Faithlife, Please Fix the Early Church Fathers

Matthew
Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭
edited December 2024 in English Forum

The background for this thread can be found here: https://community.logos.com/forums/t/119830.aspx

There are two versions of the Early Church Fathers sold by Faithlife, one for Protestants and one for Catholics:

https://www.logos.com/product/5771/early-church-fathers-protestant-edition

https://www.logos.com/product/7832/early-church-fathers-special-catholic-edition

Per the description on the product page for the Catholic Edition:

"The Early Church Fathers comes in two versions, Protestant and Catholic. Simply put, the difference is that the Protestant edition contains additional front matter written at a later date. There is no difference in the actual ECF text."

There are two problems I would like to suggest be fixed.

1. Faithlife prides itself on stating that users never pay for the same product twice, but in this case users who already own one version of the Early Church Fathers essentially do pay for the same product twice whenever they purchase a package that includes the other version. Someone who already owns the Catholic version will at least can some additional content, but someone who already owns the Protestant version will be paying for a stripped-down (value subtracted, rather than value added) version of what they already own. Since the set is public domain and no royalties are involved (as far as I know), why charge users twice? It seems like owners of the Protestant version should not have to pay anything for the Catholic version and owners of the Catholic version should pay at most an extremely small amount for the Protestant version.

2. Several users (see first link I provided) have commented on the fact that some books sold by Logos link to the Protestant version and some books link to the Catholic version. In other words, for all links to work, users have to purchase BOTH editions of this set. They each sell for $229.95, so that duplicate ownership isn't necessarily cheap. Mark Barnes has already outlined a solution to this problem (again, see first link). Faithlife fixed a similar problem in the past with Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics by Wallace. I would like to suggest that the fix described by Mark be implemented.

I am sure Faithlife has its reasons, but I personally do not see the value in even maintaining separate editions if the only difference is the removal of material that one group or the other might not agree with. I am not aware of any other products sold by Faithlife where this has happened, and it is an understatement to say that other products also have content that one group or another strongly objects to. If a Catholic publisher put out an edition of this set that included Catholic notes, and a Protestant publisher put out another edition of the set that included Protestant notes, then selling both sets would make sense. That is not the case here.

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Comments

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    FYI, back in 2012 we were told that Logos were "working on a possible solution": https://community.logos.com/forums/p/44241/329279.aspx#329279

    I suggested at the time that could be as simple as the software intercepting links for one version and passing them to the other version (if only one version exists). That would be a simpler solution to the one I suggested in the other thread, as it works around rather than solves the problem. But it probably wouldn't be able support prioritisation, and would have to be implemented independently on mobile and web. But it would certainly be a lot better than nothing.

    (Perhaps at the same time Logos could do the same for the two editions of the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries and Bible Speaks Today commentaries.)

    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!

  • Ted Hans
    Ted Hans MVP Posts: 3,174

    Matthew said:

    1. Faithlife prides itself on stating that users never pay for the same product twice, but in this case users who already own one version of the Early Church Fathers essentially do pay for the same product twice whenever they purchase a package that includes the other version.

    Matthew are you sure about this? I ask because long time ago that may have been the case but i don't think it is so presently, i could be wrong. When I upgraded to a verbum base package my sales rep did not charge me for the catholic edition.

    Dell, studio XPS 7100, Ram 8GB, 64 - bit Operating System, AMD Phenom(mt) IIX6 1055T Processor 2.80 GHZ

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    Ted Hans said:

    Matthew are you sure about this?

    I can't speak for what individual sales reps may do, but the website definitely charges. I only own the Protestant version, and every bundle or package I look at that includes the Catholic version lists it among the titles that are "new to me," and there is a corresponding price listed that is not $0.00. There is nothing online to indicate that owners of one version are not being charged for the other, and that gives me great pause in buying certain bundles/packages. 

    Even if a sales rep did offer me the Catholic version for free (please do!), that would not solve the links problem. I would want to hide one set so I don't get duplicate search results, but I couldn't hide one set or else not all links in my library would work, apparently.

    EDIT: Here is a screenshot showing me being charged for it in an Orthodox package. Apologies for the sloppy circling job - it was done from my phone rather than my desktop! 

  • Ted Hans
    Ted Hans MVP Posts: 3,174

    Thanks Matthew for taking the time to respond. I now see what you mean, hopefully FL will address this.

    Regards.

    Dell, studio XPS 7100, Ram 8GB, 64 - bit Operating System, AMD Phenom(mt) IIX6 1055T Processor 2.80 GHZ

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    Matthew said:

    Even if a sales rep did offer me the Catholic version for free (please do!), that would not solve the links problem.

    I would accept a free (Protestant) version too.

    In fact, one simple if non-ideal workaround from FL's point of view might be to set the price of one version to $0.00 if you own the other. This would allow us customers not to pay for the same work twice while not confusing people by a sudden and inexplicable download of duplicate resources if FL simply unlocked the other set automatically for those of us who only have one of them.

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    In fact, one simple if non-ideal workaround from FL's point of view might be to set the price of one version to $0.00 if you own the other. This would allow us customers not to pay for the same work twice while not confusing people by a sudden and inexplicable download of duplicate resources if FL simply unlocked the other set automatically for those of us who only have one of them.

    If Faithlife were willing to do this, it would certainly be a step in the right direction, as well as a stopgap until a proper fix is available for the linking situation. It might even increase sales for people to know they no longer have to pay for such an expensive set twice! [Y]

  • EX
    EX Member Posts: 86 ✭✭

    Agreed! This is one reason why I did not buy any Orthodox and Anglican package.

    PCA Church
    L4 Platinum, L5 Reformed Platinum, L6 Reformed Diamond, Reformed Studies XL, Platinum, Logos Now

  • Kyle G. Anderson
    Kyle G. Anderson Member, Logos Employee Posts: 2,239

    I'm popping to report I've seen this message and am looking into possible solutions. (I don't know what was discussed in 2012. I'll look into that first.)

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    Kyle, with the release of a fair amount of Early Church Fathers' material since 2012 the situation has changed. The Church Fathers which should work off an integrated set of datatypes consists of these released series (note group outside series) - plus, of course, all that I don't own.

    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."

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    I'm popping to report I've seen this message and am looking into possible solutions. (I don't know what was discussed in 2012. I'll look into that first.)

    Thank you Kyle. Please keep us posted!

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    MJ. Smith said:

    Why should Migne references be the standard?

    Because it is the most comprehensive set of Early churches fathers - Greek, Latin and Oriental - to be available and/or in pre-pub-community pricing. Therefore the approximately 500 other early church fathers resources currently available would be most apt to have a corresponding entry in Migne. If you have datatypes for the documents in Migne, you've not reached perfection but you can go a long time between having to invent new datatypes. The references should work similarly to Biblical/Deuterocanonical/Aporcyphal references ... especially since there is overlap between those categories and the Early Church Fathers. 

    Making Migne the reference of what datatypes need to be created is a fantastic idea, even if it would be a bit of work to set up. If Faithlife wanted to, it could even allow them to go ahead and markup with datatype hyperlinks references to those writings of the early Church that don't yet exist in Faithlife's catalogue, and which could then be simply activated when the resources exist in the future. 

    It is interesting, for example, how even many of the works in the Catholic U. Fathers of the Church series don't have datatypes! When I asked why they weren't being included in the Ancient Literature section, the reason was there wasn't a datatype... but these authors are in Migne, and are often very important for the history of interpretation or of theology. 

    It would be a lot of work to implement, but would be very useful for the foreseeable future to make Logos & Verbum a much more powerful platform to study the Church Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers, and provide a solid foundation for future development of features (like Ancient Literature, Catholic Topical Guide, etc.).

    As Faithlife is now beginning to develop more datatypes that deal with history of interpretation and of theology, now is probably the right time to take on a project like this.

    Please Kyle - solve the problem don't apply a band-aid and ask us to complain yet again for each resource released with inadequate linking. Neither the problem nor the solution are obscure. An organized plan now saves a lot of time and resources in the future.

    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."

  • TCBlack
    TCBlack Member Posts: 10,980 ✭✭✭

    Matthew said:

    "The Early Church Fathers comes in two versions, Protestant and Catholic. Simply put, the difference is that the Protestant edition contains additional front matter written at a later date. There is no difference in the actual ECF text."

    [:/] The answer, it seems is rather simple to my little noggin.  One resource, not two.  Put the protestant material in a "separate" book.  

    Of course, this changes the format from the dead tree version... but hey it is public domain.

    Hmm Sarcasm is my love language. Obviously I love you. 

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    TCBlack said:

    The answer, it seems is rather simple to my little noggin.  One resource, not two.  Put the protestant material in a "separate" book.  

    No, no, no ... take it one step further ... a simple Visual Filter ... if we can block pericope headings, certainly we can filter notes and introductions.

    (Good thought on your part, actually).

    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."

  • abondservant
    abondservant Member Posts: 4,796 ✭✭✭

    This is going back a ways, so excuse me if I'm mistaken, or if policies have changed.


    BUT having the protestant edition, I got a good discount on a package (anglican perhaps) that had the catholic version in it as I already owned the protestant.

    I pointed that out to my salesperson, and he agree with me that it would be foolish for them to charge me more since its basically the same books with a different title, AND that protestant was a superset of catholic.

    L2 lvl4 (...) WORDsearch, all the way through L10,

  • Tom
    Tom Member Posts: 1,913 ✭✭✭

    BUT having the protestant edition, I got a good discount on a package (anglican perhaps) that had the catholic version in it as I already owned the protestant.

    I pointed that out to my salesperson, and he agree with me that it would be foolish for them to charge me more since its basically the same books with a different title, AND that protestant was a superset of catholic

    I tried doing the same thing in reverse, owed the catholic version, tried to get a discount on the protestant version they said "No way Jose".  

    Ended up buying the protestante version as part of the Reformed Silver, but with out any dynamic pricing for the catholic version of the fathers that I owed.

    I keep hearing that it pays to talk to a salesman on the phone, but my experiences has been that it is a waste of my time.

    http://hombrereformado.blogspot.com/  Solo a Dios la Gloria   Apoyo

  • TCBlack
    TCBlack Member Posts: 10,980 ✭✭✭

    Hmm Sarcasm is my love language. Obviously I love you. 

  • abondservant
    abondservant Member Posts: 4,796 ✭✭✭

    Tom said:

    BUT having the protestant edition, I got a good discount on a package (anglican perhaps) that had the catholic version in it as I already owned the protestant.

    I pointed that out to my salesperson, and he agree with me that it would be foolish for them to charge me more since its basically the same books with a different title, AND that protestant was a superset of catholic

    I tried doing the same thing in reverse, owed the catholic version, tried to get a discount on the protestant version they said "No way Jose".  

    Ended up buying the protestante version as part of the Reformed Silver, but with out any dynamic pricing for the catholic version of the fathers that I owed.

    I keep hearing that it pays to talk to a salesman on the phone, but my experiences has been that it is a waste of my time.

    Not neccesarily on the phone, just the same salesperson over time ;).

    Be loyal to them, they are loyal back.

    L2 lvl4 (...) WORDsearch, all the way through L10,

  • JAL
    JAL Member Posts: 625 ✭✭

    I'm popping to report I've seen this message and am looking into possible solutions. (I don't know what was discussed in 2012. I'll look into that first.)

                I like what MJ. is suggesting.

    MJ. Smith said:

    TCBlack said:

    The answer, it seems is rather simple to my little noggin.  One resource, not two.  Put the protestant material in a "separate" book.  

    No, no, no ... take it one step further ... a simple Visual Filter ... if we can block pericope headings, certainly we can filter notes and introductions.

    (Good thought on your part, actually).

    "The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking. And Christian thinking is the prerequisite of Christian action." - Harry Blamires, 1963

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    TCBlack said:

    The answer, it seems is rather simple to my little noggin.  One resource, not two.  Put the protestant material in a "separate" book.

    I still don't understand why two versions were produced to begin with rather than leaving the original as it was. Were there users who were so offended that pressure was put on Faithlife to separate all material that was contrary to the views of those users? Are there any other examples of this being done by Faithlife?

  • abondservant
    abondservant Member Posts: 4,796 ✭✭✭

    Other users may have more info, but to my knowledge no, this is the only time I am aware of that they have done this.

    If it was as a result of complaints, it must have been the catholics because they are the ones with fewer resources in their version. The protestant edition has all of the catholic edition, and the protestant fathers in addition.

    However I've read more complaining about their being two separate packages, and the angst that has caused, than I have about protestants having catholics in their library, or vice versa. In fact, the only thing I remember people complaining about is that there are two unique resources where there should only be one; a legitimate gripe.

    L2 lvl4 (...) WORDsearch, all the way through L10,

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    If it was as a result of complaints, it must have been the catholics because they are the ones with fewer resources in their version. The protestant edition has all of the catholic edition, and the protestant fathers in addition.

    Actually, the two collections have the same number of volumes, and there were no "Protestant fathers" to omit.

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Gabe Martini (Faithlife)
    Gabe Martini (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 815

    Thanks for the feedback on this. It's something worth addressing, and I'll report back soon.

    Product Department Manager
    Faithlife

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    If it was as a result of complaints, it must have been the catholics because they are the ones with fewer resources in their version. The protestant edition has all of the catholic edition, and the protestant fathers in addition.

    There are the same number of resources, and the same number of 'fathers'. In fact, there were no 'protestant' fathers, given that these writings predate the reformation by about 1,000 years.

    The only distinction is that the Catholic edition is missing some of the introductory material which many people view as anti-Catholic in places.

    One quick example that I found: "If ever American Romanism becomes sufficiently enlightened and purified to comprehend this great Carthaginian Father [Cyprian], and to speak in his tones to the Bishop of Rome, a glorious reformation of this alien religion will be the result;"

    That's the sort of thing that Logos removed, but they kept all of the Fathers themselves.

    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!

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    It's something worth addressing, and I'll report back soon.

    Thank you. I look forward to your report! [:)]

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    One quick example that I found: "If ever American Romanism becomes sufficiently enlightened and purified to comprehend this great Carthaginian Father [Cyprian], and to speak in his tones to the Bishop of Rome, a glorious reformation of this alien religion will be the result;"

    That's the sort of thing that Logos removed, but they kept all of the Fathers themselves.

    Even so, the decision to remove material seems arbitrary unless there was something else going on that we aren't privy to. Anti-Protestant material hasn't been removed from resources published by Catholics, and apparently no anti-Catholic material has been removed from other resources published by Protestants. Same with Calvinism/Arminianism, etc. Our libraries would be small indeed if that sort of approach was ever universally taken!

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    Matthew said:

    Even so, the decision to remove material seems arbitrary unless there was something else going on that we aren't privy to. Anti-Protestant material hasn't been removed from resources published by Catholics, and apparently no anti-Catholic material has been removed from other resources published by Protestants. Same with Calvinism/Arminianism, etc. Our libraries would be small indeed if that sort of approach was ever universally taken!

    That's not entirely true. You could argue, for example, that deuterocanonical books were removed from some digital Bibles to suit the protestant market because many protestants would feel strongly that they didn't want those books in their Bibles.

    Remember this decision was taken 20-25 years ago when Logos/Faithlife was a very different beast. I don't know whether it was the right decision, but I don't think we need to be looking for any motivation or reason other than Logos wanting remove any possible reasons that might put some purchasers off.

    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!

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    I don't know whether it was the right decision, but I don't think we need to be looking for any motivation or reason other than Logos wanting remove any possible reasons that might put some purchasers off.

    We are in agreement. My point was that there had to be a reason Faithlife chose to remove material from this particular resource and not any other. Until Faithlife comments, we won't know for sure, but I tend to agree that it had something to do with marketing and sales. I was not trying to suggest a conspiracy or some sort of shady motive, but there did have to be a pretty compelling reason, even if only a financial one. Your point about Bibles is not exactly parallel since the same fathers are included in both editions, but I get what you are trying to say.

    EDIT: I don't want this thread to become confrontational, and I don't think it has. I am grateful for the effort Faithlife put into realeasing the resource to begin with, and I am grateful multiple staff members are looking into possibilities to improve it. Please do not take my noting the unusualness of the situation as an accusation against Faithlife, as it was not.

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    Matthew said:

    Even so, the decision to remove material seems arbitrary unless there was something else going on that we aren't privy to. Anti-Protestant material hasn't been removed from resources published by Catholics, and apparently no anti-Catholic material has been removed from other resources published by Protestants. Same with Calvinism/Arminianism, etc. Our libraries would be small indeed if that sort of approach was ever universally taken!

    Here, I think, is the difference: Faithlife (as Logos) was marketing the ECF series directly to Catholics. Usually Protestant-published anti-Catholic material is marketed to Protestants. Just as it's hard to market resources with, for example, anti-Mormon sentiments to Mormons, it's hard to market anti-Catholic material to Catholics.

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    Update - I just noticed that the product page for the Catholic version now reflects a price of $0.00 for me. Can someone who only has the Catholic version confirm if the Protestant version is showing up free for you? It looks like Faithlife has decided how to resolve one of the two issues I asked about when I started this thread. Thank you, Faithlife! 

  • Gabe Martini (Faithlife)
    Gabe Martini (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 815

    Hi everyone.

    Taking everything into consideration—including how our storefront and back-end systems are set up to function—we've come up with a solution:

    If you own the entire 37-volume "Protestant Edition," you can purchase the "Catholic Edition" for $0.00. If you own the entire 37-volume "Catholic Edition," you can purchase the "Protestant Edition" for $0.00.

    If you'd prefer only one edition to be visible in your library, you can hide the edition of each resource you'd like to remain hidden (for searches, etc.).

    P. S. Since there are questions about the difference between these two products (and their purpose), I thought I'd let everyone know that the only difference between the "Catholic" and "Protestant" editions is that the Catholic edition lacks the front matter and commentary found in the original Schaff publication. This was done for the sake of their often anti-Catholic sentiments, and particularly for our Verbum (and now more broadly Ecumenical, Orthodox, Anglican, etc.) audience(s). Otherwise, the actual volumes and their content remains unchanged. The same 37 volumes are contained in both editions.

    Product Department Manager
    Faithlife

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    Thank you Gabe and everyone else at Faithlife involved in this decision!

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Fr Devin Roza
    Fr Devin Roza MVP Posts: 2,425

    Hi everyone.

    Taking everything into consideration—including how our storefront and back-end systems are set up to function—we've come up with a solution:

    If you own the entire 37-volume "Protestant Edition," you can purchase the "Catholic Edition" for $0.00. If you own the entire 37-volume "Catholic Edition," you can purchase the "Protestant Edition" for $0.00.

    If you'd prefer only one edition to be visible in your library, you can hide the edition of each resource you'd like to remain hidden (for searches, etc.).

    While I applaud this decision, let me just point out that it isn't really a full solution, especially for users who prefer the Catholic edition.

    The reason is that if you hide the Protestant edition as suggested, many links in Verbum simply stop working.

    For example, in the Canon Comparison interactive, if you open up the canon from "Melito of Sardis", and click on the link to Eusebius's writings in the right-hand panel, the Protestant, and only the Protestant edition will open up. If you have hidden the Protestant edition, the link will not open up the Catholic edition, but will rather give you this:

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    For example, in the Canon Comparison interactive, if you open up the canon from "Melito of Sardis", and click on the link to Eusebius's writings in the right-hand panel, the Protestant, and only the Protestant edition will open up.

    This is embarrassing for a new resource.

    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."

  • Gabe Martini (Faithlife)
    Gabe Martini (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 815

    While I applaud this decision, let me just point out that it isn't really a full solution, especially for users who prefer the Catholic edition.

    The reason is that if you hide the Protestant edition as suggested, many links in Verbum simply stop working.

    Right, we need to figure out a better way to handle this.

    Product Department Manager
    Faithlife

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    Thanks for your hard work on this Gabe (and everyone else at Faithlife).

  • JAL
    JAL Member Posts: 625 ✭✭

    Right, we need to figure out a better way to handle this.

    I still like the solution MJ suggested.

    MJ. Smith said:

    TCBlack said:

    The answer, it seems is rather simple to my little noggin.  One resource, not two.  Put the protestant material in a "separate" book.  

    No, no, no ... take it one step further ... a simple Visual Filter ... if we can block pericope headings, certainly we can filter notes and introductions.

    (Good thought on your part, actually).

    "The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking. And Christian thinking is the prerequisite of Christian action." - Harry Blamires, 1963

  • Matthew
    Matthew Member Posts: 941 ✭✭

    Creating a single ECF set that toggles information on and off with a visual filter will not solve the larger problem. The links in other resources that point to ECF would still have to be updated, and if Faithlife is going to update the links, they may as well take the time to create a datatype as has been discussed.

  • Fr Devin Roza
    Fr Devin Roza MVP Posts: 2,425

    Matthew said:

    Creating a single ECF set that toggles information on and off with a visual filter will not solve the larger problem. The links in other resources that point to ECF would still have to be updated, and if Faithlife is going to update the links, they may as well take the time to create a datatype as has been discussed.

    [Y]

  • Mal Walker
    Mal Walker Member Posts: 403 ✭✭✭

    Dragging this post up from the past - I currently own the entire Catholic version of the ECF as well as the 10 ANF volumes in the Protestant version. However, it's still not showing up as free for me, only the ownership of the protestant ANF volumes is affecting the dynamic pricing. Any ideas?

    Current MDiv student at Trinity Theological College - Perth, Western Australia

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    Different SKU's because of different content. The Catholic edition is edited to remove some offensive commentary/footnotes. Dynamic price is by specific resource not by any edition of the same work.

    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."

  • Mal Walker
    Mal Walker Member Posts: 403 ✭✭✭

    If you own the entire 37-volume "Protestant Edition," you can purchase the "Catholic Edition" for $0.00. If you own the entire 37-volume "Catholic Edition," you can purchase the "Protestant Edition" for $0.00.

    I should have quoted this from earlier in the thread. My issue is that this doesn’t seem to be happening.

    Current MDiv student at Trinity Theological College - Perth, Western Australia

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    Have you tried calling? I'm not surprised that the web site doesn't handle an exception for a single pair of SKU's.

    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."

  • Mal Walker
    Mal Walker Member Posts: 403 ✭✭✭

    I've emailed them as the call center was closed, quoting the comments from Gabe Martini (Faithlife) in this thread, to which they responded with "The Protestant Edition is not a free item with the purchase of the Catholic Edition. We apologize for any confusion."

    I've emailed back, asking them to comment specifically on what Gabe Martini said. Waiting for a response.

    Current MDiv student at Trinity Theological College - Perth, Western Australia

  • SineNomine
    SineNomine Member Posts: 7,012 ✭✭✭

    I've emailed them as the call center was closed, quoting the comments from Gabe Martini (Faithlife) in this thread, to which they responded with "The Protestant Edition is not a free item with the purchase of the Catholic Edition. We apologize for any confusion."

    Either they've changed the policy (fairly recently) or a mistake was made by somebody at some point. Those kinds of mistakes do happen. (For example, at least once https://www.logos.com/product/15716/dictionary-of-latin-forms became non-free for awhile.)

    “The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've emailed them as the call center was closed, quoting the comments from Gabe Martini (Faithlife) in this thread, to which they responded with "The Protestant Edition is not a free item with the purchase of the Catholic Edition. We apologize for any confusion."

    I've emailed back, asking them to comment specifically on what Gabe Martini said. Waiting for a response.

    I think what they're saying is Gabe Martini misspoke or was confused, or said something back then which is no longer true. That's what they are apologizing for. Gabe Martini hasn't worked for Faithlife since 2016, so the current company has no obligation to honor whatever he said on this forum over 7 years ago, even if it may have been true at the time.

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,977

    Note also that Gabe may have spoken for Verbum rather than Logos.

    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."

  • Mal Walker
    Mal Walker Member Posts: 403 ✭✭✭

    It was a while ago, I'm sure much has potentially changed since then.

    Current MDiv student at Trinity Theological College - Perth, Western Australia

  • David Wanat
    David Wanat Member Posts: 1,834 ✭✭✭

    MJ. Smith said:

    Note also that Gabe may have spoken for Verbum rather than Logos.

    I started with the Catholic version and got the Protestant version for free. So I guess it could be a policy shift since that happened?

    WIN 11 i7 9750H, RTX 2060, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD | iPad Air 3
    Verbum Max

  • EastTN
    EastTN Member Posts: 1,504 ✭✭✭

    I started with the Catholic version and got the Protestant version for free...

    And I started with the Protestant version, and got the Catholic version for free.  It was a while ago, though, so the policy may have changed.