Brianna Fitzpatrick grew up in a Christian family and felt a strong connection to a higher power. But it wasn't until this time last year that the young New York-based artist decided to purchase her first Bible.
The inspiration came to Fitzpatrick when she was sitting with her father and watching a documentary about him “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson.
“He pulled out his Bible and… you could tell he'd had it for decades and decades. It had it bound with duct tape,” Fitzpatrick said. Fox News Digital. She began to imagine having a Bible of her own that she could pass down for generations, full of notes and observations that her children could read and “see how the Lord spoke to me through them.”
Fitzpatrick is among young people buying the Bible for the first time and, publishers say, fueling a new boom in sales.
Artist Brianna Fitzpatrick's father regularly read the Bible to her when she was a child, and as she got older, she downloaded a free Bible app. But that came with pop-ups and other ads that she said distracted her from her reading. She also missed the ability to write with pen on paper, highlight and take notes while reading. So, last December, she bought her first Bible. (Photos courtesy of Brianna Fitzpatrick/via Instagram)
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Bible sales They rose 22% during October compared to the same period last year, according to data released this month by Circana Bookscan. Total print book sales in the United States rose just 1%, according to the Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the trend.
“The religious book market has been a bright spot of growth within the overall book market since the pandemic,” Brenna Connor, industry analyst at Circana, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The Bibles are leading this growth, but other subjects such as Christian living and biblical studies are also on the rise, reflecting growing interest in Christian topics in the United States.”
Print Bible sales hit a five-year low, at just under 8.9 million, in 2020, according to Circana data, before starting to rise again. Circana reported sales exceeded 13.7 million in the first 10 months of this year.
The increase in Bible sales comes at a time when opinion polls show a decline in religiosity across the country.
The percentage of Americans who belong to the Christian faith reached a low of 68% last year, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Gallup polls. Half a century ago, 87 percent of U.S. adults identified as Christians, Gallup found. About 28% of American adults are now not religiously affiliated, according to Pew Research.
“Some people, sure, they're not going back to church, but they're reaching out to the Bible,” the Minnesota-based church says Bishop Robert Barron He told Fox News Digital.
Bishop Robert Barron attributed the surge in Bible sales to a renewed search for meaning, purpose and value. (Fox News Digital)
“Let's face it, the Bible has been — certainly for Western civilization, but even throughout the world — the primary source of meaning, purpose and value,” Barron said. “I think people are returning to the Bible in greater numbers because they are looking for it, and they know instinctively that they will find it.”
He also speculated Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson He could be an addition to this trend, because he was “talking about the biblical text in a way that people find very compelling.” Baron added that he is seeing a marked shift away from the New Atheism of the early 2000s.
“I think at first some people thought: ‘Oh, great. Stick it to the man, and I'm against religion.” “But when you take that message into account,” Baron said, “what are you left with? “It’s complete nihilism,” he said, adding that he was not surprised by the high infection rates Depression and anxiety and Thinking about suicideespecially among young people. “This is what happens when you say there is no meaning or purpose.”
Likewise, publishers have suggested that the boom in the Bible may be a natural result of a general feeling of anxiety in the world.
“I think people are hungry for truth, hungry for purpose and meaning and a sense of direction, especially over the last few years,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think a lot of us are wondering: What's going on? Who do we trust? What do we turn to?”
Fitzpatrick said the most poignant verse she has read in the year since purchasing her Bible is Matthew 6:33. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest will follow,” she recited. (Istock)
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Fitzpatrick said having a physical Bible revolutionized her spiritual journey. She has read the Bible every day since she made the purchase, and has even started attending Bible study groups.
She shared her purchases on social media, and said her followers were supportive and even inspired to buy their own Bibles — or remove a long-discarded copy.
“It’s great to see how God uses social media and things that can sometimes have a very bad reputation,” she said, adding, “But (He) can use them to shine His love and light through people.”
