In 2024, Bible sales in the U.S. experienced a notable surge — and one of the country’s best-known Catholic Bible scholars is hopeful that the increase is not an outlier but a trend.
According to a December report by The Wall Street Journal, Bible sales were up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October 2024 compared with the same period in the previous year, based on data from book tracker Circana BookScan. By comparison, total sales of U.S. print books grew by less than 1% during that same period.
The Journal report seems to align with Scott Hahn’s experience this fall, when his St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology released the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible with Ignatius Press. Orders for the new study Bible poured in; it is currently sold out on the Ignatius Press website, and the St. Paul Center’s initial order is nearly sold out as well.
Commenting on both the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible and the recent increase in Bible sales, Hahn, a professor of biblical theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, told OSV that he was encouraged by the boost, adding, “I am confident this surge will continue among Catholics.”
Hahn noted that strong sales of the new study Bible was just one example among many confirming his sense that “Catholics have a voracious and growing hunger to understand the word of God.”
New audiences seeking solace
The growing demand for Bibles in 2024 comes even as the Pew Research Center recently found that 28% of U.S. adults consider themselves religiously unaffiliated. However, the same study suggested that some “nones” are open to religious ideas: 70% say they believe in God or another higher power, and 58% think that religion has certain benefits for society.
Publishers and experts cited by The Wall Street Journal pointed to several factors behind the increase in Bible sales, including a growing demand for comfort and solace in uncertain times, targeted marketing efforts aimed at attracting new audiences — especially young people — and the introduction of new formats and versions of the Bible across various platforms.
“People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren,” Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, told the Journal. “It’s related to artificial intelligence, election cycles … and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”
Recent trends in social media and podcasting may have contributed to the increase in Bible sales among young people. As noted by the Journal, Cely Vazquez, a 28-year-old influencer and artist with 1.1 million followers on TikTok, bought her first Bible in October.
“Now at 28 years old, I’ve been finding myself having this deeper craving for really understanding what it means to walk with God, and I definitely think that starts with reading and understanding the Bible,” she said in her Oct. 17, 2024, TikTok. “So that’s my next step. And it took me a while to get there, but I’m so happy I’m here.”
Other influencers on TikTok have received positive reactions to videos outlining different editions of the Bible.
New versions, formats and Bible studies
In the podcasting sphere, Father Mike Schmitz’s “The Bible in a Year” with Ascension Press has been downloaded more than 700 million times since its 2021 release and had the largest exclusive listener audience of any podcast in the U.S. as of April 2024. The podcast, comprising 365 episodes, offers commentary, prayer and reflections as Father Schmitz guides listeners through the entire Bible.
The reading plan Father Schmitz follows is inspired by The Great Adventure Catholic Bible developed by Jeff Cavins, which remained sold out through Ascension Press for months after “The Bible in a Year” launched.
Now it’s the St. Paul Center and Ignatius Press that are trying to keep up with higher-than-expected demand.
“We at the (St. Paul Center) have been overwhelmed by the interest in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible,” Mark Daley, vice president of operations at the St. Paul Center, told OSV. “This is a Bible that many Catholics have been waiting two decades for, and we believe anyone who opens it will recognize just how remarkable of a gift it is for our Church.”
Edited by Hahn and Curtis J. Mitch, the Bible features comprehensive notes, detailed maps, introductory essays, more than 17,000 footnotes and over 1,700 cross-references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Hahn pointed out that any growth of interest in the Bible among Catholics has not come out of nowhere.
“Among Catholics, the ground has been prepared for over 20 years by our work at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology,” he said. “Our mission is to teach all Catholics how to read Sacred Scripture from the heart of the Church. We strive to promote biblical literacy for the laity and biblical fluency among clergy and educators.”
“The St. Paul Center is not alone in doing this work,” he continued. “There’s Ascension Press, the Augustine Institute, Word on Fire and many others promoting authentically Catholic Scripture study. What we’re seeing is the fruit of decades of our combined sowing — and, as Jesus said, the seed is the Word of God.”
