The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel

Is it God’s will that believers be healthy, wealthy, and wise? Wise, definitely, but Robert M. Bowman questions those who teach a message of bodily health and financial prosperity through faith. In this balanced book, Bowman examines the word of faith movement by revealing the origins, teachers, and errors of this distortion of Christian doctrine. The faith healing and prosperity gospel aspects of the movement are what appeal to some and turn off others, causing a confusing and sometimes heated controversy. But the word of faith movement is, Bowman insists, “neither soundly orthodox nor thoroughly heretical.” Using the Bible as his touchstone, Bowman helps readers sort through the controversy and distinguish acceptable Pentecostal teachings from distorted offshoots. He guides believers curious about the role of faith in healing and prosperity, and encourages charismatics to pursue a rich, mature, biblically sound Pentecostalism.