The Bible and Digital Millennials

David G. Ford, Joshua L. Mann, Peter M. Phillips

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367788087
• eBook ISBN: 9780429788963
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The Bible and Digital Millennials explores the place of the Bible in the lives of 18 to 35 year-olds who have been born into the digital age. As the use of digital media becomes increasingly pervasive, it should follow that it will have a significant effect on people's engagement with religion and the sacred texts associated with it. Drawing on contemporary in-depth surveys, this study unpacks digital millennials' stance towards, use of and engagement with the Bible in both offline and online settings.

The book features results from a nationally representative survey of 2, 000 young British people specifically commissioned for this project. The data is also compared with the findings of others, including a poll of 850 British Bible-centric Christians and recent Bible engagement surveys from the USA.

This book investigates the relevance of the Bible to the lives of those who have grown up in the digital age. It will, therefore, offer fresh insight to any scholar of biblical studies, religion and digital media, and religious studies.

1 Digital millennials

Their stance towards the Bible

This study of the Bible and digital millennials principally considers three areas: stance, use and social media. This chapter considers how young adults described their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and views about the Bible. These phenomena can be described as someone’s “stance” towards the Bible, something akin to their general disposition. While it is relatively common for Bible surveys to explore some of these aspects, such as belief, our approach is broader, understanding there to be many factors that influence how people relate to the Bible. To that end, multiple questions are used to provide a wide variety of data that, when brought together, paints a vivid picture of how digital millennials perceive the Bible.

The body of this chapter outlines the six questions asked in this area and explores the responses of these young adults. At the end, these findings are discussed and brought into conversation with other studies on the place of the Bible in contemporary society or theories of religion. In doing so, we argue that a dominant stance held by digital millennials is one of qualified indifference towards the Bible.

Digital millennials’ feelings towards the Bible

Those surveyed were asked how they felt about the six major religions in Britain and their corresponding sacred texts. Specifically, they were asked:

How would you describe your feelings towards each of the following religions and sacred texts?

They were invited to respond using a five-point Likert scale to indicate how positively or negatively they felt towards each. This question purposely considers their affective response, their feelings. Often Bible surveys focus on belief, knowledge or use but not on emotions.

Digital millennials felt most positive towards the Bible (38%), followed by the Tripitaka (Buddhist sacred text) (25%). Accordingly, Christianity (41%) and Buddhism (38%) were the religions they felt most positive about (see Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 Feelings towards the six main religions in Britain and their sacred texts

Religion/sacred text	Positive	Neither positive nor negative	Negative	Don’t know
Christianity	41%	39%	15%	5%
Bible	38%	40%	16%	6%
Buddhism	38%	42%	11%	8%
Tripitaka	25%	51%	11%	9%
Hinduism	27%	49%	12%	15%
Vedas	21%	52%	12%	13%
Judaism	23%	53%	14%	10%
Torah	23%	52%	13%	12%
Sikhism	23%	53%	12%	14%
Guru Granth Sahib	20%	44%	12%	7%
Islam	21%	44%	29%	8%
Qur’an	19%	51%	28%	18%

(n = 1,943).

However, although approximately 40% of digital millennials felt positive about the Bible and Christianity, a similar number felt neither positive nor negative towards them and approximately 15% had negative feelings. Indeed, for all the other sacred texts listed these young adults were most likely to have neutral feelings (neither positive nor negative): Guru Granth Sahib 44%; Tripitaka 51%; Qur’an 51%; Vedas 52%; and Torah 52% (the data for the corresponding religions were similar).

Thus, at the start of this enquiry, the first picture that emerges is that many digital millennials have neither positive nor negative feelings towards these six sacred texts and their religions. The slight exception is the Bible and Christianity (along with Buddhism), towards which a similar number of people feel positive as have neutral feelings. The reasons for this will be discussed at the end of the chapter, but at present, it is sufficient to highlight the sizeable number of people who responded indifferently (i.e. neither positively nor negatively) to the Bible and all other texts and religions.

While it would be interesting to explore the breakdown of all of this data the purpose of this study is to consider the Bible and digital millennials.¹ To that end, the figure below presents the data for feelings towards the Bible in light of religious identity (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Feelings towards the Bible in relation to religious identity (n = 1,879)²

* The sample of 1,879 is lower than 1,943 as it excludes the 3% who choose “prefer not to say” when asked about their religious affiliation. In addition to this, not all figures will add up to 100%. This is usually due to t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Epigraph
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Digital millennials: their stance towards the Bible
• 2 Digital millennials: their Bible use
• 3 Digital millennials: the Bible and social media
• 4 Bible-centric digital millennials
• 5 A comparison with the USA
• 6 Conclusion
• References
• Index