The Secret of Success: The Link between American Prosperity Theology and Business Self-Help Literature

This books links American prosperity literature and business self-help literature in an effort to uncover their connections to concepts of success in American culture. There were hundreds of books published in America between 1880-1920 on success strategies. These strategies followed a pattern that has been ingrained in the fabric of American ideas of success. This pattern entails visualising a goal, expecting/believing that the goal can/will be achieved, declaring one’s intention to achieve the goal, taking the steps to achieve the goal, and finally, realise /achieve the goal. While the definitions of success vary, the general meaning has to do with setting goals and achieving them. In this book, the author describes various threads of prosperity theology and demonstrates their connection to concepts of business success. The goal of this book is to show that while this literature began in religious contexts, including metaphysical and evangelical religions, the methods of achieving success became part of the fabric of American culture as a whole. Prosperity theology connects the visualisation and declaration process with God and the individual’s relationship to God. Since business interests are intertwined with notions of success, much of American business literature echoes the methods originally begun with prosperity theology. This book is an attempt to map some of those trends and to demonstrate the complicated nature of their origins.