Prosperity theology

=== Late 19th and early 20th-century background ===
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?318386-3/blessed Interview with Kate Bowler on ''Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel'', March 18, 2014], [[C-SPAN]]}}
According to historian [[Kate Bowler]], the prosperity gospel was formed from the intersection of three different ideologies: [[Pentecostalism]], [[New Thought]], and "an American gospel of pragmatism, individualism, and upward mobility".{{sfn|Bowler|2013|p=11}} This "American gospel" was best exemplified by [[Andrew Carnegie]]'s [[Gospel of Wealth]] and [[Russell Conwell]]'s famous sermon "Acres of Diamonds", in which Conwell equated poverty with [[Christian views on sin|sin]] and asserted that anyone could become rich through hard work. This gospel of wealth, however, was an expression of [[Muscular Christianity]] and understood success to be the result of personal effort rather than divine intervention.{{sfn|Bowler|2013|pp=31–32}}

The New Thought movement, which emerged in the 1880s, was responsible for popularizing belief in the power of the mind to achieve prosperity. While initially focused on achieving mental and physical health, New Thought teachers such as [[Charles Fillmore (Unity Church)|Charles Fillmore]] made material success a major emphasis of the movement.{{sfn|Bowler|2013|p=32}} By the 20th century, New Thought concepts had saturated American popular culture, being common features of both [[self-help]] literature and [[popular psychology]].{{sfn|Bowler|2013|pp=35–36}}

[[E. W. Kenyon]], a [[Baptist]] minister and adherent of the [[Higher Life movement]], is credited with introducing mind-power teachings into early Pentecostalism.{{sfn|Bowler|2013|pp=14,16}} In the 1890s, Kenyon attended [[Emerson College|Emerson College of Oratory]] where he was exposed to the New Thought movement. Kenyon later became connected with well-known Pentecostal leaders and wrote about [[supernatural revelation]] and positive declarations. His writing influenced leaders of the nascent prosperity movement during the post-war American healing revival. Kenyon and later leaders in the prosperity movement have denied that he was influenced by the New Thought movement. Anthropologist [[Simon Coleman (anthropologist)|Simon Coleman]] argues that there are "obvious parallels" between Kenyon's teachings and New Thought.{{sfn|Coleman|2000|pp=44–45}}

Kenyon taught that Christ's [[substitutionary atonement]] secured for believers a right to [[divine healing]]. This was attained through positive, faith-filled speech; the spoken [[Biblical inspiration|word of God]] allowed believers to appropriate the same spiritual power that God used to create the world and attain the provisions promised in Christ's death and resurrection.{{sfn|Bowler|2013|pp=18–19}} Prayer was understood to be a binding, legal act. Rather than asking, Kenyon taught believers to demand healing since they were already legally entitled to receive it.{{sfn|Bowler|2013|p=20}}

Kenyon's blend of [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] religion and mind-power beliefs—what he termed "overcoming faith"—resonated with a small but influential segment of the Pentecostal movement.{{sfn|Bowler|2013|p=21}} Pentecostals had always been committed to faith healing, and the movement also possessed a strong belief in the power of speech (in particular [[speaking in tongues]] and the use of the [[Names of God in Judaism|names of God]], especially the [[Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament|name of Jesus]]).{{sfn|Bowler|2013|pp=23,25}} Kenyon's ideas would be reflected in the teachings of Pentecostal evangelists [[F. F. Bosworth]] and [[John G. Lake]] (who co-led a congregation with New Thought author [[Church of the Truth|Albert C. Grier]] prior to 1915).{{sfn|Bowler|2013|pp=21,23}}