Wealth of all kinds

[hearthstone]

The other day I first heard the term "prosperity theology." I was curious about it, since those are not two words one ordinarily hears together. I thought perhaps it had to do with managing one's spirituality and physical-world responsibilities? Or with how best to pray for material things? I remembered that, in my web research on Habondia, I came across a number of websites listing different deities concerned with abundance--maybe it was something of that sort? It didn't seem like an unreasonable concept--so many people have a hard time balancing spiritual issues with the rest of their lives, and certainly some major (and not-so-major) religions tend to promote the notion that spiritual comfort and physical comfort don't go together--but it was a new one to me.

Turns out that "prosperity theology" is none of those things. What it is, is the notion that a god (or gods) blesses his (or their) best followers with riches in the physical realm. This means that one's fellows can tell just how much favor you have with deity just by looking at the size of your house and the newness of your car. Apparently it's most common in some evangelical Christian churches, which seems counterintuitive given what I know of Christian theology--granted that that may not be a great deal (although apparently there is such a thing as "Christian materialism" as well)--although I think you see a variation on it in some Pagan/Heathen faiths as well (for example, some (not all) Theodish heathens may measure one's "luck" by one's degree of traditional success).

I find this disappointing but unsurprising--unsurprising because people like to know where they stand, and ordinarily there's no sure way to tell this with religious matters. If they can use something as easily quantified as wealth as an indicator, life is simpler and goals are more easily chosen. And disappointing because, well, it's such a narrow view. The separation of material and spiritual isn't a good thing either, of course--you don't get a free pass to the good part of the afterlife just by virtue of being poor (regardless of what the Church used to tell the poor in olden times in order to keep them in their place). But equating them? Bad idea.

Comments

[arlie]

Prosperity theology has a long history, though not under that name. It's very visible in the Hebrew Bible, and the book of Job can be seen as a kind of protest against it.

It's probably at its nastiest in the form of "blame the victim" - whatever bad things happen to anyone, including poverty, are God's punishment for some sin. Amazingly, this can also be comforting for some people who have bad things happen to them - it gives them an explanation and a course of action. (Just follow their deity/priesthood's rules better in future.)

[weofodthignen]

Yes, I was just about to mention that you've been thinking on and talking about this phenomenon for ages - including the fact that it is very popular in heathenry. Of course, a lot of heathens are politically conservative, and this is almost a shibboleth of US conservatives. (In the form of measuring a person's worth by what they make, it's so common in this country that it's almost unremarkable.) It does have a complex intersection with luck, and luck is one of the ways the ancient heathens assessed a person, and a family. But in Xian terms it conflicts with the view that their god gives them trials because he knows they are strong enough for them - what you hear said by and about parents of handicapped children :-( And in heathen terms with the notion that you earn your luck - "Wyrd oft spares him whose courage suffices."

Frith,
M
who will now go to bedddd.

[tehomet]

I agree with you. Disappointing.

In my experience, Christians who think that they are rich because their deity has blessed them as a sign of divine favour are the exception rather than the rule, and, as you say, it's a mindset most commonly found in certain evangelical and fundamentalist circles. While not wishing to put anyone's spiritual faith down, I would consider that this is not the only rather unusual idea that the evangelical and fundamentalist Christians have come up with. :D But such ideas are not the sole province of Abrahamic faiths. When I was on holidays in Asia last year, I got chatting to a Buddhist man who told me in all seriousness that children who are born with disabilities are born with them due to having done something to displease Buddha in their previous life. Nice.

Scratch these ideas about good luck being divinely granted and find some concepts that some people find comforting: that if someone suffers, they deserve to, and underneath that one, that everything's under control.