From Plato to Pentecostalism: Sickness and Deliverance in the Theology of Derek Prince

Abstract

This article analyses the intellectual sources and global influence of the demonology of Derek Prince (1915–2003), a former philosophy fellow of King's College, Cambridge, who, after his move to the United States in 1963, became a globally influential Pentecostal teacher and author. It argues that his academic expertise in the philosophy of Plato shaped his understanding of the invisible realm of spiritual powers and its impact on the health and material well-being of Christians. Prince's teaching on ancestral curses and the vulnerability of Christians to demonization has been widely received in Africa and other parts of the non-Western world, appearing to provide answers to endemic problems of chronic sickness and impoverishment.