Verbum Easter Giveaway

The fine folks at Verbum are having an Easter giveaway.  The winner will receive a brand new MacBook Air with Verbum Capstone software.  To enter, you can follow the link here.  

Verbum was created in order to empower Catholics to study Scripture and understand Church Tradition. With over 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, Verbum meets a need for Catholic digital resources that equip and connect the faithful, regardless of vocation or location. We’re passionate about fulfilling the call to a “New Evangelization” by providing the best digital resources to help Catholics better understand and communicate the Faith.

Verbum began in 2011 as the Catholic division of Logos Bible Software. Founded in 1992, Logos has grown from a couple of programmers in a basement into the largest developer of Bible study software and a worldwide leader in multilingual electronic publishing. Logos now partners with over 150 publishers to make tens of thousands of digital Bible study resources available to customers around the world. Our technology is used in more than 210 countries in a dozen languages.

Like Logos’ other brands and products, Verbum connects Christians from all walks of life. From Vyrso (a Christian ebook store and ereader app) to Faithlife.com (a social network that connects Christians from all over the world), the Logos family seeks to grow and enhance all aspects of the Christian life.

As Verbum continues to grow, our goal is not only to create the best Catholic study tools available, but to serve the Church by making Scripture and Tradition more accessible all over the globe.

Verbum is headquartered in the friendly city of Bellingham, Washington, USA.

Fabulous Catechism of the Catholic Church Collection from Verbum

Included in this collection: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican II Documents, The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, Douay-Rheims Bible, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, The Decrees of the Vatican Council (Vatican I-English), The Catechism of the Council of Trent, and the Catholic Lectionary.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church Collection, thousands of the Catechism’s citations come alive, linking to the original documents. The collection gets you behind the Catechism’s summary of the faith and into the primary sources themselves. It includes the most important texts the Catechism cites, and so lets you see not only what the contemporary Church teaches, but what it bases this teaching on. You can use the Catechism as a type of commentary on the other texts in the collection—for example, you can quickly find every instance of the Catechism’s citing a certain Bible verse or document of Vatican II. The collection includes the Lectionary of the Catholic Church, so the Catechism becomes an automatic companion to the daily readings.

Brandon Vogt is running a special giveaway which includes one copy of the Catechism collection. Go here to enter.

Conclave App from Logos

Logos (Verbum) has created a very cool, and free, Conclave App that is available for free on ITunes.

My favorite element of this app is the cardinal's bio section, which links you to the Vatican website's bio of each man.  It is super easy and will certainly be helpful on the big day, particularly if there is a surprise.

Last Day for Introductory Pricing at Logos

Today is the last day of the introductory pricing at Logos. You can get up to 15% off many packages.

So, if you are interested in getting started with this fantastic Catholic Bible software, today is the day.

For example:
http://scripturestudysoftware.com/2013/02/04/8-hours-left-introductory-pricing-ends-today/

ICSB on Logos (Verbum)

Thanks to reader Kenneth for the link.  

The ICSB NT and Genesis/Exodus is available for pre-order from Logos.

Key Features Include:

• Illuminating commentary enjoyed by Catholics and non-Catholics alike
• A doctrinal index, connecting Catholic doctrine to Scripture
• Commentary based on the RSV2CE
• A complete copy of the RSV2CE as a separate resource
• Maps, charts, and illustrations that explore each book

Currently, the price for this package is $34.95.  You can read more on this announcement here.

Some Initial Thoughts on Logos 5 (Verbum)

I have found it difficult in the past months to give a proper review of Logos 4.  Why? Well, the main reason is that it such a comprehensive and useful tool for Bible study, I really never knew where to begin.  However, just when I felt about ready to post some of my thoughts, Logos 5 (Verbum) was released this past month.  In short, Verbum, which is the Catholic version of Logos 5, is wonderful upgrade in almost every way and I look forward to using it extensively in the coming years.

Again, the question is, where to begin?  I equate the transition from relying on actual physical books, like commentaries, interlinears, and concordances, for most of my Bible study research up until recently to utilizing the tools in Verbum as something akin to learning how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours for the first time.  What do I mean by that?  The Liturgy of the Hours can be, for the newbie, a very confusing prayer book.  There is so much flipping around and at first one may not know which prayers to use at a particular time of the year.  And let's be honest, the introduction and rubric guide at the beginning of the Office is of no real help to someone who is just getting started.  So, I have found that if someone wants to pray the Liturgy of the Hours regularly the best thing for them is to have a priest, religious, or lay person, who is already experienced with praying it, show him how to use it.  Fortunately, someone taught me a number of years back, and I have taught a number of others over the year as well.  Verbum is like that in some ways.  Why?  Well, primarily because it is such a powerful software program that it can be difficult to know where to start.  The video tutorials on the Logos website are certainly helpful, but it really does take some time to get use to vast amount of resources that Verbum has to offer.  (An example of this would be the new Clause Search feature, which you can read about here.)  But what I have found is that just as one becomes more comfortable with praying the Liturgy of the Hours over time, the same things is the case for using Verbum.  If you have never used Bible software, like myself until fairly recently, don't be scared away by it.  Once you become more comfortable with using this software, which I am getting more and more of every day, you will actually have trouble remembering how you did Bible study research in the past.

Let me just say quickly a comment about the amount of Biblical resources you can access on Verbum.  Now that Logos has introduced Verbum, which is specifically for Catholics and contains material not only focusing on Scripture, but also doctrine, liturgy, history, and apologetics, this program is built to be an everyday tool for not only study, but also devotional use.  You not only have various translations, exegetical tools, dictionaries, commentaries, and writings from the Church Fathers, Popes, and Church Councils, but also a fully integrated Catechism of the Catholic Church that is a pleasure to search through.  In the package I received, I also found some additional surprises, like the writings of G.K. Chesterton, Raymond Brown, and the works of noted Catholic Apologist, Dave Armstrong.  And there is so much more!

Including the free Verbum-specific App.  I just downloaded this yesterday, and so far it has been a very nice addition to my I-Phone.  This App syncs with the main platform on my laptop, but it can be downloaded by anyone, even if you don't own any Logos software program.  It comes with a nice selection of free resources, including: The Catholic Lectionary, The Roman Catechism, Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Sources of Catholic Dogma (Denzinger), Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, Newman’s An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, the Douay-Rheims, King James Version, Clementine Vulgate, Novum Testamentum Graece (Tischendorf), The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament, Lexham English Bible.

In the end, the only real question I have is whether I re-purchase commentaries and other books that I already own in order to utilize them on Verbum?  I am sure that there will be a few that I do, but there is enough already loaded on to Verbum, along with the promise of future releases, that will keep me occupied.  But if you are one who is thinking about making the investment to purchase Verbum, I heartily recommend it.  It will take a little bit of time playing with the many features to feel comfortable with using it, but it is certainly worth the effort and cost.  In the new year, I plan to post occasionally about my experiences using Verbum, so stay tuned.

Thank you, again, to the fine people at Logos for providing me a review copy.

Logos 5 is Available

Logos 5 is now available! 

From Logos:
Bible study is about connection. The Bible connects us to the very words of God, and to study it is to make connections: between facts and feelings, texts and commentators, hearts and minds, ourselves and God and one another.

Logos Bible Software 5 is a significant update that is all about connection. Logos 5 connects the people, places, things, events, topics, and themes of the Bible with new and expanded databases. It is completely integrated with Faithlife, an online network for connecting your faith community, where you can share biblical insights, maintain a group prayer list, or read the Bible (or any book in your Logos library) in community with others. Logos 5 features new guides and tools for connecting the dots in your Bible study.

Experts have spent more than three years writing, editing, and tagging our unique databases of Bible knowledge. Dozens of books have been thoroughly tagged with special metadata about Bible outlines, preaching themes, historical events and Bible facts. Every original language word in the Bible has been reanalyzed and connected to new databases, while staying connected to modern translations. We have created nearly a million connections between our data elements and Bible verses.

All this connection is toward one end: helping you do more and better Bible study.
And, conveniently, all this connection makes that easier than ever before. In addition to powerful new tools for sermon preparation and topical study, Logos 5 contains many small updates and improvements that streamline your study. Logos 5 quickly becomes a transparent tool that gets all the overhead out of the way, so you can get connected to the Word.

Back to School Sale at Logos

Logos is offering, for a limited time, discounts on collections from two of modernity’s greatest theologians: Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Whether you’re a current student or scholar or you’re simply looking to extend your faith education, this is your chance to save big while learning even bigger.

Use coupon code B2SBXVI to save on the Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI Collection (14 vols.). One of our time’s most revered Catholic scholars, theologians, teachers, and authors, Benedict XVI will have you pulling all-nighters even though there won’t be an exam tomorrow.

The Hans Urs von Balthasar Collection (16 vols.) is a similar treasure trove of Catholic theology, sure to bring you insight, whether you’re wanting to discover new theological ideas or seeking a deeper understanding of Christology, eschatology, Mariology, soteriology, and ontology. And with coupon code B2SHANS, you can get this thought-provoking collection on a student’s budget.

Biblia Now Has Douay-Rheims

The site Biblia, which is associated with Logos, now has the Douay-Rheims translation available on its online Bible study site.  Biblia.com is "Your place for Bible study online. Part of a family of services from Logos Bible Software, it offers free access to a collection of Bibles and Bible reference works, with an easy user interface and powerful search engine."  The Clementine Vulgate is also available, as well as the RSV and NRSV among many others.

St. John the Baptist, Aquinas, and Logos

Good stuff from Logos and its use of the Catena Aurea.  Check it out!  (I have it on my copy of Logos and love it.)

A Clarification from Logos on Their Catechism Software

Thanks to Alex from Logos for answering these questions:

I'm sure at this point many of you have seen Timothy's post about the Catechism Collection at the Logos Catholic site, but if you haven't seen it and were concerned about cost, this is our attempt to produce an affordable, but still functional, collection.  Check it out and check out our blog video detailing how to optimize your experience with said Collection.

In regards to the question from John: the hyper text capability works with every resource you own. Thus if you only own the Catechism, internal cross references will work, but the footnotes will have nowhere from which to draw the original text.  The key thing to note is this means you can buy each resource as you are able and they will link to each other as they are added to your library (however, you will end up paying significantly more for the individual texts). The Catechism Collection is certainly worth the $50 (Individually, the contained resources are worth $130+)In regards to a question from Mike: the public domain text files cannot truly compare to the tagged versions that we produce. Additionally, the time and effort spent creating the Logos versions and tagging them so they interact with other texts and work in our software, support notes, word tools, etc. cannot be achieved for free. While it seems difficult to justify at first, once you experience it, it makes a lot more sense. If you simply want to read a free text document or pdf, free is great. If you want the features and connectivity of Logos. The tools and tagging are unparalleled and well worth the initially shocking price point.




Please don't hesitate to contact me directly.


Alex Renn
Catholic Marketing Specialist
Logos Bible Software
alex.renn(at)logos(dot)com

More Great News from Logos Bible Software

As you know, Logos Bible Software has been producing some fantastic scriptural and theological resources for Catholics. I recently received a copy of their Catholic Scripture Study Library, which is an amazing resource. I will be posting about it in the coming weeks, once school is out at the high school where I teach. As part of their continued push into the Catholic market, Logos will be offering collections from Pope Benedict, Scott Hahn, the Navarre Bible Commentary, as well as the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture in the coming weeks.   All of these great resources, when purchased, are seamlessly integrated into the Logos Bible software program. In addition, they are having a giveaway, where you can have a chance to win the entire Catholic Scholars Library.

Also, make sure to check out their new blog, Verbum.

.

Logos 4: Catholic Edition

7 Questions: Andrew Jones of Logos Bible Software

Andrew Jones is Director of Catholic Products for Logos Bible Software. I would like to thank him for taking the time to answer the following 7 Questions:

1) I wanted to start off with a question about your involvement with Sacred Scripture. How has Scripture played an important role in your spiritual life? Has it always been that way?

Scripture has had a profound impact on my spiritual life, especially in the context of the liturgy. What I've grown to understand is that in the same sort of way that Christ is present Body and Soul, Human and Divine, in the Eucharist, so his words are present in the Scripture and in the preaching of His priests. It is only with this liturgical and ecclesial reality that the Word of God is completely revealed to us. In my life, then, the reading of Scripture has become an essential aspect of my participation in the Church. We must listen to Christ as well as love Him and obey Him. I think it is essential that we understand Christ as Incarnate and not as some distant metaphysical "force," and the Incarnate Christ taught both through his words and through his life. The Scripture is our primary access to this teaching and so mediation upon it is an essential component of what it means to be a Christian.


 2) How long have you been involved with Logos? What are your main responsibilities with Logos?

I came to work at Logos last June. I'm the Director of Catholic Products. What this means is that I am responsible for the company's orientation toward Catholicism, both on the product development end and the marketing end. I've been developing Logos's software and libraries to facilitate a Catholic approach to study. The Logos system is really ideal for the Catholics because it allows us to study the Bible surrounded by the Tradition. We can read it with the mind of the Church-- the magisterial documents, the writings of the saints and the great theologians, become our constant companions. What I'm trying to do is construct products and strategies that allow us to fully utilize Logos's power. It's really very exciting. The digital age is allowing us to break down the idea of "The Bible" as a stand-alone book, an idea that really only developed during the Renaissance and the Reformation, an return to a paradigm of Scripture reading that re-inserts the Bible into the very heart of Tradition.


3) What brought about this new division within Logos that focuses on the Catholic market?

Logos is the world's largest Bible software company. The intention of the company has always been to provide tools for Bible study that cut across divisions between Christians. For a long time, the company's focus has been on the Evangelical market; but as it has grown, the opportunity to focus on other Christian groups has arisen. This has coincided with a real renaissance of Bible study within the Catholic Church, especially among the laity. More Catholics are reading the Bible and studying their faith now than has been the case for a very, very long time... maybe ever. I think this is one of the fruits of Vatican II that is often, unfortunately, over-shadowed by some of the problems the Church has experienced in the aftermath of the council. So, the bringing of Logos's technology into the Catholic market has been really rather natural... a classic meeting of supply and demand.


4) What are some of the features of your Logos Catholic Bible package?

Logos is amazingly powerful. In the very simplest terms, Logos links together thousands of texts and keys them all to the Scripture. The Bible becomes a sort of hub around which the whole tradition revolves. But, all the texts are linked to each other as well. So, as you read the Bible the software is mining the data of the library for information about the passage. What did St. Augustine say? Aquinas? Vatican II? Once you start following a thread, you can go in any direction with it. The library is a web of connections. With a couple clicks, for example, you can go from the Mass readings, to the Catechism, to Augustine, to Aquinas, to Vatican II and back to the lectionary. Its other great strength is in the study of Scripture in the original languages, even if you don't know Greek or Hebrew. We've mapped the original languages and the English on top of each other. So, if you do a search on a word in the Bible the software doesn't look for the English word but for the Greek or Hebrew word that lays behind it, and kicks back the results in both the original languages and in English, regardless of what English words the translators have chosen. This frees us from the translations. And what's really amazing is that this functionality works in the Greek writings of the Apostolic Fathers as well. For a word in the New Testament, then, we can, with a couple clicks, see every time it is used in the Septuagint, in the New Testament, and in the Apostolic Fathers; and Logos is looking for the root of the word, so the searches are not compromised by the language's inflection. And, all this goes with you everywhere; it works across all your desktop and mobile devices. There are many other features, but I've gone on for far too long already.


5) Could you talk a little bit about your new Aquinas Commentaries?

Sure. Many people don't realize it, but Aquinas wrote a great deal on Sacred Scripture. In fact, what scholars are increasingly realizing is that if we want to really understand Aquinas's thought we need to take into account, even begin with, his Scripture commentaries. In the modern period there has been a focus on Aquinas as a systematic theologian, as the archetype of scholastic theology: the rationalist system-builder. But often what we have actually done is project developments in theology that really belong in the seventeenth century back onto Aquinas, and in doing so we have tended to ignore his exegetical work. The truth is that Aquinas's work has its foundations in Scripture, as did all medieval theology. Aquinas did not turn his back on the Augustine and monastic tradition, which focused so profoundly on the Bible. We need to understand his Summa and his work on Aristotle as a part of a theological approach that was rooted in a reading of the Bible. So, Logos has decided to make his commentaries available in English. Many of them have never been translated, others have poor translations or translations that are out of print. We are going to remedy the situation, starting with his commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah. We are also going to translate his massive Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, which is his first large work of theology and which offers his most sustained treatment of the Church and the Sacraments, among other things. If your readers are interested they can go to Logos.com/Aquinas and read more.


6) In general, if someone is thinking about investing in Logos Bible Software, but perhaps has never used any Bible software in the past, what encouragement would you give them to give it a try?

What I can say is that it is worth the investment. In a recent conversation I had with Dr. Scott Hahn he stated his belief that Logos is going to change the way people read the Bible, that in a few years it will be the standard. I agree with him. Technology is not a universal good, as we well know, but the Church has consistently encouraged us to make use of its power to advance the Gospel. I think Logos is such a use. If you are interested in really digging into the Scripture and the faith, there just isn't a more powerful tool out there. Your readers should go to Logos.com/Catholic and read more.


7) Finally, do you have a favorite passage or verse from the Bible?

John Chapter 15, the discourse of the True Vine, has been the most important Biblical reading in my personal conversion. Every time I read it, I feel like I rediscover Christ. John's emphasis on "abiding" has been especially important for me. It is a persistent theme in his writings, and when the discourse is read in conjuncture with passages such as John 1:32, John 5:38 and John 6:56 a whole theology of "abiding", of peace, is revealed. I find it to be quite beautiful.