Worldview of the Word of Faith Movement : Eden Redeemed

This volume approaches the Word of Faith as a worldview, and analyses the movement through N. T. Wright’s model for worldview-analysis in order to provide necessary nuance and complexity to scholarly interpretations of the Word of Faith. The reader receives insights into the movement’s narrative, semiotic, practical and propositional dimensions, which cumulatively offer a multifaceted understanding of how the Word of Faith interprets reality and engages with the world. The analysis shows that there is a narrative core to Word of Faith beliefs in the form of a unique theological story with focus set on the present restoration of Eden’s authority and blessings. This study demonstrates how the Word of Faith operates as a distinct worldview that parses the world through the lens of faith’s causative power to affect a direct correspondence between present reality and Eden’s perfection. The findings advance a critical and therapeutic approach that acknowledges how the worldview both strengthens and subverts Pentecostalism.

Mikael Stenhammar is Lecturer in systematic theology and worldview studies at the Academy for Leadership and Theology, Sweden

Wolfgang Vondey is Professor of Christian Theology and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK and Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies.

Daniela C. Augustine (DTh, University of South Africa) is a member of the faculty of the University of Birmingham, UK. She has published with focus on public theology, theological ethics, interdisciplinary studies in social transformation, postmodernity, and globalization, theology of economics, and the intersection of religion and culture from Pentecostal and Eastern European perspective. She currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of Pentecostal Theology.