Reverend Ike (Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II)

Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II (1935–2009), universally known as Reverend Ike, was an American preacher and broadcaster based in New York City who became, in the 1970s, one of the most famous and flamboyant prosperity teachers in the United States.

Born in Ridgeland, South Carolina, of African and Indo-Dutch descent, he began as a Pentecostal-style healing evangelist but broke from traditional Christianity to preach what he called the “Science of Living” — an unapologetic fusion of New Thought mental-power teaching with prosperity theology.

From his United Church Science of Living Institute (housed in a former movie palace he bought in 1969), his weekly radio and television sermons reached hundreds of stations and millions of listeners at his peak. Reverend Ike’s signature contribution to the mind-power lineage was to push the New Thought prosperity premise to its most explicit, charismatic, and openly money-focused extreme.

He coined “Thinkonomics” — the doctrine that thought and self-image are the true engines of wealth — and famously inverted scripture with lines like “the lack of money is the root of all evil” and “you can’t lose with the stuff I use.” His showmanship, luxury, and “Blessing Plan” fundraising drew heavy criticism (including accusations of exploitation), and he sits at the controversial edge of the tradition.

But doctrinally he is a direct, popularized descendant of Quimby-Hill-Peale New Thought: change your mind about money and yourself, he taught, and your conditions follow — “close your eyes and see green. Money up to your armpits.”