Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel

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Anyone acquainted with Guthrie’s love of biblical theology, however, wouldn’t be surprised to find that she supports her interpretations extensively with other passages of Scripture. Guthrie pulls from both the Old Testament and the New to deepen our understanding of the culmination of God’s story of redemption with all the gusto we’ve grown accustomed to from Guthrie. Those familiar with her oral teaching will be able to hear the enthusiastic intonation of her voice breaking through the paper and ink. Revelation is actually less about when Jesus will return and more about what we are to do, who we are to be, and what we can expect to endure as we wait for Jesus to return to establish his kingdom.’ In some ways, this review hasn’t even touched upon what Dr. Bowler describes as the four themes of the prosperity gospel: faith, wealth, health, and victory. But I have chosen to highlight what stood out most to me, perhaps because it was less familiar until I actually read Blessed. In Blessed in the Mess, beloved Bible teacher Joyce Meyer shows us how to be blessed even amid life's most challenging circumstances. The Bible is filled with instructions on how to handle ourselves when difficulty comes our way, and Blessed in the Mess collects that wisdom into poignant and practical teaching that equips us to remain stable and hopeful in every situation. No matter what unpleasant circumstances we may face, we can remain joyful and patient, trusting God as He works on our problems. If you have not handled your problems well in the past, then with God's help, you can begin to handle them better, starting now.

What this book has to offer is far greater than popular theories about the apocalypse—real hope as we navigate a fallen world and anticipate Christ’s second coming.There are so many observations that can be discussed from the material in this book that it is impossible to list them all here. This would be a great book for a book club or for weekly discussion with a group of friends! Having said that, here are a few (if somewhat unrelated) thoughts I took from Bowler’s observations of the prosperity gospel movement. The first two are positive, the rest not so much so: Belief that Jesus conquered poverty, that "faith operated as a perfect law," "drawing a straight line between life circumstances and a believer's faith. . . . any irregularities meant that the believer did not play by the rules." You can lay out a set of mortgages from a huge investment risk on the table and command God to pay them, and it will happen. Revivalist Joel Osteen preaching that attendees are victors, not victims, that they can succeed through the power of positive thinking. "It's going to be a year of promotion, a year of increase, a year of favor, a year of supernatural opportunities!" (179). Third biggest is tracing that part as an earlier part, and its connections to Christian fringes like the Divine Science movement of the late 19th century and the New Thought of the early 20th, that included places like Unity.

I found this frustrating. Bowler is an openly professing Christian (of what sort I do not know)—I was hoping for insight, evaluation, even of the somewhat sallow kind allowed Christians writing for secular dissertation committees. I felt I got more insight into the prosperity gospel from her Times article than from her book.Excellent. Clearly describes the history and make-up of the prosperity gospel. Bowler's care in explaining the difficulty in defining a proponent of the prosperity gospel is a useful category for Christians to have (namely, they rarely take the specific name, there aren't specific denominations, etc; but they are often connected by where they have studied, who the read, and so on). As Guthrie implies, the discerning reader can draw fairly confident conclusions about her hermeneutical perspective. She interprets the images in Revelation as symbolic, noting the influence of earlier biblical passages in our understanding of the text, as well as how they corresponded to the realities of first-century believers. The symbols are “not a system of codes waiting to be matched for meaning with people and events in our current day. Rather, they have theological and spiritual meaning pertinent to the first readers [that] . . . must inform how we interpret their meaning for us today” (19). To interpret these images symbolically is not to minimize the truth of the text, but to interpret according to its genre, recognizing that John spoke in metaphor and analogy to describe unseen realities in terms we can somewhat understand. The story of Bl. Carlo Acutis is truly a remarkable one. If you want to read more about the life of Carlo, I suggest you go online and do a Google Search… you will be able to get much of his biographical details. However, what I was more excited after Carlo’s beatification was the fact that there was now a young model of holiness, close to my generation that I can relate to and ask for his intercession and I pray for the day of his canonization.

Another great read from the Catholic Truth Society, and excellent volume in the CTS Biographies Series. The title of this book references a promise that appears in Revelation 1:3, which reads, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” Blessed walks through Revelation verse by verse, skipping a few short passages, with the goal to “cut through the confusion and help you to see the beauty, the hope and help, that is uniquely presented in this book” (23). Each chapter’s commentary concludes with practical answers to the question of what it means to “hear” and “keep” what’s written in the passages and so experience the promised blessing. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. She wrote the first and only history of the American prosperity gospel—the belief that God wants to give you health, wealth, and happiness—before being unexpectedly diagnosed with stage IV cancer at age 35. While she was in treatment and not expected to survive, she wrote two New York Times bestselling memoirs, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). After years of being told she was incurable, she was declared cancer-free. But she was forever changed by what she discovered: life is so beautiful and life is so hard. For everyone. With a friendly and engaging tone, Blessed takes the fear, intimidation, and confusion away from studying Revelation, providing a solid and accessible resource that individuals and small groups can use to study this important yet often avoided book. The prosperity gospel has no room for lament and suffering. What’s a prosperity gospel believer to do in the face of suffering in the world around them and suffering in their own lives? Be positive. Think positive thoughts. Speak positive words. Dr. Bowler shares teaching from Joel Osteen that sums this up well: He surveyed the dark expanse of his audience: “You guys look like victors, not victims, to me!” A rush of applause followed. He implored them to stop dwelling on the negative aspects of their lives, because “our lives follow our thoughts.” Those who notice the rainy days or the difficult circumstances will only “draw more negativity into your life.… It’s a decision that we have to make. Don’t wait for happiness to fall on you. Just make a decision that you’re going to enjoy your life to the fullest. Every day you’re going to live that abundant life.”Honestly, I’m not strong enough to believe in the prosperity gospel. This 24/7 positivity sounds absolutely exhausting to me. Give me the laments in the psalms, not the responsibility of saying everything’s all right when it’s really not. Give me God, who lets me cast all my cares on Him, not the burden of doing life in my own strength. Give me the light, momentary affliction that’s preparing an eternal weight of glory, not this false “abundant life” of ease and prosperity. Give me true, deep, abiding joy, not some cheap substitute called happiness.I'd had this book on my wishlist for a while; it seemed like the prosperity gospel was as popular as it was egregiously wrong—and it was increasing in both respects. It seemed so impossible to take it all seriously; I was hoping someone could help me understand its origins and teachings. However, on Friday October 09, 2020 I was browsing YouTube and came across a livestream of Eucharistic Adoration of youth on the vigil of Carlo’s beatification. I had a bit of an idea about what was happening, though not much because the program was in Italian. Yet, there was still something that lingered with me about the Carlo. The next day, I was able to follow live up until the Gloria (so the Beatification rite, and presentation of the relic) since I was at work that day. However, when I got home, I watched the rest of the Mass (with English commentary). And that is what you will find in this volume. A wonderful biography. And a plan with steps to help you grow in your own holiness. Matthew Kelly likes to use the phrase “Become the best version of yourself” because when he challenged people to become ‘saints’ they said they could not do that. But they would work at becoming the best version of themselves. Carlo challenged the people he knew, those early years of online evangelization. And he challenges us today. Further on in that preface it states: