So here's my suggestion: when marketing products, it would be helpful to have an indication of what line of thinking the product promotes. This can be general or it can be specific. For example, you can use the following kinds of designations:
This product is geared toward:
Your suggestion assumes that all books are strictly conforming to some theological agenda. Biblical theology may or may not be geared toward theological distinctions as is also the case with many monographs. One thing that has disturbed me greatly is that too many seem to think that reading and studying the bible is only of significance for developing a theological position. There are many things more important than simply developing a theological position. It's almost as though one were to say that if you want to manufacture a lawn mower you must first understand physics. The bible concerns man's condition in the world and his relationship to God which is not an intellectual enterprise. Why must religious people be first and foremost concerned with theology? This is simply modern gnosticism.
Marketing/Product Description Request
This is something I've thought about for a long time, but is especially relevant now with Catholic resources increasing in Logos.
One complaint (albeit somewhat minor) I have is Logos promotes all resources to everyone without distinction. When products come out, it is impossible to know (unless you already know) what theological slice the resource is geared to. Since most of us aren't familiar with the vast amount of authors and reference works, we don't know whether we should be interested or not.
So here's my suggestion: when marketing products, it would be helpful to have an indication of what line of thinking the product promotes. This can be general or it can be specific. For example, you can use the following kinds of designations:
This product is geared toward:
- Roman Catholic theology
- Protestant scholars
- Evangelical theology
- Presbyterian theology
- Reformed theology
- Lutheran theology
- Puritan theology
... you get the idea. If it would be too much work for the marketing folks to dig up that kind of info, you could implement tags for customers to assign these designations (even from within the software?). Then people can search for products based on their preferred interests rather than doing blind searches for resources.
While it may make some people shy away from a product (i.e. prevent someone from ignorantly buying something they'll regret), I think it will increase purchases as people become more aware of resources in their line of thinking.
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Comments
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Gabriel Powell said:
So here's my suggestion: when marketing products, it would be helpful to have an indication of what line of thinking the product promotes. This can be general or it can be specific. For example, you can use the following kinds of designations:
This product is geared toward:
Your suggestion assumes that all books are strictly conforming to some theological agenda. Biblical theology may or may not be geared toward theological distinctions as is also the case with many monographs. One thing that has disturbed me greatly is that too many seem to think that reading and studying the bible is only of significance for developing a theological position. There are many things more important than simply developing a theological position. It's almost as though one were to say that if you want to manufacture a lawn mower you must first understand physics. The bible concerns man's condition in the world and his relationship to God which is not an intellectual enterprise. Why must religious people be first and foremost concerned with theology? This is simply modern gnosticism.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Gabriel Powell said:
(i.e. prevent someone from ignorantly buying something they'll regret)
Logos has a very liberal return policy so this shouldn't be a problem.
Gabriel Powell said:When products come out, it is impossible to know (unless you already know) what theological slice the resource is geared to.
Most Bible study resources don't fit neatly into a single theological thread. I suspect that may be why Logos uses Product Guides to split resources into denominational threads. I agree it would be nice to have resources tagged by "bias" - I have my collections split into groups by theological stance which I have to do by hand.
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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George Somsel said:
The bible concerns man's condition in the world and his relationship to God which is not an intellectual enterprise.
That statement was the result of an intellectual enterprise and is concerned with theology. You cannot escape the intellect or theology when approaching Scripture. Everyone brings their presuppositions to the table--though not everyone admits it. You simply cannot use the word "God" without at the same time making a theological statement or taking a theological position.
Actually, my suggestion doesn't assume that all works fit neatly into specific categories at all. My suggestion can be applied to some works and not others. For example, lexicons wouldn't need theological tags.
Since most theological works such as commentaries, theological journals, and the vast majority of issue-specific books are written by people with a certain theological bent, it is helpful to know what that bent is up front.
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MJ. Smith said:
Logos has a very liberal return policy so this shouldn't be a problem.
Except that I'm likely to not buy if I'm not sure, than buy knowing I can return. I think most people are the same.
MJ. Smith said:I have my collections split into groups by theological stance which I have to do by hand.
Imagine if we could all benefit from the entire Logos' customer base who have been doing this!
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Gabriel Powell said:
Since most theological works such as commentaries, theological journals, and the vast majority of issue-specific books are written by people with a certain theological bent, it is helpful to know what that bent is up front.
I think if people are capable of using Logos software, they should also be capable of doing a quick Google search. That will be far more informative than any label Logos might affix to a product.
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Gabriel, I think it's a good Idea [Y].
Ted
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George Somsel said:
Why must religious people be first and foremost concerned with theology?
Yeah....why in the world would anyone want to know more about the God of the bible and his word! [:D]
Robert Pavich
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Except that good marketing strategies don't normally include forcing customer to do research.
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The more information Logos can give to potential purchasers, the better - though I agree with others that it's not always possible to 'pigeon-hole' books into nice theological categories. One thing that would help solve the problem would be to allow reviews on the website. The forums have proved that Logos users are not shy in putting forward their view points, and I can imagine that Logos would very quickly rack up plenty of reviews for its resources - particularly if there was some additional incentive.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Gabriel Powell said:
Except that good marketing strategies don't normally include forcing customer to do research.
I'm not sure about this.
I recently bought a chainsaw. I didn't think the store would provide me with all the information I needed to make an informed purchase, so I did my research first, talked to some folks, borrowed a friend's, and then bought what would suit my needs best and has the best maintenance record. The same would be true for buying anything of lasting value to me (car, television, furniture, computer, etc.). I don't expect a store to do unbiased research for me. Ever.
In the same way, if I'm looking for a reference work, I'd consider it my job to make sure the work fits my needs. The factors involved are often a lot more subtle than knowing the theological framework of a given author. I want to know more than that.
For example, Henri Nouwen is a widely read author who often I find very helpful. To simply label all his material as "Roman Catholic" (he was a Roman Catholic priest), wouldn't tell me very much about how useful this, or that book would be to me. Ray Brown's commentary on John (Anchor Bible), and on Hebrews (Bible Speaks Today) are simply too good not to have. I need to know more than that.
Similarly, there might be an author from my own theological tradition (Reformed) that has simply written poorly on a particular topic. (I won't mention any authors here, so as not to offend, but some are tedious, dull and banal.) Knowing that it's Reformed isn't going to tell me enough. I need to know more than that.
One final example: being Reformed means I don't hold a dispensationalist view of Scripture, and, in fact, understand that view as errant. However, I've come to discover that in spite of some comments, there are several works I have by dispensationalists that are quite helpful to me (including the Bible Knowledge Commentary). I need to know more than what a label might tell me.
In other words, these labels tell me so little that I don't consider them to be of much value at all in helping me determine the usefulness of their work.
Maybe I'm unique in this, but I don't think so.
Help links: WIKI; Logos 6 FAQ. (Phil. 2:14, NIV)
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Richard,
I think I pretty much agree with you. The purpose of the labels (and I certainly don't think they should get into minutiae), would not be to determine usefulness, but simply to know what "tradition" someone is writing from.
That's all
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Sorry Gabriel - my reaction is maybe a bit visceral, but your suggestions strikes me as being akin to taking a pre-school teacher to a university and tasking them to attach play-box labels to the door of each of the department offices and laboratories in each school of learning.
With the hindrance of such theological labels I might have missed reading two (for me) really important theological books - works which defy any attempt at simplistic labelling (and really should have been included in the Logos catalogue long ago):
William C Placher, The domestication of transcendence, written from the ....................................... Presbyterian tradition ????????
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and embrace, written from the .........................................................................Pentecostalist tradition ???????
Please assign appropriate theological labels to the following books of the New Testament: Mark, Romans, Hebrews, James, Revelation
- Roman Catholic theology?
- Protestant theology?
- Jewish theology?
- Evangelical theology?
- Presbyterian theology?
- Reformed theology?
- Lutheran theology?
- Puritan theology ?As much as anyone, I enjoy the game of putting people, ideas and books into ideological/theological/political boxes - but it is just a game. Historically, the Holy Spirit has shown great disdain for the idea of boxes.
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Sam,
I'm not sure if you read any of my follow-up responses, but I think you're missing the point of my suggestion. First of all, it's a silly suggestion to assign a theology to books of the Bible. That tells me your response was more emotional than anything else.
Second, I've said to others that I realize not every book will fit into a box and that's fine. But a great many books fit very easily into standard general boxes. And by these labels I don't necessarily mean which view the book itself is promoting, but what tradition the author is coming from.
A simple example would a book called "The Gifts of the Spirit" by some largely unknown author. It would be helpful to know up front if he/she is Pentecostal or Presbyterian--not for the purpose of assigning value to the work, but for the purpose of knowing certain things up front.
As you said, sometimes it is bad to decide on the basis of labels--but sometimes it's good. I say let the customer choose, but give them the option of knowing beforehand.
This is in addition to every book being marketed as God's gift to theology students.
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