Name It And Claim It Prosperity Preaching In The Black Church

Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

Book Reviews / Pneuma 30 (2008) 315-370

323

Stephanie Y. Mitchem, Name It and Claim It: Prosperity Preaching in the Black Church (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2007). vii + 147 pp. $16.00 paper.

Many scholars of religion have begun to investigate and reflect on why the prosperity movement is so popular among the marginalized both in the United States and globally in the Two Thirds world. Beyond the obvious reason of escaping financial oppression, deeper issues about the manner in which this prosperity message resonates with the marginalized calls for a sophisticated and nuanced assessment of the social, historical, and theological implications of these developments. It may be possible that this movement coupled with the spiritualities of global Pentecostalism has given birth to a religious force that addresses the existential needs of the marginalized in the fullest sense: spirit, soul, body, and finances — in ways that traditional Christianity has not. Before such bold hypotheses like this can be entertained more study about this movement and its implications in various social and religious contexts must be undertaken. Scholars and the global Christian community need to engage in more critical conversations about the prosperity movement. One such work that can help us initiate such a conversation is Stephanie Mitchem’s book.

Name It and Claim It is a critical examination of the prosperity movement in the Black Church. By situating the prosperity phenomenon in the African American context, Mitchem enables students of this popular religious movement to understand its complex implications in a tradition that has always had to address the existential dilemmas of life in America. Unlike other critical works of the prosperity movement, such as Shayne Lee’s T. D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher or Milmon F. Harrison’s Righteous Riches: The Contem- porary Word of Faith Movement in African American Religion, Mitchem provides an intro- duction to the centrality of the church in the black community and what she terms a “spirituality of longing” as a way to frame her analysis. It is precisely because the church occupies such a central place in the black community and there always has been nascent in its tradition a spirituality that longs for justice, empowerment, and some sense of autonomy that the Black Church may be particularly vulnerable for a movement like this to fl ourish. One of Mitchem’s central concerns is to examine why blacks are drawn to prosperity churches.

Mitchem introduces three kinds of prosperity movements: old school prosperity preach- ing, the Hagin/Copeland school of prosperity, and metaphysical prosperity movements. This taxonomy provides a helpful way of thinking about the movement because it high- lights important historical and religious antecedents to the contemporary movement that is so prominent today. Old school advocates of prosperity like Daddy Grace and Father Divine in addition to the metaphysical religious milieu are integral to a broader under- standing of the diff erent streams that fed into this movement. However Mitchem’s taxon- omy does not provide an adequate account of the Pentecostal-charismatic framework (historical and theological) from which the contemporary movement arose. I wonder why time was spent exploring questionable fi gures like Grace and Divine while neglecting mainstream Pentecostal figures like A. A. Allen and Oral Roberts, who had considerable influence on black Pentecostals. Some of her conclusions also demonstrate a failure to understand the nuances of Pentecostal theology, especially its central belief in the Spirit

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI: 10.1163/157007408X346492

1

324

Book Reviews / Pneuma 30 (2008) 315-370

empowered life. An understanding of the history and theology of Pentecostals, especially Afro-Pentecostal issues, would have made a valuable contribution to her analysis. In addi- tion, while based on visits to respective prosperity ministries, one wonders if they provide a suficient basis for Mitchem’s judgments about these movements.

However there is much to commend in this work, especially with regard to the implica- tions of this movement in the Black Church. Mitchem’s most poignant discussions are on the continuing legacy of racism, the myth that money overcomes classism and prejudice, and the persistent gender inequality in the tradition. In addition, her discussion of the broader, non-Pentecostal theological framework of prosperity preaching is on point, espe- cially her assessment of the absence of a robust doctrine of sin in prosperity churches and the failure of those churches to engage in communal theological discourse. Unlike previous studies that have been primarily sociological, Name It and Claim It tackles the theological implications of the movement in the context of the Black Church tradition. While her work addresses the traditional Black Church perspective, her neglect of the afro-Pentecostal perspective suggests that there is room in this discussion for more black Pentecostal schol- arly voices. For these and other reasons this book should be consulted by both scholars and ecclesial leaders alike, especially those who are conversant with the internal nuances and evolution of the Black church tradition. Mitchem asks the right questions and broadens the parameters of the conversation about the prosperity movement in the Black Church in a helpful way.

Reviewed by Lewis Brogdon

2