Author Guide · Memoir, Faith & Religious History
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In 2015 Kate Bowler, a historian at Duke Divinity School who had spent about a decade studying the American prosperity gospel — the belief that faith and the right attitude bring health and wealth — was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. She was 35, with a young son. Her essay “Death, the Prosperity Gospel and Me” ran in The New York Times on 14 February 2016, and the flood of letters it brought, many explaining why her illness must be part of a plan, became the material for her first memoir. Since then she has written about living inside the promises she once studied from the outside, in memoirs, devotionals and blessings, and hosts the podcast Everything Happens. This guide covers her eight key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 2013–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Kate Bowler has written eight books: two academic histories, Blessed (2013) and The Preacher’s Wife (2019); two memoirs, Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) (2018) and No Cure for Being Human (2021); three books of devotions and blessings (2022–2024); and Joyful, Anyway (2026). Start with Everything Happens for a Reason, the memoir of her diagnosis at 35.
Where to Start with Kate Bowler
If you want the book that made her name
→ Everything Happens for a Reason (2018) — her diagnosis, and the prosperity gospel she had studied.
If you want what came after the shock
→ No Cure for Being Human (2021) — building a life with no cure in sight.
If you want the history behind it all
→ Blessed (2013) — the prosperity gospel, from the inside.
If you want something short for hard days
→ Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! (2024) — one page of reflection a day.
8 Kate Bowler Books, in Order
Blessed
Her first book, published by Oxford University Press and based on her doctoral research at Duke. It traces the prosperity gospel in the United States and Canada, the teaching that faith, positive speech and giving bring health and money, from its early-twentieth-century roots to televangelism and the megachurches, drawing on years of visits to churches and interviews with pastors and believers.
Everything Happens for a Reason
Published by Random House in February 2018, it grew out of her 2016 New York Times essay. Bowler tells the story of her stage IV cancer diagnosis at 35, months after the birth of her son, and turns on herself the prosperity-gospel promises she had studied, along with the well-meant platitudes people offered her. It became a New York Times bestseller and won a Christopher Award in 2019.
The Preacher’s Wife
A history, published by Princeton University Press, of the women who became celebrities in American evangelicalism from the 1970s onwards, among them Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer and Victoria Osteen. Most of their traditions do not ordain women, so their power is unofficial, often held through a husband’s ministry, and Bowler shows how they balance celebrity culture against conservative, male-led churches.
No Cure for Being Human
Her second memoir, published by Random House in September 2021, written years into treatment rather than in the first shock of diagnosis. She takes on the “best life now” self-help industry and its promise that effort and positivity can overcome any limit, and asks how to go on with ambition, faith and family inside a life she did not choose. It was an instant New York Times bestseller.
Good Enough
Her first devotional, written with Jessica Richie, published by Convergent in February 2022. About forty short Christian reflections that treat life as a chronic condition rather than a project of endless improvement: some things can be fixed and some cannot. It was a New York Times bestseller.
The Lives We Actually Have
A second book with Jessica Richie, published in February 2023: a hundred short blessings written for specific, ordinary and difficult moments of a life, rather than for the life people wish they had.
Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!
Daily meditations published in January 2024, with short reflections and small practical steps for good, bad and ordinary days. Bowler wrote it while living with chronic pain, and frames the reflections as something like modern psalms.
Joyful, Anyway
Published by The Dial Press on 7 April 2026. Drawing on a decade of living with serious illness and on her study of America’s fixation on progress, Bowler argues that joy is different from happiness and does not depend on life getting better, and suggests practices such as loosening control, seeking novelty and choosing charity.
In What Order to Read Kate Bowler
Her books do not depend on each other, but they fall into three groups. Blessed and The Preacher’s Wife are academic histories, footnoted and written for readers interested in American religion. The two memoirs and Joyful, Anyway are narrative books about living with cancer. Good Enough, The Lives We Actually Have and Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! are short daily readings, meant to be dipped into.
Reading the memoirs in order shows a change: Everything Happens for a Reason is about the shock of diagnosis, No Cure for Being Human about the long years afterwards, and Joyful, Anyway about what is left to love. Blessed makes most sense after the first memoir, once you know why the prosperity gospel matters to her.
A reading path
1. Everything Happens for a Reason (2018)
2. No Cure for Being Human (2021)
3. Blessed (2013)
4. Joyful, Anyway (2026)
The years · 1980–2026
Quick facts about Kate Bowler
- Known for
- Writing about the American prosperity gospel, first as its historian and then, after a stage IV cancer diagnosis at 35, as someone living inside its promises.
- 1980
- Born in London; grows up in Winnipeg
- 2026
- Joyful, Anyway
- Born
- 16 June 1980, London; raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Education
- Macalester College (BA), Yale Divinity School (MAR), Duke University (PhD)
- Works
- Associate Professor of American Religious History, Duke Divinity School
- Diagnosis
- Stage IV colon cancer, 2015, at 35
- Podcast
- Everything Happens with Kate Bowler, since 2018
- Honours
- Christopher Award (2019) for Everything Happens for a Reason
The red mark is 2018: Everything Happens for a Reason, the memoir of her diagnosis.
How Kate Bowler Writes: A Historian Inside Her Own Subject
Bowler writes as a historian first. Blessed and The Preacher’s Wife are built on years of fieldwork: sitting in megachurch services, interviewing pastors and believers, reading their books and sermons. She treats the people she studies sympathetically and lets them speak, and saves her judgement for the ideas.
Her memoirs keep that habit and turn it on herself. In Everything Happens for a Reason she finds that she too had believed, quietly, that a good life would be rewarded, and the book is as much about that discovery as about cancer. She writes in short scenes, with a lot of humour, and lists the things people say to the sick, such as “everything happens for a reason”, as material to examine rather than to resent.
The devotionals and blessings, written with Jessica Richie, use the same voice in small units: a single page, a single moment, no promise that it will turn out well. For writers who look at illness, faith and hard days with the same honesty, see Authors like Kate Bowler.
Watch
Kate Bowler: “Everything happens for a reason” and other lies
Bowler’s talk at TEDMED 2018 on her diagnosis at 35, the prosperity gospel and what people say to explain suffering.
Frequently asked questions about Kate Bowler’s books
How many books has Kate Bowler written?
Eight: Blessed (2013), Everything Happens for a Reason (2018), The Preacher’s Wife (2019), No Cure for Being Human (2021), Good Enough (2022), The Lives We Actually Have (2023), Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! (2024) and Joyful, Anyway (2026). Two of them, Good Enough and The Lives We Actually Have, are co-written with Jessica Richie.
What are Kate Bowler’s books in order?
Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (2013), Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) (2018), The Preacher’s Wife (2019), No Cure for Being Human (2021), Good Enough (2022), The Lives We Actually Have (2023), Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! (2024) and Joyful, Anyway (2026).
Where should I start with Kate Bowler?
With Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) (2018), the memoir of her cancer diagnosis at 35. It explains both her illness and the prosperity gospel she had studied, which runs through everything she has written since.
What is Kate Bowler’s most famous book?
Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) (2018), a New York Times bestseller that won a Christopher Award in 2019. It grew out of her 2016 New York Times essay “Death, the Prosperity Gospel and Me”.
Is Kate Bowler still alive?
Yes. She was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in 2015, at 35, and was given a poor prognosis; the cancer is not curable but responded to immunotherapy. She still teaches at Duke Divinity School, hosts her podcast and published Joyful, Anyway in April 2026.
What does Kate Bowler write about?
The American prosperity gospel, the belief that faith and the right attitude bring health and wealth, and what happens when life does not cooperate: illness, limits and the pressure to find a silver lining. She writes both as a historian of American religion and from her own experience of cancer.
What is the prosperity gospel?
A strand of mainly American Christianity which teaches that faith, positive speech and generous giving are rewarded with health and money. Bowler’s Blessed (2013) is a history of the movement, from its early-twentieth-century roots to televangelists and megachurches.
Who is Jessica Richie?
Bowler’s long-time collaborator, who co-wrote Good Enough (2022) and The Lives We Actually Have (2023) with her and works with her on Everything Happens.
What is the Everything Happens podcast?
Everything Happens with Kate Bowler, a podcast she has hosted since 2018, in which she talks with guests about grief, illness, faith and other things that cannot be fixed. It has released more than 270 episodes.
What is Kate Bowler’s newest book?
Joyful, Anyway, published by The Dial Press on 7 April 2026. It argues that joy is not the same as happiness and does not wait for life to improve.
Footnotes
- Kate Bowler — Wikipedia
- Kate Bowler — Duke Divinity School
- No Cure for Being Human — Penguin Random House
- Kate Bowler on The Preacher’s Wife — Princeton University Press
- Joyful, Anyway — Harvard Book Store
- “Everything happens for a reason” — and other lies I’ve loved — TED
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I believe that in the darkness, even there, there will be beauty and there will be love.”
— Kate Bowler, “Everything happens for a reason” — and other lies I’ve loved, TEDMED talk (2018)
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