Much maligned by its critics as a simple example of materialism and greed, the prosperity gospel gets a fair and even sympathetic hearing from Kate Bowler in Blessed, the first book-length monograph on the subject. Her thesis, that the prosperity gospel both reflects and influences the theology and culture around it, allows for an unbiased study of the movement. Far from being a tangential and irrelevant phenomenon, the prosperity gospel becomes, in Bowler's account, a rather logical outgrowth of its religious surroundings and of Protestant soteriology. She convincingly argues that the prosperity gospel holds that faith is a causal agent: faith causes blessings to happen. Some blessings—wealth and health, for example—can occur in this world, while salvation will follow in the next.
Bowler begins with a brief history of the individuals and movements that shaped the prosperity gospel. She demonstrates that the tangled confluence of New Thought, Pentecostalism, and, as she calls it, the “American gospel of pragmatism, individualism, and upward mobility” provided a hospitable soil for prosperity gospel seeds to grow roots (11). While at times the parade of personages—from Mary Baker Eddy to E. W. Kenyon to Father Divine—can seem overwhelming, Bowler ties the actors together in a thoughtful narrative of American popular religion. After establishing the historical roots, Bowler moves into the post-World War II era. Here, she argues, the modern prosperity gospel, which was the heir of the initial movement, arose in the crucible of post-war revivals and depended heavily on a loose confederation of leaders who often appeared at each other's events. These leaders, their successors, and their successors' spouses then benefited greatly from the twin influences of the 1970s charismatic movement and the rise of televangelism to launch their message beyond Pentecostals and into a larger audience. Bowler covers recent proponents, such as Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes, and explains that they are part of a “transformation of popular religious imagination that has not yet ended” (7).
Bowler's initial focus is historical, and when tracing the origins in the late nineteenth century and moving into the mid-twentieth century, she shows a deft touch with magazine articles and advertisements. She also delves into ethnography, traveling to many megachurches that preach the prosperity gospel and providing anecdotes of her encounters with both preachers and parishioners. Finally, she engages in social network analysis. She has carefully researched and calculated the interactions among various revival leaders and pastors in an effort to determine which individuals held more influence and how closely tied together the entire movement has been. While the transitions from method to method can, at times, be a bit jarring, Bowler rightly employs these various approaches in order both to track and understand a movement over 100 years in the making that is still very much alive and well today.
Blessed has many strengths. First, Bowler's location of the prosperity gospel in historical context obviates the quick dismissal of the gospel as a mere selfish form of Christianity. The women and men described here are important actors in the history of Pentecostal and charismatic movements, as well as contemporary religion in America. Second, Bowler has done yeoman's work in bringing together the prosperity gospel's disparate members and explaining their common ideas. Bowler notes that one of the reasons people misunderstand the prosperity gospel stems from the diverse and very loose affiliations at work among its pastors and churches. Her work does not attempt to force the players into artificial categories; instead it illustrates the common presuppositions from which they operate. Finally, through her examination of white, African American, and Latino adherents, Bowler helps prove that American religious historiography need not be divided along racial lines. She painstakingly illumines the intersections of race in Pentecostal and prosperity gospel movements, while also adding a layer of gender analysis.
Bowler, though, could expand her analysis of civil religion's influence on the prosperity gospel. The movement's expansion in the years of the Cold War and its emphasis on American exceptionalism beg for more discussion. Likewise, while she indicates that class and disaffection are likely indicators of affinity for the prosperity gospel, she could delve deeper. For example, where do these pastors and congregants see themselves on the socio-economic scale? Are they poor by standard government definitions, and does the accumulation of blessings lead to wanting more of these material blessings? And while Bowler clearly devoted much time and attention to network analysis, the network diagrams in the book are difficult to interpret due to the black and white, static nature of print publishing. A digital link would help her diagrams convey more information. This last issue was likely beyond her control as an author, but it highlights the need for a more dynamic platform for her work.
These shortcomings, however, are minor in a work that provides us with the first comprehensive look at a historical and contemporary phenomenon. Bowler's respect for her subjects and her ability to locate them in the larger American religious narrative mean that serious scholars dismiss the prosperity gospel at their own peril. Bowler shows us that its deep roots and vibrant future, even after the recent recession, place it solidly in the category of religious movements to watch.
