Request for Initial Thoughts - Verbum 7 Content

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.

Steve said:

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. 

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 ...