Pastures of Plenty ― Tracing Religio-Scapes of Prosperity Gospel in Africa and Beyond

Prosperity Gospel, a controversial strand in global Christianity, relates material wealth to divine blessing. Originating in American Pentecostal milieus, it is most successful in Africa. Authors from four continents present interdisciplinary, multi-sited and comparative analyses of Prosperity Gospel in Africa and beyond. Prosperity theologies adapt to varied political contexts and travel outside Pentecostalism into the wider religious arena. Its components trigger discourses within ecumenical Christianity and are transformed in transnational Christian networks of migrants; they turn up in African shrine religion and African Islam. Pastures of Plenty maps the evolving religio-scapes of Prosperity Gospel.

Andreas Heuser is Professor for Extra-European Christianity with a focus on Africa at Basel University, Switzerland. He has done multi-sited fieldwork on African Instituted Churches in Southern Africa, the Pentecostal movement and mission history in Ghana and Tanzania, and migrant Christianity in Germany and Switzerland.