Abstract
The teaching of the ‘prosperity cult’ that a Christian has a right to wealth is very much a product of the modem age. Similarly the ontological argument for the existence of God belongs very much to its own era. There is no developmental link between the two, but nevertheless they are connected logically. Both argue from a conception of God as infinite - a conception which assures on the one hand the existence of God, and on the other the receipt of blessings prayed for by a Christian. Although such results may well follow from that assumption, these must require qualification, especially in the light of a dynamic rather than a static world. Both ontological argument and prosperity teaching hold questionable assumptions on the nature of perfection and of comparability. A Christian conception of God must however mean that material blessing cannot be a right in this world as is claimed by ‘prosperity teaching\ simply on the grounds of conception and prayer.
Highlights
The teaching o f the ‘prosperity cult’ that a Christian has a right to wealth is very much a product o f the m odem age
O ur society is so acquisitive in its general ethos that theology cannot remain unaffected by it. (For a good description of this, and how it has affected theology, see Frank, 1986.) The justification of the increasing prosperity of men, and the teaching that a Christian has a god-given right and a god-given means to such ever increasing wealth could only have arisen in such a society as ours. (For fuller explanations of the prosperity cult, see Williams, 1985 or Sarles, 1986.) It could never have taken root either in a different time, nor could it take root in a society which does not know such wealth as ours
It is not true to argue at this point that as we have a conception of perfection, there must be som ething corresponding to that conception
Summary
The teachings of such as Kenneth Hagin, characterized by the term prosperity cult are very much a product o f their times. On the one hand there is ‘positive thought’ em bodied most clearly in the teaching of N orm an V incent Peale, which has its own antecedents in the Victorious Life movement and perhaps Christian Science, but is a direct result of the American ethos It really only emerged with the modern world and as a result of that world, in America. On the other hand a far more ancient root, the giving of G od’s power to men, goes back to the time of the apostles and even beyond them to the prophets and judges of the Old Testam ent It is only again with the modern world that Pentecostalism, and more recently the Charismatic movement, have broken in on the world. The w ell-understood argum ents which pertain to the ontological argum ent are applicable to the modern innovation of prosperity teaching, and will clarify its assumptions and failings
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