Kenneth Hagin (1917–2003) was perhaps the best known leader and teacher in the “Word of faith” or “positive confession” movement, which is closely associated throughout the world with the so-called prosperity gospel or prosperity theology. The prosperity emphasis in global Pentecostalism today has much to do with Hagin’s nearly seventy-year-long preaching and teaching ministry. American religious historian Kate Bowler (2013) states that Hagin, while not alone in his views, was the most powerful theological influence of the prosperity gospel.

Hagin was primarily known as a …