3 new trends in how Americans read and engage with the Bible
3 trends have surfaced through this research by Barna Group, produced in partnership with American Bible Society, about the Bible’s role in and influence on American society (emphasis added):
- The steady rise of skepticism is creating a cultural atmosphere that is becoming unfriendly—sometimes even hostile—to claims of faith.
- The broader culture has adopted self-fulfillment as its ultimate measure of moral good.
- The explosive growth of digital tools such as Bible apps, daily reading plans, study resources and online communities offer unprecedented access to the Scriptures.
Read an excerpt from this recent article from Barna Group—
Bible Engagement in a New World
For more than 30 years, Barna has studied the Bible’s role in and influence on American society, painstakingly collecting the pieces of data we need to understand the big picture.
And for the past six years, we have partnered with American Bible Society to add depth and detail to the picture, and to identify how it is changing over time. Since 2011, Barna has conducted more than 14,000 “State of the Bible” interviews with American adults and teens on behalf of American Bible Society. We have learned much, even as we continue to discover new and better ways of describing the impact of the Scriptures on Americans’ hearts, homes and communities.
There are three major changes that are reshaping the landscape in which we read and engage with the Bible. These shifts are most apparent among today’s youngest generations so, in a sense, they give shape to the present and future reality within which we read and interact with the Bible.
Read the rest of the article at barna.org and how Barna’s new publication, The Bible in America: The Changing Landscape of Bible Perceptions and Engagement, evaluates a robust set of data in light of these three trends.