Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream

by Tony Tian-Ren Lin

Overview

In this immersive ethnography, Tony Tian-Ren Lin explores the reasons that Latin American immigrants across the United States are increasingly drawn to Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, a strand of Protestantism gaining popularity around the world. Lin contends that Latinos embrace Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that believers may achieve both divine salvation and worldly success, because it helps them account for the contradictions of their lives as immigrants. Weaving together his informants' firsthand accounts of their religious experiences and everyday lives, Lin offers poignant insight into how they see their faith transforming them both as individuals and as communities.

The theology fuses salvation with material goods so that as these immigrants pursue spiritual rewards they are also, perhaps paradoxically, striving for the American dream. But after all, Lin observes, prosperity is the gospel of the American dream. In this way, while becoming better Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals they are also adopting traditional white American norms. Yet this is not a story of smooth assimilation as most of these immigrants must deal with the immensity of the broader cultural and political resistance to their actually becoming Americans. Rather, Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism gives Latinos the logic and understanding of themselves as those who belong in this country yet remain perpetual outsiders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469658957
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/31/2020
Series:	Where Religion Lives
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Tony Tian-Ren Lin is the program director at Trinity Church Wall Street.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In a wonderful book with great impact, Tony Tian-Ren Lin tells the stories of Latino immigrants who are learning to be 'Americans' through the theology and practices of an intrinsically American religion. This is the first serious book to account for the appeal of Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism to Latino immigrants in their journey."—Pablo Vila, Border Identifications: Narratives of Religion, Gender, and Class on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Contributing a much needed analytical focus on Latino immigrants, as well as on the Prosperity Gospel—a rising religious movement not only in America but all over the globe—Tony Tian-Ren Lin shows how Prosperity Gospel theology provides its adherents with a lens for understanding their experiences, most poignantly their racialized experiences, as they attempt to make it in America."—Gerardo Marti, American Blindspot: Race, Class, Religion, and the Trump Presidency

Editorial Reviews

06/22/2020

In this evocative debut, Lin, a New York Theological Seminary professor, contends that many Latinx immigrants, especially the undocumented, seek in Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism a complex set of blessings: wealth, but also integration, psychological strength, and survival. While the initial appeal of the Prosperity Gospel seems easy enough to understand, he writes, many have wondered why people—especially poor immigrant populations—remain committed to a faith that promises financial blessings but never seems to deliver. To find out, Lin attended services and conducted extensive interviews with the congregations of three prosperity churches in Virginia, California, and New York between 2005 and 2007, and uses close observations and interview responses to immerse readers in the lives of his subjects. Lin argues that “the dream lives even if it never materializes” because to dream is itself a miracle, and to pursue the dream is itself an achievement. Notably, though the faith demands financial offerings, no one Lin spoke with said they had incurred financial hardship as a result, and that it was left to them to decide what is an appropriate sacrifice, evidence of the personal autonomy facilitated in church congregants. Lin’s well-reasoned work makes a strong case that the Prosperity Gospel provides a way for immigrants to survive, remain liberated, and pursue their American dream. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

[An] evocative debut. . . . Lin's well-reasoned work makes a strong case that the Prosperity Gospel provides a way for immigrants to survive, remain liberated, and pursue their American dream."—Publishers Weekly

That Lin is himself an immigrant—born in Taiwan, raised in Argentina, now living in the US—lends depth and nuance to his description of the Latinx experience. . . . Recommended."—CHOICE Reviews

An important contribution to our understanding of the prominence of prosperity theology in American culture."—Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Exceptionally clear in both prose and argumentation. . . . [A] valuable contribution to the sociology of American Christianity."—American Religion

With scholars of modern Christianity increasingly interested in migration, transnational linkages, and global Pentecostalism, Lin's book represents a well-timed and inventive endeavor."—Reading Religion

From the Publisher