Daniel Akin Theological Library

The president of my seminary gives every new student a copy of his book "building a theological library". He also makes the PDF freely available on his website.

Danny Akin is of course the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a seminary with an enrollment of around 4500 (for last semester, no idea for this one) students who visit the campus at least once in a semester. We are one of the larger seminaries, and certainly the largest, or tied for being the largest in the southern baptist denomination (the enrollment battle goes back and forth between our school, and Al Mohlers).

Sometimes he recommends only one book out of a full set, or a couple of books. Rarely does he wants us to have an entire set of a certain commentary.

My suggestion is to build a "Danny Akin Theological Library package" Or even call it the "southeastern baptist theological seminary package", and then include the titles he recommends (best titles have a *, the others included are second best from his perspective.

It could even be multi-tier like the current Christmas packages, with XL containing ALL of the books on his list.

Any way, I digress. Here is the link to his website where he posts the PDF file for his book list:

http://www.danielakin.com/?p=491

Also he is coming out with a commentary on Revelation that would be an asset to Logos.

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Comments

David P. Moore

Hi Ken, thanks for sharing. Very detailed bibliography. What do the asterisks mean? Perhaps the key resources under that heading?

elnwood

Akin updated this post in 2011.

http://www.danielakin.com/?p=2201

Doc B

a copy of his book "building a theological library"

Very useful document. Thanks for posting it.

Doc B

"Danny Akin Theological Library package" Or even call it the "southeastern baptist theological seminary package", and then include the titles he recommends (best titles have a *, the others included are second best from his perspective.

May I ask what the circled letters mean in the list? It's probably something obvious, but I'm dense today.

davidphillips

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/440083#Comment_440083

Doc B, if it is the same set of symbols used at bestcommentaries.com, which it looks like, then:

T- Technical

P- Pastoral

D- Devotional

Also, David, as the OP mentioned and as you guessed, the * represent his best selections in that category

abondservant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/440085#Comment_440085

Much thanks for the updated document. I have a paper copy, and so googled the title and his website, then posted the first one I found. Should have been more thorough. But I don't think there is a drastic change from one to the other - simply one has more volumes than the other.

With Akins forthcoming revelation commentary I suspect there will be a newer edition still before long that includes an expanded section for revelation.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner - yes David was right * means it is (in Akins view) the best in class. T P and D also mean what David suggested. There is a key chart in my paper copy... I assume it is also in the PDF, but may not be... regardless... It has been helpful to me and hope it helps you all as well.

abondservant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/440091#Comment_440091

http://www.danielakin.com/?p=2201

Bringing this back up.

elnwood

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/466170#Comment_466170

This is not going to happen, for a number of reasons.

1. The publishers have to agree to have their product sold in the bundle, and Akin's list represents dozens of publishers. That's why almost all bundles on Logos are exclusively by a single publisher, or a single author. I can't imagine a publisher or author would want their book packaged under Daniel Akin's name.

2. Daniel Akin's recommendations is just one bibliography in a sea of bibliographies published by seminaries. Denver Seminary publishes one that is particularly good, especially since it is revised and updated every single year.

I like Daniel Akin, and he has good choices, but there's nothing particularly unique about Dan Akin's bibliography unless you're a Southeastern Seminary student.

3. Not all of the resources in this bibliography are available in Logos.

4. Even if it were, such a package would be prohibitively expensive. You can do the math, but it would be a least as expensive as Portfolio.

abondservant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/466259#Comment_466259

Bearing in mind SEBTS has 4500+ graduate (on campus, not sure the amount if you include online and undergraduate) students. So what if it costs the same as portfolio? If they worked with Akin and the school, I suspect they might be able to come to some sort of Knox like arrangement. Even if a third of us in the traditional programs jumped on board, that would be a significant profit for them. I suspect they could work out a deal with the cooperative program to have it half provided for the students. CP covers half of our tuition already.

I suspect if they worked out contracts for the unavailable resources with the publishers, that they would not have much trouble getting them through the pre-pub stage.

Even if they called it something different - Southeastern Baptist Theological Library, or some other more easily marketable name. The name isn't the important part - thats a side issue really. Call it the Ice Cream Library *chuckle*, or the Al Mohler's a Vampire Library (Danny Akins alleged (and said with all brotherly love) nickname for him). I really don't care what they call it.

Here is the part I care about: Getting all of those resources into Logos, and hopefully providing a package discount.

elnwood

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/466324#Comment_466324

I didn't say it would cost the same as Portfolio, I said it would cost at least as much as Portfolio. Realistically, I think it would cost several times Portfolio. You can do the math.

abondservant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/466415#Comment_466415

Even if we knew the discounted rates Logos would charge for any given title included in such a bundle, we can't say the exact price since many are not yet in the Logos package.

Step one: Get all titles into Logos
Step two: produce a discounted package (perhaps even in the manner of upgrades, since I know I have some of the titles already).

I'm not asking for it to be free.

I'm not sure you understand that.

However, if that is the best argument that you can make against this (that it might be more expensive than you'd like), then I believe that demonstrates that this is a good idea.

elnwood

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/466633#Comment_466633

I'm not arguing against it. I'm just saying it won't happen. It won't even get past step one. It's not like Logos isn't trying to get all the titles.

And even if it did, the publishers would never go with it. Publishers don't want to sell their books bundled with another publisher's books. Logos can't even get the Anchor Bible commentary set broken up individually, much less have only the good ones sold in a bundle with books from other publishers. All it takes is one publisher to say "no," and your project is held up.

And even if you did get a package together, There are well over a thousand resources in that list. Even if Logos were able to negotiate the deal of the millennium and you got every book for $30, it's going to be well over $40,000. That's almost ten times as much as Portfolio. That's like a down payment on a house. Very few people have Portfolio because it's expensive. Seminary students complain when they have to buy a $100 dollar book like BDAG. I know, I've been there. I don't think very many of them are going to spend that much at once.

As a side note, I think you're kind of missing the idea of Daniel Akin's list. It's called "Building a theological library," not "the complete theological library." It's intended for the lifelong learner to identify and buy quality references as they have need. It's not intended for someone to break the bank and get everything on that list. That would be complete overkill. You wouldn't need all of those. A lot of the books would be redundant. You can have a more-than-adequate home theological library that's a fraction of the size.

abondservant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/466647#Comment_466647

Firstly, I think Logos is only trying to get books into logos that people are asking for. Thus one ought to ask, if they aren't in logos already.

Secondly, I think you don't understand how their current packages work. they sell 4-500 books for 4-500$, not 30$ each. While I understand that all of them are not new publications, I know that all of them are not in the public domain either (in an upgrade package). I suspect there will be some that can't have their prices lowered, and some that Logos will have room to work with. So when it comes to price, I don't think it will be as big of an issue as you seem to.

The only valid sticking point that I see is publishers not wanting to work together. I can see that.

As to your final point, I don't disagree with the idea that this is just a start, nor that some are redundant. However, he DID encourage us on several occasions, to include ALL the listed books in our library.