Pentecostal spirituality in the context of faith and hope gospel (prosperity preaching): African Pentecostal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Covid‐19 has challenged humanity in several ways and has created the opportunity for reflection on our spirituality and the hope for divine healing of the world, while scientific communities do their best to find solutions to the pandemic from their perspective. In light of this, the article seeks to address issues of spirituality in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic and how the Pentecostal community is responding to this challenge through the preaching of faith and hope messages. The article addresses the issue of “prosperity preaching” from the perspective of the concept of faith and hope gospel. The article argues that the faith and hope messages of the Pentecostals are not only proclaimed as means of the spiritual sustainability of members but also for psychological/emotional stability. It also argues that although Pentecostals are doing their best in their religious and spiritual response to the pandemic, they should accommodate the application of the theology of the sovereignty of God in every situation and encourage their members to seek medical attention where applicable.