Conservative by design

[tebel]

I have noticed that most of the theological resources offered by Accordance are quite conservative. This does not seem to be the case with resources that deal with biblical studies. Is there a reason for the apparent preference for conservative theological materials?

 

Rari

[Helen Brown]

I think it is a historical reason, that conservative Christians invested a lot of effort in etexting public domain works on interest to them, in the early days of the personal computer and internet.

 

We are certainly open to adding resources with different viewpoints, and welcome suggestions.

[Rick Bennett]

With more modern resources it also has to do with demand, and publisher relationships.

 

That said, we are also working on getting a number of practical and theological resources from other sources.

[Joe Weaks]

Rari,

 

I, too, lament this reality. In addition to the above, Conservative viewpoints make greater sustained use of older resources, since theologies/conclusions/doctrines haven't changed since their writing. Older texts more readily enter the public domain and are then as a result cheaper to make available.

 

I think it would be particularly helpful to the Accordance team for you to recommend specific resources in the Feature/Module Request forum.

[Fr. Rich]

Stanley Hauerwas, Walter Brueggemann and Will Wilimon all have many published works that are strong candidates for theological modules in Accordance. Indeed each of them has works available in other Bible software applications.

[Rick Bennett]

Yes, by all means request away. Just don't bother requesting Barth…it's a long story that we hope will have a happy ending some day!

 

Another reason is that we have only in recent years really put any focus on modern theological works, intentionally keeping our focus more on biblical studies. And with some of our recent relationships with academic institutions we've developed works they require for students. As our academic program continues to expand we will no doubt develop more broad works that they require as well.

[Daniel Francis]

The new Modern Jewish Torah commentary calls itself liberal.... Hermeinea is somewhat liberal too.... And Anchor contains many volumes that would be considered liberal, although the Yale anchor Bible commentary is not yet out for Accordance. I am really hoping that Accordance might get the NOAB (New Oxford Annotated Bible) which is a college/university staple and while often hated by more conservative people is a very fine volume. I have even seen it labeled in some circles as the "F*G Bible" because while no effort was made by the editors to come to the consensus of Homosexuality is not wrong, in effect they did do that.... Although many years ago when doing a study on homosexuality I was shocked how often you would get something equivalent to the following, "the text dealt with here has nothing to do with homosexuality but PASSAGE A clearly condemns it". To the point that looking in well respected conservative commentaries and dictionaries can lead one to the relative conclusion of the NOAB, Homosexuality is not condemned outside of gang rape, inequality, idolatry and in the worst crime of all treating a man like a woman or allowing oneself to be treated like a woman (almost as bad as the confusion of mixed fabrics). I am not trying to start a debate up here, I understand both sides of the argument completely. I do find it highly ironic that the Bible software owned by the southern Baptist's publisher is the only software to have the NOAB though.

 

-Dan

 

-Dan

[R. Mansfield]

Good News! The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 5th edition (mentioned in this discussion), is now available for Accordance!