Religion and Pastor Peale

Norman Vincent Peale was a pastor at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York from 1932 on. This was the height of The Great Depression. People waited for hours in long breadlines for scraps of food; they were so poor, they had to make their own shoes out of whatever cardboard-like material they could find. Within a few years, a World War broke out. Pastor Peale used what he had seen and experienced to preach and write numerous articles, and then a book based on biblical principles. But when he was about to publish it, editors advised that he make it a lay book, even though it contained the same concepts. The Power of Positive Thinking became a best seller. Now in our extremely divided era, he is sometimes criticized as New Thought. But this cannot diminish the fact that his book actually does contain biblical allusions as well as spiritual principles. This book would not have changed so many lives if it had been marketed as religious.