Importing Faith
The Effect of American 'Word of Faith' Culture on Contemporary English Evangelical Revivalism
by Glyn J. Ackerley
A critical assessment of the influence of the American ‘Health, Wealth and Prosperity’ religious movement on contemporary British evangelical and charismatic churches.
Many twenty-first-century evangelical charismatics in Britain are looking for a faith that works. They want to experience the miraculous in terms of healings and Godsent financial provision. Many have left the mainstream churches to join independentcharismatic churches led by those who are perceived to have special insights and to teach principles that will help believers experience the miraculous. But all is not rosy in this promised paradise, and when people are not healed or they remain poor they are often told that it is because they did not have enough faith. This study discovers the origin of the principles that are taught by some charismatic leaders. Glyn Ackerley identifies them as the same ideas that are taught by the positive confession, health, wealth, and prosperity movement, originating in the United States. The origins of the ideas are traced back to New Thought metaphysics and its background philosophies of subjective idealism and pragmatism. These principles were imported into the UK through contact between British leaders and those influenced by American word of faith teachers. Glyn Ackerley explains the persuasiveness of such teachers by examining case studies, suggesting their miracles may well have socialand psychological explanations rather than divine origins.
- By (author) Glyn J. Ackerley
'In this highly readable book, Glyn Ackerley introduces us to the 'Health, Wealth and Prosperity Movement' (HWPM). Dr Ackerley's carefully researched monograph presents a measured and sober assessment. In so doing, Ackerley offers a sharp critique of abusive religious thinking and practice.'- Martyn Percy, Dean, Christ Church College, Oxford University'Christians tend to accept the religious phenomena of their age without thinking too deeply as to how and why things are as they are. In this sense they fail to see the cultural and practical factors that are imported along with religious experience. In a study that is sympathetic, critical, and scholarly, Ackerley here engages in just such an analysis of popular ministries active in the British context and manages both to appreciate their value and to identify their cultural indebtedness.'- Nigel G. Wright, Principal Emeritus, Spurgeon's College, London'The author undertakes a meticulous examination of a number of movements throughout the development of American religious culture. .... This study .... offers rich insights into the history of the prosperity movement.'- Earle Ross Haire, Jr., The Expository Times, Vol. 128, No. 8, May 2017'[W]ell presented and written.... [T]he book is undoubtedly of interest to those studying cross-culture (American-English) influence of religious ideas.... [It's] readability makes it also a great source of information for a lay reader.'- Stefan Bosman, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2018"A major strength of Ackerley's analysis is his engagement with the traditions of thinking that have historically fed into understandings of 'health, wealth, and prosperity' that are at the heart of faith ministries"Mathew Guest, Theology, march-april 2018, vol.121 no.2, pp.133-4"This volume will prove very useful for the well informed lay reader and would be of particular interest to those within, or who wish to study, the British Charismatic movement of the late twentieth century"-David Lloyd Williams, Kings Evangelical Divinity School, Theological Book Review vol.28 no.1, p.86
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