Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel

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We make a choice in life: God or nothing. Blessed Carlo Acutis chose God – “Not I, but God” – in five simple practices. The Mass, Adoration, Confession and spiritual guidance, befriending the Blessed Mother and the saints, and charity. These daily “appointments” led Carlo to a life of intimacy with Jesus and love for neighbour ” – Cardinal Sarah.” Kate Bowler, Ph.D. is a 3x New York Times bestselling author, award-winning podcast host, and professor at Duke University.

In some ways, this review hasn’t even touched upon what Dr. Bowler describes as the four themes of the prosperity gospel: faith, wealth, health, and victory. But I have chosen to highlight what stood out most to me, perhaps because it was less familiar until I actually read Blessed.You, too, can be a saint. But you need to want it with your whole heart, and, if you do not yet desire it, ask the Lord for it with insistence.”

Third biggest is tracing that part as an earlier part, and its connections to Christian fringes like the Divine Science movement of the late 19th century and the New Thought of the early 20th, that included places like Unity. Another great read from the Catholic Truth Society, and excellent volume in the CTS Biographies Series.The book was certainly dense. I may have a general religion undergraduate degree, but many of the names and religious movements were new to me. That said, Bowler is an excellent writer, and this was very well researched. And fair. Prosperity Gospel stalwarts should have trouble taking offense. Her organization was fairly straightforward. The many charts and pictures (mostly) helped me to grasp what was happening. emphasis on individual's responsibility for their own fate resonated with American tradition of rugged self-reliance Mentioning the book of Revelation elicits all kinds of reactions—confusion, curiosity, fascination, and fear, just to name a few. I grew up in the Left Behind era, and as a child I wore a dog tag meant to inform anyone who found it among a pile of personless clothing that I had been taken to heaven in the rapture.