Like shooting fish in a barrel…

Attacking prosperity theology is like shooting fish in a barrel, really — so easy, it's hardly worth doing.

Prosperity theology is all about assuaging the guilt of the rich. Are you worried that you spend more on pet food than a third world-family spends on their own food? Does it bother you that you have a five-bedroomed air-conditioned house while someone else lives in a cardboard box? Are you afraid that some day you're going to have to drive your bloated SUV of a camel through the eye of a really small needle? Relax! Rich is good! God wants you to be a success! God is rewarding your faith with material blessings so that you can do His work and spread His word.

What makes it so easy to poke fun is that this version of the gospel is usually preached by a particular variety of evangelical pentecostalist who also lays considerable emphasis on the virtue of tithing. God gives you wealth you can do God's work and spread God's word by giving lots of money to the very preacher who gives you this reassurance. Preachers like Jim Bakker, who had five houses and a Rolls-Royce, and who chartered private jets to fetch clothes that he wanted to wear. Or like Jim Whittington, whose Fountain of Life Ministries paid for his high-speed boats, jewellery, country-club membership and, yes, a Rolls-Royce — until he was sent to prison for fraud. Or Pat Robertson, who diverted charitable donations collected for rescuing Rwandan refugees, and used them instead to fund a diamond-mining concern that he had established jointly with the Zairean dictator Joseph Mobuto.

These examples could be multiplied, which is what makes criticizing prosperity theology so much fun.

Turning the focus to our own behaviours…

But there's an element of "I thank the Lord that I am not as other men" in doing that, and perhaps it's a way of avoiding the real challenge. The real challenge is not to decide whether those people over there are reconciling faith and wealth as they are called to, but whether we are.

Because, of course, the Catholic Church has always had its own weaknesses in this area. We may not have gone in for the excesses of modern prosperity theology, but we have had our own failings.

Remember Johann Tetzel, who provoked the Lutheran Reformation by selling indulgences to finance the rebuilding of St Peter's? His slogan was "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from Purgatory springs". OK, the advertising industry has come on a bit since his day, and we are used to snappier slogans. But this one was effective in its time. And, in terms of its selling spiritual reassurance for money, it wasn't a thousand miles away from modern prosperity theology.

Nor did Tetzel invent prosperity theology. Go back another two hundred years to find the figure of "the Pardoner", one of the travellers in the Canterbury Tales. The Pardoner is so called because he is licensed to sell indulgences. He tells a story condemning greed, gluttony and gambling, and then invites the other travellers to pay him for pardons, and offers to sell them relics (which turn out to be fakes).

In fairness, while the Catholic tradition may include examples of this attitude, it also includes a great deal of criticism of it. The whole point of the Pardoner in the Canterbury Tales is that he is a spiritually impotent hypocrite. The story wouldn't work unless Chaucer could assume that his audience knew this. And, at much the same time, but on the other side of the European Continent, Dante is condemning simonists — those who sell ecclesiastical offices — to the eight circle of Hell, below blasphemers, sodomites, usurers and heretics. Clearly, the money-grubbing cleric was not a popular character.

The fact is that the gospels are generally fairly negative about wealth. This is a problem for us and, the richer we become, or our society becomes, the bigger the problem is.

Prosperity theology is, I think, one way of solving — or, rather, avoiding — the problem. But it's not the only one.

Puritanism…

Puritanism is another one. It's no coincidence, I think, that it's the (comparatively) wealthy Christian societies that have often attached an exaggerated importance to sexual morality, about which the gospels have comparatively little to say. Calvinism and Puritanism are often at their strongest in powerful and wealthy societies, and this may be partly an attempt by those societies to persuade themselves that virtue and right living are largely about chastity, and to downplay the thorny matter of wealth and its moral implications

If, instead of avoiding the problem, we actually try to face it, we find that Christianity has several different perspectives to offer us on having a right relationship with money.

Prosperity theology, as we have already seen, sees wealth basically as a reward for righteousness. Proponents can point to many Old Testament passages where wealth is presented in precisely this light. You should ask God for the things you want; if you are righteous he will provide them. And, if you are wealthy, doesn't that just go to reassure you that you must be righteous?

The other end of the spectrum to Abundance Theology — Poverty Theology…

At the other end of the spectrum from prosperity theology we have poverty theology, which holds that we should live minimally. Jesus, say the poverty theologians, was poor, and he loved the poor — possibly more than he loved the rich. Poverty theology is non-materialistic, characterised by a disdain for possessions. Francis of Assisi is the apostle of poverty,

Those who practice poverty theology reckon that we should not worry too much about where the next meal is coming from, but trust in the Lord. The upshot of that, however, is that they do in practice have to spend quite a bit of time worrying about where the next meal is coming from, because they are often unable to provide it for themselves.

And worrying about where the next meal is coming from can distract you from storing up treasure in heaven just as effectively as spendign too much time storing up treasure on earth. To practice poverty theology successfully its not enough to have no money; you have to really not care about the hardships that will result.

Driving a middle course is stewardship theology, which sees wealth more as a responsibility than as a reward. To the extent that you are wealthy, it is not a reward for rightousness, but a circumstance of your life that call for a response from you. How is God calling you to make use of your wealth, and of the opportunities which it gives you?

Stewardship Theology…

In some ways, stewardship theology is the most demanding of the lot, because it calls for you to take responsibility. Those who practice stewardship theology actually have to reflect both on how they acquire their wealth, and how they are called to use it.

And yet, it seems to me that all of these various theologies to some extent miss the point. Salvation is not, in the end, attained either by having a great deal of money or by having none at all, or even by having a moderate amount and using it well. Money is, in the end, irrelevant.

The world tempts us to believe that having money buys freedom, security and happiness — all the good things that we desire. The radical critic of the world reminds us that these good things are to be shared with others, not hoarded for ourselves. But Christ calls us to a realisation that the freedom, security and happiness that wealth offers, whether to hoard or to share, are ultimately illusory.

Now, I'm not about to deny that the Gospel demands sharing of material things. But it also emphasizes the Kingdom as a pearl of great price, and a treasure greater than any earthly treasure. I think what that tells us is that wealth is ephemeral, and we cannot put it at the centre of our Christian lives, whether in the form of prosperity theology, or poverty theology, or stewardship theology. Having wealth is fine, provided you don't let it distract you from what really matters. And not having wealth is also fine, provided you don't let your poverty distract you from what really matters. What really matters is that you should love God and your neighbour, and both wealth and poverty are important only in so far as they help you do to that, or prevent you from doing that.

What are your thoughts on this commentary? You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.

Peregrinus can be contacted at: Peregrinus <peregrinus@catholica.com.au>

©2007 Peregrinus

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