Posts tagged “Concordia Publishing House”

How to decide what Bible software you need

Posted on March 15th, 2013

A seminary student recently asked me about Bible software. He indicated that his seminary is pressuring him to get Logos, since it’s the only company Concordia Publishing House will work with. This is for him, posted here for you to listen in and/or argue with me. I first had the precursor to Logos, the Libronix system, when I bought Luther’s Works. I later bought an expensive package with BibleWorks, which was a great program on PC. But I kept being enticed by Logos because of the dream of having Lutheran resources available electronically. I eventually bought a package. At this point, I think I had purchased expensive resources like BDB (Hebrew Lexicon) and BDAG (Greek Lexicon) each three times: paper copy, BibleWorks, and Logos.…

Categories: Theology

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Brief Review: Grace upon Grace

Posted on November 13th, 2012

After picking up John Kleinig’s Grace upon Grace: Spirituality for Today (CPH, 2008) shortly after it was published, my sabbatical has finally afforded me the time to read it. Kleinig is Australian, recently retired as a professor at the Lutheran seminary in Adelaide. I’ve had the privilege of taking two intensive classes with him; one in 1998 on 1-2 Chronicles (the focus of his doctoral thesis, published as The Lord’s Song), and one just this past September on Exodus. I’ve also heard him speak at three conferences, one several years ago at the Paul Gerhardt symposium at St. Catherine’s seminary (near Niagara Falls) and twice at Doxology “Spotlight on Ministry” conferences. I will travel far and put everything else on hold to hear him, because Kleinig points…

Categories: Books, Theology

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Commentaries are (mostly) worthless

Posted on November 1st, 2012

This observation by T. Desmond Alexander succinctly explains the problem with most modern commentaries: Studying the biblical texts by means of commentaries can be compared to looking at the separate pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Though we may find something of interest in each piece, it is only when all the pieces are put together that we get the complete picture…. By atomizing the text and considering each unit independently, there is ever present the danger of misinterpreting these shorter passages. While I was in seminary, I overheard a pastor saying, “If I could go through seminary again, I’d buy fewer commentaries and more theological works.” I now understand what he meant. Commentaries don’t really help you preach, or teach. If you want a…

Categories: Books, Theology

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Logos is painful

Posted on March 27th, 2012

I received an email from a pastor who just got an iPad, asking about the best way to read the Book of Concord on it. I told him he could use Logos, but he’d be happier using Kindle, since Logos on the iPad will only cause harm to your spiritual life. He emailed back saying he has Logos but only uses Accordance. I’ve written about this before, but had really defaulted to just using Logos because of the ease of having the CPH resources open. So in prepping for my Bible Study tomorrow morning on Genesis, this pastor’s email inspired me to open up Accordance. After downloading all the updates (I’d never installed it on my Mac Mini at church), I was blown away…

Categories: Theology

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Question for those with copies of Lutheranism 101

Posted on October 19th, 2010

I’m starting an adult instruction class in January. I’ve ordered a copy of the book, but it’s out of print until mid-November. If you’ve had a chance to review this book, would it be a good text for an adult instruction class? I tend to do my own thing, using just Bible/Catechism/Hymnal, but have often wanted a text that would serve as an outline and guide. Post your thoughts in the comments, or shoot me an email.

Categories: Theology

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The updated PrayNow is outstanding

Posted on October 2nd, 2010

PrayNow, the iPhone version of CPH’s Treasury of Daily Prayer, was already well worth owning. (See my previous review here.) Version 2.0 was released this week, and it adds two awesome features: 1) The readings, Psalms, etc. plug in to the right place in the daily offices (you have to go into the settings to enable this); 2) it’s now a universal binary, meaning if you view it on an iPad, it’s optimized for the iPad without having to buy a separate app. If you own an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, go get it now.

Categories: Theology

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PrayNow: Treasury of Daily Prayer comes to the iPhone

Posted on June 7th, 2010

CPH has released PrayNow, an application that brings the Treasury of Daily Prayer to your iPhone/iTouch/iPad. It’s a very reasonable $8.99. PrayNow works in a simple, efficient way, minimizing the amount of navigation; it’s as easy to switch back and forth from prayer office to the psalms/readings/collect of the day/etc. as it is in the big book; perhaps easier, because there’s no bookmarking to be done: a simple calendar selection wheel takes you right to the day’s readings. (Someone did the hard work of slogging through the dates for the portion of the book directly tied to the church year; to test it I entered a date in late March, 2011, and it took me to a Saturday in Lent. Excellent work!) For now,…

Categories: Theology

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Treasury of Daily Prayer Workshop

Posted on May 26th, 2009

Last December, I led an introductory class/workshop on prayer and using the then-new Treasury of Daily Prayer. I was asked to publish my notes from the workshop, which I never did; the current sale on the TDP reminded me of that. (Did I mention it is 50% off? Go buy it!) Here are some of my notes, which are very rough; I have eliminated/modified/summarized a lot of what we did, which was more hands-on, walking through the book: After some Introduction and Preliminaries discussing the Layout of the TDP, we walked through placing the ribbons:

Categories: Theology

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Portable Options for Daily Prayer Books

Posted on April 28th, 2009

A friend I met on Twitter recently asked me about portable alternatives to the Treasury of Daily Prayer, as it can be too big to travel with. (I took my TDP to France in January – it fit nicely in my shoulder bag in the spot where my laptop usually goes.) I highly recommend the Treasury of Daily Prayer; it’s a phenomenal work and I’ve benefited much from it. However, it is difficult to travel with, especially if you need to travel very light. The last time I was at the bookstore in Fort Wayne, I picked up a nice zipper cover for the Treasury to keep it safe in transit; it’s available on-line here. (Note to CPH people: you should start some kind…

Categories: Theology

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Quirinius conundrum [updated]

Posted on December 23rd, 2008

Sometimes living 10 miles from church really stinks. It would be nice to skateboard over there and check out Just’s Luke commentary, see what Fr. Brown has to say, and look at the CPH lectionary book. I think that the Luke 2 gospel for Christmas Eve gives Luke 2.2 as saying something like, “This registration took place before Quirinius was governor of Syria.” At least, I think I remember seeing that when I was proofreading the bulletin. [Update: It turns out I was wrong. I just know I saw it somewhere, though.] However, the version of ESV in my Accordance program has, “This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria,” with a footnote for reading it the way I’ve rendered it…

Categories: Theology

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