Neo-Pentecostalism: the way of religious prosperity
3.2 The Prosperity Theology
I want to demonstrate how Pentecostalism was in line with the main theological and cognitive transformations of the twentieth century. Its emergence occurs in the context of a break with the religious rationalism that marked the development of Western religion, and is also in line with the theological innovations which invaded the United States of America around the turn of the twentieth century, especially the notion of divine healing.
In this cognitive theological and religious development, Neo-Pentecostalism presents itself as another manifestation of this process. By incorporating Prosperity Theology as the theological basis of its religious movement, Pentecostalism came into line with the new model of religion which arose in the late twentieth century, and adapted this model to its particular audience of followers, i.e., the poor of the big cities. Focused on the pursuit of well-being in this world of the “here and now”, an eclectic mix of ideas, including Oriental teachings, the occult, shamanism, the Self-Help literary genre, and spiritualism, which from the 1970’s began capturing the interest of mainstream society in central capitalist countries, assumed a Christianized form and was packaged for the lower classes in Neo-Pentecostalism. Thus this movement is the Christian and popular version of the new model of religiosity that emerged in the 1970’s.
93
3.2.1 The Main features of Prosperity Theology
Prosperity Theology arose as a closed set of religious ideas in the 1970’s in the United States of America, but whose origins date back to the 1940’s.This theology is also referred to as Health and Wealth Gospel, Faith Movement, Faith Prosperity Doctrines, and so on. The North American Pentecostal preacher Kenneth Erwin Hagin (1917-2003) is considered the “father” of Prosperity Theology. He tapped many sources of the “New Thought”
movement, such as divine healing, positive thinking, hypnotism, and so on to elaborate his “theology”.
These ideas were rapidly absorbed into Pentecostalism. They were the theological base of the last innovation in the Pentecostal movement, i.e., Neo-Pentecostalism, which incorporated this theology as the essence of a new message that would enchant millions of believers around the world.
The main and foundational theological statement of this movement is that Christians have the divine right to enjoy the blessings of the material world, meaning that Christians have the right to achieve perfect health and material realizations. The theologians of the theology of prosperity say that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ freed all his followers from the evils of this world.
To achieve these blessings or enjoy his “rights”, the believer must use only his faith and the power of his words. So, with the help of his faith, these words become divine decrees. A good example of this relationship with God and the religious world is very clear in the preaching of the Neo-Pentecostal minister Manuel, reported in the book of Ricardo Mariano (1999):
To pray is to determine results. . . We determine what we want to happen in the name of Jesus, so that He will. . . Everything you determine with confidence, with faith in Jesus' name, will be held. The disease, misery, everything will be solved by God. . . (Indianapolis, 1992)
94
By this logic, God is in the same position of primitive deities, i.e., He is a hostage of the desire of the believer. There was not much He could do to escape the orders of his spoiled children.
In this context another figure plays an important role: the devil. He is the agent who cunningly plots to bring disgrace to humans in the forms of disease and material misery, for example. Thus, beside a weak faith, the Devil serves as an explanation for the failure of the believer in social life and in his personal health, which is very common among the masses of poor followers of Pentecostalism. Therefore, the fight against the devil and his legions of demons is an important feature of Prosperity Theology and Neo-Pentecostal Churches sell amulets and other forms of protection against the devil (MARIANO, 1999) (MARIZ, 1997) (WYNARCZYK, 1995).
In this relationship in which the believer must show his faith to God and thus to obtain a series of material blessings in this life, the tithing and other forms of donations earn a role in the theological practice of theology of prosperity. Believers are encouraged to enter into a network of betting as if in a lottery with God. The higher the donation to the church, the more the believer will receive in return; the value of tithing measures the size of his or her faith and trust in God.
Prosperity Theology can be initially understood as the main manifestation of the turn of hegemony from Theodicy of Suffering to Theodicy of Fortune (WEBER, 1976). Prosperity Theology has reinterpreted the meaning of suffering, giving it unprecedented value in the history of Christianity. Suffering no longer has the positive values that were found in theodicies of suffering; now suffering is once again a sign of disgrace, anger, or abandonment of the deity in relation to a particular person. The cross is no more the symbol of Jesus' suffering in his love for humans, and is now the symbol of victory against the devil and all ills which come from him. The cross is now only a magical amulet in spiritual war.
95 As a result, the struggle for recognition also takes another direction.
While the rewards reserved for another world in heaven after death have not entirely been abandoned, they have become secondary because of the growing value of the blessings of “this world”. Material prosperity and access to the wonders of consumption of the modern world, allowing a joy of the “here and now”, are sought as a reward for those who serve the “Lord”.
On the other hand, Prosperity Theology is also one of the products of the rupture with the religious rationalism and therefore the return of magic on a large scale in the West. Although this theological movement took its form when it was incorporated into Pentecostalism, the general ideas that guide its practices and world view are virtually the same that guide what we call “new age” religiosity. It can be understood as the version of magical religiosity which has reached the poorer classes.
Among all classes to which this theological movement arrived, its ideas are very direct and clear with regard to its religious project, i.e., the elaboration of a typical religiosity of adaptation to the world (WEBER, 1976, 1988). Its intention is to establish a religion in harmony with moral values and worldviews more widespread and popular in our time, without clash or conflict with them, and is thus a religious discourse that both fits the ambitions of consumption and success of our time and the expansion of hedonism as a mass behavior.
Religious practice has then become a set of magic-religious techniques for achieving success within society’s prevailing standards which rejects the radical asceticism that would clash with such hedonistic values (MARTELLI, 2008).