Is The Prosperity Gospel, Gospel? An Examination Of The Prosperity And Productivity Gospels In African Christianity -- By: Joshua Robert Barron

Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 33:1 (Apr 2022)
Article: Is The Prosperity Gospel, Gospel? An Examination Of The Prosperity And Productivity Gospels In African Christianity
Author: Joshua Robert Barron


Is The Prosperity Gospel, Gospel? An Examination Of The Prosperity And Productivity Gospels In African Christianity

Joshua Robert Barron

Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa

About The Author

Mr. Joshua Robert Barron has lived with his wife and family in Kenya since 2007, where they have served together as missionary curriculum developers and teachers, working primarily with Maasai churches. God has blessed them with six children. He has had previous missions experience in Papua New Guinea, India, and South Africa. He has been active in theological and ministerial education in South Africa, the USA, and Kenya, and served as a bible translation consultant for The Bible Society of Kenya for the recent revised and corrected Maa Bible translation. He is currently a Ph.D. student in World Christianity at Africa International University in Nairobi and has recently joined the staff of the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA). joshua.robert.barron@gmail.com

This article: https://www.sats.ac.za/prosperity-gospel-african christianity

Abstract

The teaching of the Prosperity Gospel is widespread throughout African Christianity—especially within African Initiated/Independent Churches (AICs) and Pentecostal churches. For many, it is only a natural expression of biblical teachings on abundant life from the viewpoint of Africa’s holistic worldviews. For others, it arises as an extension of the deliverance theology of Pentecostals. Why should God not deliver us not only from sin and sickness, but from poverty as well? Others look at what seem to be the clear abuses of certain well-known (and financially well- off) prosperity teachers and cry, heresy! But are African expressions of the Prosperity Gospel heretical? Or are they orthodox, or perhaps heterodox? Both Scripture and historical Christian tradition reflect an ambivalence toward material wealth, at times seeing it as a blessing and at times as a danger. Reflecting on Scripture in the context of years of pastoral experience in Africa and recent discussions with scholars, missionaries, and local church leaders, this essay is built upon a hybrid methodology of integrative literature review and narrative literature review. After reviewing biblical teachings on wealth and possessions, it reviews the literature on the Prosperity Gospel in Africa and discovers that in some African contexts an adaptation of prosperity teachings, the Productivity Gospel, has arisen to address the same set of questions. Borrowing emphases from Prosperity theology on abundant life and Pentecostal theologies of empowerment, with the accountability of a Weberian work ethic in the context of a holistic African worldview, the Productivity Gospel provides a mess...

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