(RNS) — Could artificial intelligence or short TV episodes help young adults engage more with the Bible?
American Bible Society has issued first-time grants to four Christian higher education institutions to encourage innovation in getting young adults more interested in Scripture.
At Los Angeles Pacific University, the recipient of a $15,000 grant, scholars will be researching the effects of a “Bible Engagement Assistant” that builds on “Spark,” an AI course assistant that the online university already uses in its classes. The new technological tool will be used by students in the Bible courses of the university.
“It’s to just increase that frequency interacting with biblical text, prompting them with really good questions to reflect on Scripture and how it influences their life,” said Belén McDaniel, grant manager at the nondenominational university with about 2,800 students.
All four of the winners, chosen from a pool of 16 applicants, are affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, a consortium of evangelical schools.
Three faculty members at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, won a $10,000 grant for their proposed TV show, “Beyond the Bible.”
“Overall readership of the Bible has gone down, but at the same time, knowledge about biblical concepts has actually gone up through shows like ‘The Chosen’ being one of the most popular shows on the planet,” said Aaron Bohn, a filmmaker and associate professor of digital communication at the Church of the Nazarene-affiliated school with about 1,500 students.
He said the grant covers the first three episodes of the short-form show, which will be available on YouTube. Aiming to be both educational and entertaining, the show will feature students introducing biblical concepts and acting them out in sketches with puppets and other characters.
“I can see how these scripts could easily help this age group, the ‘Movable Middle,’ to kind of contextualize the Bible within their lives,” said Addison Lucchi, a MidAmerica Nazarene English professor. The Movable Middle is a term the Bible society uses to describe those who fit neither their “scripture engaged” category nor their “Bible disengaged” category.
The ABS’ “State of the Bible USA” 2025 report showed that Generation Z ranked lowest among today’s generations in terms of Bible usage. Just 36% of Gen Z adults were Bible users this year, compared with 41% of the total population. But its findings also showed a slight increase in Scripture engagement among this youngest group of adults — from 11% in 2024 to 15% in 2025.
The research, completed in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, defined Bible users as “individuals who interact with the Bible on their own at least three times a year.” ABS considers engagement to be “far more robust,” including frequency of reading the Bible as well as other measures of the Bible’s influence on the lives of individuals.
