BookPastor >> "Blessed" (Kate Bowler)

TITLE: Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel
AUTHOR: Kate Bowler
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013, (352 pages).

When you see names like Kenneth Hagin, Joel Osteen, TD Jakes, EW Kenyon, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, and others, what comes to mind? That's right. It's the Prosperity Gospel! In a 352 paged book filled with research data, interviews, observations, citations from publications, and personal encounters, Bowler has put together a landmark resource for anyone interested about the history, the sociological, the cultural shifts, and the religious practices of the megastars of Christianity: The prosperity gospel megachurches. In this fascinating study of the American Prosperity Gospel movement, Bowler takes a closer look at what the prosperity gospel is all about. She studies the origins of the Word of Faith movement and how it manages to attract millions of people to believe that money, health, and good fortunes can be divinely obtained. She describes the prosperity gospel advocates and founders. She lists the different facets of prosperity gospel. In this first major study of its kind, Kate Bowler, an Assistant Professor at Duke Divinity School also seeks to find out the history of the movement; the major figures and features of the 20th Century prosperity movement in America; how the prosperity movement transforms a traditionally self-denial community into a triumphant culture; and the unifying themes among the proponents of prosperity gospel. Prosperity can be classified as hard and soft; hard meaning immediate results while soft means something more long-term.