Prosperity gospel

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Prosperity gospel (after English prosperity gospel , in other languages ​​also theology of success ) is the theological view that prosperity , above all financial wealth and business and personal success and health, are the visible evidence of God's favor . Prosperity is predetermined or granted in return for effective prayer or religious merit . The term "prosperity gospel" is also used to criticize preachers or churches whose positions on the issue at hand appear extreme or fundamentalist and is widely used in religious literature.

Doctrine, hallmarks and representatives in Christianity

Free-church television evangelists from charismatic or Pentecostal churches often represent a prosperity gospel. It is represented with varying degrees of intensity by Pentecostals and Evangelicals . However, there are Pentecostals and evangelicals who also reject it. It relates rather superficially to the Bible and selectively to the Gospel, without understanding its deeper content, meaning and difficult aspects. Experiencing one's own blessings and receiving gifts are almost more important than honoring God, the Creator and Redeemer. Churches that advocate the gospel of prosperity are mostly centered around a charismatic and authoritarian chief pastor. His services are often organized like a professional entertainment program. This promotes dependent, consumer-oriented and egocentric behavior on the part of the worshipers and church members. Around a quarter of today's megachurches represent such approaches in various forms. The basis for this is a material interpretation of biblical content on this side, such as the parable of the entrusted talents or 2 Corinthians 8: 9, from which it is concluded that Christianity and capitalism are virtually identical.

The origins are in the USA. There are assumptions that the spiritual foundations of the prosperity gospel can already be located in Puritanism . According to Hans-Dieter Gelfert , the belief that economic success is a sign of being chosen by God emerged from the Calvinist doctrine of predestination , whereby “Puritanism has become the engine of the capitalist market economy”, “whose competitive character is nowhere as extreme as it is in the United States. ”According to English studies professor Leland Ryken, however, the Puritans preached good deeds rather than successful work, which is why the prosperity sacristy is actually a covering of secular views in a religious guise. One of the first representatives was the healing evangelist Oral Roberts (1918–2009). Further exponents are Reinhard Bonnke (miracles as immaterial prosperity), Benny Hinn , Wolfhard Margies , Volkhard Spitzer as well as the preachers , who are less well known in the German-speaking area, Kenneth E. Hagin , Kenneth Copeland , Robert Tilton , Creflo Dollar etc. The "prosperity theology" they propagated Use the “ empowerment concept” to open up a life in health, orderly relationships and sometimes also in luxury for people. This is the reward for the promotion of the Gospel and Christian work in the whole world and therefore willed by God. Proponents of the prosperity gospel also assume that the free market has a natural moral equilibrium that rewards the virtuous and punishes the wicked. The responsibility to put an end to one's own suffering rests with the individual. This concept corresponds to the “ American Dream ”, in which progress, success and wealth are achievable for everyone. The prosperity gospel also serves other American narratives, such as the American way of life , the phrase “ rags-to-riches to millionaire ”, American exceptionalism and the doctrine of the Manifest Destiny . Political scientists David S. Gutterman and Andrew R. Murphy describe the Gospel of Prosperity as a mixture of ideas from the New Spirit movement of the 19th century, Pentecostal issues, positive thinking from the 20th century, and self-help literature.

Wolfhard Margies wrote in 1990 that the persecuted Christians in Russia were victims of their own unexperienced religious convictions because they had not applied these laws of faith, which guaranteed health and success. They “… have indirectly driven the authorities into the centuries-long anti-divine forms of rule through their unbiblical suffering priorities that run counter to the will of Jesus. With their wrong understanding, they finally reaped what they sown. ”The South Korean pastor Yonggi Cho speaks of“ deliverance from the curse of poverty ”. Prosperity and success are the visible evidence of God's good pleasure. Is influenced by him Siegfried Müller from Mission Karlsruhe , who declared on October 19, 1986 in a sermon that one verunehre God, if you drive a rusty car. In the same message he described himself as the "King of Karlsruhe".

A non-denominational current in Germany, whose doctrine is also based on material prosperity, is the word of faith movement . The proponents see support for this interpretation of the Gospel in a verse of the Old Testament of the Bible (Deuteronomy 8:18 EU ): Instead, you should remember the LORD your God; for it is he who gives you strength to acquire such wealth; that he may keep the covenant he swore to your fathers, as is done today. (Butcher translation)

Another well-known proponent of Prosperity Gospel is American Vice President Mike Pence . Paula White is considered a spiritual advisor and confidante of US President Donald Trump . In America, the gospel of prosperity is more likely to be Republican than Democratic .

criticism

With regard to Luke 9:58 EU , critics of these preachers point out that Jesus consciously did not strive for possessions or wealth. He even sought fellowship with the poor, outcasts and marginalized groups of society ( Mk 2.17  EU ). But there is no place in the gospel of prosperity for suffering and sickness. You see no legitimation in the Bible for Christians to accumulate wealth and material goods. For the poor and the sick, no help can be expected from the church or from fellow men, since the doctrine of the prosperity gospel claims the power of imagination and will beyond measure. The doctrine that one has to claim the promises oneself carries the risk of personal failure if success does not materialize.

The focus on material wealth is wrong because God gives wealth to both the righteous (in the sense of believers) and the wicked (cf. Psalm 37 EU ). Wealth pass away, faith persists.

In the Bible, the friends of Job in particular are representatives of an ideology of prosperity and discuss their arguments and counter-arguments in detail with Job. Job can only turn his precarious situation against the opinion of his friends into a blessing when he gives himself completely to God's will. Paul would therefore be less of an example as an apostle than as a failure. Asher Intrater writes that people should also be warned about the danger of greed. She sees the problem of “prosperity preachers ... in what they don't preach. If you only preach half the truth, it is misleading (even if it is true). "

The American eschatologist David Wilkerson saw the spreading belief in prosperity among Christians as a sign of the “end times” of this world.

The African American religious group National Baptist Convention denounced the gospel of prosperity because many black communities live in poverty through no fault of their own. Author Robert M. Franklin identified the Gospel of Prosperity as the greatest threat to the historical heritage and core values ​​of contemporary black church tradition and said, "In addition, the prosperity gospel often lacks the aspect of justice."

The Roman Catholic Church warns that it is suggested that those who only believe “correctly” and live according to moral principles will inevitably have success and will get through life happily. The search for simple solutions grows due to the compulsion to succeed in business life and in everyday family life. Conversely, these “positive thinkers” concluded that those who did not succeed in implementing the recommendations in practice “simply did not believe correctly”.

Related ideas and advanced theories of the prosperity gospel

This religious teaching has points of contact with the positive thinking of Norman Vincent Peale . Psychologists and psychiatrists expressly warn that the methods can further harm unstable and depressed patients or contribute to a loss of reality. In addition, the doctrine of predestination is partly advocated to explain why Christians who apparently lead their lives right do not receive material blessings. Furthermore asceticism is taught and in this sense entrepreneurial success in Reformed- Puritan capitalism is understood as a reward for renunciation and renunciation. The German sociologist Max Weber in particular put forward this thesis in 1904 in his work The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism .

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Gospel of Prosperity  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Hanna Rosin : Did Christianity Cause the Crash? , TheAtlantic.com , December 2009.
  2. ↑ Thomas S. Kidd: Who Is an Evangelical? The History of a Movement in Crisis, New Haven 2019, p. 7.
  3. ↑ David Schrock: Prosperity Gospel light: More widespread than you think , Gospel August 21, 2017
  4. ↑ David Platt: No compromises. Follow Jesus - at all costs , Frontiers, Meinersen 2017, p. 50
  5. ^ Marie-Astrid Langer: Jesus Christ, America's superstar. With pop music and video installations, "Megachurches" attract tens of thousands of believers . NZZ, Zurich July 27, 2019, p. 5
  6. ^ Edith L. Blumhofer: The Perils of Prosperity: Some Historical Reflections on Christianity, Capitalism, and Consumerism in America, in: Catherine A. Brekus (ed.), W. Clark Gilpin (ed.): American Christianites. A History of Dominance & Diversities, Chapel Hill, p. 295.
  7. ^ Luke Winslow: Economic Injustice and the Rhetoric of the American Dream, London 2017, p. 41.
  8. ↑ Hans-Dieter Gelfert: A double legacy made America great. Now it is lost , NZZ.ch , August 7, 2020.
  9. ↑ Leland Ryken: Redeeming the Time. A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure, Grand Rapids 1995, p. 156.
  10. ↑ Alexander Seibel reviews Bonnke's "campaigns" in Nigeria, the so-called "fire conferences" with staged miracles and possibly suggestive healings
  11. ↑ Critique of practices and teachings within the Pentecostal charismatic movements, compiled at: www.vigi-sectes.org ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ a b Kate Bowler: Blessed. A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, New York 2013, pp. 226-227.
  13. ↑ Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs: Black Megachurches and the Paradox of Black Progress, in: Anton B. Pollard III. (Ed.), Carol B. Duncan (Ed.): The Black Church Studies Reader, New York 2016, p. 194.
  14. ↑ Article in the Christian media magazine Pro ( Memento from November 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 186 kB) from May 19, 2006: About prosperity evangelists: "The Gospel for Dollars"
  15. ↑ Konrad Eye: Gospel of Prosperity: Jesus would come in a Rolls Royce today , website evangelisch.de, November 29, 2011
  16. ↑ Stephen Brooks: American Exceptionalism in the Age of Obama, New York 2013, p. 51.
  17. ↑ David S. Gutterman, Andrew R. Murphy: Political Religion and Religious Politics. Navigating Identities in the United States, New York 2016, p. 85.
  18. ↑ Wolfhard Margies, pastor of the parish on the way to Evangelische Freikirche e. V. , Berlin, in his book Das Kreuz der Gesegneten , Aufbruch-Verlag, Berlin 1990
  19. ^ Paul Yonggi Cho, Not Only Numbers , Verlag Information und Kommunikation, Bad Homburg 1986, p. 35.
  20. ↑ Wolfgang Stage , Playing with Fire (PDF file; 8.6 MB), CLV, Bielefeld 1991, p. 158.
  21. ↑ Andreas Robertz: The Gospel according to Michael. Deutschlandfunk, January 19, 2017.
  22. ↑ Timothy Buzzell, Betty A. Dobratz, Lisa K. Waldner: Power, Politics, and Society. An Introduction to Political Sociology, 2nd ed., London 2019, p. 102.
  23. ↑ Mark Noll in a lecture at Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois, USA)
  24. ↑ sermon on www.auftanken.de ( Memento of 19 June 2009 at the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ Comparison: 1 Corinthians 4: 8-10 EU ; 2nd Corinthians 6.9-10 EU
  26. ↑ Asher Intrater in an essay ( December 4, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ) from July 2007
  27. ↑ David Wilkerson , God's Vision for the End Times Church! on May 23, 1994
  28. ^ Online service Christians Today in an article ( September 17, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ) by Audrey Barrick, August 30, 2007
  29. ^ Criticism of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising on the book Kraft zum Leben by the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation