Abstract
Ackerley’s focus is on performative rhetorical analysis as applied to three case studies of leading figures in ‘faith ministries’. They are the English prosperity ‘faith preachers’ Michael Reid and Colin Urquhart and also the American prosperity preacher Jerry Savelle. Their ministries are known by various names: Word of Faith, the Prosperity Gospel, or the Health and Wealth Movement. The author examines in turn these three leaders because of their impact upon late twentieth and early twenty-first century English revivalist evangelicalism. Examining the phenomenon from the perspective of an Anglican Vicar who has a background in charismatic renewal, Ackerley began to meet people in his parish who were, as he describes, ‘refugees’ from revivalist churches (p. 4). From the vantage point of pastoral concern, Ackerley concludes that these refugees had been misled by erroneous teachings that bordered on a distinctively American attitude of neo-Gnosticism. This he derived from all three of the faith preachers’ claims to having special insights and ‘revelation knowledge’ that in turn serve to reinforce their authority and enhances their ethos as skilled rhetoricians.
Ackerley also knew of members of his own parish who left to join Urquhart’s church for example, in search of a charismatic religion that ‘works’ (p. 5). He identifies such a no-nonsense approach to faith as an infiltration into English evangelical revivalism by a pragmatism that he argues is uniquely American, born from a national religious heritage originating with the Calvinist Puritan settlers who envisioned America as a ‘city on a hill’. By seeing it as a country ordained by God, an enduring concept of American exceptionalism was born (p. 50). This exceptionalism is the demarcating line for the author between English and American evangelicalism. However, he notes there is historical and theological overlap and influence between these two streams of evangelicalism.
American pragmatism is derived from a strict Calvinism based in part upon extreme Biblicism (p. 8) that is coupled with Scottish common-sense philosophy and capitalist attitudes toward religion. This distinctive American pragmatic and mechanistic form of Christianity distinguishes it from English evangelicalism that has been more influenced by European rational scepticism and liberalism (p. 267). According to the author, evangelical revivalist ministries in the UK are adopting the American pragmatic approach to Christianity fused with revivalism. This is in keeping with the globalization of American cultural ideals including of the religious variety such as the prosperity gospel that are exported and embraced through new communication technologies.
In explaining how to go forward from here, the author undertakes a meticulous examination of a number of movements throughout the development of American religious culture, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that include Transcendentalism and its later manifestation, the New Thought movement with its emphasis on ‘mind over matter’, positive thinking, and positive confession. These concepts were embraced by Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science), and others whom the author takes into consideration. These concepts were later adopted and amended by E. W. Kenyon who is considered the father of the current manifestation of New Thought philosophy as is expressed in the teachings of Reid, Urquhart and Savelle, who are branches of this unique theological tree (p. 262). At the heart of this analysis Ackerley undertakes a well documented, through rhetorical and theological analysis of his three case studies, all of who reflect American ‘cultural and religious imports’ as revealed in their ‘performative rhetoric’ (p. 263). His final argument is that this form of religion ‘appeals to those who embrace pragmatism’, seeking churches that ‘work’ as a ‘mechanism for their benefit’ (p. 267). The result is a seduction of ‘true and unconditional faith by pragmatism’ (p. 266), as expressed through the globalization of American religious culture (p. 268).
While often painting with perhaps too broad a brush, this study nevertheless offers rich insights into the history of the prosperity movement, its manifestation in the ministries of three charismatic faith preachers, and insights into a highly marketed, capitalistic, pragmatic form of Christianity that expresses a neo-Gnosticism for the twenty-first century (p. 268).