Health, Wealth & Happiness

It is always a good day when you get the mail, and there is a new book waiting for you. Today I received a new book from a good friend of mine, Dave Jones. The book is entitled Health, Wealth & Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ? In the coming weeks I hope to offer a review of the book published by Kregel. Dave is associate professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Seminary, and he co-authored the book with Russell Woodbridge, also of SEBTS.

The following is a description from Kregel’s website:

The desire for a thriving, healthy, and productive life is as strong as ever, especially in tough economic times. As people become more disillusioned at the state of the economy, they also become more susceptible to the lure of the prosperity gospel and its teachings of health, wealth, and happiness for the faithful. But what happens when the promise of prosperity overshadows the promise of the real gospel–the gospel of Christ?

Believing that the prosperity gospel is constructed upon faulty theology, authors David Jones and Russell Woodbridge take a closer look at five crucial areas of error relating to the teaching of wealth. In a fair but firm tone, the authors discuss the history and theology of the prosperity gospel movement to reveal its fraudulent core biblical teachings that have been historically and popularly misinterpreted, even by today’s most well-known pastors, including T. D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, and Kenneth Copeland. After an introduction and assessment of the movement, readers are invited to take a look at Scripture to understand what the Bible really says about wealth, poverty, suffering, and giving.

I enjoy reading everything Dave writes, so this is sure to be a good resource. Another good resource from Dave is God, Marriage and Family 2nd ed, co-authored with Andreas J. Kostenberger, available from Crossway.

I’ll post a review of this new book as soon as I get a chance to read it.