Word of Faith Movements debt to New Thought

Its Debt to New Thought

It is important to note at the outset that the bulk of Faith theology can be traced directly to the cultic teachings of New Thought metaphysics. Thus, much of the theology of the Faith movement can also be found in such clearly pseudo-Christian cults as Religious Science, Christian Science, and the Unity School of Christianity.

Over a century before the Faith movement became a powerful force within the Christian church, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866), the father of New Thought, was popularizing the notion that sickness and suffering ultimately have their origin in incorrect thinking.2 Quimby’s followers held that man could create his own reality through the power of positive affirmation (confession).3 Metaphysical practitioners have long taught adherents to visualize health and wealth, and then to affirm or confess them with their mouths so that the intangible images may be transformed into tangible realities.4

Although proponents of Faith theology have attempted to sanitize the metaphysical concept of the “power of mind” by substituting in its stead the “force of faith,” for all practical purposes they have made a distinction without a difference. New Thought writer Warren Felt Evans, for example, wrote that “faith is the most intense form of mental action.”5 In treating a patient, Evans commented that “the effect of the suggestion [or positive affirmation that the patient is well] is the result of the faith of the subject, for it is always proportioned to the degree in which the patient believes what you say” (emphasis in original).6 Likewise, H. Emilie Cady, a well-known writer for Charles and Myrtle Fillmore’s Unity School of Christianity, explained that “our affirming, backed by faith, is the link that connects our conscious human need with His power and supply.”7 Cady also claimed that “there is power in our word of faith to bring all good things right into our everyday life.”8 Such statements strongly indicate that the distinction between the “mind” of metaphysics and the “faith” of Faith theology is nothing but a figment of the imagination.

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