![]() ![]() ![]() The promise that we can have whatever we want leaves us ill-equipped to confront the realities of death and suffering. In other words, while the prosperity gospel clearly “works” for its believers, its benefits come with a price. At some point, we must say to ourselves, I’m going to need to let go. She traces the movement’s roots back to the turn of the 20th century, when evangelical and especially Pentecostal streams of faith intermingled with New Thought, a movement that emphasized the power of the mind to rearrange matter and taught that humans shared in the divine ability to create. The movement has perfected a rarefied form of America’s addiction to self-rule, which denies much of our humanity: our fragile bodies, our finitude, our need to stare down our deaths (at least once in a while) and be filled with dread and wonder. Do not tell me This will make me More grateful for what I had. Do not tell me This will make me more compassionate, More loving, More holy. ![]() Do not tell me That what does not Kill me Will make me strong Or that God will not Send me more than I Can bear. Perhaps worse, it has replaced Christian faith with the most painful forms of certainty. Of the blessing That will come In the absence. The prosperity gospel has taken a religion based on the contemplation of a dying man and stripped it of its call to surrender all. She offers some wise critiques of the prosperity gospel and the broader project of finding meaning in human suffering.Įmphasizing her perspective as a Christian, as well as a historian, she writes: But in her editorial, Bowler is able to speak with a more personal voice. ![]()
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