📘 Lexicon Entry: Prosperity Materialism

The theological distortion that equates divine blessing with material wealth and reduces spiritual relationship to transactional exchange.

A theological mutation that reframes God’s blessing primarily in terms of material success and financial prosperity, transforming the divine-human relationship from covenantal participation into transactional exchange. This distortion reduces the complexity of biblical abundance to simple material metrics while sanctifying market-driven definitions of success as evidence of divine favor. Rather than understanding prosperity through the lens of the cross—where blessing enables generous stewardship and community flourishing—this mutation inverts the gospel’s economic witness by making accumulation rather than distribution the measure of faithfulness.

Theological Mutation

prosperity theology, wealth gospel, material blessing, transactional spirituality, economic idolatry, sanctified self-interest

APA: Geevarghese-Uffman, C. (2025). Prosperity Materialism. Political Theology Lexicon. Common Life Politics. https://www.commonlifepolitics.com/p/lexicon

Chicago: Geevarghese-Uffman, Craig. “Prosperity Materialism.” Political Theology Lexicon. Accessed [date]. https://www.commonlifepolitics.com/p/lexicon.

MLA: Geevarghese-Uffman, Craig. “Prosperity Materialism.” Political Theology Lexicon, 2025, www.commonlifepolitics.com/p/lexicon.

Theological: Geevarghese-Uffman, Craig. “Prosperity Materialism.” In Political Theology Lexicon. Digital theological resource. https://www.commonlifepolitics.com/p/lexicon (accessed [date]).

Divine blessing understood through God’s abundant provision as gift creating responsibility rather than entitlement, grounded in biblical jubilee traditions and Jesus’s preferential concern for the poor

True prosperity measured by community flourishing rather than individual accumulation, with blessing understood as capacity to give generously rather than accumulate wealth

Economy of Grace framework replacing transactional spirituality with covenantal understanding where divine generosity enables human generosity through participation rather than exchange

Material success and financial wealth treated as primary evidence of divine blessing, with poverty interpreted as spiritual failure or insufficient faith

Spiritual practices transformed into techniques for worldly advancement through transactional relationship with God that exchanges religious activities for material rewards

Self-interest reframed as spiritual virtue while market mechanisms become identified with divine will rather than recognized as contingent human systems requiring prophetic critique

Blessing Redefinition: Complex biblical understanding of divine favor reduced to material metrics and financial success

Transactional Spirituality: Covenantal relationship transformed into contractual exchange of religious performance for worldly rewards

Sanctified Accumulation: Christian language used to justify wealth concentration while suppressing prophetic economic critique

Poverty Spiritualization: Structural economic injustice explained away through individual spiritual failure rather than systemic analysis

War Capitalism Legitimation: Sven Beckert’s analysis reveals how plantation owners invoked divine providence to sanctify wealth built through cotton economy’s extractive violence

Contractual Theology Evolution: Douglas Campbell traces development of transactional frameworks in Federal Theology alongside social contract theory, showing parallel development of theological and political mutations

Translation Distortion: Shift from Hebrew *tsedaqah* (righteousness/justice) to Latin *iustitia* (contractual justice) fundamentally altered Christian theology toward transactional rather than covenantal understanding

Analogical Collapse: Eliminates proper distinction between divine transcendence and material success by making wealth univocal sign of divine favor

Christological Vacancy: Removes Jesus’s cruciform pattern as measure of faithfulness, replacing it with market-defined success metrics

Pneumatological Deficit: Reduces Spirit’s work to material blessing rather than transformation into Christlike generosity and justice-seeking

Selective reading that emphasizes material blessing promises while ignoring prophetic warnings about wealth and Jesus’s teachings on economic discipleship

Eisegetical interpretation that reads contemporary market categories back into biblical texts about divine provision and community sharing

Systematic avoidance of Hebrew Scriptures’ jubilee traditions and Apostolic Scriptures’ warnings about the spiritual dangers of wealth accumulation

Celebrity Blessing Theology: Celebrating wealthy religious leaders as evidence of divine favor while dismissing prophetic voices challenging economic inequality

Nationalist Economic Spirituality: Using “blessed” language to describe national economic dominance while viewing other nations’ poverty as moral failure

Policy Spiritualization: Creating theological justifications for economic policies benefiting wealthy while dismissing structural justice concerns as “merely political”

America First Economics: Theological justification for nationalist economic policies that prioritize American prosperity over global economic justice

Wealth Leader Validation: Defending wealthy political leaders as divinely blessed while attacking prophetic economic critique as “socialist” or “anti-American”

Scarcity Nationalism: Combining prosperity materialism with zero-sum thinking that views other nations’ flourishing as threat to American blessing

Chosen Nation Economics: Interpreting American economic dominance as evidence of divine election rather than contingent historical circumstances

Manifest Destiny Materialism: Using providential language to justify economic expansion and resource extraction as fulfillment of divine purpose

Temporal Blessing Focus: Emphasizing material prosperity in present age while minimizing eschatological hope that relativizes temporal accumulation

Megachurch Architecture: Church buildings and leadership lifestyles that model material success as spiritual virtue

Christian Financial Industry: Development of “biblical” financial planning that baptizes wealth accumulation strategies

Therapeutic Spirituality: Self-help Christianity that promises personal prosperity through positive thinking and faith techniques

Walter Brueggemann’s liturgy of abundance versus myth of scarcity framework revealing how prosperity materialism serves royal consciousness rather than prophetic imagination

Kate Bowler’s historical analysis of prosperity theology’s development in American Christianity and its theological distortions

Sven Beckert’s *Empire of Cotton* demonstrating historical connections between theological legitimation and extractive capitalism

Augustine of Hippo, Walter Brueggemann, Sven Beckert, Douglas A. Campbell, Kate Bowler

Related Primary Concepts: [Dominative Christianism – TBP], [MAGA Christianism – TBP], [Providential Identitarianism – TBP]

Key Mutations: [Practical Atheism – TBP], [Binary Apocalypticism – TBP], [Disordered Nationalism – TBP]

Contemporary Movements: [Christian Nationalism – TBP], [Platform Capitalism – TBP]

Theological Alternatives: [Economy of Grace – TBP], [Sabbath Economics – TBP], [Jubilee Tradition – TBP]

Historical Context: [Cotton Evangelicalism – TBP], [Federal Theology – TBP], [War Capitalism – TBP]

2025-06-25

*This entry is part of the Political Theology Lexicon, accessible exclusively to subscribers.*