Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel. By Kate Bowler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. xi + 337 pp. $34.95 cloth.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Blessed: A History of the Prosperity Gospel . By Kate Bowler . New York : Oxford University Press , 2013. xi + 337 pp. $34.95 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesMuch maligned by its critics as a simple example of materialism and greed, the prosperity gospel gets a fair and even sympathetic hearing from Kate Bowler in Blessed , the first book-length monograph on the subject. Her thesis, that the prosperity gospel both reflects and influences the theology and culture around it, allows for an unbiased study of the movement. Far from being a tangential and irrelevant phenomenon, the prosperity gospel becomes, in Bowler's account, a rather logical outgrowth of its religious surroundings and of Protestant soteriology. She convincingly argues that the prosperity gospel holds that faith is a causal agent: faith causes blessings to happen. Some blessings--wealth and health, for example--can occur in this world, while salvation will follow in the next.Bowler begins with a brief history of the individuals and movements that shaped the prosperity gospel. She demonstrates that the tangled confluence of New Thought, Pentecostalism, and, as she calls it, the American gospel of pragmatism, individualism, and upward mobility provided a hospitable soil for prosperity gospel seeds to grow roots (11). While at times the parade of personages--from Mary Baker Eddy to E. W. Kenyon to Father Divine--can seem overwhelming, Bowler ties the actors together in a thoughtful narrative of popular religion. After establishing the historical roots, Bowler moves into the post-World War II era. Here, she argues, the modern prosperity gospel, which was the heir of the initial movement, arose in the crucible of post-war revivals and depended heavily on a loose confederation of leaders who often appeared at each other's events. These leaders, their successors, and their successors' spouses then benefited greatly from the twin influences of the 1970s charismatic movement and the rise of televangelism to launch their message beyond Pentecostals and into a larger audience. Bowler covers recent proponents, such as Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes, and explains that they are part of a transformation of popular religious imagination that has not yet ended (7).Bowler's initial focus is historical, and when tracing the origins in the late nineteenth century and moving into the mid-twentieth century, she shows a deft touch with magazine articles and advertisements. She also delves into ethnography, traveling to many megachurches that preach the prosperity gospel and providing anecdotes of her encounters with both preachers and parishioners. Finally, she engages in social network analysis. She has carefully researched and calculated the interactions among various revival leaders and pastors in an effort to determine which individuals held more influence and how closely tied together the entire movement has been. …