For the first time in 15 years, a Christian album is No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

“Eye on It” (ForeFront) by TobyMac, a former member of the Christian rap group DC Talk, topped this week’s chart with 69,000 sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. According to Billboard, it was the first time a Christian album has been No. 1 since 1997 — when LeAnn Rimes’s “You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs” and Bob Carlisle’s “Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace)” both reached the top — and only the third time ever.

But a number of Christian albums have reached high in the Top 10 recently: releases by Casting Crowns, the David Crowder Band and the participants of Passion, a youth conference. Depending on whether you see the music industry’s glass as half-empty or half-full, this either points to a long-running genre that has built a healthy audience or simply done a better job holding on while most other music sales have tanked. According to Billboard, 27 percent of TobyMac’s sales came from Christian retailers and bookstores.

Also this week, the hip-hop all-star team Slaughterhouse — with Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce da 5’9” — opened at No. 2 with its second album, “Welcome to: Our House” (Shady/Interscope), which sold 52,000 copies. Alanis Morissette reached the Top 10 for a sixth time with her latest album, “Havoc and Bright Lights” (Collective Sounds), at No. 5 with 33,000 sales.

The R&B singer Trey Songz fell two spots to No. 3 with 41,000 sales of “Chapter V” (Songbook/Atlantic), and “Now That’s What I Call Music!” Vol. 43 fell one to No. 4 with slightly less than 41,000. (SoundScan’s publicly reported numbers are rounded.)

Taylor Swift’s new song, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” holds for a third week as the most popular download, with 253,000 sales, bringing its total to just under 1.2 million.