The Patmos Survey – global research

A groundbreaking global study for a unique moment in mission history

The Patmos Survey – global research

What does the world really think about the Bible and Christianity? For the last three years, Bible Society’s Research Team has been trying to answer that question in a way that is systematic, accurate and context-specific.

The Patmos Survey, Bible Society’s global research project working with Gallup, has already begun to produce insights that will shape conversations and equip churches for a generation.

Named for John’s revelation on the island of Patmos, which diagnosed spiritual conditions in local contexts, the survey follows on from a project mapping attitudes to the Bible and religion in England and Wales in 2018. The Patmos Survey is seeking to do something similar for the entire world.

What the survey does

Gallup has surveyed 90,000 people in 80 countries with the aim of providing an interpretive map of world spiritual-cultural climates from a survey-based dataset on attitudes, beliefs and practices toward the Bible

Analysis of the survey results has allowed us to identify seven ‘Clusters’ of countries which – though perhaps widely separated geographically – share similar characteristics in terms of their attitude toward faith and the Bible.

Understanding this means we can collaborate better across national boundaries and be more effective in mission.

Why the survey matters

We believe that The Patmos Survey will lay the foundations for the entire missionary enterprise for the next 20 years.

Leaders within global denominations, mission agencies and Christian INGOs will be able to use the insights of The Patmos Survey to inform their outreach strategies. Bible Societies around the world will be able to engage with its results and recommendations. We live in a time when accurate understandings of religious attitudes, backed by rigorous research, are vitally important. The Patmos Survey hopes to bring clarity, insight and credibility to the conversation.

By mapping attitudes to, understanding of and engagement with the Bible and Christianity more generally, Bible Society hopes to catalyse Christians in geographically separate but culturally similar countries to engage in more effective mission.

Why the Bible?

In a world where almost every religious context is a kaleidoscope of nuanced and complex belief impossible to capture in an entry on a census form or by measuring church attendance, the Bible is a solid marker of the state of attitudes to Christianity.

The Bible matters, not just because it is how Christians over thousands of years have understood who God is, but because attitudes to the Bible and its relevance are trackable through non-Christian populations, a significance almost no other book has.

If it is impossible to understand the Christian faith without understanding the Bible, it is also therefore possible, through measuring attitudes to the Bible, to understand the landscape for mission.

Why now?

For Bible Society, Bible Engagement is the process whereby deep and open encounters with the Bible lead to whole-life change. Different traditions will have different names for it.

Right now, the Bible is available, in whole or in part, to about 90 per cent of the world’s population. That figure is expected to increase to 99 per cent by 2033. But the fact is that Bible availability is no necessary predictor of transformative Bible engagement. Countries and languages awash with Bible translations are not necessarily filled with vital Christian communities. Many have populations that have never engaged with the Bible at all. Britain has no shortage of translations and versions, freely available and culturally referenced with regularity. And yet an astonishing 63 per cent of the population of England and Wales admit to never having read the Bible at all.

Bible Society hopes that the release of The Patmos Survey at this moment will allow time for collaboration, preparation and study for the challenge that is, in many contexts, already with us.

A unique opportunity

If understanding what The Patmos Survey has discovered within country clusters will change the way we do mission (as we believe it will), and if Bible Engagement is the next frontier for Christian mission (and we believe it is), no church or organisation can achieve this task alone. It affects us all.

For the first time, through this survey, church leaders, agencies and analysts around the world will have access to truly international data, coherently organised and credibly sourced, to aid their vision, strategies and tactical sourcing of resources to achieve the task.

If you are a Christian leader who wants to join the growing conversation about Bible Engagement and the growing movement towards strategic, fact-based mission, Bible Society would love to hear from you. You can join The Patmos Forum here to keep up to date with the research and connect with others who share your vision.

Or if you’d just like more information, you can email Richard Powney, [email protected], or Joanna Heath, [email protected].