On this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss “the prosperity Gospel” as the tip of an unholy alliance between individualism in theology and philosophy and capitalism in economics. This alliance reaches into the larger culture, including education, science, and the arts. We have a welcome and returning guest, Thomas Storck, to help us. He’s the author of several books, most recently The Prosperity Gospel: How Greed and Bad Philosophy Distorted Christ's Teachings (TAN, 2023). Arouca Press published a revised edition of his Foundations of a Catholic Political Order last year. In addition, he recently translated and wrote a new forward for Louis Cardinal Billot’s Liberalism: A Critique of Its Basic Principles and Various Forms (Arouca Press, 2019). Storck is a prolific contributor to the New Oxford Review. And, to top it off, he’s associated with the American Solidarity Party. We’ll be asking the following questions. Please feel free to suggest your own!

1. Just what is “the prosperity Gospel,” and who are some of its current proponents
2. You note that some central elements in our culture give rise to the prosperity Gospel. Just how do you define “culture”?
3. What is a bourgeois culture? A consumerist culture?
4. You draw on the work of Max Weber. Why is Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism of special significance?
5. What happens to a culture that loses sight of teleology?6
6. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his opinion in the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood vs. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” What does this declaration imply?
7. Why do you claim that technology is not neutral?
8. Fewer and fewer students major in the humanities. What are the social consequences of this steep decline?
9. Is there room in art for expressive individualism?
10. What’s your next book?