RT Article
T1 American Prosperity Gospel and Athletic Narratives of Success
JF Religions
VO 13
IS 3
A1 Blazer, Annie
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1804403474
AB When athletes give interviews about their success, they tend to iterate on themes of self-assuredness, dedication to a goal, positive thinking, and divine blessing. By examining the history of prosperity theology in the U.S., we can see one possible source of this rhetoric. Prosperity theology teaches believers that God wants them to be healthy and wealthy and that the means to achieve health and wealth are at a believer’s fingertips. All one must do is give faithfully to one’s church, never waver in one’s belief that God will grant health and wealth, and act as though one has already received the blessing one desires. While scholars have long critiqued prosperity theology for obscuring structural inequalities, particularly those that impact people of color, the philosophy remains popular in many congregations across the U.S. and is nearly ubiquitous in black churches. Examining similarities in the rhetoric of prosperity gospel and athletes’ narratives of their success shows that these narratives also contribute to the faulty logic of meritocracy by ignoring systemic inequalities.
K1 Christian athletes
K1 Black Church
K1 Megachurch
K1 Meritocracy
K1 professional sports
K1 Prosperity Gospel
K1 sports coverage
K1 sports ministry
K1 structural racism
DO 10.3390/rel13030211