Grounding the Prosperity Gospel
In their recent work, Associate Professor Karen Lauterbach and CAS Affiliate Professor George Bob-Milliar, present an overview of grounding the prosperity gospel, basing their discussion on an analysis of the project of building a National Cathedral in Accra, Ghana.
The prosperity gospel, or the health and wealth gospel, is often characterized as a Pentecostal movement and theological principle that has its roots in the United States and that has dispersed globally with a significant imprint on African Pentecostalism.
This chapter presents an overview of grounding the prosperity gospel is based on an analysis of the project of building a National Cathedral in Accra, Ghana. The project was launched by President Nana Akufo-Addo in March 2017 and was presented at the occasion of the celebration of Ghana's sixtieth anniversary as an independent nation. In 2021, a fundraising campaign was launched and as part of that the secretariat for the National Cathedral project released a “fundraising documentary video.” Elizabeth Sackey, Regional minister for Greater Accra, gave an address at the event and it was reported “that the corporate prayer of Christians was necessary for the ‘permission and blessings of Heaven’ for the success of the project”.
The chapter will be published in The Pentecostal World, edited by Michael Wilkinson and Jörg Haustein. The book provides a nuanced and diverse introduction to Pentecostalism and its manifestations throughout all continents, attempting to explore its inherent diversity and fragmented dispersion.
For more information and the full chapter.