The African background of the prosperity gospel

David T Adamo

doi:10.4102/tv.v45i1.71

Abstract

Prosperity gospel refers to the genre of preaching that emphasises positive confession, divine physical healing, divine material success as necessary gifts, and blessing from God. In other words, it is the spiritualisation of materiality and celebration of the abundance, which comes from God as a result of divine promise from him. The prosperity gospel is a form of Pentecostalism. There are three ways in which the background of prosperity gospel can be traced to Africa: (1) African Traditional religious heritage; (2) African social–cultural heritage; and (3) historical heritage. This article seeks to examine these three ways in which the background of prosperity gospel can be traced to Africa. This is supported by the fact that the black culture has not been lost in the lives of the slaves even when languages, family bondages, ethnic belongings were unscrupulously destroyed, and Seymour, an African American, is the father of Pentecostalism, from which prosperity gospel was born.

Highlights

The prosperity gospel is one of the most misunderstood brands of Christianity (Heuser 2015:16; 2016:3)
This article has a brief survey of the prosperity preachers, most from Africa and others from Americas and Asia
This article has demonstrated the African background of the prosperity preaching, by mentioning the strong elements of prosperity in the African worldview, the African indigenous religion and tradition, and culture

Summary

Introduction

The prosperity gospel is one of the most misunderstood brands of Christianity (Heuser 2015:16; 2016:3). According to The Encyclopaedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, the prosperity gospel is: Christian worldviews that emphasize an earthly life of health, wealth, and happiness as the divine, inalienable right of all who have faith in God and live in obedience to His commands. He applied the Pentecostal perspective with the authority to heal and to drive away evil spirits of witchcraft and wizard His belief in African traditional perception that wealth and success are as a result of God’s blessing is what he reformed into prosperity gospel (Hock 1995:59). The root of Seymour’s spirituality (Pentecostalism from which prosperity gospel originates) was from his black African heritage from which he introduced spirituals and music into the liturgy whilst it was considered inferior and unfit for Christian worship He steadfastly lived practically what he understood to be the meaning of Pentecost (Hollenberger 1999:31–44). The flexibility of the prosperity gospel in adapting to different denominations assisted in the spread

Conclusion

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