Description: A critical assessment of the influence of the American 'Health, Wealth and Prosperity' religious movement on contemporary British evangelical and charismatic churches.
Brief description: Glyn J. Ackerley is Director of Ordinands in the Diocese of Rochester, and Vicar of Shorne in Kent. He was ordained in 1987 and was Vicar of St. Philip and St. James, Walderslade from 1994 to 2009.
Review Quotes: 'In this highly readable book, Glyn Ackerley introduces us to the 'Health, Wealth and Prosperity Movement' (HWPM). Dr Ackerley's carefully researched monograph presents a measured and sober assessment. In so doing, Ackerley offers a sharp critique of abusive religious thinking and practice.'- Martyn Percy, Dean, Christ Church College, Oxford University'Christians tend to accept the religious phenomena of their age without thinking too deeply as to 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'The author undertakes a meticulous examination of a number of movements throughout the development of American religious culture. .... This study .... offers rich insights into the history of the prosperity movement.'- Earle Ross Haire, Jr., The Expository Times, Vol. 128, No. 8, May 2017'[W]ell presented and written.... [T]he book is undoubtedly of interest to those studying cross-culture (American-English) influence of religious ideas.... [It's] readability makes it also a great source of information for a lay reader.'- Stefan Bosman, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2018"A major strength of Ackerley's analysis is his engagement with the traditions of thinking that have historically fed into understandings of 'health, wealth, and prosperity' that are at the heart of faith ministries"Mathew Guest, Theology, march-april 2018, vol.121 no.2, pp.133-4"This volume will prove very useful for the well informed lay reader and would be of particular interest to those within, or who wish to study, the British Charismatic movement of the late twentieth century"-David Lloyd Williams, Kings Evangelical Divinity School, Theological Book Review vol.28 no.1, p.86