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As levels of anxiety and depression have continued to rise amid decreasing religious participation in the United States, a surprising trend has emerged over the last year: the exponential increase in popularity of Christian and Bible apps. Experts say the surge in downloads and views is a sign that a religious revival may be starting to take place under the cultural surface of America.

In November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reported the continued rise in adults reporting anxiety and depression, with nearly one in five saying they experience one or both symptoms based on data from 2022. The trend coincides with the steady decline of Americans who identify as Christian since at least 2007, when 78% of adults said they were Christian. But beginning around 2023, a startling counter-trend began to emerge, with the decline levelling off at around 62% and beginning to inch upwards. Experts say much of the pattern can be attributed to the spiritual awakening of Gen Z.

Observers say the resurgence in faith can be partially attributed to — of all things — the ubiquity of phones and the increasing popularity of religious apps like Hallow. In a profile on the explosive growth of the Catholic app published in The Free Press, 39-year-old “Sarah,” a fallen-away Catholic, says she had hit rock bottom after she embarked on an affair and found herself estranged from her husband and three children. Alone in a Chicago hotel room after binging on drugs and alcohol, she offered a desperate prayer to God for help.

Days later, she happened upon an Instagram ad for Hallow featuring Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg, inviting people to pray the rosary. After downloading the app and listening to morning prayer routines, short sermons, a guided “examination of conscience,” and a multitude of other resources, she sensed a change beginning to happen in her.

Months later, Sarah had moved back in with her family and began therapy with her husband. Sarah is now a cantor at her church and regularly goes to confession. “She is convinced God used Hallow to save her soul, her marriage, her career — perhaps even her life.”

As of now, Hallow has been downloaded 23 million times since its creation in 2018. In February of last year on Ash Wednesday, Hallow became the first religious app to ever reach the number one spot in Apple’s App Store. The app once again reached number one on Ash Wednesday this year. Sarah told The Free Press that the reason for the app’s massive growth is because there is a multitude of people like her who are “starved for connection, for meaning” and “starved for God”.

Awakening

Hallow is far from the only religious app to see unprecedented growth over the last year. Bible Chat, “an AI chatbot trained exclusively on the Bible,” has been downloaded seven million times since 2023 and was second only behind Google Translate in the Reference category. On 5 January, the first Sunday of this year, almost 800,000 people installed the Bible app YouVersion, with 18.2 million people opening the app that same day.

The surge in religious app popularity is coinciding with a marked rise in the sales of print Bibles, with sales up 22% as of last fall (compared to the same period the previous year), which is being partially attributed to a jump in first-time buyers.

Family Research Council Senior Fellow Meg Kilgannon told The Washington Stand that she has found Hallow quite beneficial in her faith life and thinks it is a force for good.

“I always really enjoy the seasonal devotions, especially the Lenten Challenge,” she explained.

“There are special rosary prayers on the app that I enjoy, especially the scriptural rosaries. I do so appreciate the opportunity to easily access prayers, readings, scriptures, the Catechism, and other devotions. One thing that surprised me was the use of celebrity voices. I thought I would not like that, since the point is to focus on God. But the reminder that we are all struggling each day to keep Christ at the center of our lives has been an encouragement: we are all equal before God, we are all sinners undeserving of His love and grace but given it anyway. And we can all be grateful for that!”

David Closson, who serves as director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at FRC, thinks that the measurable rise in popularity of religious and Bible apps is a sign that America may be on the cusp of a spiritual awakening.

“I’m encouraged by the growing popularity of faith-based apps like YouVersion and Hallow,” he told TWS.

“As someone who works closely on cultivating a biblical worldview in the next generation, I see this as more than a digital trend — it could be a sign that something deeper is stirring. The political and cultural ‘vibe shift’ we’ve all sensed might actually point to a spiritual awakening. People are looking for clarity, truth, and hope in a confusing world, and many are turning — or returning — to faith as the foundation for that. I believe this hunger for meaning could very well be connected to a deeper worldview shift that could signal the beginning of revival in our nation.”