Marketing experts have revealed one of their best crystal balls for reading the culture. Likewise, churchgoing rates haven't done anything noticeable in recent years. In a word, it's books. 3 Book sales give marketing specialists an inside look at what occupies the mind and interest of Americans. And the sales of religious and spiritual titles has skyrocketed into the fastest growing category.
Book sales are like a good cultural soothsayer.
Books are diagnostic not of what we say we are doing, but of what we really are doing with our time and inside our respective interiors. 4 Nothing reveals the national interest more visually than television programs. There is a long lineup of shows with a spiritual context such as Touched by an Angel, It's a Miracle, and Beyond Chance. Programs like these wouldn't have been popular or politically correct 10 or 15 years ago. If I had to identify just one of several major contributors to our changed cultural environment, it would be quantum physics.