"The Rise and Fall of the Bible"

[patrick457]

(Continued)

George Gallup Jr. once lamented: “Americans revere the Bible—but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.” This has become a rallying cry for a renewed commitment in education in biblical literature among churches and in the general public. Beal argues that while this is all well and good, it is also important to understand why general biblical literacy is so low.

There is one theory that biblical literacy is simply a subset of book literacy, which according to polls, is clearly declining as “newer digital media scoop more and more market share and leisure time.” However, there are some puzzling details we need to take into account.

First, while biblical literacy is extremely low, popular reverence for the Bible is extremely high. …] About three-quarters of Americans believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and almost half of those say that it should be taken literally, word for word, as such. Roughly half of all Americans believe that the Bible “answers all or most of the basic questions in life” – and 28 percent of them admit that they rarely or never read it! There seems to be no correlation between reading the Bible and revering it. The Bible appears to be the most revered book never read.

The second curious thing is, while the Bible is not really a well-read book nowadays, Bible sales are currently on the rise and is earning considerable profit. According to Beal,

The biggest Bible publishers in this highly competitive business guard their sales data closely, but reliable industry sources estimate that 2007 saw about 25 million Bibles sold, generating revenues of about $770 million in the United States alone. That was an increase of more than 26 percent since 2005, which saw U.S. sales of about $609 million. In fact, the Bible-publishing business has been enjoying a healthy compounded growth rate of close to 10 percent per year for several years. Even during the high point of economic crisis in late 2008, when other book sales were hurting badly, Bible sales continued to boom, with an estimated $823.5 million that year. Indeed, Bible publishing tends to thrive during times of war and financial disaster. Although it’s too early to know for sure as I write, it may well turn out that the latest economic bust will be another boom time for Bible business.

This strange phenomenon prompts another question:

Could it be that biblical literacy is being replaced by biblical consumerism? In today’s consumer culture, we are what we buy, wear, and carry. We identify ourselves by our patterns of consumer choices, by the market niches we buy into. It’s gone beyond that post-Cartesian proof of existence, “I shop, therefore I am.” Today, it’s closer to “I shop for what I am.” The culture industry makes and markets identities. I want to be outdoorsy, so I buy a lot of Gore-Tex, some “Life is good” shirts, and a Yakima rack for my Subaru. High school and college students identify the cultures on different campuses by brands: this school is very Hollister; that one’s more American Apparel.
At the same time, we consumers are convinced that the shortest route to self-improvement is through new products. Products change lives, right? My big New Year’s resolution might be to become an organized person. So the first thing I do is go to the home store and buy a bunch of plastic boxes. Never mind the empty ones in my basement that I bought a year ago.
Or say that I want to strengthen my identity as a Christian and grow deeper in my faith. I want a more God-centered life. I want to be “in the Word.” I feel like I should be reading the Bible a lot more than I do. After all, like most people, I believe that the Bible is God’s Word, that it’s totally correct in all of its teachings, and that it holds the answers to all of life’s most basic questions. So what do I do? Buy a Bible. Or, more likely, buy another Bible. A marketing executive at a major evangelical publishing company told me that, according to their research, the average Christian household owns nine Bibles and purchases at least one new Bible every year.

Again, comments?

 

[patrick457]

Bump!

 

[Jaypeeto4]

It sounds, from the comments in all the posts above,
like a really interesting book to read.

The title, though, The Rise and Fall of the Bible,
bothers me.

It’s one thing to jettison “sola” scriptura and to learn to realize that the Bible
is not a question and answer textbook with cut and dried individual answers
to all of life’s problems (( I know of Christians who, literally, deliberately flip through the
bible, kinda fanning the pages, and stop, and put their finger down, and read that verse,
and assume that THAT verse is what God “wants them to read” and that it contains just what they need at the moment, kind of like a divinely-provided, finger-placement.
This is not bible study, it really is a form of superstition, kind of like playing
tarot cards or something )).

It’s another thing entirely to assert that the bible has “Fallen.”

I want to read this book for myself to see fully what the author is “getting at.”
Thank you so much to the O.P. for letting us all know about it.

Peace,
Jaypeeto4

 

[patrick457]

It’s one thing to jettison “sola” scriptura and to learn to realize that the Bible
is not a question and answer textbook with cut and dried individual answers
to all of life’s problems (( I know of Christians who, literally, deliberately flip through the
bible, kinda fanning the pages, and stop, and put their finger down, and read that verse,
and assume that THAT verse is what God “wants them to read” and that it contains just what they need at the moment, kind of like a divinely-provided, finger-placement.
This is not bible study, it really is a form of superstition, kind of like playing
tarot cards or something )).

Funny thing is, the author indulged in that when he was a child (pp. 2-3):

My own youthful version of biblical faith, however, shaped at least as much by the emerging Christian pop youth culture of the 1970s as by my parents, was considerably less sophisticated. I tended to approach the Bible as though it were a divine oracle of truth, the ultimate Magic 8 Ball. Ask it a question and it would give you God’s answer. I’d close my eyes while flipping through it like dictionary, stop at random, and point my index finger somewhere on the open page, trusting that it would land on the passage I needed to read at that particular moment. This mode of biblical divination remains popular among kids as well as adults to this day. Many people tell miracle stories about how it gave them exactly the life-changing answer they needed. For me, not so much.

“Does Joanne like me?”
Flip, flip, flip. Stop. Point.
“He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 23:1).​

It reminds me of that joke about a guy deciding to pick out two key verses in the Bible and getting "Judas went and hanged himself" and “Go thou and do likewise” as a result.

It’s another thing entirely to assert that the bible has “Fallen.”

What has ‘fallen’ here is the ‘Bible’ as popular culture imagines it: a clear, ready-made book of answers. In fact, for the author, the Bible essentially refutes this notion itself. For Beal, the Bible ‘kills’ and deconstructs itself: actually cracking open its pages undermines the iconic idea of it as a univocal book. It’s not a simplistic black-and-white ‘book of answers’ but a library of endless shades of grey, filled with mystery, ambiguity, and unanswered questions.

I want to read this book for myself to see fully what the author is “getting at.”
Thank you so much to the O.P. for letting us all know about it.

Peace,
Jaypeeto4

You’re welcome. I’ve just finished reading the book yesterday in one sitting (though I did fall asleep right in the middle ), and I’ll go back to posting.