PROSPERITY THEOLOGY AND CHILD POVERTY IN NIGERIA: A PROPHETIC THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE

Abstract

This paper develops a sustained prophetic theological critique of prosperity theology in relation to child poverty in Nigeria. Prosperity theology teaches that material prosperity is God's universal will for believers, that poverty results from spiritual deficiency, and that financial giving produces supernatural returns.  It dominates Nigerian Pentecostal Christianity and exercises pervasive influence across Nigerian Christian culture. This paper argues that prosperity theology is not merely theologically inadequate but actively harmful to the welfare of Nigeria's poor children through four identifiable mechanisms: the victim-blaming of poor families; the extraction of economic resources from poor congregants; the obstruction of prophetic critique by legitimating structural inequality; and the diversion of religious institutions' capacity from structural advocacy to spiritual performance. Against prosperity theology, this research recovers the authentic prophetic tradition as the normative theological framework for addressing poverty: a tradition in which God takes the concrete side of the poor, and in which the treatment of the most vulnerable is the primary test of a community's faithfulness. Analytical method was adopted alongside the utilization of books, journals and internert sources. The researcher concludes with a four-dimensional call for prophetic theological reformation in Nigerian Christianity, arguing that recovery of structural justice theology is a condition for authentic church engagement with child poverty. Policy implications for religious institutions, theological seminaries, and governance are drawn.