The Bible itself reinforces this incarnational principle. It is a diverse collection of ancient writings, written by people from different historical and cultural contexts. This cultural and historical diversity is not homogenised in the Bible. Rather, the cultural lens of each author is drawn upon to communicate an aspect of the unifying story of Scripture. This informs the theological and biblical underpinning to the Patmos approach to shared contexts.  

The drive behind the development of the Patmos Clusters is the view that the better we can understand different global contexts, the more equipped we will be to ensure the Bible is presented to all people in a way that helps them to have a direct encounter with the text of the Bible for themselves. 

To truly understand these contexts, we partnered with global research agency Gallup, to help us explore what shared regional, religious and cultural similarities exist around the world. Interviews were conducted with stakeholders from BFBS, United Bible Societies, and international experts in World Christianity. These interviews identified country-level factors affecting Bible engagement and potential global data sources on religion, culture, society, language, political freedoms, economics, and demographics.  

The team identified 21 indicators from global data sets available for at least 150 countries. Using these indicators, cluster analysis grouped countries by their shared mission context, resulting in seven distinct Patmos Clusters.  

The clusters bring together countries that are often geographically connected but, in some cases, the geographic spread is large. Religious affiliation is a significant factor, but we also see countries coming together that have varied religious make-ups. Economic development levels, social inequality and political authoritarianism were also key to certain clusters. 

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