler also explicates the influence of prosperity theology in African American churches and the successful global exportation of American optimism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.--William B. Bedford, emeritus, Crown College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

The most controversial aspect of the so-called prosperity gospel is its radical claim to transform invisible faith into financial rewards. Poverty and illness are signs of spiritual malaise, for God wants us to be wealthy, healthy, and live to our full potential in victory here on earth. Preached by Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, and others, the prosperity gospel teaches that Jesus' death and resurrection overcame not only sin and death but also poverty and disease. Believers, therefore, may claim wealth and health as part of their divine inheritance. Bowler argues the allure is actually optimism, not financial success. The message of the prosperity gospel channels America's can-do spirit and its belief that the future can be changed for the better through hard work. Her book is an important account of an audacious contemporary religious phenomenon, albeit one that scandalizes many. It also serves as an invitation to reflect upon the relationship of religion and money.--McConnell, Christopher Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The idea that Christian believers are promised wealth and health by faith in God has existed in various permutations throughout American history. In this riveting historical account, Bowler, a professor of religion at Duke Divinity School, deftly introduces readers to major figures and developments since the late 19th century in the prosperity gospel movement. Her rich narrative traces the entanglement of prosperity and the divine in New Thought thinkers, who believed in mind-power to transform heaven-sent blessings; the power of positive thinking in the postwar era, from Norman Vincent Peale to the televangelists of the 1980s; and the rise of the contemporary megachurch, which includes preachers like Joel Osteen, who argue that believers are created to excel. There are fascinating detours into Pentecostalism and the charismatic revival as well as examination of numerous odd and compelling religious figures, such as Father Divine. Bowler argues that the prosperity gospel has become a major theological, social, and political force in America. Refusing to condemn the prosperity gospel as merely a religious iteration of the American dream of individual upward mobility and accumulation, Bowler also explores how some groups, particularly African-American churches, transformed it for liberating ends. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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