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In Religion Dispatches (@RDispatches) author Elizabeth Drescher (@edrescherphd) writes,”Over the past couple years, religionistas of all sorts have attempted to navigate a new media landscape in which old constructions of religious authority, identity, and practice are changing almost by the minute. This surely marks the beginning something of a Second Coming of religion in digitally-integrated form.”

...it seems worthwhile to take a look at some trends in social media that are reshaping religion and spirituality:

1. Social Prayer: Throughout 2011, the “Jesus Daily” Facebook page has outranked soccer superpowers and celebrity superstars like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber as the “most engaging” locale on Facebook. But it’s hardly spiritually lonely at the top for the inspiration and prayer page started by weight-loss doctor Aaron Tabor. The “Dios Es Bueno” (God is Good), “The Bible,” and “Joyce Mercer Ministries” pages all hang out in the top ten, and five more religious pages fill out the bottom half of the top twenty. In all, more than half of the top twenty most engaging pages—pages that move beyond mere broadcast messaging to share content that inspires participants to interact with one another—are religious.

While tracking Twitter trends is somewhat trickier, hashtagged memes like #prayer, #spirituality, #bible, #Jesus, #Buddha, #Allah, and so on are consistently robust, and event-related hashtags like #haroldcamping, #rapture, and #LDSconf mark Twitter as no less significant a site for religious expression, exploration, and engagement than Facebook. Indeed, religious participation on Twitter is sufficient to have captured the attention of Claire Diaz Ortiz, the network’s manager of “social innovation,” who is courting religious tweeters to encourage greater Twitter-specific social networking involvement...

2. Ministers-On-The-Go…

3. O Holy App…

4. Curate as Curator…

5. A Few New Commandments…

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“We’re delighted the Common English Bible is receiving such early overwhelming support and acceptance,” says Paul Franklin, PhD, associate publisher. “We see this as confirming our decision to create an academically rigorous yet naturally understandable translation for 21st century English readers; a translation from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that’s built on common ground.”

The best seller achievement comes at the same time the completion of the Common English Bible after four years of translation work was named one of the top 10 religion stories of 2011 as decided by leading religion journalists in the 30th annual Religion Newswriters Association survey.

The Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 Bible scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world. The translators – from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities – represent such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are already in print, including an edition with the Apocrypha. The Common English Bible is available online and in 20 digital formats. A Reference Bible edition and a Daily Companion devotional edition are now also available. Additionally, in 2012, Church/Pew Bibles, Gift and Award Bibles, Large Print Bibles, and Children’s Bible editions will be in stores, joining the existing Thinline Bibles, Compact Thin Bibles, and Pocket-Size Bibles, bringing the total variety of Common English Bible stock-keeping units (SKUs) to more than 40.

More than 140 international bloggers are currently participating in the three-month long “Thank You-Come Again-I Promise” blog tour (from November 2011 through January 2012). The tour’s Twitter hashtag is #CEBtour. The complete tour schedule, and information about joining the tour, is available at CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com at 1.800.927.1517.

Shelf Awareness (@ShelfAwareness) reports that Jay Schwartz, Dictionary.com’s head of content, said, “We’re taking a stand on this choice. We think that it’s immensely rewarding to find existing words that capture a precise experience, and this year, tumult has been the norm rather than the exception. There are contested public spaces around the world, where people are demonstrating in one direction or another. Opinions and circumstances have been oscillating so much.”

This year’s verbal shortlist included “occupy,” “austerity,” “jobs” (both the noun and the person), “zugzwang,” and “insidious.”

Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) declared its Word of the Year 2011 to be “squeezed middle” (“the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those on low or middle incomes”).

Other words and phrases considered by OED included Arab Spring, hacktivism, phone hacking, sodcasting, bunga bunga, crowdfunding, facepalm, and fracking,

Also see OED’s “What Makes a Word of the Year?”

Merriam-Webster’s (@MerriamWebster) word last year, as listed in its archive, was “austerity.” In 2011, Merriam-Webster lists the words that “spiked in lookups” each month because of events in the news (such as “vitriol” in January, “inclement” in February, and “prefecture” in March). For its 2011 word of the year, Merriam-Webster selected “pragmatic.”

Wikipedia chronicles a history of words of the year as selected by the American Dialect Society (@americandialect) (#woty11). ADS will chose its 2001 Word of the Year at its annual meeting in January in Portland, Oregon. Last year’s word was “app.”

Infographic by KISSmetrics (@KISSmetrics).

Infographic by Voltier Digital (@VoltierDigital) for CEO.com (@CEO_com).

Infographic by ColumnFive (@columnfive) for Flowtown (@Flowtown).

In creating the following Infographic about Amazon.com (@amazon), FrugalDad (@FrugalDad) says, “The story of its growth in the last 17 years can only be compared to the thunderous rise of Walmart. And in some ways, the curve is steeper: the million-title-bookseller turned world’s-largest-retailer hit the $50 billion sales mark in half the time it took Walmart. As far as online sales go, Amazon has laid waste to a list of successively higher-caliber competitors. Playing full-court with Barnes & Noble to Walmart all the way to Apple, Amazon just keeps outgrowing its labels: bookseller, etailer, and now tech company?”

Source: Frugaldad.com

During every minute of the day, people around the globe are actively using the YouVersion Bible App to engage with Scripture. YouVersion held a live webcast Nov. 30 to announce key statistics.

The Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible) has been downloaded through YouVersion more than 60,000 times in the last four months and live-streamed to thousands more mobile devices.

The following Infographic shares a quick look at what happens in just one minute in the YouVersion (@YouVersion) (#YouVersion) community.

Christian books once available only at independent-niche Christian bookshops...are now sold online and in mainstream stores everywhere. As recognition of the popularity of Christian books has grown, with some titles holding a steady spot on the nation's best-seller lists, Christian publishing companies and their audience have grown, too, expanding globally and into the electronic marketplace. Now the formerly fringe products have a home in mainstream popularity....

A 2005 Baylor University study shows 11% of Americans spend $50 or more a month on religious products, including non-book items....

Nielsen BookScan, which provides information for The Wall Street Journal’s best-seller list, tracks 75% of book sales in America from traditional retailers, independent bookstores, and Amazon.com — but the company only tracks 50% of sales from Christian bookstores, specifically. That should change with the addition of key Christian retailers and Walmart in 2012, says Jonathan Stolper, vice president and general manager of Nielsen BookScan (@NielsenWire).

“It’s certainly conceivable that those Wall Street Journal charts will change dramatically,” Stolper says. “I think The Wall Street Journal will see some Christian books pop up on there when we complete the panel.”

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Remember to daily use the SomersaultNOW online dashboard to read the latest news in Christian and general book publishing.