New research has suggested that non-Christian university students are reading the Bible greater than expected and that Christian students may possibly be reading it lower than expected.
The survey of just over 2,000 students across 186 different universities was conducted by the Savanta data centre on behalf of the Fusion student movement. It found that 12% of non-Christian students read the Bible a minimum of once per week, although this includes extremely minimal interaction, corresponding to seeing a Bible verse briefly on social media.
While one won’t expect non-Christians to be regular readers of the Bible, self-identified Christians would presumably read the Bible frequently as a matter in fact. However, the research suggested that 71% of Christian students don’t even read the Bible once per week.
Responses to the survey suggest that around half of scholars in British universities consider the Bible is relevant to modern life, although this number drops amongst non-Christians (32%) and people with no religion (27%).
The figures were similar for many who view the Bible as credible, with 44% of scholars overall agreeing it’s a reliable text, dropping to 19% amongst students with no religion.
Adam Mitchell-Baker, a spokesman for Fusion, told Premier, “Students have differing opinions on the reliability [of the Bible], but they still want to seek out out more.
“They might see that it’s in a roundabout way offensive to them or sort of misogynistic or homophobic, but they’re still serious about reading it. They still want to know, ‘What does this say about today’s world?’ They’re wondering how they will understand it amongst all of the, all the several sort of competing noises on the planet today.”
Mitchell-Baker added that the character of Jesus and his enduring teachings provide students with much better role models than characters like Andrew Tate or Donald Trump.
Fusion, which goals to position a Bible within the hand of each student in Britain, said that it was “massively surprised” by the outcomes, adding that “the potential opportunity for spiritual transformation offered by greater engagement with the Bible is big”.
