ABSTRACT
Beliefs about God’s causal influence in everyday life are among the most compelling features of the American religious landscape. One reason why belief in divine agency remains prominent is due to its practical implications. The prosperity gospel embodies a specific form of the more generalized belief in divine influence that explicitly identifies God’s causal agency in two highly personal domains of peoples’ lives. The prosperity gospel aligns with the expectations and dynamics of the culture of capitalism, the tree market, and the individual as the subject of consumerism. The prosperity gospel contains vivid strains of American-style materialism and individualism. The exposure-reinforcement hypothesis predicts that any observed negative association between socioeconomic status (SES) and the prosperity gospel is attributable to SES-based differences in the religious role. Education and income have mostly independent negative associations with the prosperity gospel—and their influence does not diminish when we account for SES differences in the religious role.
