A Suggestion For A Logos In Many Languages

As someone who can read in a few languages, I would love to be able to own books from many authors in those languages. What I mean is that I want to read French authors in French, English authors in English, Portuguese in Portuguese, Italian in Italian, German in German, etc. I have thought about purchasing Logos packages from other languages, but unfortunately the packages are mainly English works translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, etc. On top of that, there is no way to filter which works are original to that language and which ones are translation. For instance, I may order an extra 100 books I won't read in that translation if I am getting 800 in the original language.

The short of it is that there should be a way to know whether a work is original or a translation, as well as being able to filter this on the search option. Scholars know how to read at least 3 modern languages, with the average growing to 5. Logos should catch up and start offering packages with original untranslated content for specific languages. I would love to get a "Brazilian theology" package, but such thing doesn't exist.

Maybe in the near future?

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Comments

HJ. van der Wal

Shalom Natan!

Thank you for your post. I also like to read books in the language in which they were originally written.

I would like to have a separate column in the library window indicating the translators. This would make it easier to find books in your library that have been translated into another language. Now translators are either not mentioned at all or they are called "authors" (e.g. Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin and Henry Beveridge).

It would also be nice if the original title, publisher, and year of publication were indicated by default on the website.

I have thought about purchasing Logos packages from other languages, but unfortunately the packages are mainly English works translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, etc.

I only partly agree with you on this.

Even most of the standard (English) base packages contain books that have not been originally written in English: e.g. TDOT & TDNT, Martin Luther, etc.

It is a pity that some French books are only for sale in packages with a plethora of translated English resources. But most of the books that Logos sells are also available outside of a package.

Keep in mind that the Logos base packages offer resources at a high discount but they are always a mixed bag. The user base is also very diverse: Logos is used by both academics, clergy, lay people, etc. This is even more the case with the other languages as there are no separate denominational packages (although there are also Spanish Verbum base packages). Personally, I do not want to read the books of e.g. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in any language other than German, but I can imagine that many people are happy that his works have been translated.

I am satisfied with the Portuguese Platinum package that I have bought, but I will agree that this package contains very little original material. On the other hand, I think especially the German packages are excellent and contain just a few translated works. One factor in this is that German has for centuries been one of the most important languages in the field of theology. It is therefore much easier to put together a "German theology" package than a "Brazilian theology" package. Of course, this may change in the future as the world map of christianity changes (I am reminded of a book I have read on this topic by J.L.González: Mapas para la historia futura de la iglesia).