I'm not writing this because I'm coming out of a year during which it seems the majority of my friends a) went abroad, b) "got spiritual," or c) experienced something that "changed (their) lives" (which could include but is not limited to choices a and b). But I do speak as someone who grew up in a household very apprehensive of organized Western religion, and as someone who has never gone to church save for a one-week summer church day camp my mom sent me to because it was free. (I remember wondering as a kid why we never celebrated Easter, until my dad pointed out to me that we weren't Christian. He's also the one who freaked out, mildly, when he saw my New Oxford Annotated Bible in the living room, which I'd brought home during winter break. I now keep that copy on my shelf next to something else I’d consider a bible for literature – a Norton Anthology.)
The first time I came across a biblical allusion in a text post-Bible exposure, I remember thinking, "Wow — this finally makes sense now." It was as if literature, especially poetry, was written in code and I suddenly understood it. I could place references to the line, "and said it was good," and suddenly I knew in what context the parable of the lamb among the wolves was. New cultural associations sprung up in my mind that were different than before — where I maybe recognized a certain line or part of a story only as used in a mediocre Keanu Reeves/Al Pacino film. (Sad, but true. I do own a video cassette of "The Devil's Advocate," and I stand by that movie to this day.)
Reading the Bible as a literary text does not necessarily make me feel closer to God, or even consider that I have the capacity to be closer to a God — there are other things that do that for me.