48 replies to this topic

[Fr. Rich]

Another suggestion. Brendan Byrne, SJ has written a theological commentary on the Gospel According to Mark that I have found very interesting. It is: A Costly Freedom and is published by Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minn. Indeed, Liturgical Press is a great source for Catholic resources.

OK - gotta go to work now.

[Michael J. Bolesta]

Sacra Pagina (New Testament) and Berit Olam (Old Testament) commentary series published by the Liturgical Press are worth considering. Though Catholic, they are mainstream and solid academically but accessible (at least the 4 volumes in Sacra Pagina on the Gospels, the works I have used most often.

[Steve Lo Vullo]

Hi:

I would like to suggest a few good, current Catholic resources:

1. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, New Testament. This resource is published by Ignatius Press. The Old Testament is underway, but it would be great to get the NT now.

2. Catholic Bible Dictionary, by Scott Hahn. This is published by Doubleday.

3. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, published by Baker.

I beg you to try to get these resources for Accordance. There is a dearth of current, orthodox Catholic resources for Accordance at the time.

Thanks

I forgot to mention that all of these resources have e-texts. I have the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament and several volumes of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for my Kindle apps. They also have the Catholic Bible Dictionary, but I tried the sample and it was just too hard to navigate to be of any real use. Anyway, hope you can get them.

[Kevin Soars]

I wrote to Ignatius Press quite some time ago telling them about Accordance (though I am fairly sure they would have known about it anyway!) but I did not get a response I am afraid.

Kevin.

[Dennis M Callies]

I am grateful that Accordance makes the documents of the Councils of Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II, as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Canon Law, and Summa Theologica, searchable. Since Order of the Mass is included among the Catholic modules, Accordance would do well to keep current there with Catholic practice. Regarding bible study, scholarship is scholarship. I am appreciative whenever any offering notes also from which "school" it arises. To supplement the Catholic Collection I suggest Catholic documents as can be found in The Enchiridion Biblicum of www.catholicscripture.net/enchiridion/index.html.

[Ramiro]

I'd like to add my support for more Catholic reference materials and resources. I have been currently considering purchasing Logos, exactly for the reasons Fr. Rusty states, namely, the limited amount of Catholic materials there are, however, I am torn because Accordance is the best tool out there on the Mac. I am also very hesitant to invest in Logos because there is no certainty that I'll be able to import my Spanish Bibles (sorry to keep bringing this up), so right now I have been using eSword through Crossover on my iMac when I need to do Bible study in spanish or to prepare a talk for church, and it's a pain to have to use 2 different systems.

If I may also suggest, a wonderful Catholic theologian of our time is Fr. William Most, and the complete set of his works are readily available here: http://www.catholicc...most/browse.cfm

I'd like to request if accordance can ask if Fr. Most's works can be made available in Accordance. I contacted them as asked if they can be made available in HTML format so I can import them into Accordance, but they said that that was not available.

I know that on the economics side of things, making Spanish resources available in Accordance may not yield a good profit for accordance if the market is not there, but if other Bibles, comentaries, dictionaries, and other types of Catholic resources in Spanish could be made available, I think this will only be a growing market. I'd be happy to help out in this regards if translation/communication with Spanish publishing houses is needed.

[Fr. Rusty]

FWIW. Not knowing much about the staff at Accordance other than the few I have spoken with or gotten excellent help from ( Thank you again and always Helen) I might mention that it seems Logos added a Catholic Academic to their staff to help them with what resources to try and get and to help with getting same.
Perhaps Accordance could do likewise or have a consultant in these areas. There are just so many wonderful Roman and Orthodox catholic resources available for Everyones study.( As well as Anglican, Lutheran etc.) I am being 100% honest when I say: I really hate to see Accordance miss out in these resources and customer base. I am absolutely correct in saying that people are studying a much wider range of materials than perhaps ever before. Lay Protestants are studying the Fathers and Contemplatives, Catholics are studying resources usually constrained to Protestants. People are simply reading and studying wider than before. Etexts , digital libraries, handheld devices are part of it, but mostly I think the denominational lines of demarcation in reading and study are dissolving . Some of this may well be the results of so much common work between denominations on social issues, but no matter the reason, the fact is, people are reading and studying a wider range of materials. Accordance is by far the fastest, smoothest and most powerful Biblical Software on the market. It's only weakness is in resources that span the rest of the Christian experience and history. Which is a huge demographic. I hope Accordance can get proactive in that area, the market is there, been there for a long, long time. Blessings all.

[Ramiro]

Fr. Rusty makes some excellent points. To add a couple of thoughts to Fr. Rusty's. If there isn't an appropriate amount of people and other resources to significantly expand the resources availabe in Accordance, both, from different faiths and different languages, I think it will only help to capture more of the market if Accordance were made to be able to import user Bibles easily. I know Accordance staff must really hate me for continuing to bring this up, but consider the following: The reason that the resources available for eSword is so vast is because it's rather easy to import Bibles into it. Now there is another program, The Word, and 95% of the modules in eSword can be easily converted and imported into it. And both of these programs, and the vast majority of resources for both of these programs is free. Now I am not knowledgeable enough to know why making resources on these programs seems to be so simple and not so simple in Accordance, but if the ability to import user Bibles were made available and easy to do in Accordance, that is huge potential market. Again, because Accordance, even with it's free basic set of resources is fantastic, and it's capabilities go without saying, is much better than either of these 2 programs.

I really hope that Accordance would consider the above inputs and include them in future version or updates.

Edited by Ramiro, 28 June 2012 - 05:16 PM.

[Rick Bennett]

We've definitely been reading these posts, and will continue to try and seek out these resources. Thanks for the feedback.

[DWFrancis]

New Interpreter's Bible is not primarily catholic but it does have numerous catholic contributors and the complete catholic cannon covered. And Accordance is working on getting the NIB… SOON I HOPE!!!

-Dan

[Fr. Rusty]

Thanks Rick: We know you try and you folks get bombarded with requests for resources.
I think everyone appreciates how hard Accordance staff works for it's customers.

[Brett K.]

I would definitely purchase these resources as well. Especially the Ignatius Study Bible and the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition.

Also, Raymond Brown's Introduction to the New Testament is considered by many to be the best there is.

In general, Ignatius Press has many resources I would love to see in Accordance.

--
Brett

[DWFrancis]

The New Collegville Bible commentary might be nice the New Testament is done, and the OT is well underway. It is a brief butt excellent series. In the same depth as a standard 2 volume commentary. http://www.litpress....ries.aspx?ID=80 is the home page for it. I believe it is going to be complete by early 2013.

-dan

[Kevin Soars]

I am delighted with all the above posts and would be happy to purchase the suggested works. Thank you to all those who have contributed. Like others, I am also aware of the enormous pressure the Accordance team have been under (especially recently) and of course the work goes on; but I just wanted to add my support to the requests being made.

Thank you.

Kevin.

[ALJL]

I want to drop a line to support the request for more Catholic resources. Accordance is by far the best bible software in the market but Catholic Resources is certainly lacking. I don't think the question is if Accordance will make money from additional Catholic resources, the question is if Accordance can go about it in a smart way. In that sense, the recommendation to hire a consultant/academic to focus in Catholic resources and market strategy is key for any opportunity to build a strong platform. Also, the fact that some competitors are dropping advertising dollars in Catholic radio stations/programs is increasing awareness of the existance/value of bible software...Accordance can benefit from this without the need to spend marketing in building awareness.

 

I will also add that there have to be numerous traditional catholic resources in public domain, many of them with etext; I don't think it would take that much royalty fees to get access to those documents and increase the critical mass of catholic offerings.

 

Thanks for the hard work

[flips]

For me it would be very useful to have "Understanding Scripture" by Scott Hahn available. But I haven't found any electronic version of that book listed, so I guess it might be difficult.(?)

[DWFrancis]

Logos has several of Scott Hahn's works on pre pub. but not Understanding Scripture.

 

-Dan 

[twbeining]

I personally would love to see more Catholic material in Accordance. I would be very interested in purchasing them.

 

Blessings and Peace,

 

Tim

[twbeining]

It would be nice to see the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition added. I would definitely like to have it in Accordance.

 

Peace and Blessings,

Tim

[flips]

I forgot to mention that all of these resources have e-texts. I have the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament and several volumes of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for my Kindle apps. They also have the Catholic Bible Dictionary, but I tried the sample and it was just too hard to navigate to be of any real use. Anyway, hope you can get them.

How does the Ignatius Study Bible NT compare to the Catholic Study Bible found in Accordance?