Born in Saint Joseph, Michigan, Bradley received a Bachelors in Sociology and graduated with honors from Belmont University (Nashville) in 2002 and earned a Masters in Sociology from Indiana University in 2005. His research interests include the Sociology of Religion and Social Stratification, and upon completing his doctorate, he hopes to teach at a liberal arts institution. In his free time, he enjoys road cycling and playing with his band, Cardiff Giant. Click here to view his professional website and curriculum vitae.

THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
The Prosperity Gospel is the doctrine that God wants people to be prosperous, especially financially. Adherents believe that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing and the poor are poor because of a lack of faith. I will present analysis of data collected through telephone survey by SRBI for Time magazine and analysis of in-depth interviews I have conducted with adherents to the Prosperity Gospel as a multi-method study of the case of the Prosperity Gospel and how religion and class are related among its adherents. In sum, the Prosperity Gospel makes specific claims about what God expects of human beings financially, thus providing an unprecedented opportunity to test some of the earliest, yet unresolved, questions in sociology about the relationship between religious beliefs and economic behaviors and outcomes, questions that go back to Marx and Weber and are now reflected in the emerging dual process of culture literature. – Bradley A. Koch