Why you are wandering? In short, because I love the Logos Bible Software. I could give a long list of reasons for this love but I will leave it at this: Seldom would you find a program with such power and yet so much simplicity in its use. The Logos Bible Software has improved my scripture study and homiletic preparation by orders of magnitude. In addition the people of Logos are friendly and helpful, and the vast majority of the community of users are always eager to help. So I would like my Catholic brethren specially those who are students or preachers to benefit of this tremendous tool. This blog is my humble attempt at helping them discover this tool.
However this is not the whole of the story. When I was considering buying the Logos Bible Software I became partially aware that the resources provided with the version of Logos I was researching were almost exclusively Protestant-Evangelical works. My research made me decide that the wealth of facilities and options Logos offered was exactly what I was looking for to help me in my ministry.
Now, the type of resources might seem like a minor thing to some folks but been a Catholic Permanent Deacon, this presented me with a big dilemma. Should I invest on a ministry tool which provided resources specifically selected with a completely different theological tradition in mind? Were there any alternatives? Maybe it would be better to invest this money "beefing up" my own personal library? These were not easy questions for me. With such a powerful tool, should I ignore all the Protestant material and try to make the best of it with the resources I was receiving with the basic bundle? After a spending sometime asking questions at the Logos Forum and getting answers from some other users. I discovered that in fact Logos provided some resources of interest for the Catholic audience although this collection lacked of some classic Catholic works. After more reflection and having discovered the tremendous savings you can find when you use community pricing and pre-publications I decided to take the plunge and invested in the program.
Once I installed Logos in my laptop and started exploring the basic collection of resources received with the purchase, I discovered that in fact I was correct in my original assessment; Logos resources were selected under the assumption that its primary users are Protestant, and hence its basic resources where very lacking of good and solid Catholic works. I had decided to bite the bullet and invest on new resources before my purchase so that I could benefit not only from protestant works but most importantly from the 2000 years theological and philosophical tradition that is the treasure of the Catholic Church. This is not to say there were no Protestant resources helping me on my studies of scripture and homiletic work. I discovered some real gems in the original resources I received but it took me time to find them. On the other hand, also included were some resources that could be described as presenting an a distorted idea of Catholic doctrines, and a few others which presented a very strong anti-catholic view. So as you can imagine I ended up with a very eclectic collection of resources.
So now that I'm the proud owner of this fantastic tool I find myself facing another dilemma. How can my experience help a lay person, the young seminarian or perhaps newly ordained priest that is considering investing in Logos? What should I do to help them overcome the apparent lack of Catholic resources, or the concerns they might develop when encountering some of the most anti-catholic statements found in some of the resources? I wish more Catholics clergy and lay people were able to take advantage of the power that Logos offers to them but I suspect that the average Catholic consumer will just take a quick look at the list of resources provided in any of the basic packages and be completely turned off by the strong Protestant-Evangelical influence.
This is why I decided to spend my time and energies in this blog. To help those potential Catholic users to sort out the "wheat from the shaft" and make informed decisions about Logos resources. I also hope to look at the resources that although not Catholic could be of great help to this audience. Finally it is my hope for this blog to become a place in which all Logos users, Catholic and non Catholic, can discuss issues related to the tool and the value of it resources to the Catholic audience. I welcome any suggestions and comments if you would like to help in this endeavor.
May the peace of Christ be always in your heart,
"Viva Cristo Rey!!"
Deacon Harbey
NOTE: I would like to make a very important point: some of my statements in this page should not be taken as an indictment on the good people of Logos, after all they are no responsible for the personal feelings of some of the scholars they publish.
