The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America

by Kenneth A. Briggs

Overview

A personal and journalistic inquiry into the Bible's disappearance from American life

In The Invisible Bestseller veteran religion writer Kenneth Briggs asks how the Bible remains the best-selling book of all time, while fewer Americans than ever can correctly articulate what it says, much less how it might offer guidance for their lives.

How can a book — one that's found in courthouses, libraries, and millions of households across the land — be everywhere and nowhere at the same time?

In his quest to make sense of the Bible's relative dis-appearance from public life, Briggs leads readers on a rollicking exploration that includes visits to Family Christian Stores, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the kitchen tables of everyday families. He offers insight on the Bible's current position in American public life and suggests where it may be headed next.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467445603
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	255
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kenneth A. Briggs is a journalist and commentator who worked for many years as religion writer for Newsday and as religion editor for The New York Times. He has taught journalism and religion at Columbia University, Lafayette College, and Lehigh University. His previous books include The Power of Forgiveness and Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns.

Editorial Reviews

09/26/2016
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.)

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews
"[A] knowledgeable account of how the Bible lumbers on in America, not as widely read but still precious to a core of believers."

E. J. Dionne Jr.
— author of Souled Out and Why the Right Went Wrong
"We buy a lot of Bibles but don't read them. We occasionally quote the Bible but mostly for our own immediate purposes. Ken Briggs, one of our most thoughtful religious writers, calls us to a new engagement with Scripture by offering a richly persuasive case for why the Bible still matters."

Diane Winston
— publisher of Religion Dispatches
"Briggs's penetrating study is a welcome addition to our understanding of how religion functions in everyday life. Deeply humane and beautifully written, The Invisible Bestseller introduces readers to the ways in which Americans do and don't understand the Bible and demonstrates why it remains foundational even when its teachings are hidden in plain sight."

From the Publisher

2016-07-05
How the Bible continues a downward slide in use and comprehension in both society and the church.Former Newsday and New York Times religion editor Briggs (Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betrayal of American Nuns, 2006, etc.) explores the place held by Christian Scripture in modern America. “After centuries of highlighting the printed Word,” writes the author, “the specter of Bibleless Christianity, or something close to it, looms on the horizon.” Briggs assumes an American Christianity that, until the 1960s, placed a great deal of emphasis on Bible reading and study and a culture immersed in scriptural literacy. From that height, the Bible’s role in America has plummeted by comparison. Though Bibles still sell well, they are not widely read. Briggs explains at length that Bibles are still purchased as gifts in high numbers and that digital versions of the Bible are downloaded by the millions. However, fewer churches are encouraging, let alone expecting, regular Bible reading. The author also spends time exploring the trend away from biblical literalism in American Christianity and how that has affected Bible use. In a related vein, he looks at the continuing divide between academia and clergy in how the Bible is read, interpreted, and taught. Increasingly, academics have studied the Bible not as a sacred work but as a piece of literature to be examined using critical principles. This does little to assist the preacher or the people in the pews who hope to glean life lessons, hope, and ethical direction from the text. Briggs also explores the role that the digital age has had on Bible reading and distribution. A commendable mark of Briggs’ work is his ever present use of anecdotal stories. Though on their own they cannot fully form an argument about nationwide Scripture use, they do put needed faces on the trends that the author describes. A somewhat depressing but knowledgeable account of how the Bible lumbers on in America, not as widely read but still precious to a core of believers.

Kirkus Reviews