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Posted on 11/17/2006 8:12:01 AM PST by Alex Murphy

Baylor University religion sociologists—in what they think is a first-of-its-kind study of America’s religious landscape—found that most readers stick to their affiliations when it comes to reading religion bestsellers like the Left Behind series and The Celestine Prophecy.

Questions about selected religion bestsellers were included in The Baylor Religion Survey, released this week. The survey of more than 1,700 adults found Americans classifying themselves less often by denomination than by beliefs, and showed that perceptions of God as authoritarian, benevolent, critical or distant markedly influence individuals’ world views.

The survey team also asked about reading—of popular books, sacred texts, and other materials—to study how Americans consume religion beyond worship services and electronic media, said Jerry Z. Park, assistant professor of sociology at Baylor.

“Nobody else had actually covered that before, at least not from a sociological perspective,” he said.“One of the big contributions was showing that religion isn’t just confined to Sunday morning and to houses of worship. Religion is portable, and it’s diffused everywhere in people’s lives.”

The John M. Templeton Foundation funded the survey, which the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion devised and Gallup conducted. The survey found:

•19% of the sample had read any Left Behind books.

•19 % had read The Purpose-Driven Life.

•17.5% had read any James Dobson books.

•28.5% had read The Da Vinci Code.

•6.7% had read The Celestine Prophecy.

•1.2% had read God’s Politics by Jim Wallis.

•5% had read Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard.

Religion publishers say most of their readers are women, and the Baylor study concurred. “Women were definitely the strong base in every way you cut the books,” Park said.

The survey also confirmed that people mostly read within their own religious affiliation, with two main “camps of readers:” evangelical (Left Behind books and The Purpose-Driven Life) and New Age (The Celestine Prophecy and Dianetics). The Da Vinci Code had the most overlap, but Park said that could be because nearly a third of the sample was reading that book. The odds of having read The Da Vinci Code declined with increasing levels of church attendance, while people who read The Da Vinci Code tended more to believe in paranormal phenomena.

Still, Park said, the sociologists were surprised Da Vinci didn’t score higher, and that the Left Behind books and The Purpose-Driven Life scored so well.

Evangelicals seem to be “big-time purchasers” of sacred texts, devotional and Bible study materials, and religiously themed fiction and nonfiction. One might describe evangelicals today as people of the books, Park said, adding, “I hope [the study results] just continue to add to the picture that religion is interwoven into everyday aspects of people’s lives.”

And in case you’ve ever wondered why evangelical books have often dominated the bestseller lists in recent years, the research found that among people who spent more than $50 a month on religious products, more than half (54 %) were evangelical Christians.

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