Prosperity theology

Prosperity theology is a religious belief among some Protestant Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them. It is believed that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one’s material wealth. Prosperity theology has been criticized by leaders from various Christian denominations, including within the Pentecostal and charismatic movements.

About Prosperity theology in brief

Prosperity theology is a religious belief among some Protestant Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them. It is believed that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one’s material wealth. Prosperity theology has been criticized by leaders from various Christian denominations, including within the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, who maintain that it is irresponsible, promotes idolatry, and is contrary to scripture. Secular as well as some Christian observers have also criticized prosperity theology as exploitative of the poor. It was during the Healing Revivals of the 1950s that prosperity theology first came to prominence in the United States, although commentators have linked the origins of its theology to the New Thought movement which began in the 19th century. Prominent leaders in the development of prosperity theology include E. W. Kenyon, Oral Roberts, A.  A. Allen, Robert Tilton, T. L. Osborn, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Reverend Ike, and Kenneth Hagin. The prosperity teaching later figured prominently in the Word of Faith movement and 1980s televangelism. The practices of some preachers have attracted scandal and some have been charged with financial fraud. The doctrine emphasizes the importance of personal empowerment, proposing that it’s God’s will for his people to be blessed. The atonement is interpreted to include the alleviation of sickness and poverty, which are viewed as curses to be broken by faith. This is believed to be achieved through donations of money, visualization, and positive confession.

This gospel of wealth was an expression of Muscular Christianity and understood success to be the result of personal effort rather than divine intervention. In the 1990s and 2000s, it was adopted by influential leaders. in the PentECostal movement and charismatic movement in the U.S. and has spread throughout the world. It has become a major part of the prosperity gospel in the world today. It also has its roots in the prosperity movement during the post-war American healing revival. In fact, the first generation of PentecOSTals tended to view faith as a threat to material prosperity, rather than as a means to attain it. E. W. Kenyon taught that Christ’s substitutionary atonement secured for believers a right to divine healing. This was attained through positive, faith-filled speech; the spoken word of God allowed believers to appropriate the same spiritual power that God used to create the world and attain the provisions promised in Christ’s death and resurrection. He taught believers to demand healing since they were already legally entitled to it. The New Thought Movement was responsible for popularizing belief in the power of the mind to achieve prosperity. While initially focused on achieving mental and physical health, New Thought teachers such as Charles Fillmore made material success a major emphasis of the movement. By the 20th century, New thought concepts had saturated American popular culture, being common features of both self-help literature and popular psychology.

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