Norman Vincent Peale was one of the famous — and controversial — religious figures of the 20th century. Though not typically categorized as an evangelical, Peale perfected an upbeat style of preaching, a mastery of media, and a consumer-focused approach to ministry that influenced evangelical megachurches.
Peale started out as a Methodist minister and shifted to the Reformed Church in America when Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan hired him as pastor in 1932. Peale ran the historic church on Fifth Avenue and W. 29th St. for 52 years. Peale’s teaching drew from an eclectic mix of religious and secular sources: metaphysics, psychology, mysticism, medicine, and traditional evangelism.
Peale became convinced that the health of a person’s spiritual life directly affected his or her mental and physical condition. He teamed up with Freud-trained psychiatrist Dr. Smiley Blanton to found a Religio-Psychiatric Clinic in 1937 that attracted hospital patients as well as church attendees. Peale’s novel approach and prominent pulpit catapulted him into notoriety. Peale participated in conservative causes — he attacked the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt from the start — and aligned with like-minded industrialists who bankrolled his projects. (Peale participated in an ugly effort by Protestant ministers to derail John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign on the grounds that a Catholic could not truly be loyal to the United States.)
Peale is best known today for his book, The Power of Positive Thinking, published in 1952. Peale summed it up as “applied Christianity; a simple yet scientific system of practical techniques of successful living that works.” Peale’s results-oriented ministry and his bullet-point approach to preaching appealed to the business class. He welcomed being billed as “a businessman’s preacher.”
Peale was an industry of his own. The Power of Positive Thinking resided on the New York Times’ bestseller list for 186 consecutive weeks, selling millions of copies. Peale had a weekly NBC radio program, a weekly television show, a nationally syndicated newspaper column, Guideposts magazine, regular contributions to Reader’s Digest, and even a line of Hallmark greeting cards. Peale’s Foundation for Christian Living served as the clearinghouse for many of these ventures.
A real estate developer from Queens, Fred C. Trump, found succor in Peale’s business-friendly teachings. Marble Collegiate became the Trump family church: Peale officiated at Donald’s marriage to Ivana in 1977, Donald’s sisters were also wed there, and his parents’ funerals were conducted in the main sanctuary. Trump and his future second wife, Marla Maples, both attended Marble Collegiate.
Peale’s teachings about self-confidence, picturing success, and denying negative thoughts were custom-made for the Trumps. When Donald Trump encountered downturns in his business career, such as when his businesses filed for bankruptcy, he clung to Peale’s teachings. “What helped is that I refused to give in to the negative circumstances and I never lost faith in myself,” he said in 2009. “I refused to be sucked into negative thinking on any level, even when the indications weren’t great. That was a good lesson because I emerged on a very victorious level.”
Peale had plenty of critics who saw his positive thinking as a shallow form of denialism. Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran Church of America, denounced Peale’s “positive thinking,” saying “there is nothing more sinister … than that instrumentalization of religion — the use of God to accomplish a specific aim.” That is precisely why Peale was popular and why he has had so many imitators, especially in the prosperity-gospel megachurches. To Peale, Christianity was a power source that needed to be unlocked and harnessed. He reduced everything to the individual level — there was no place in his formula for government-run social welfare programs — and taught that people could change their lot in life by picturing a positive outcome, surrendering it to God’s will, and watching the picture turn to reality. There are few more American traits than an optimism in upward mobility, and few will succeed more than those who can skillfully exploit it.