Verbum Now Slim Pickings
Good morning,
I am am a Verbum Platinum owner and a Verbum Now member. When searching for my free book for being a Now member I narrow my search by choosing Catholic under Christian Groups. When I do that my choices are very limited (I already own many). Also when I peruse what is available, I see that the prices on the books available to me free are low mostly in the $9.99 range or lower. I am not opposed to choosing books from other Christian faiths because that is how we all learn but I am a Verbum owner.
My point being unless Verbum makes the Now membership benefits more in line with the Logos Now membership benefits it will no longer be of value to me to renew my Verbum Now subscription.
I pray that all of your are staying safe and healthy.
Kevin
“Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up until now we have done little or nothing.” St. Francis of Assisi
Comments
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As a Lutheran, I sort of feel your pain. When I look at Logos Now offerings that are Lutheran, I have a grand total of 3 that are new to me, other than a collection of Ambrose Letters and books on the Heidelberg Catechism that are mis-catigorized.
The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann
L8 Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Silver, Reformed Starter, Academic Essentials
L7 Lutheran Gold, Anglican Bronze
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Kevin S. Coy said:
I am am a Verbum Platinum owner
Welcome to the no free book club. [[Sometimes we do get one. Enjoy them when they come]]
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My proposal is that as users we push for more public domain resources that are of particular interest to the Catholic-Orthodox-Anglican-Lutheran realm. Many of the free books come from the Logos public domain realm.
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."
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MJ. Smith said:
My proposal is that as users we push for more public domain resources that are of particular interest to the Catholic-Orthodox-Anglican-Lutheran realm. Many of the free books come from the Logos public domain realm.
My proposal--which is not mutually exclusive--is that the Verbum Now list continue to be updated (added to), as is the Faithlife Connect one. Unless updates have started recently, there have been none in some time.
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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MJ. Smith said:
My proposal is that as users we push for more public domain resources that are of particular interest to the Catholic-Orthodox-Anglican-Lutheran realm. Many of the free books come from the Logos public domain realm.
MJ, please feel free to list such resources here. It's a priority of mine to get more of those available.
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Showing my age, but looks like Major Kong will be with us a while ... lots of PD to be had!
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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For church history and Eastern Rites:
These are older texts that help fill in missing pieces of Christian writings all translated by Budge, There are others of Christian History etc. but a great collection could be made.
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The Kebra Nagast: King Solomon, The Queen of Sheba & Her Only Son Menyelek - Ethiopian Legends and Bible Folklore -- "The KEBRA NAGAST, or the Book of the Glory of Kings of Ethiopia, has been in existence for at least a thousand years, and contains the true history of the origin of the Solomonic line of kings in Ethiopia. It is regarded as the ultimate authority on the history of the conversion of the Ethiopians from the worship of the sun, moon, and stars to that of the Lord God of Israel."
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The Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth: And Other Works of Bakhayla Mikaelzosima -- The continuing fascination with Gnostic Christianity has stimulated the translation of a vast range of Gnostic texts with both popular and critical commentaries. But the later texts of the Coptic Church remain virtually unknown outside a small circle of scholars, even more so in their Ethiopic versions. One exception is The Book of Enoch, but Enoch does not stand alone. Associated with it is an even stranger and more complex apocalyptic work, The Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth, which is believed to have been revealed by the Archangel Gabriel in the 15th century. It was introduced to the Western public in 1935 by Wallis Budge. This edition also includes an interpretation of St. John's apocalyptic vision, a discourse on the Godhead and the Trinity, and a discourse on the birth of Enoch.
- The Laughable Stories: Collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus Maphrian of the East From A.D. 1264-1286 -- Bar-Hebraeus was a 13th century bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Born in 1226 in what is now Turkey, Bar-Hebraeus was renowned as a scholar and theologian. He died in 1286 in Persia. Writing mostly in Syriac and Arabic, Bar Hebraeus wrote on philosophy, poetry, language, history and theology, including a comprehensive history of the world, the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum. The Laughable Stories are a sequence of anecdotes categorized by the story-teller: starting with Persian, Indian, Hebrew and Christian sages, and including stories of Misers, Clowns, Thieves, and Animals and so on.
- The Book of the Cave of Treasures: A History of the Patriarchs and the Kings, their Successors from the Creation to the Crucifixtion of Christ --
Some five and a half thousand years of human history span the narrative, with various ancient monarchs of human history depicted together with the Great Flood. The final portions narrate the arrival of Jesus Christ, and his sentence of death at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate.
Writing towards the end of his distinguished career, E. A. Wallis Budge is keen to distinguish between this text and the contents of other apocryphal works such as the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Adam and Eve. The reader will benefit from this discerning scholarship, as well as the photographic illustrations of pages of the original Ethiopic and Syriac script.
Contemporary scholars generally believe that the Cave of Treasures dates from the 7th century, and is adapted from texts that originate from around the 5th or 6th centuries. It would go on to influence various Medieval-era scholarly texts, with the Book of the Bee by Solomon, Bishop of Perâth Maishân notable for its derivations. Several of Solomon's translations are appended near the conclusion of this book.
- Saint Michael the Archangel: Three Encomiums by Theodosius, Archbishop of Alexandria, Severus,, Patriarch of Antioch, and Eustathius, Bishop of Trake -- excerpt
- The Earliest Known Coptic Psalter: The Text, in the Dialect of Upper Egypr --
- The Contendings of the Apostles: Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists
- The Synaxarium of The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
- The Martyrdom and Miracles of Saint George of Cappadocia
- Legends of Our Lady Mary the Perpetual Virgin and Her Mother Hanna
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The Book of the Bee -- An unabridged edition with all Chapters, Footnotes, Preface, and the Apology, to include: Of God's eternal intention in respect of the creation of the universe - Of the creation of the seven natures (substances) in silence - Of earth, water, air, and fire - Of heaven - Of the angels - Of darkness - Of effused (circumambient) light - Of the firmament - Of the creation of trees and plants, and the making of seas and rivers - Of the making of the luminaries - Of the creation of sea-monsters, fish, winged fowl, and the reptiles that are in the seas - Of the creation of beasts and animals - Of the formation of Adam - Of the making of Eve - Of Paradise - Of the sin of Adam - Of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise - Of Adam's knowing Eve - Of the invention of the instruments for working in iron - Of Noah and the Flood - Of Melchizedek - Of the generations of Noah, how seventy-two families sprang from three sons - Of the succession of generations from the Flood until now - Of the building of the Tower - Of Abraham - Of the temptation of Job - Of Isaac's blessing upon Jacob - Of Joseph - Of Moses and the Children of Israel - Of Moses' rod - Of Joshua the son of Nun, and the Judges, and brief notices of the Kings of the Children of Israel - Of the death of the Prophets; how they died, and (where) they were buried - Of the divine dispensation which was wrought in the New Testament, and of the genealogy of Christ - Of the announcement of the angel to Joachim in respect of Mary - Of the annunciation of Gabriel to Mary in respect of her conception of our Lord - Of our Lord's birth in the flesh - Of the prophecy of Baruch the scribe - Of the star which appeared in the East on the day of our Lord's birth - Of the coming of the Magi from Persia, and the slaughter of the infants - Of the going down of our Lord into Egypt - Of John the Baptist and his baptism of our Lord - Of our Lord's fast and His contest with Satan - Of the Passover of our Lord - Of the passion of our Lord - Of the resurrection of our Lord - Of the ascension of our Lord - Of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the upper chamber - Of the teaching of the Apostles, their deaths, and the place where each of them (was buried) - The names of the twelve Apostles and the seventy (Disciples), one after another in (his) grade - Of minor matters; those of the Apostles who were married, etc. - The names of the Eastern Patriarchs, and the places where they were buried - The names of the kings who have reigned in the world from the Flood to the present time, and the (number of the) years of the reign of each of them. The names of the kings of the Medes and the Egyptians; the names of the seventy old men who brought out the Scriptures and translated them; the names of the Roman emperors, and of the kings of Persia - Of the end of times and the change of kingdoms. From the book of Methodius, the bishop of Rome - Of Gog and Magog, who are imprisoned in the North - Of the coming of Antichrist, the son of perdition - Of death and the departure of the soul from the body - Of the rising of the dead and the general resurrection, the end of the material world, and the beginning of the new world - Of the manner in which men will rise in the day of the resurrection - Of the happiness of the righteous, and the torture of sinners; and of the manner in which they will exist yonder - Of the demons and sinners in Gehenna, whether after they have been punished and have suffered and received their sentence, they will have mercy shewn to them or not; and if mercy be shewn to them, when it will be.
- The Rule of Pachomius at Tabenna or the Asketikon
- The Martyrdom of Saint George of Cappadocia
- Rabban Sauma - The astonishing travels of a Nestorian Monk from China to Europe
- The Monks of Kublai Khan Emperor of China ...
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."
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Some of these are series where additional volumes would also be of value
- Baltimore Catechism
- Anecdotes and examples illustrating the Catholic Catechism - Spirago
- Dante and Catholic philosophy in the thirteenth century - Ozanam
- The hymn of Hildebert and other medieval hymns - Benedict
- The Catholic epistles and Apocalypse from the codex Laudianus numbered Laud. Lat. 43 in the Bodleian library, together with the Apocalypse text of Beatus from the tenth century ms. in the Morgan library, New York; now first edited with introductions descriptive of the mss. and their correctors, Buchanan
- Hymn-melodies for the whole year from the Sarum Antiphonal and other ancient English sources : together with sequences for the principal seasons & festivals.
- The plainsong of the Mass, adapted from the Sarum Gradual to the English text. Part I: The Ordinary, containing Kyrie, Creed, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Gloria in excelsis.
- The mass in medieval England - Thurston
- English fragments from Latin medieval service-books : with two coloured facsimiles from medieval prymers
- Context Canonizations: the Last Medieval Saints, 1482-1523 - Finucane
- Introduction to the Study of Medieval Latin Versification - Norberg
- Handbook for Curates: A Late Medieval Manual on Pastoral Ministry - Guido of Mont Rochen
- Manual of Christian theology on the inductive method - Burwash
- Works of Cardinal Wiseman (restored Catholic bishop in England)
- Works of Antonio Rosmini (social justice pioneer)
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."
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Or consider the older collections on saints (mixed denomination)
- The saint's everlasting rest; or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in heaven - Richard Baxter
- Saints' legends - Gordon Hall Gerould
- Emblems of saints - Husenbeth
- Cornish saints & sinners - Harris
- Aelfric's lives of saints: being a set of sermons on saints' days formerly observed by the English Church
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."
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Great lists. Thank you!
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For Lutheran literature, there is a problem with finding things in English that are public domain.
Luther: You are actually pretty good now at having the PD English Luther in your catalogue. There are some 16th century translations that would be of historical interest in how they influenced Anglicans, but I am not really an expert on those. What I am missing is whatever volumes from the early 20th century "Philadelphia Edition" published by Holman are PD. That said, these translations were superseded in the Fortress/Concordia American Edition from the middle of the 20th century...
Most of our influential theologians and spiritual writers did not get into English until embarrassingly recently...
One thing that I would really like to see would be Catherine Winkworth's Lyra Germanica. Yes, as an English Unitarian, she missed much of the sacramental imagery of the originals. But these mid 19th century translations still influence how many of these hymns are sung in English.
The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann
L8 Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Silver, Reformed Starter, Academic Essentials
L7 Lutheran Gold, Anglican Bronze
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Great lists. Thank you!
If I may add a few:
Dom Prosper Gueranger's The Liturgical Year (and other works)
GK Chesterton's St Francis of Assisi (1923).
Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, Christian Perfection and Contemplation according to St Thomas Aquinas and St John of the Cross
(1923).Maria Montessori's The Child in the Family (1923).
Charles Reinhard Baschab's A Manual of Neo-scholastic Philosophy (1923).
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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