Oral Roberts and the Rise of the Prosperity Gospel

In 1946, God gave Oral Roberts a new Buick.

And this just one of many miracles the young, broke preacher learned to expect, as Oral Roberts would go on to build an evangelistic ministry worth millions of dollars, a medical complex, and a university. How do we interpret the life of a man who seemed to combine rampant consumerist excess with a sincere devotion to the gospel?

Seeking to answer this question, Jonathan Root weaves together accounts of Oral Roberts’s life in a balanced and engagin...