The Prosperity Lie of Positive Thinking

How did Norman Vincent Peale’s book, The Power of Positive Thinking, pave the way for the prosperity gospel and the law of attraction that still has its claws in today’s culture? That’s what we explore in this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast.

Part One explored Peale’s foundations in the New Thought Movement of the nineteenth century and its theological departure from Puritanical Calvinism.

Part Two linked Peale’s version of Positive Thinking with the corporate culture of the twentieth century. We saw how it provided bonus benefits to companies laying off workers.

In Part Three, we look at links between Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel, and its potential to exploit vulnerable people with promises of great wealth in exchange for willingly giving their money and going into debt because of promises made by those in power over them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJaPrhOSnxw&feature=youtu.be

The Prosperity Theology of Positive Thinking

This brings us full circle to the ‘theological’ dimension of Peale’s project. One of the most common complaints in reviews of The Power of Positive Thinking is that it unexpectedly contains so many references to God and the Bible.

But this is the point of it. Peale builds on the New Thought tradition, using Bible verses to support the law of attraction he proposes, driven by a god who “rates you according to the size of your prayers”, and rewards you if you dream big and visualise having already received the objects you desire.

Norman Vincent Peale was a minister who used his position to gain credibility and status in the eyes of his followers. As God’s spokesman, he was taken seriously when he preached. But as we saw in the first part, he was an expert at cherry-picking Bible verses to suit his purposes, stripping them of their narrower and broader theological contexts.

The Formula For Peale’s Law of Attraction

Peale turns basic psychology into cosmic superstition. As we saw in the previous episode, when he took the story of Job and interpreted his words, “What I feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me”, as meaning Job invited his fate BECAUSE he feared it.

This conforms to Peale’s scientific formula for success (and failure): “Affirm it, visualize it, believe it, and it will actualize itself.”

Whether it’s something we desire or something we fear, it will actualise itself if we think about it. “When you expect the best, you release a magnetic force in your mind which by a law of attraction tends to bring the best to you.”

Of course, we understand that confirmation bias means that when we expect something to be true, we are more likely to find evidence to support it. As such, we might lead ourselves towards outcomes if we believe something has made them more certain.

All Things Are Possible…

Peale tells the story of a faith healer who helps a struggling baseball team on a losing streak. They were riddled with doubt and didn’t believe they could win. One day, the coach asked for the team’s bats and then disappeared with them. When he returned, he excitedly told the players that the preacher had blessed the bats. They now contained a power that could not be overcome. “The players were astounded and delighted,” Peale reports. “The next day they overwhelmed Dallas, getting 37 base hits and 20 runs.”

“All things are possible to him that believeth”, Peale affirms, implying that God rewards faith. This raises the question: Is God needed in this equation, or is it just a belief in God held by those seeking a change of fortune?

And if this is the case, how is this exploited?

Televangelism and The Allure of Prosperity

In Smile or Die, Barbara Ehrenreich writes about the televangelist and leader of a Texas megachurch, Joel Osteen. She cites a passage from one of his books in which he describes his initial resistance to his wife’s pleas to upgrade to a bigger house.

Eventually, he was talked into agreeing. He said it was only because Victoria had used