My Protestant base-package upgrade choice (from OLL)

bump!

I just mean that I have a hard time recommending any other base-package. Verbum Foundations+ International which I also have can be worth something if You need the Church Fathers, it's a tremendous improvement over the previous Edition. Starter and Silver are two of the most worthless base-packages if not talking about Diamond which is even worse. The Reformed base-packages are bad choices, the only good thing about them is that Exegetical Summaries can be received for a smaller charge than the regular base-packages, but on the other hand I've only seen the purchase of just 1 one volume from it as necessary (Jude).

No base-package or Logos 5 Core Datasets are excellent options.

I wouldn't say that, the left over money from not buying, can be used on individual titles, collections, and pre-pubs. Trying to afford both big base-packages and additional purchases can be difficult. If You sink all Your money into a big base-package You have little choice left unless You are going to spend many thousands of $ during a lifetime:

Rosie Perera said:

If you are trying to convince people not to buy things that are currently on sale from Logos, then you are working against the company's best interests and they probably don't appreciate your use of the forums for that.

I will compensate by not posting at all during some periods.

A lament: there doesn't seem to be any Logos 5 specific book and package discussion forum. This forum has a lot of bug-reports but not much else. The General forum can be about any version.

The currency-exchange rate is rather bad at the moment, or else I might take L5 Anglican Bronze on a test-run. I'll see if it miraculously gets better before the sale ends. A better option still would be to wait for L6 Anglican Bronze. I'm curious about Goldingay's 1-2 Chron -volume in the Old Testament for Everyone -series. I see that a volume containing Proverbs and a couple of more books is coming out later, might want to pre-order that at AZ as printed matter. Pre-ordering the Old Testament for Everyone -series from Logos seems a bit expensive and would contain uninteresting volumes such as 1-2 Kings. So waiting for it to be split up is an option. What I don't like about L5 Anglican Bronze is having to pay for the New Testament for Everyone -series by N. T. Wright - I'm really not pleased how he promotes the New Pauline Perspective in it:

MJ. Smith said:

If on the other hand, you have gone through the packages in detail and want to show why a particular package is unlikely to be useful to the general user/pastor and provide the supporting evidence, I'd be glad to read the posts.

In: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/82787/580324.aspx#580324:

abondservant said:

Unix my friend, you're running the risk of becoming a trumpet only capable of sounding one note. We get it. You don't like base packages. Its ok. Many of us do . We borrow an expression from the french: C'est la vie. Such is life.

Even Wright has moved beyond the NPP recently. I don't have the time or energy to study every theory, perspective and theology. Studying Paul is complicated enough as it is, I don't need to complicate the study further:

Joseph Turner said:

N.T. Wright's works have so much more to offer than just promotion of the NPP.  You will never know that because you refuse to read anything that has any element with which you disagree, and you are going to miss out on some wonderful literature.

EDIT: I don't understand the value of adding this perspective, it would mean more costs by purchasing more books - most of them expensive.

I have spent so many years choosing denominations.
I will devote many years to uni studies, and I have a lot of books to read, search and make highlightings in. I have worked hard this Winter and Spring on narrowing down the areas of interest - if I would not have done that I would be in an emergency, I have to set aside money for transportation such as buying a car with the top-speed of 20 MPH and the garage for it - or if that's expensive and futile reserve the money for the distant future for replacing the moped I have when it's worn out, ... and tomorrow I have to pledge cash to a friend so that I can borrow her camera. I have no wiggle-room whatsoever in the budget for treats because during two years I've bought what I thought I could use and used up a large share of my money. Faithlife group: Creating a budget and canceling orders.

Well, the biggest reasons why higher "regular" base-package that Logos offers are no good deals, is that for example Silver contains the 40-volume New American Commentary (NAC) (missing the Apocalypse=Revelations -volume) - which is interesting only if You are a Southern Baptist - and I'm no kind of Baptist (we do have Baptist Churches over here). Gold does include most of the volumes of UBS (Translator's) Handbooks which are really good - but most people will unfortunately never use the RSV and Good News Translation Bibles which the series is largely based on. Platinum contains many commentary sets, but a couple of the sets that were appealing to many (of which I happen to recommend almost no volumes, only Pillar Jude by Peter H. Davids) were dropped from L4 to L5 (and also Baker's New Testament Commentary (HK) (12 vols.) was dropped at some point), and of the remaining commentary sets none represent great value or quality other than perhaps as a huge mass of material for general ideas for sermon prep - but there are other ways to for that too. I do have a few of the Believer's Church Bible Commentary -volumes and will buy a couple more if I manage to find out which ones are good - but I'm also trying to sell my Mk -volume - not because it's that bad but because I've since bought AYBC NT (on a sale in Accordance) which contains the best commentary on Mk.

I'm continually informing about commentaries in a thread on Christanforums - many commentaries I've bought since the Autumn are going to be reviewed when I find time - which may not be until June 2014: Practical Commentary on Scripture ... others are more than welcome to contribute there! [:D]

So, as the price of the base-packages (except Starter and Bronze and most of the Verbum -packages) consist to such a large degree of modern commentary series, the money can be used to buy commentaries separately - and interesting upgrades (such as ICC - but the 6 vol. upgrade doesn't seem to be sold anymore, and Abingdon on Vyrso, plus NTL and OTL) continue to be released after the base-packages were put together by Logos:

MJ. Smith said:

If on the other hand, you have gone through the packages in detail and want to show why a particular package is unlikely to be useful to the general user/pastor and provide the supporting evidence, I'd be glad to read the posts.

See this brief post I wrote today, April 5. 2014: http://www.christianforums.com/t7808831-post65334493/#post65334493:

TCBlack said:

I never made it through flatland. I found it boring:

abondservant said:

Unix, failing to study other perspectives is like being the two dimensional person that encounters the three dimensional ball.

MJ. Smith said:

I consider the purpose of study to be the finding of further complications When I have mastered one set of concepts, they uncover additional questions,

EDIT: About base-packages in general, see these posts: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/74577/582859.aspx#582859.

EDIT2, related, see also: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/83190/582977.aspx#582977.

Anglican Bronze may be OK thanks to the inclusion of Old Testament for Everyone by Goldingay, but I would wait for L6.

Actually, I now noticed that all of these interesting books except Old Testament for Everyone and Paul: Fresh Perspectives are included in Anglican Starter.

Anglican Starter + Old Testament for Everyone on pre-pub would cost me $202.88.

I would miss Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition (which is only needed for speed - it's more concise than Webster's and can be prioritized higher than it); and other resources that I would not get would be a few Reformation-Era Theology (Thomas Cranmer Collection (10 vols.), Lancelot Andrewes Collection (7 vols.), The Works of William Tyndale (3 vols.)), a few Biblical Studies (Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship, Scripture and the Authority of God).

So with Anglican Starter + Old Testament for Everyone on pre-pub, my discount is: (1-(202.88/312))*100 = 35%. I would not buy Paul: Fresh Perspectives, I now noticed it's by N. T. Wright.

EDIT: Another book is in the Bibliography of Encyclopedia of Christianity: The Anglican Tradition: A Handbook of Sources and included in Anglican Starter, (if I would buy it individually I could however negotiate the price down to $31.96). With that my discount would be calculated as: 41%.

Also included in Bronze: Sermons on Several Occasions by John Wesley. I asked the seniour lecturer today about important books and authors and he named Wesley although not a specific book.

(There seems to be two works around $30 each: Explanatory Notes upon the Old and New Testaments, Studies on the Life and Influence of John Wesley (16 vols.) (the latter on community pricing). I really don't know if either one would be a priority.)

She, the students, told me today that perhaps she would author a book after the studies. I had an idea which I was afraid of saying that perhaps I could co-author with her. I'm not sure where we would sit and do that. Neither of us seems to have come up with an idea for a book:

Unix said:

most importantly someone who is married to a student in my current classes this semester and the next.

I just wrote this post: What books did I get in L5 Bronze that are lacking in L6 Bronze?