Why do Verbumites pay the same as Logosians for a lesser product
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I came into this whole area via a sale offer on the old Libronix library. It was something I had to buy for myself and I could not have easily afforded the full price, even then.
I had no difficulty with moving over to Logos when it came out. I was very happy with it, but was heavily pushed to use this "new product" - Verbum, which I got for free. Again, I would have struggled to buy it at full price and could hardly justify a second program alongside Logos.
Apart from the layout and the fact that it seemed more sophisticated than my then version of Logos, Verbum shared the same resources and when I bought any resource it got downloaded to both programmes. Initially, I had used Logos as a slightly upgraded version of the old Libronix system and found that some upgrades actually reduced or removed functionality I was used to. My first experience of Verbum was quite different as it included the multimedia resources, such as pictures and films and my first encounter with the video courses one can buy.
In every other respect, they seemed to be the same. I noticed no real difference. Then, three to five years ago, I realised that Verbum was heavily promoting Catholic material. I do not remember doing anything to trigger this change such as buying anything explicitly and exclusively Catholic, nor did I identify as a Catholic in any online survey or form.
To be clear, I am from a British ecumenical (Protestant) background, growing up in an Anglican/Methodist congregation - yep, one congregation reflecting two traditions and am currently part of a formally Baptist congregation which is actually quite ecumenical in composition. I see myself as broadly protestant - note the small "p" - with wide interests, e.g.; in Anabaptism at one end to Orthodoxy at the other. In terms of the language of this discussion I would be both "third circle" and broadly "academic", since my career has balanced the twin poles of local church preaching and evangelism and broader teaching/lecturing/mentoring and I have used the software primarily for the latter.
So I might read from any tradition, but I would probably not be as invested in very particularly Catholic texts as a committed Catholic would - but then I am not as interested in some very "Protestant" material as a committed Lutheran or Reformed (Calvinist) might be, either.
It is helpful to realise that Verbum is supposed to be Catholic. I had assumed I had done something to the program which changed the original settings. Indeed, that is why I came to this page, to try to understand what Verbum is doing.
I ran both Logos and Verbum, initially, because they had quite different features. I now see very little functional difference at all and none as far as my downloaded resources. (I resist the onscreen boxes that promote new books and other material as a matter of course. I want to choose what I buy according to my own needs, not because a sample in a pretty box pops up in front of me).
I may get rid of Verbum, simply because it seems utterly unnecessary and even stupid, for me, to have the same resources duplicated - esp. since everything I purchase now goes to both. It might be different if I was being offered different resources for each program.
As it is, I have recently retired and cannot afford the big packages or even many of the single resources. I now only regularly "buy" the monthly free books, but will splash out occasionally. (Even when working, I did not have the kind of expenses that would have permitted me to buy any of the current packages.) In addition, Covid Lockdown has meant that I have had to give up the little remaining unpaid Bible Study teaching I used to do. I keep the software and resources because I still feel I can learn and because I continue to mentor others in their academic journeys.
I had not realised the problems people were encountering with Verbum and certainly think that it is very unfair to have a different and lesser product and still be paying as much for it. I am sad about the apparent need to have two software packages, simply because some evangelical protestants might be uncomfortable that Catholics might use "their" software.
(The fact that a particular user may want a set of resources that reflects their own tradition is quite different and needn't be a problem for anyone, just as long as we accept that other users will want to do the same in respect of their own tradition. Obviously, a lot of historical material will be common to all, especially if you go back far enough. It is sad, though, if indwelling one's own tradition means rigorously avoiding any contact with any other. At an academic level there is some degree of openness to insights from across the traditions - although this is only to a degree. At grassroots, too, churches do work together, but somewhere between those two extremes we seem to have lost the plot.)
I hope Faithlife will take serious notice and give enhanced full functionality to Verbum users and perhaps, more control and choice to all users, so that we can become more aware of the breadth and depth of our (ultimately) shared heritage.
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