cover image The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America

The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America

Kenneth A. Briggs. Eerdmans, $25 (255p) ISBN 978-0802869135

According to religion journalist Briggs, yearly sales of the Bible in the U.S. are “generally agreed to be around twenty-five million copies.” So why isn’t the Bible read more, especially by religious readers who view it as central to their faith? In this sometimes plodding but mostly fascinating book, Briggs interviews a cross-section of audiences in an effort to find some answers. Some people, like Episcopalian Philip Turner of the American Bible Society, claim that traditional worship resources—such as the Book of Common Prayer—weave Scripture throughout them, educating worshippers about biblical references and stories. Many people say that they don’t read the Bible—even though they might own one—because they can’t understand it. In addition, Briggs points to the displacement of biblical values by secular values, the tension between critical and spiritual readings of the Bible, and the ongoing struggle between science and religion as possible reasons for the decline in Bible reading in America today. Briggs’s alternately fascinating and prosaic book rehashes the old news that the Bible is America’s bestselling (but least read) book and finds hope that many readers will continue to think of the Bible as a living entity, not just a collection of facts. (Sept.)