Wealth

• •Asceticism

  •Material goods are a distraction from God.

  •Stewardship

  •God gave humankind material goods and saw that they were 'good' (Gen 1).

  •But they are to be shared and used for the common good

  •Prosperity Gospel

  •Material goods are a sign of God's blessing. Believing in Jesus will bring you wealth and health.
• Asceticism


  A spiritual attempt to step away from the world's focus on material things (money, food, belongings, clothes) to focus on godly things. It sees the material as a distraction.
• Asceticism was very common within early Christianity – eg Origen, Augustine, Aquinas all lived ascetically or as monks
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer also encouraged a strict way of life with his ideas of Cheap Grace in the 20th century
• Asceticism was common at the time of Jesus
• Essenes


  • Separated themselves from mainstream society, living austere (strict) lives in the caves above the Dead Sea
• John the Baptist


  • Lived in the wilderness, dressed in the most basic clothing (camel hair garment with a leather belt around his waist) and eating locusts and honey
• Jesus


  • Chose not to own property or value material possessions, told his disciples not to take possessions with them or to hoard them
• Simeon the Stylite was an extreme example of asceticism
• Simeon the Stylite


  Born in northern Syria, probably between the years 385 and 390, entered a monastery near Antioch when about sixteen years of age
• Ascetic thread in Christianity


  An equally strong (or stronger) thread of stewardship
• Humans were asked to care for God's world in the creation stories
• The physical world reflected the glory of God in the Hebrew Bible
• Everything material comes from God and humankind needed to care for it on His behalf
• The Hebrew Bible laid down the Sabbath of years


  1. Every 7th 7 years, land should be returned to its original owners

  2. The land and environment should rest

  3. Slaves should be returned home
• Tear Fund's description of the Sabbath of years

  An economic, cultural, environmental and communal reset
• Wealth was not a bad thing, but it was temporary and had to be recognised as such
• Growing economic imbalance could not go on for ever because everything still ultimately belonged to God
• Leviticus 25: '"The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property."'
• Many Christians still choose to give 10% of their income to the Church and charities
• Genesis 28: '"of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."'
• Tithes were still common as a sort of tax until well into the 19th century and into the 20th century in rural areas
• Using some of the material wealth for the wider good and the local church was seen as a way of living in God's world rather than rejecting it
• Oral Roberts


  Patriarch of the prosperity Gospel, Pentecostalist minister and televangelist who attracted millions of followers
• Oral Roberts' preaching argued that Christians who pray and give financially with enough fervour would be rewarded materially with health and wealth
• Roberts began to film religious services for television where he healed people by laying on of hands


  1950s
• Roberts was controversial because he lived an expensive, jet-set lifestyle
• Blessing Pact


  Followers contributing funds to Roberts' preaching
• Seed-Faith idea


  Followers making a financial contribution (a seed) to Roberts and being rewarded with a blessing
• In 1987, Roberts made an appeal for millions of dollars, claiming that God had told him that he would 'call him home' if not – he raised $8 million
• Roberts said that giving financially would extend his life
• Mainstream Churches have been critical of the Prosperity Gospel. N. T. Wright has spoken out about the prosperity Gospel, calling churches to challenge it.​

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  “This is a wake-up call to churches worldwide to get together, to think together, to pray together, to say we need to speak the truth to the power. It just won’t do to shore up our prosperity at the cost of the rest of humanity”.