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A popular belief in the exploding Pentecostal movement in the global South is the idea that if an individual has enough faith, God will bless them with financial prosperity. Although historically Pentecostalism has been identified as a religion of the poor, this study examines recent arguments that the current Pentecostal movement in Guatemala is a religion of the socially mobile middle and elite classes. Data from the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life’s 2006 survey Spirit and Power: Survey of Pentecostals in Guatemala is used to conduct a logistic regression, in order to measure the effects of socioeconomic status on adherence to prosperity belief. Results suggest that, contrary to the current literature on Guatemalan Pentecostalism, prosperity belief is not necessarily concentrated among the upwardly mobile middle and upper classes, but rather is widely diffused across social strata, and in particular, among those that have lower levels of education. These findings have implications for the study of Pentecostalism in Guatemala and in the global South in general.

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This dissertation explores the simultaneous rise of megachurches and Prosperity Theology within the black church. Recognizing that the megachurch and Prosperity Theology represent two separate phenomena within contemporary religion, I also acknowledge the tendency to regard them as being synonymous. My research begins with an examination of the traditional African American church and pastor, and an exploration of the recent growth of megachurches within the black community. In an attempt to better understand the Prosperity Gospel, I evaluated it in comparison to the Social Gospel, discovering the similarities and differences between the two movements. Considering that there is no consensus as to how Prosperity Theology is defined, I examine the various ways in which it has been defined by African American megachurch pastors. In particular, I assess the ways in which Prosperity Theology represents an extension of the traditions of the black church and its emphasis on economic, social, and political empowerment. This dissertation compares the ministries of Dr. Creflo Dollar, Senior Pastor of Atlanta Georgia’s World Changers Church International and Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, Senior Pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Both are regarded as proponents of Prosperity Theology, however, they advance significantly different approaches to prosperity and Prosperity Theology. An examination of the teachings of Dr. Dollar and Bishop Walker indicate that Dr. Dollar’s beliefs put him at odds with many traditionalists in the black church. In contrast, Bishop Walker’s ministry more closely resembles that of a traditional African American church. These findings are further supported by the responses of their churches’ members. The research conducted suggests that Prosperity Theology may be useful in facilitating the goals of economic, social, and political empowerment historically advocated by the black church.

The Master Thesis deals with the topic of the programme of support Prosperity, which is a part of Enterpreneurship and Innovation Programme during period 2007-2013. The main objective of the programme Prosperity is to facilitate the access to finance for the start-ups and further development of the infrastastructure for industrial research, technological development and innovation. Further analysis is focused on finding if there exists any dependency between regional economic performance and amount of received financial support from the programme Prosperity. Achieved regional economic performance will be evaluated based on selected indicators.

<p>This dissertation introduces readers to the major figures and features of the twentieth-century American prosperity gospel. It argues that these diverse expressions of Christian faith-fuelled abundance can be understood as a movement, for they stem from a cohesive set of shared understandings. First, the movement centered on Faith. It conceived of faith as an "activator," a power given to believers that bound and loosed spiritual forces and turned the spoken word into reality. Second and third respectively, the movement depicted faith as palpably demonstrated in wealth and health. It could be measured in both in the wallet--one's personal wealth--and in the body--one's personal health--making material reality the measure of the success of immaterial faith. Last, the movement expected faith to be marked by victory. Believers trusted that culture held no political, social, or economic impediment to faith, and no circumstance could stop believers from living in total victory here on earth. Though its origins lay in the late nineteenth century, the prosperity gospel took root in the Pentecostal revivals of the post-World War II years. It reached maturity by the late 1970s as a robust pan-denominational movement, garnering a national platform and a robust network of churches, ministries, publications, and media outlets. Using the tools of ethnography and cultural history, this dissertation argues that faith, wealth, health, and victory served as the hallmarks of this American phenomenon.</p> / Dissertation

Submitted by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-04-24T18:08:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO de Luís Eduardo Andrade da Silva.pdf: 7769475 bytes, checksum: de73d57f817b6a364a05eaf98826e871 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Portela (anapoli@ufba.br) on 2014-05-06T13:19:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO de Luís Eduardo Andrade da Silva.pdf: 7769475 bytes, checksum: de73d57f817b6a364a05eaf98826e871 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-06T13:19:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO de Luís Eduardo Andrade da Silva.pdf: 7769475 bytes, checksum: de73d57f817b6a364a05eaf98826e871 (MD5) / Este trabalho é o resultado de uma investigação realizada na Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus que teve como objetivo principal analisar as concepções e as práticas mágico-religiosas operadas entre os indivíduos que participam do culto “Nação dos 318”. Para tanto, configurou-se os seguintes objetivos específicos: caracterizar o Neo-pentecostalismo no campo religioso brasileiro nas últimas décadas focando na emergência da IURD e suas possíveis contribuições; identificar e analisar os rituais, símbolos e objetos utilizados pelos participantes do culto centrando na performance institucional. Neste sentido, o problema perquirido foi: quais as concepções e práticas operadas no culto “Nação dos 318” para fomentar a busca da prosperidade financeira dos seus participantes? Com base na abordagem qualitativa, foi realizada uma pesquisa de campo a partir de observação sistemática na IURD - Catedral da Fé - localizada no Iguatemi, bem como pesquisa bibliográfica a partir das pesquisas de Freston (1994); Mariano (1999; 2003), Bonfatt (2000), Fonseca (2003), Oro (2003), Machado (2003), Corten (2003) entre outros. Ademais, a abordagem teórica baseou-se em Weber (2000, 2002) e Bourdieu (1998, 1999, 2003) com colaborações de Durkheim (1989), Tuner (2005) e Geertz (1989). Este trabalho revela que, nas reuniões da “Nação dos 318” da IURD, as concepções doutrinárias giram em torno dos postulados da Teologia da Prosperidade, cujas práticas rituais carismáticas se utilizam de cânticos, louvores, orações, clamores, correntes, consagração e uso de objetos com o intuito de estimular seus participantes a manifestarem sua fé por meio de doações de dízimos, ofertas e desafios no sentido de promover uma barganha com o sagrado para receber ou conquistar uma dádiva, graça ou bênção que é a prosperidade financeira. This research is the result of an investigation done at the “Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus” and its main objective was to analyze the conceptions and the religious-magical practices made by the people who take part of the “Nation of the 318’s” Worship. For this, some specific objectives were configured such as: characterize the Neo-pentecostalism in the Brazilian religious field in the last decades with the focus on the “IURD’s” emergency and its possible contributions; identify and analyze the worships, symbols and objects used by the participating people focusing on the institutional performance. In this sense, the main problem was: which were the conceptions and practices operated in the worships of the “Nation of the 318’s” to estimulate the search for financial prosperity of its participating people? Based on the qualitative approach, a field research was done by the systemactical observation at the IURD- Catedral da Fé, located at the Iguatemi, as well as the bibliographic research such as Freston (1994); Mariano (1999; 2003), Bonfatt (2000), Fonseca (2003), Oro (2003), Machado (2003), Corten (2003) and others. Soever, the theroical approach was base on the Weber (2000, 2002) and Bourdieu (1998, 1999, 2003) with the collaboration of Durkheim (1989), Tuner (2005) and Geertz (1989). This research reveals that in the “Nation of the 318’s” meetings, the doctrinary conceptions are based on the Prosperity Postulates Theology, which charismatic practical rituals are made of songs, praises, clamations, chains, consagrations and the use of objects with the purpose of estimulate the participating people to show their faith by the monetary donations, offers and challenges in the sense of promote a bargain with the sacred to receive and conquer a gift, grace or bless that means the financial prosperity.

The aim of this dissertation is analysing the factors which have the direct influence on family business. There are some particular suggestions how to increase the firm's prosperity.

We are two students at Malmö Högskola, writing our final essay for obtain our teacher diplomas. On our partner schools, we have been facing but little information about how to invite the parents to collaborate with the school. Our thought is that the schoolwork is favorable to the pupils if both school and home are working together side by side. Therefore, we decided to dig deeper into this matter of how one particular school is working with parental collaboration, to be able to see if their method is useful.This particular school is offering studies in a course form so called family class. Here the pupils can get extra help from remedial teachers and their parents are also invited. At these lessons the parents are helping their child side by side with the teachers. We want to look further how this school actually works, whether this way of working is favorable or has a restraining influence on the pupil's education- with focus on a teacher´s perspective. The title “Parental collaboration- how to invite” is a result of our investigation of one school´s family classes. We have been interviewing teachers that are mentors for pupils in the family class, the pupils taking the course and also the responsible remedial teachers giving the course. The purpose of this research is to make a survey of theirs ideas about the school´s method and how the school operates in the relation between home and school. Our aim of making this survey is to point out the prosperity of terms in joint action, which are favorable to pupil´s education. We have been interviewing the mentors and the remedial teachers, but also handed out questionnaires to the students and their parents taking the family class course. The results from our survey has then been compared to a study done by Eriksson (2009), in order to see how the participants are perceiving this experience and what they think about this method. All the results that we have evaluated has then been presented and analyzed, for showing what terms that stand for prosperity in joint action. Finally, in our close-up we have developed our analyses further in an over-all discussion whether this method contributes something like gained collaboration between home and school - or not

City officials are in the position to adopt and implement policies within their jurisdiction that can have lasting impacts for businesses, people, and the environment. Sustainability research has highlighted the need to protect the environment by adopting policies which support the three E's of sustainable development (environment, equity, and economy). Stepping aside from the traditional mechanisms for building a successful city focused on economy first can be challenging for policy makers. The problem city officials face is that changes towards environmental protectionism have long been considered harder on city economy than traditional development focused on economic prosperity. Additionally, sustainability planning is thought to mitigate potential negative impacts that planning for environmental protectionism and social equity may have on economic prosperity. To examine this problem faced by city officials, ordinal regression analyses was used to analyze (1) the possible effects of environmental protectionism and social equity on a city's economic prosperity, and (2) whether sustainability planning has a moderating affect between environmental protectionism, social equity, and economic prosperity. This analysis demonstrates that environmental protectionism and social equity are not associated with a decline in economic prosperity. Sustainability planning was directly associated with increased economic prosperity but did not moderate the relationship between environmental protectionism and economic prosperity.