Bible Sales are up 22% compared to last year. Total book sales are up only 1% at the same time. Bible sales hit a five-year low of under 8.9 million in 2020, according to data. Sales surpassed 13.7 million in the first 10 months of this year. This deifies conventional wisdom, as polls indicated the country has never been less religious. According to Gallup, the share of Americans identifying with a Christian religion hit a low of 68% last year.
One woman told her story to Fox News Digital. She described watching a documentary about “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson. “He pulled out his Bible and … you could tell he’d had it for decades and decades. It was just held together with duct tape,” she said. She began to imagine having her own Bible that she could pass down for generations, filled with highlights and notes that her children could read and “see how the Lord spoke to me through it.”
Phil Robertson’s life story was made into a movie, ‘The Blind,‘ in 2023. According to his daughter, thousands have been baptized as a direct result of the film. She reminisced that “Phil said, from day one, ‘If it impacts one person, if one person changes their life and gives their life to Jesus, because of my story, because of the darkest parts of my story, I’ll do it. It’ll be worth it.‘”
Robertson has been battling a bout of serious health issues. Despite his medical woes, the head of the family is still “as sharp as ever” when it comes to his faith and knowledge of the Bible, according to his son. He explained “He goes right back to that, and so we find those are things that seem to comfort him. He still quotes the Bible and still talks about his faith in God, so I think that’s been comforting and something that he hasn’t lost yet.”
One industry analyst spoke about this trend. “The religion book market has been a bright spot of growth within the total book market since the pandemic,” said Brenna Connor. “Bibles are leading that growth, but other subjects like Christian Life and Biblical Studies are also up, reflecting increased interest for Christian subjects in the U.S.”
Bishop Robert Barron explains the issue. “Some people, sure they’re not going back to church, but they are reaching out to the Bible,” he said. Let’s face it, the Bible has been — certainly for Western civilization, but even all over the world — the main source of meaning, purpose, value,” Barron explained. “I think people are turning back to the Bible in greater numbers because they’re looking for that, and they realize instinctively they’re going to find it.”
“I think in the beginning some people thought, ‘Oh, great. Stick it to the man, and I’m against religion.‘ But when you take that message in, what are you left with? It’s a complete nihilism,” Barron said, adding that he hasn’t been surprised by rising rates of mental health issues, particularly among young people. “That’s what happens when you say there’s no meaning or purpose.”
The woman quoted earlier, explained her reasoning. “I do think people are hungry for truth, and hungry for purpose and meaning and a sense of direction, especially for the past few years,” she explained. “I think a lot of us are like, what is going on? Who do we trust? What do we turn to?’“ She added “It’s so neat to see how God uses social media and stuff, which can sometimes have a really bad rap…But [He] can use it to shine his love and his light through people.”