Morgan Ballantyne

So far 160 000 Bibles have been sold in the last year and a half in Norway, after the Christian Bible had been translated into Norwegian languages namely Bokmal and Nynorsk. This places the popular book titled Fifty Shades of Grey in second and Justin Biebier’s Autobiography in third place.

According to CBS News the sales were especially intriguing seeing as only 1% of Norwegian people attend church. This sudden influx of religion was followed by a play named “Bibelen” ( Bible). The play performed at an Oslo Theatre, drew crowds of 16 000 people in a three-month period.

"Thoughts and images from the Bible still have an impact on how we experience reality," said Karl Ove Knausgaard to SeekAndFind website. Knausgaard is one of several famous Norwegian authors enlisted to help with the translation.

The Bible sales in Norway are surprising because Norway is dubbed as “The Black Metal Nation” and heavily linked to violent Satanism.

However religion is a very private thing for Norwegians. "Church attendance is a poor measure of the Norwegian state of faith," said post-doctoral fellow Thorgeir Kolshus at the University of Oslo.

In South-Africa 56% of the population attends church, placing it fourth in the world. Almost  2 million religious scriptures in 39 different languages were sold in South Africa last year.
Currently the best-selling book in South-Africa is “Killing Keble” by Mandy Wiener.

Religious Demographic Norway
Church of Norway (Evangelical Lutheran) 85.7%
Other 8.1%
Other Christians 2.4%
Muslim 1.8%
Pentecostal 1%
Roman Catholic 1%

Religious Demographic South Africa
Protestant 36.6%
Other Christian 36%
None 15%
Catholic 7.1%
Other 2.3%
Muslim 1.5%
Unspecified 1.4%