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Second Anniversary of Reading Acts

This is the two-year anniversary of this blog. It has been a good experience and I look forward to the coming year. This post is mostly blowing my own horn, such as it is.

I have two plans for Reading Acts this fall. First, I will be preaching through the book of Galatians in the Sunday Evening service at Rush Creek Bible Church. I plan to post a reflection on Galatians both before and after than service, Saturday and Monday.

Second, I am teaching Gospels this semester at Grace Bible College and plan to blog through the book of Luke. These will be observations on the text and will likely reflect my interests in Historical Jesus studies. Since I am using Craig Blomberg’s Jesus and the Gospels (Second Edition), I will likely post an occasional response or comment on his book as well.

According to WordPress stats, Reading Acts averaged 44 visits a day this year. I am always thankful for other blogs which post a link to my blog. Mark Goodacre’s NTBlog still leads all referrers, but Charles Savelle’ BibleX page is a strong #2 on the list. Bill Heroman has several times included this blog in his Round-ups on his New Testament History page. Thanks, Bill, even though you always spell my first name with only 1 “L”. I am a two-L Phillip.

Over the last two years, the most popular posts have been Acts 15 – Who were the Judaizers? and The Purpose of the Book of Hebrews. The third most popular was a brief note on 2 Tim 2:11-14 which cause a bit of a flame war. Fourth on the list was Dating Galatians – Before or After Acts 15?. I find it interesting that two of these four concern Galatians. Since I am returning to the book this fall I expect to have several new posts on these topics. My series on Bible Atlases has been popular as well.

I am always amazed at the search queries which bring people to this blog. Over the two year life of the blog, “who were the judaizers” and “purpose of Hebrews” leads search items, although if I counted up all the various search on N. T. Wright I am sure he would lead the pack. I am surprised how many people search on “N. T. Wight and Election” or “N. T. Wight and dispensationalism.” I guess N. T. Wight is the Paris Hilton of BiblioBlogs. One of the funnier recent search engine hits came from “why bother to read edersheim.” I am not sure I know the answer to that question.

Reading Acts made the Biblioblog Top 50 in December 2009 and managed to stay on the list until this August. This drop can be explained by a busy summer and lack of posting, hopefully a return to a regular posting schedule will boost me back into the list with the big boys.

Thanks to those who read the blog regularly, I do appreciate it!

Twenty-somethings: Ye of Little Faith?

According to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, people born since 1980 are less likely than older generations to affiliate themselves with any particular religion.

“Millennials, the generation of young adults born after 1980, are significantly more likely than older adults to say they are unaffiliated with any particular religion. Roughly a quarter of all Millennials (26%) are unaffiliated, compared with 20% of current Gen Xers, 13% of Baby Boomers and very few older Americans.”

I am not really surprised by this, although I think I take a bit different angle than others. It is not so much that the “Millennials” are not religious because science and technology has released them from the need for religion. I think that most 20-somethings do not associate themselves with a religion that the research people understand. The question asked was “What is your religious preference: Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, some other religion, or no religion?” Given that choice, I might select “no religion” as well!

The interpretation of the survey data went on to make this observation:

“Today’s young adults also attended religious services less often and are less likely to say religion is important to them than are older adults. Still, in other ways, such as praying daily, beliefs about life after death and the existence of heaven, hell and miracles, Millennials remain fairly traditional in their religious beliefs and practices.”

These people who do not associate with traditional, mainline denominations are still “fairly traditional” in religious practices. They are “less religious”yet they still pray? They still worship God? Seems to me that the Millennials see their relationship with God as just that, a relationship, and not an affiliation with a denomination. Relationship with God is more important than signing a confessional statement or observing a particular religious calendar or liturgical cycle.

Is this a bad thing? Probably, but it is a natural reaction to hypocrisy in in mainline denominations. It is the natural result of religious leaders who live their lives absolutely opposed to what they preach from the pulpit. It is the natural result of churches and denominations not addressing contemporary culture, but rather feeling from it, or worse, ignoring it. If you drive people out of the church for not conforming to the church, you really cannot complain that they do not associate themselves with your church!

What is remarkable is that last paragraph could describe America, 2010, or Europe 1500, or Rome, 1000. I wonder how the generation just prior to the Reformation would have answered the Survey’s questions?

Reading Acts Makes the Top 50 BlblioBlogs

Reading Acts finally broke into the rarified air the the new-look BiblioBlog Top Fifty list, coming in at #46 this week. So let me take the occasion to celebrate the year-and-a-half anniversary of this blog experience with a little horn-tooting. I am sure there are a number of factors contributing to the ranking, but I will say that I see steady traffic on the Blog with a decent number of search items every day.

The top search engine term for the Blog (aside from the name, “Reading Acts”) is N. T. Wright, combining a couple of variations in spelling his name. A number of these searches include questions like “Is NT Wright a Dispensationalist?” or “NT Wright and Election.” I suppose N. T. Wright is the BiblioBlog equivalent to hiding “Pamela Anderson” somewhere in your blog to drive up traffic. (Careful readers will notice that I just did both.)

The next two highest searches have been “Saul in Arabia” and “God-fearer column from Aphrodisias.” I fine that interesting since I do not recall writing about the column. Strangely enough John Wayne and Caleb Befus are high on the list as well. Lots of similarities there, although I suspect it is just Caleb googling his own name.

I continue to get quite a few hits on the topic of the Judaizers. I suspect that I am helping home-schoolers with their homework, but perhaps this signals a need that is not addressed on many blogs.

The most common referring Blog is the NT Blog, by Mark Goodacre, followed by BibleX, by Charles Savelle. My post on 2 Corinthians made Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII, which is a pleasant surprise.

I am thrilled to say that at least once I was ranked along side the big boys.