Importing Faith

Many twenty-first-century evangelical charismatics in Britain are looking for a faith that "works." They want to experience the miraculous in terms of healings and God-sent financial provision. Many have left the mainstream churches to join independent charismatic churches led by those who are perceived to have special insights into faith and to teach principles that will help believers experience the miraculous. But all is not rosy in this promised paradise, and when people are not healed or they remain poor they are often told that it is because they did not have enough faith or are too negative. This study seeks to discover the origin of the principles that are taught by some charismatic leaders. Ackerley identifies them as the same ideas that are taught by the positive confession, health, wealth, and prosperity movement, originating in the United States. The origins of the ideas are traced back to New Thought metaphysics and its background philosophies of subjective idealism and American pragmatism. These principles were "imported" into the UK through contact between British leaders and those influenced and trained by American "word of faith" teachers. The author seeks to explain the persuasiveness of such teachers through examining case studies. He suggests their "miracles" may well have social and psychological explanations rather than divine origins. "In this highly readable book, Glyn Ackerley introduces us to the 'Health, Wealth and Prosperity Movement' (HWPM)--sometimes known as the 'Name It and Claim It' churches. Dr. Ackerley's carefully researched monograph arises out of his doctoral study, and his thesis is a measured and sober assessment. In so doing, Ackerley offers a sharp critique of abusive religious thinking and practice. I warmly commend his work." --Martyn Percy, Dean, Christ Church College, Oxford University "Christians tend to accept the religious phenomena of their age without thinking too deeply of how and why things are as they are. In this sense they fail to see the cultural and practical factors that are imported along with religious experience. In a study that is sympathetic, critical, and scholarly, Ackerley here engages in just such an analysis of popular ministries active in the British context and manages both to appreciate their value and to identify their cultural indebtedness." --Nigel G. Wright, Principal Emeritus, Spurgeon's College, London "What makes this book very special is Glyn Ackerley himself. His pastoral concern for 'refugees' who had been damaged spiritually--and sometimes financially--and had landed up in his parish was his primary motivation for exposing the sub-Christian theology and practice of the Neo-Gnostic subcultures that in the name of Christianity peddle a different gospel . . . [T]his is a daring book written by a brave man." --Andrew Walker, Professor of Theology and Education, Kings College, London Glyn Ackerley is Director of Ordinands in the Diocese of Rochester, England. He is also Vicar of Shorne, Kent. He was ordained in 1987 and was Vicar of St. Philip & St. James, Walderslade from 1994 to 2009. He has wide experience of charismatic renewal.