The hidden traces: The Prosperity Gospel in Latin America in light of its ideological origins in the New Thought Movement

Abstract

In the last three decades, Christian groupings have managed to project and
install themselves gradually in the political structures of several Latin American
countries, managing to occupy diverse governmental instances in order
to promote their own agendas. Given this phenomenon, it is important to
critically and investigatively address the theological discourse that many of
these congregations and political parties promote, which is known as the
Prosperity Gospel. In the present article, a historical survey is carried out
to trace what its ideological origins are, one of its main sources being the
philosophical and spiritual movement of the New Thought, which emerged
in the mid-nineteenth century in the United States. In this way, a question
arises about whether the Prosperity Gospel is really theology, by discussing
and contrasting its main slogans from a theological and critical perspective.