History
Gospel of Wealth
The "Gospel of Wealth" was a concept popularized by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th century. It argued that the wealthy had a responsibility to use their fortunes to benefit society, promoting philanthropy and social responsibility among the rich. Carnegie believed that the accumulation of wealth should be accompanied by a commitment to improving the welfare of others.
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3 Key excerpts on "Gospel of Wealth"
eBook - PDFThe American Dream vs. The Gospel of Wealth
The Fight for a Productive Middle-Class Economy
- Norton Garfinkle(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Yale University Press(Publisher)
His main philanthropic endeavor was to build libraries—an important contribution, no doubt, but hardly a comprehensive answer for the millions living on below-subsistence wages, to say nothing of society’s sick and infirm, widows and orphans. Not everyone accepted every detail of Carnegie’s Gospel. But in its broad themes, it reflected ideas that enjoyed wide so- cial and political acceptance in late nineteenth-century Amer- ica and would enjoy something of a revival in the twentieth and the twenty-first. At bottom, the Gospel of Wealth com- bined laissez-faire economics, strict opposition to government intervention in the economy, an acceptance of extreme eco- nomic inequality, a bias against labor in favor of the business owner, a vision of the industrialist and investor as the true en- gine of economic progress, and a belief that government had no legitimate role in building a middle-class future for all hardworking Americans or even in relieving the condition of the poor. At all events, Carnegie willy-nilly had hit on a phrase that aptly summarized the dominant ethos of the Gilded Age. Yet even as Carnegie issued his Gospel, the nation was becoming increasingly uneasy with the conditions he described as being so beneficial. Political leaders were gradually coming to grips with the darker legacy of industrial development and begin- The Gospel of Wealth ning to consider and fashion reforms. But support for the Gospel of Wealth would not cease to be one important side of the debate. For decades to come, the struggle over government’s economic policy would essentially boil down to the question, which was the true vision of America, the Gospel of Wealth or the American Dream? The Gospel of Wealth
eBook - ePubGreat Awakenings
Popular Religion and Popular Culture
- Frank Hoffmann, Marshall Fishwick, Beulah B Ramirez(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Early in the eighteenth century, writing in Magnalia Christi Americana suggested that the way to serve Christ in heaven is to succeed here on earth. Many agreed then, and still do now. Generations of preachers and politicians agreed. Benjamin Franklin, who wrote like a Puritan but lived like a pragmatist, added an economic base to the religious. Recall his famous aphorisms: God helps those who help themselves. He that would catch fish, must venture his bait. The bird that sits is easily shot. Popular religion and economics were fully merged in the late nineteenth century. In this Gilded Age, the era of the robber barons, Andrew Carnegie actually wrote a famous book called The Gospel of Wealth. It merged the cross and the dollar: this was the good news; or Gospel. Threatened by modernism, Darwinism, science, and the Higher Criticism, fundamentalists sought and found allies in capitalism. The apologists of this new combination even invented a new name for what was happening in the United States: Social Darwinism. What it boiled down to was this: everyone for him or herself, and the Devil take the hindmost. 3 The high priest of this new popular religion was Horatio Alger (1832–1899) who reduced these ideas to a simplistic formula, marketed it in a series of best-selling potboilers, and created the Rags- to-Riches Myth. 4 His name became a metaphor for success in America. Many authors (including me) wrote about Alger, drawing from the “standard” 1928 biography by Herbert B. Mayes. Forty years later Mayes’s book was exposed as a hoax with many fictitious details. Since then a new generation of scholars have set out to “demythologize” Alger and reinterpret his work. There are, they say, two Algers. The first was the Harvard-trained moralist who disapproved of the mercenary Gilded Age, the second a best-selling writer of juvenile stories about poor boys who made good
eBook - PDFPentecostalism and Prosperity
The Socio-Economics of the Global Charismatic Movement
- K. Attanasi, A. Yong, K. Attanasi, A. Yong(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
Citizens must fend for themselves if they are to survive, let alone prosper. The situation is by no means as extreme in the United States, Canada, and Europe, but after years of budget cuts in social services the welfare state is but a shadow of its former self, particularly in the United States where the theology in question was conceived. So in a global context where improving one’s lot is heavily dependent on one’s own efforts, a theology that sacralizes self-help and individual initiative is understandably appealing. What we do not know at this point beyond anecdotal reports is if there have been any positive societal benefits in the countries where the health and wealth gospel is practiced by significant sectors of the population. The Centre for Development and Enterprise study in South Africa, for example, is optimistic about such potential benefits but does not offer any hard evidence indicating that a critical mass of followers of the health and wealth gospel have prospered sufficiently to make a positive contribution to the nation’s social and economic well-being. Even those empowered by faith in their own prosperity face formidable structural barriers to realizing their dreams of plen- titude. High unemployment, costly medical care, limited educational opportunities, and racism constitute major obstacles in the paths of millions who seek to better their lots in life. In the absence of major studies of the possible socioeconomic impact of the practice of pros- perity theology, it is impossible at this time to draw conclusions on the larger secular impact, if any, of the health and wealth gospel. R. ANDREW CHESNUT 220 Returning to the major reasons for widespread appeal of the the- ology, we would be remiss in ignoring its pragmatism. One of Max Weber’s great contributions to sociology of religion was to demon- strate the importance of socioeconomic class in the practice of reli- gion.
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