A God of Wealth: Religion, Modernity, and the Rhetoric of the Christian
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A God of Wealth: Religion, Modernity, and the Rhetoric of the Christian Prosperity Gospel By Copyright 2011 Michael C. Souders Submitted to the graduate degree program in Communication Studies and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Beth Innocenti, Ph.D ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Donn W. Parson, Ph.D ________________________________ Frank Farmer, Ph.D ________________________________ Scott Harris, Ph.D ________________________________ Dave Tell, Ph.D Date Defended: August 29, 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Michael C. Souders certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A God of Wealth: Religion, Modernity, and the Rhetoric of the Christian Prosperity Gospel ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Beth Innocenti, Ph.D ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Donn W. Parson, Ph.D Date approved: August 31, 2011 ii ABSTRACT The Christian Prosperity Gospel (CPG) is a type of Christian preaching which asserts that the right type of Christian faith and practice will deliver wealth and well-being to believers. In an era of stagnating religious belief and distorted cultural symbols, the CPG is gaining adherents in congregations numbering of tens of thousands and media audiences in the millions. In this dissertation I argue that the rhetoric of the CPG operates by altering conventional religious and secular methods of reading texts and the signs of the world in order to give the audience a greater sense of agency in a period of social, economic, and spiritual uncertainty. Individual chapters take up questions of textual hermeneutics, the hermeneutics of lived experience, the use of Christian tropes in new social conditions, the political implications of the CPG, and its method of appealing to the audience. I conclude that the rise of the CPG is not only an attempt to resolve the problems of a fragmented symbolic environment, but is also both a product of, and reliant upon, the erosion of unified frames of religious and secular interpretation. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project as large as this does not reach completion without strong support from many people. My parents and sisters know that obtaining a Ph.D was dream of mine since childhood and supported all the wild, strange decisions I made in attaining it. Without the intellectual vitality that was our household I might never have started on this path. My advisers, Drs. Beth Innocenti and Donn Parson deserve more thanks than I can give them. I demanded much, they gave more. They tolerated the scale, the oddity, and stylistic choices of this project with remarkable aplomb. Dr. Anthony Schroeder, my MA adviser, encouraged my efforts to attempt a doctorate. Drs. Dave Tell and Frank Farmer showed admirable tolerance of this projects size and invaluable willingness to intellectually engage the subject. Dr. Scott Harris has had an incredible influence on me. The Department‘s support staff Sandra Drake, Suzanne Grachek, and John Fackler were immense help to me throughout my Ph.D studies. I am in debt to the Bluestem Bistro and its staff in Manhattan, Kansas for allowing me to use their shop as a base of operations daily for three years. My debaters, Cormack, Jon, Lindsey, Andrew, Brett, Nate, Erum, Joel, Ronnie, Dylan, Sean, Jack, Box, Patrick, Melanie, Kyle, CT, Stone and Milkins were a privilege to coach—our mutual love of the activity sustained me. My fellow coaches on the KU, Ben Warner, Phil Samuels, Jan Hovden, Brian Delong, Travis Cram and Kelly Winfrey made my time at KU the time of my life. I suspect I will never again experience such a wonderful, contentious, chaotic, and vibrant intellectual environment. Lindsey Shook, my coaching partner and best friend, deserves special recognition for being forced into reading chapters and listening without complaint to endless moaning and complaining. Finally, I owe so much to my wife Kara Dillard, a Ph.D in her own right and the winner of the race to completion. Without her tolerance of my rants about symbols, religion, politics, gargoyles, Derrida and Burke, this dissertation might never have reached completion, even in second place. Thank you to everyone. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Homiletics and the Rhetorical Tradition ..................................................................................... 3 Contemporary Rhetorical Studies in Homiletics ......................................................................... 4 A Preface on Methods ............................................................................................................... 25 Objects of Study ........................................................................................................................ 28 Outline of Study ........................................................................................................................ 46 CHAPTER 2: THE ABSOLUTE HERMENEUTIC AND THE SECRET OF PROSPERITY: . 61 Hermeneutics and The Secret .................................................................................................... 65 Hermeneutical Secrets, Divine Revelation, and the Prosperity Gospel .................................... 78 Rhetorical Moves, Gnosticism and the Absolute Hermeneutic ................................................ 82 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 106 CHAPTER 3: CHRISTIAN PROSPERITY AND THE MAGIC WORLD VIEW: .................. 120 Defining the Occult and Magic ............................................................................................... 123 The Occult Tradition ............................................................................................................... 126 Positive Confession and the Power of Words ......................................................................... 138 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 161 CHAPTER 4: GOSPELS AND GARGOYLES, PART ONE: .................................................. 177 Poetic Cycles ........................................................................................................................... 179 Symbolic Breakdown .............................................................................................................. 182 Rethinking the Grotesque ........................................................................................................ 193 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 198 CHAPTER 5: GOSPELS AND GARGOYLES, PART TWO: ................................................. 206 Gargoyles of Linguistic Resilience ......................................................................................... 209 Victory ..................................................................................................................................... 210 Sowing and Reaping................................................................................................................ 221 Predestination, Covenant and God‘s Plan ............................................................................... 236 Family, Favor, and Blessing .................................................................................................... 247 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 256 v CHAPTER 6: THE RHETORIC OF (PROFITABLE) LIBERATION: .................................... 271 Liberation in the Sociology of the Prosperity Gospel ............................................................. 274 Prophecies and Theologies of Liberation ................................................................................ 279 Liberating the Status Quo in the Prosperity Gospel ................................................................ 287 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 301 CHAPTER 7: THE RHETORIC OF TIME, POSSIBILITY, AND THE EVENT .................... 309 The Limits of Kairos ............................................................................................................... 312 It‘s Your Time! as Kairo-logos ............................................................................................... 326 Conclusion: The Spirit of Kairos in Rhetorical Criticism....................................................... 343 CHAPTER 8: IDENTIFICATION, NARRATIVE, AND AUDIENCE IN JOEL OSTEEN‘S BECOME A BETTER YOU ......................................................................................................... 354 The Rhetoric of Psychological Pathology ............................................................................... 356 Joel Osteen and the Rhetoric of Psychological Identification................................................. 363 Addressing the Real Problems of the Audience ...................................................................... 374 Christian Myth as Psychotherapeutic Identification ..............................................................