Request for Initial Thoughts - Verbum 7 Content
Fr. Devin and MJ,
Would you be willing to share some initial thoughts on what you are seeing in the content of the new Verbum 7 base packages?
Anything interesting? Unusual? Great find? Great value? Other?
Comments
-
It really depends upon what you use Logos for and what your interests are. I'd use the Church Fathers as a sales point to others but what excited me the most was the Classics of Western Spirituality. And, of course, the interlinear Vulgate is worth raising a few pints over.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
Is there any way to view the content of the base packages yet? I've tried on the Verbum site and I can't access that there. I'm guessing that MJ is talking about either Diamond or Portfolio.
The Church Fathers and the Classics of Western Spirituality would be big selling points for me, but I'd like to see what else is in there!
0 -
Mark,
try this link https://www.logos.com/product/81202/verbum-starter (there's a drop down box to change from starter up to portfolio)
0 -
try this link https://www.logos.com/product/81202/verbum-starter (there's a drop down box to change from starter up to portfolio)
In order to support Verbum, you can then buy them using this link and doing the same thing to change package levels.
(Shopping at Logos.com and buying at Verbum.com is how I do almost all of my non-Vyrso shopping from Faithlife.)
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
0 -
Fr. Devin and MJ,
Would you be willing to share some initial thoughts on what you are seeing in the content of the new Verbum 7 base packages?
Anything interesting? Unusual? Great find? Great value? Other?
Here's what I would see as highlights of each package. Just my personal initial impressions.
Starter - This package hits all the most important points for someone getting started, in a way the Verbum 6 Starter didn't always do: Schaff's Church Fathers, Summa, Ignatius Study Bible, 360 Training, Catechism, Trent, Vatican II, etc. Hard to imagine a better startup library for the average parishioner who wants to go deeper in their faith. I love that is is also well-stocked with reverse-interlinears.
Bronze - Main upgrade here is moving up to the full feature set. As regards the library itself, there isn't much more than Starter, and nothing to get too excited about. I love that all features are now included Bronze and up... but if you are thinking about Bronze, you should consider getting Verbum Now, and then getting the Starter or Bronze Library. That would likely be a better deal economically (Faithlife wants people to buy Now, and this type of pricing reflects that...).
Silver - Good entry level for people who want to study the Bible for preaching or in a more academic way. Broad selection of Church Fathers, Medieval authors, Magisterium, theologians, etc. that can allow you to profitably investigate about any point related to the faith. Exegetical Dictionary of the NT. Homiletics training videos.
Gold - Good for going deeper. Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary is a great resource. Academic Training videos. Homilies and Sermons of Pope Benedict, Papel Encyclicals from 1740-1981, Liddel and Scott Greek Dictionary, broader Church documents.
Platinum - Think v6 Master, with some nice additions. This level is a big upgrade for serious academic study of theology or Scripture. Almost all of Benedict / Ratzinger's works, Search Training videos, Nestle-Aland Greek NT 28th edition, textual criticism commentaries, Theological Dictionary of the NT, Theological Lexicon of the NT and of the OT, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. BDAG. Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary.
Diamond - Think v6 Capstone. Navarre Bible Commentary, Balthasar's and Peter Kreeft's books, JPS Commentary. Commentary from the Talmud and Hebraica, Raymond Brown's works, UBS Commentary series, A broad selection of serious academic studies of the NT and OT, Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, Journal of Biblical Literature, Letter and Spirit, Lots more Church Fathers, Works of Aristotle and Plato.
Portfolio - It covers in a very complete way all the most important works and authors of 2000 years of Church history, plus ancient Jewish thought, plus philosophy. Entire CUA Fathers of the Church Series, Classics of Medieval Spirituality, Classics of Modern Spirituality, Black's NT Commentary, Lexham Bible Guides, Bablyonian Talmud, Jewish Encyclopedia, Jewish Law, large collection of philosophical works. Easily the best library Verbum has offered.
Hope that helps. Again, just a first impression looking them over.
I agree with MJ that in general the biggest improvement to the packages compared to v6 is the Church Father's coverage, and to that I would add: the big improvements in Starter, the lower price with which you can get all the features using Now, and the addition of the Portfolio level.
0 -
Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated. I'm going to take this and head over to the comparison tool and see what I can figure out. One area that has me thinking a little bit is in the Church Fathers and Patristics. I know some of the higher level packages have more of that, but I already have CUA Church Fathers series. It's always been a challenge for me to figure out where I may have gaps in content.
Comparison tool:
https://www.logos.com/compare/libraries?productIds=81202,81203,81204,81205,81206,81207,113844
0 -
Mark,
try this link https://www.logos.com/product/81202/verbum-starter (there's a drop down box to change from starter up to portfolio)
Thanks! Must have had a brain cramp this morning. I never thought to check logos.com for the Verbum packages!
0 -
There are some very helpful comments here-. I currently have Verbum 6 Foundations and am trying to decide between upgrading to Bronze or Silver. This is just for my own personal study. In regards to the Silver package, I notice that it contains a lot of patristics/Church Fathers that I own as part of the Schaff collection. The Silver package includes many of these same writings but from the CUA Church Fathers collection, which I do not currently own. Other than a more modern English translation, is there any particular reason why the CUA version is more advantageous than Schaff? There are a handful of other books that I like in the Silver package but it's a $150 difference between Bronze and Silver for me. Thanks!
0 -
Don't ask me as I dislike Schaff rather strongly - for bias, for abridgment ... CUA on the other hand is translated by individuals actually specializing in the authors they translate, have current introductions written by people studying the Fathers for reasons other than just producing a translation for those in traditions not heavily imbued with the Fathers ...
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
https://verbum.com/compare is now live.
0 -
Gold - Good for going deeper. Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary is a great resource.
Coming from Verbum 6 Capstone, the upgrade pricing to Verbum 7 Gold -- which includes the AYB Dictionary -- is actually cheaper than buying the AYB Dictionary by itself! I hope this promo pricing sticks around long enough for me to scrape together some funding.
0 -
is there any particular reason why the CUA version is more advantageous than Schaff?
My apologies - I was trying to answer this and got sidetracked by a bug ...
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
Thanks for your thoughts. I wasn't aware of the origin of the Schaff collection until I did a little more research based on your post. I hadn't caught on to any bias in the last year that I've been working with that translation (though I did find the English a bit stilted). Now that I've directly compared them, I understand and share your apprehension regarding Schaff. I wish I could afford more of the CUA version but it's cost prohibitive for me at this point. Perhaps I should start with a few individual volumes to see how much real world use I'll get from them. I feel as though I could pour over the Church Fathers for hours and never get bored.
0 -
HI, I noticed your comment on the interlinear Vulgate. Is that included in Verbum 7? I didn't see it listed among the books available.
0 -
HI, I noticed your comment on the interlinear Vulgate. Is that included in Verbum 7? I didn't see it listed among the books available.
Check out the feature sets: https://www.logos.com/compare/feature-sets
Most of the other packages are broken into Library and Feature sets.
To get full Logos 7 you need to buy the full Feature set.
Then you can add a library upgrade also.
0 -
HI, I noticed your comment on the interlinear Vulgate. Is that included in Verbum 7? I didn't see it listed among the books available.
Greg,
Yes. In Verbum/Logos 7, base packages are now split into "libraries" (with all the books), and "feature sets" (with all the features and specialized tools). You are probably just looking at the list for the libraries. The Vulgate interlinears (Latin-English interlinear and Latin-Greek and Latin-Hebrew reverse interlinears) are included in Verbum 7 Full Feature Set, which we recommend with Verbum 7 Bronze and up (it is also available in the Logos 7 Full Feature Set, if you are purchasing a Logos library). Alternatively, if you are interested in subscribing to a feature set instead of purchasing, you can get it by becoming a Verbum Now or Logos Now member.
0 -
HI, I noticed your comment on the interlinear Vulgate. Is that included in Verbum 7? I didn't see it listed among the books available.
Greg,
Yes. In Verbum/Logos 7, base packages are now split into "libraries" (with all the books), and "feature sets" (with all the features and specialized tools). You are probably just looking at the list for the libraries. The Vulgate interlinears (Latin-English interlinear and Latin-Greek and Latin-Hebrew reverse interlinears) are included in Verbum 7 Full Feature Set, which we recommend with Verbum 7 Bronze and up (it is also available in the Logos 7 Full Feature Set, if you are purchasing a Logos library). Alternatively, if you are interested in subscribing to a feature set instead of purchasing, you can get it by becoming a Verbum Now or Logos Now member.
Louis,
Correct me if I'm wrong ... By becoming a Verbum Now member there is an addition discount on the Verbum base packages also?
0 -
Louis,
Correct me if I'm wrong ... By becoming a Verbum Now member there is an addition discount on the Verbum base packages also?
Correct. The introductory discount for Now members is 15% rather than 10%. (Also, Now members always get 10% off libraries and 25% of feature sets, whereas those are only available to non-members when they bundle a library and feature set together.)
0 -
Louis,
Correct me if I'm wrong ... By becoming a Verbum Now member there is an addition discount on the Verbum base packages also?
Correct. The introductory discount for Now members is 15% rather than 10%. (Also, Now members always get 10% off libraries and 25% of feature sets, whereas those are only available to non-members when they bundle a library and feature set together.)
Not only that, but those of us who have an academic discount instead of the 10% discount still get an extra 5% if we also have Now.
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
0 -
I agree, Verbum 7 Gold or Platinum has all the training videos.
0 -
Hi Kenneth, Welcome to the forums. [:)]
A quick check of the Verbum library comparison page shows that Gold does not have the Verbum Advanced Search Training. You get the other two, Advanced Homiletic and Academic training but not Search.
0
