Overcoming Biblical Illiteracy | Series Overview
The late George Gallup Jr. offered a piercing diagnosis of America’s spiritual condition:
“Americans revere the Bible—but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.”
That assessment is even more accurate today.
According to the American Bible Society (ABS), only about 10 percent of Americans read the Bible daily, down from roughly 14 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic. Even more concerning, ABS research reveals that approximately 26 million Americans reduced or completely stopped reading the Bible during the pandemic. The 2024 ABS study confirms that Bible engagement is now at a 14-year low. Yet, amid the decline, signs of hope remain, including a notable and encouraging shift among younger generations—especially Gen Z.
For five to seven years, extensive research and development were invested in the Bible Literacy Project, resulting in the textbook The Bible and Its Influence, now taught in 640 public high schools across 44 states. The project reached a profound yet straightforward conclusion: students cannot fully understand art, literature, music, history, or culture without the Bible. Few statements ring truer in our time.
Broader surveys reinforce this troubling reality. Many Americans are unable to name basic biblical facts, key characters, or even the Ten Commandments, contributing to what researchers consistently identify as biblical illiteracy.
Educational scholar E. D. Hirsch Jr., founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, has long emphasized the importance of shared knowledge in education. Hirsch developed the influential concept of cultural literacy, the principle that true reading comprehension requires not only decoding skills, but substantial background knowledge.
Together with his colleagues, Hirsch authored The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Regarding the role of the Bible in education, he wrote:
“The Bible, the holy book of Judaism and Christianity, is the most widely known book in the English-speaking world. No one can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible. Literate people in India, whose religious traditions are not based on the Bible but whose common language is English, must know about the Bible in order to understand English within their own country. The Bible is also essential for understanding many of the moral and spiritual values of our culture, whatever our religious beliefs. The linguistic and cultural importance of the Bible is a fact that no one denies. No person in the modern world can be considered educated without a basic knowledge of all the great religions of the world—Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. But our knowledge of Judaism and Christianity must be more detailed than that of other great religions, if only because of the historical accident that has embedded the Bible in our thought and language.”
That statement deserves careful reflection.
Without biblical literacy, it is impossible to understand history, the arts, or Western civilization fully—and far more importantly, to comprehend God’s redemptive plan revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ. It is equally impossible to truly understand America or fully appreciate its freedoms without a foundational knowledge of the Bible.
I strongly recommend Mark Noll’s monumental 846-page work, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794–1911. Noll summarizes the thesis of this landmark study succinctly: “First is the importance of the Bible for explaining the meaning of America; second is the importance of America for explaining the history of the Bible.”
Today’s young people spend countless hours on social media, shaped by an unending stream of opinions and voices. Multiple studies demonstrate that excessive social media consumption correlates with increased mental health challenges. At the same time, many students are largely unaware of the Bible’s formative influence on culture and civilization. It is no surprise, then, that so many lack a coherent biblical worldview.
Distinguished historian George Marsden stated the issue plainly: “Without an understanding of the Bible, students miss a crucial foundation for comprehending Western civilization.” Marsden’s classic work, The Soul of the American University, reignited Christian intellectual engagement by documenting the erosion of Christian identity within elite higher education.
This sermon series is an invitation to reverse that decline.
Join me as we confront and overcome biblical illiteracy together. We will begin with a foundational message titled “How and Why Are We Illiterate?” Along the way, you will learn the essential doctrines of Scripture—truths that are indispensable for becoming Christian Strong.
Footnotes
George Gallup Jr., quoted in multiple Gallup analyses on American religious engagement, summarized in Religion in America (Gallup Organization).
American Bible Society, State of the Bible 2024 (Philadelphia: American Bible Society, 2024).
American Bible Society, State of the Bible COVID-era reports, 2020–2022.
Bible Literacy Project, The Bible and Its Influence (New York: Bible Literacy Project, various editions).
E. D. Hirsch Jr., Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987).
E. D. Hirsch Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988).
Mark A. Noll, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794–1911 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).
Studies summarized in Jean M. Twenge, iGen (New York: Atria Books, 2017), and subsequent social science research on social media and mental health.
George M. Marsden, The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
