ABSTRACT
One of the significant consequences of the Protestant Reformation was the cultural linking of religiosity and economic activity. While there has been a long-standing debate among scholars as to the causal relationship between religious belief and economic behavior, the historical connection between the two has not been seriously disputed. In American culture one linkage between religiosity and economic success has been the Gospel of Prosperity. The Gospel of Prosperity is based on the belief that Americans have a special covenant with God-that in return for obeying His mandates and creating a Christian nation that will eventually carry His message and the American Way of Life to the entire world, God will raise up Americans, individually and collectively, as His most favored people. Ironically, perhaps, it is because religion has been disestablished, formally separated from economy and polity, that the Gospel of Prosperity has had such cultural significance. In the face of institutional differentiation, which has diminished the capacity of religion to provide the kind of social and cultural integration so often observed in premodern groups, the Gospel of Prosperity has operated as one significant means through which religion, work, and family have been harmonized.
