CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study The emergence of prosperity gospel preaching dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries. It is currently a universal phenomenon that is frequently preached in urban areas especially in churches and on the electronic media. It has commanded scholarly attention, debates and literature on the subject. Historical records abound that prosperity preaching began in the United States of America (USA). This was precipitated through the formative role played by Essek William Kenyon who lived from 1867-1948, and who is said to have initially put in place the cardinal principles for prosperity gospel preaching (Young, 2005; Mumford, 2012). The principles Kenyon develop was probably cultic in origin (McConnell, 2007). However, Kenneth Erwin Hagin (1917-2003) seems to have borrowed heavily from Kenyon’s ideology and developed his own prosperity theology. It is established that Kenyon’s ideologies were also adopted, propagated and popularized by television and faith preachers in the 1950s like William Branham, Oral Roberts and Gordon Lindsay among several others (Okwori, 1995). Prosperity preaching was handed down to posterity under different nomenclatures such as “word faith” or “word of faith movement”, “positive confession”, “faith formula”, or “faith message”, “hyper-faith”, “health and wealth theology”, “name it and claim it gospel”, “blab it and grab it gospel”, “gospel of success”, and “prosperity gospel” as it advanced down through the ages (Jones, 2006; Achunike, 2007; MacArthur, 1992). For the purpose of this study, prosperity preaching, prosperity gospel or prosperity gospel preaching will be used interchangeably. McConnell (1990) informs that right from its source in the USA, prosperity gospel emphasizes the “Three “Ps”: Power, Prestige and Prosperity” (p. 170).

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