Salvation and the Gospel of prosperity in Zimbabwe in view of its religious and cultural milieu

Abstract

This study grapples with the perception of salvation in the health and wealth gospel, the contestations and prospects posed to the religious and cultural environment bedevilled in Zimbabwe. The wide-ranging understanding, escalation and dynamic setting of this health and wealth gospel is explored. Emphasis of the study is centred on crucial nuances of deliverance, instant health and getting rich quickly and how these traditions grow, its transportation from Global North to Global South particularly how this gospel settled in Zimbabwe. The gap to be filled is to explore whether prosperity gospel as given by its proponents in Zimbabwe saves or enslaves in other words, is it a wholistic gospel or a piece meal, sleeping tablet gospel. A desk research methodology of utilising prevailing information obtained from printed books, articles, journals as well as newspapers is used to explore reasons favouring the relocation of the gospel of prosperity to Zimbabwe. The economic, political and religious environment shall be critically evaluated in order to expose extenuating circumstances for its survival and expansion. In conclusion, the study shows that the health and wealth evangelism flourishes better amidst awful financial, unstable and corrupt governance condition of the state. It has been discovered that it takes advantage of the African Traditional Religion(s) that correlated very well to offer the instant, and temporal answer to the predicament of Zimbabwe.

Contribution: To ongoing academic studies on prosperity gospel particularly to see that it blooms well in deplorable economic situations and takes advantage of African traditional beliefs that act as catalysts to the crisis. The study also contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), one and two aiming to terminate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for everyone by 2030.