Neo-pagan Religion: Stepchild of Secular Humanism

| Fri, December 5, 2008 | Misc.

Today’s guest blogger is Adam Navarrete, who works in the marketing department here at Logos.

As the 2008 Logos Lecture Series comes to a close, I would like to personally thank our loyal attendees for making the lectures a wonderful time. Our final lecture for 2008 is only days away—so I invite you to join us this Monday!

Dr. Peter Jones of truthXchange will be speaking about the upsurge of neo-paganism.

With an overview on the rise of neo-pagan thought in the United States and abroad, Dr. Peter Jones shows that a neo-pagan pantheistic worldview is steadily displacing atheism and its materialistic secular humanism as the dominant mode of thought in contemporary culture. He’ll argue that conversions from secularism to pagan spirituality occur without too much difficulty because both deny the living personal God of the Bible.

Please note that this lecture will be held at the Mount Baker Theater in Bellingham, WA.

Event Details

  • Date: Monday, December 8th
  • Time: 7:00 PM
  • Title: “Neo-pagan Religion: Stepchild of Secular Humanism”
  • Speaker: Dr. Peter Jones
  • Location: Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham, WA
  • Admission: FREE!

About This Month’s Speaker

Dr. Peter Jones, born in Liverpool, England, was educated at the University of Wales, Gordon Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School. In 1971, he married and was a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary before heading to France where he taught New Testament. There he also wrote, spoke, and helped start a Christian school and a church. Invited to teach at Westminster Seminary, California, Dr. Jones re-entered the U.S. where he experienced culture shock as a new spirituality had taken over America. This led him to write The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back. Dr. Jones is currently executive director of truthXchange.

His writings include Gospel Truth, Pagan Lies, The God of Sex: How Worldview Determines Sexuality, and Capturing the Pagan Mind. He also co-authored Cracking DaVinci’s Code and followed up with Stolen Identity: The Conspiracy to Reinvent Jesus.

What’s on Your Logos Wish List?

| Thu, December 4, 2008 | Products

A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about two ways that you can create a Logos wish list using Google or Kaboodle. I recommended the Kaboodle method because of its ease of use with the integrated Firefox and IE plugins and its additional features.

Since that post, Logos user T. C. Black has written about a third way to create a Logos wish list using Amazon. Amazon has always had a nice wish list feature, but it was limited to items you could buy at their site. A few months ago they added a universal wish list feature that allows you to add items from other sites like Logos.com with a simple JavaScript bookmarklet.

It’s very easy to use and is perfect for those who already keep track of other wish list items at Amazon.

Here’s how to use it:

  1. Log in to your Amazon.com account, or create one if you don’t already have one.
  2. Create a new wish list, click “Edit list information” in the left sidebar to give it a name like “Christmas Wish List,” and then click “Make this list my default list” (applies only if this is not your first list).
  3. Drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks.
  4. Navigate to a product page at Logos.com, like the John Piper Collection (24 Vols.).
  5. Click the boomarklet and fill out the information in the box that pops up.*
  6. Keep shopping and add as many other items as you want.
  7. Once you’re done, visit your wish list to make sure that all the settings are as they should be (e.g., is it public or private) and to share your list with others.

Here’s a sample Christmas wish list that I whipped up.

Create your own, and post a link to your wish list in the comments.

*One thing you might want to do in the notes section is specify whether you want the CD-ROM or the download, if applicable. If you want the download, be sure to provide your Libronix Customer ID in the comments as well. The individual buying for you can enter your Customer ID in the final stages of the checkout process. The only downside to going the download route is that you will receive a notification immediately when the order is placed. So if you want it to be a surprise, choose the CD-ROM option.

Family Fun with Logos

| Wed, December 3, 2008 | Products

When I travel, I almost always take my laptop with me. Being able to read and study the Bible and Christian literature without having to pack print books is perfect for flying, especially now that many airlines charge extra for your luggage. I’ve heard that some airlines have even considered charging by weight.

But Logos is more than just a Bible study tool. It’s great for fun and games too. I’m sure most of you are aware of the Word Find. You can find it under Tools > Bible Puzzles > Word Find. I’ve used it on a couple of occasions while traveling. It’s not just for kids.

During my last trip to Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with my wife’s family, I found a couple of new uses for Logos when we were playing games around the kitchen table.

First, I was introduced to a word game called Boggle. The goal is in three minutes to come up with as many words as you can that no one else comes up with—the longer the word the better. As you can imagine, you often have to come up with words that are uncommon. This sometimes involves a bit of guessing, which in turns requires that a dictionary be handy.

I pulled up Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, which comes in most of our base packages, and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, linked them together, and had fun looking up and learning many new words.

My brother-in-law tried to use a traditional paper dictionary, but I don’t think he even got to the right section of the dictionary before I had looked the word up in two dictionaries. I highly recommend using Logos the next time you need a dictionary for family game time. Less waiting and more time having fun.

Second, another game we played with Logos was one I made up myself. I would read a random verse of Scripture after performing a Bible Speed Search, and the first person to guess the book it was found in would get a point. (You get only one guess until everyone has guessed.) If you could guess the full reference, you’d get a bonus point. This one was a lot of fun, but a little lopsided since my oldest brother-in-law is a pastor and was winning most of them.

These are just a couple of examples that illustrate how Logos is more than just a Bible study tool and can be a great addition to family game time.

How about you? What creative ways have you found to use Logos for more than just Bible study?

Sale on the Word Biblical Commentary Series

| Mon, November 24, 2008 | Products

Word Biblical Commentary (WBC 59 Vols.)Through the end of the year, we’re having a sale on the 59-volume Word Biblical Commentary series. This digital set retails for $1,199.99, but is available for a limited time for only $599.95!

Each of these volumes in print has a retail price of $49.99 and sells in the $30-$40 range. If you buy the digital set from us, you’re paying only a tad above $10 per volume! That’s a savings of roughly $1,200-$1,700 when compared to the print cost.

Not only does the Libronix edition of WBC save you a sizable chunk of change, but you also get all of the conveniences of the Libronix Digital Library System, like portability, ease of use, integration with the rest of your digital library, powerful searching, and so much more.

Pastors, scholars, students, and anyone who is serious about Bible study would benefit from this important set—and there’s no better way to make it a part of your library than this.

Update: Don’t want the whole set? Or maybe you just can’t afford it right now? We’re also offering 50% off the retail price on any of the individual volumes with coupon code WBC!

12 New Bundles to Build Your Library!

| Fri, November 21, 2008 | Products

Scholar's Reference Bundle (140 Vols.)We prepared 12 new bundles for ETS and SBL and wanted to share these specials with you as well. Each of these collections was carefully crafted and offers some really nice savings.

Whether you’re into the original languages, OT studies, NT studies, church history, theology, or apologetics, there’s something here for just about everyone.

For those of you who want to beef up the Greek and Hebrew sections of your digital library, we have three language supplements containing some of our best original language resources:

Many of our other top-selling resources and collections have been conveniently combined into these nine bundles.

Go take a look at what’s included and see if anything here would be a good addition to your Libronix library.

Goodies for the Holidays

| Wed, November 19, 2008 | Misc.

Today’s guest blogger is Adam Navarrete, who works in the marketing department here at Logos.

Just in time to get you thinking about your holiday cooking calendar, we held another bake-off this past Friday. There were more than a dozen delicious treats, but three rose to the top.

Our winners were as follows:

  1. Heidie Godfrey with her Chocolate Raspberry bars
  2. Elise Starkovich with her In Search of Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo (translation: Cookie Cheesecake)
  3. Elizabeth Sanborn with her Keebler Bars

We invite you to download the recipes and give them a try!

If you make any of these for your household, church function, or holiday event, let us know how you like them.

Enjoy!

Steve Runge Joins the Blogosphere

| Tue, November 18, 2008 | Misc.

Steve Runge, a scholar-in-residence here at Logos and author of the Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament, the High Definition New Testament, and the forthcoming Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction to Discourse Features for Teaching and Exegesis has contributed to the blog here on several occasions.

But he has a lot more to say about discourse grammar, his area of expertise, so he’s decided to start his own blog, NT Discourse. His stated goal is to remove the mystery from discourse grammar. If it’s still a mystery to you, you might want to give it a read.

Steve’s hit the blogging ground running, and has been averaging about five posts per week. Here’s a sampling of the kinds of things he’s been discussing:

If you’ve purchased the LDGNT or the HDNT and are looking for some help learning how to put them to good use, you’ll definitely want to check out Steve’s new blog. You RSS folks can grab his newly burned FeedBurner feed.

Even if you’re not into discourse grammar, you won’t want to miss Steve and his dog singing a duet!

Lots of Journals from Logos

| Fri, November 14, 2008 | Products

We’ve mentioned the Theological Journal Library several times here on the blog. It’s a favorite of many Logos users. But even though it’s a phenomenal deal, not everyone needs or wants all of that content.

If you’ve ever wanted to pick and choose only the journals that interest you, now you can. Visit our new Journals page to purchase individual journals from the Theological Journal Library.

Of course, do your math. It may be a better deal to get the whole bundle than piece together several individual journals. But in our effort to make more things available as individual downloads, we wanted to give you the option to purchase only what you want.

What about new content? The Theological Journal Library is typically updated annually. We plan to add that new content every year or two so you can stay up to date with the latest additions. You’ll be able to upgrade your current collection for a fee that corresponds to the amount of new content for that particular journal.

In addition to all of the journals from the Theological Journal Library, we also have a number of other journals and periodicals listed on our new Journals page. Be sure to give it a look.

Help Us Decide What to Put on Pre-Pub

| Wed, November 12, 2008 | Products

Our Pre-Pub system let’s you decide which resources make it into production and which ones don’t—or at least which one’s make it sooner than other.

It works quite well for the most part. But for the Pre-Pubs that don’t generate sufficient interest in a reasonable amount of time, perhaps our time could have been better spent working on titles that you want to see turned into Libronix resources.

You get a say in which titles go up on Pre-Pub by submitting your requests to suggest@logos.com and posting them in the suggestions newsgroup. While those suggestions are very helpful, we can’t always license the things you want.

We’re considering another way that you can help us decide which books to Pre-Pub and which ones to pass by or put on the back burner. We’re tentatively calling it Pre-Pre-Pub. :)

Here’s how it will work. Visit the Pre-Pre-Pub page, enter your full name, and then vote on as many of the titles as you’d like. After you’re done, click the submit button at the bottom of the page. (Please vote only once.) After we’ve had enough people respond, we’ll do our best to put your recommendations into action and put up a new list.

At close to 500 titles, our first list might be a bit too large. If you move quickly, you should be able to get through it in roughly 10 minutes. Feel free to skip the ones that don’t interest you. A skip will count as a low vote. To help you navigate the list, we’ve arranged the titles in alphabetical order of the author’s last name.

Thanks for your help! As always, we welcome your feedback on how we can continue to offer you more of the books that you want.

Adding RefTagger to a WordPress Blog

| Tue, November 11, 2008 | Apps & Web Tools, Training

WordPress Logo WordPress is one of the most popular and powerful blogging platforms. It comes in two flavors: the hosted version (i.e., WordPress.com) and the self-hosted version (i.e., WordPress.org). This tutorial addresses how to add RefTagger to a WordPress.org blog since it is currently not possible to add it to a WordPress.com blog. WordPress.com bloggers, jump to the bottom to find out how you can help to change that.

There are two ways to set up RefTagger on your WordPress.org blog: (1) use the plugin or (2) set it up manually. The plugin is the best option since it keeps the code separate from your theme, which allows you to change themes without having to reinstall the code. It also enables you to keep up to date easily with future changes and feature additions to RefTagger with WordPress’s simply one-click plugin updates. But some of you may prefer the control of the manual route or may just not know how to find your WordPress files via FTP.

So take your pick with either of the below methods.

Method 1: Using the Plugin

To use the plugin, you need FTP access to your site’s files—at least for now. With WordPress 2.7, you will be able to browse and install plugins right from the admin panel!

If you’re like me and happen to be using WordPress 2.7 Beta 2, adding a new plugin like RefTagger is amazingly easy.

  1. Simply navigate to Plugins > Add New (i.e., http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/plugin-install.php) and search for RefTagger. RefTagger should show up as the top search result.
  2. Click “Install” on the far right, and then click “Install Now” in the window that opens. It takes just a second or two to install, and then you’re taken to a screen where you can activate it.
  3. Click “Activate Plugin,” and then navigate to the RefTagger page under the Settings menu to customize it, if you’d like.

If you’re playing it safe and running WordPress 2.6.3 or earlier, here’s what you need to do to set it up.

  1. Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/reftagger/, and click “Download.” Save the zip folder, and then extract the contents.
  2. Fire up your favorite FTP program. (FileZilla is a nice free option.) Then navigate to the place where you installed WordPress. It’s probably in a folder called “public_html” or “www.” Locate the “wp-content” folder, and then open it. You’ll see a “plugins” folder inside. Open it, and then copy the RefTagger.php file that you extracted from the zip folder into that folder.
  3. Log in to your WordPress admin panel, and then go to your Plugins page. Find RefTagger in the list of inactivate plugins, and then click “Activate.”
  4. Navigate to the RefTagger page under the Settings menu to customize it, if you’d like.

Method 2: Adding the Code Manually

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel, navigate to the “Design” page, and click on “Theme Editor.”
  2. Find your theme’s “Footer” template, and click on it to open it.
  3. Scroll to the bottom, paste the customizable RefTagger code immediately before the </body> tag, and click “Update File.”
  4. Navigate to the RefTagger page under the Settings menu to customize it, if you’d like.

WordPress.com users, are you feeling a little left out? We want to help, but there’s only so much we can do. The good folks at WordPress.com are willing to consider adding built-in support for RefTagger, but they need to see that there is enough interest. One of the things that they look at is the number of times that our plugin has been downloaded and installed. If you have friends using WordPress.org, encourage them to download and use the plugin.

Finally, a word to those of you who create WordPress themes or help churches and ministries get websites set up with WordPress: please consider adding RefTagger as a standard part of your theme or site set-up process. It’s a great way to improve the service you provide to people—at no cost to you and with very little effort.