Last month the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University published a report entitled “The Bible in American Life.” It provides the results of a national study that examined how Americans use the Bible in their personal daily lives (outside of worship services or Christian education settings) and how other influences, including religious communities and the Internet, shape individuals’ use of scripture.
The study contains some really interesting findings. For example, nearly half of all Americans have read the Bible or the Torah or the Koran within the past year outside of religious services. Among those who have read the Bible in the past year, 17% of those people indicated that they actually read it every day. Within the population as a whole, then, 9% of Americans read the Bible every day.
Regarding people's views of the Bible, even among those who have not read the Bible in the past year, 50% indicated that they believed it to be the "inspired Word of God." The report thus pointed out that there is not a strong correlation to holding a particular view of the Bible (a high view of scripture) and actually reading it. Nevertheless, if you are sitting on a bus, more than 75% of your fellow riders hold a high view of scripture as inspired or inerrant. And 1 out of 10 of your fellow riders will have read the Bible that day. (If you want to take an educated guess at who that person was, read the study's sections on gender, race, age, region of the country, and other demographic factors as these correspond to Bible reading.)
As a professor of biblical studies I was most surprised by the finding related to where people go to get answers when they have questions about the Bible. In our technology infused world, I would have expected the internet to be the main source. But, in fact, among those readers who actively seek answers to their questions, the top source was clergy, even over commentaries, television/radio programs, and the internet. (Regrettably the questionnaire apparently did not give respondents the option of selecting "their favorite Bible professor" as an answer--so we'll never know...). This finding suggests, though, the ongoing and real impact of seminary and divinity school education within society, as graduates not only preach the Bible in their worship services but serve as resources to their congregants who have questions about the Bible they are reading.
