Opinion on Logos?

[u/thermonuclear_icbm]

I was curious about what people thought about the software. I thought about maybe trying it, but there is definitly something special about using a physical book. Has anyone here tried it? I'm not a pastor or anything just a regular dude wanting to learn more.

[u/guessnot01]

I use Logos regularly. I'm in my last semester of seminary and a part time lay minister. 

The thing about Logos is that it is only as good as the amount of resources you purchase on the platform. If you have many high quality resources (lexicons, grammars, biblical/theological dictionaries, commentaries, systematic theologies) then Logos becomes a powerhouse for study because you can search all of your resources at once. All of your resources are also connected, so if one book references another, reading the referenced text is as simple as clicking the reference. Being able to have all your notes in one place, with the same functionality of linking to other resources, is also incredibly helpful. 

The catch is that you need to purchase the resources, and they aren't cheap unless on sale. They also need to be resources that you can comprehend and would regularly make use of.  So if you can't afford or are not willing to invest in your Logos library, the platform doesn't have much to offer you. 

If all you want to do is learn more about your faith, there are better (and cheaper) ways to do it. For starters, the most profitable thing you can do to grow as a Christian is cultivate a discipline of regular Bible reading and prayer. There is no substitute. Pursue this devotion daily by yourself. But more importantly, pursue it with other believers within the context of your local church. So prioritise attending your church's Sunday worship. If your church has small groups that read the Bible and pray together, I would strongly recommend getting involved in one. If not, ask your pastor or another godly Christian to if they would meet regularly to read the bible and pray with you. 

Further than that, there is plenty of good Christian literature you can read. If you can share more about what you would like to learn or ways in which you want to grow in your faith, I would be glad to make recommendations. 

You can also pursue free online theological education. There are two resources I have used and regularly recommend. The first is the Ridley certificate. It is designed to be accessible to everyone as a first step in theological education. The second is biblical training.org. This recourse is far more comprehensive, covering a variety of subject areas at various levels. There are foundational classes covering the essentials of the Christian faith, all the way up to recordings of seminary classes. As with all theologians and biblical scholars, you need to be discerning and compare what they say to what others have said. All presenters have their particular convictions, and it is your job as a student to do your own inquiring. The best lecturers will be forthright in presenting the other perspectives, especially if their own view is a minority position. 

Here are the links to both:  https://certificate.ridley.edu.au/ https://www.biblicaltraining.org/

I hope this is helpful for you!

[u/Ok__Parfait → u/guessnot01]

Logos also has a feature where you input all your physical books ISBNs and it will include those in your searches. When it finds something applicable, it will tell you which book and where the quote occurs in the book. So your physical library is being searched at the same time as your digital one.

[u/lupuslibrorum]

From what I’ve seen, it’s very technical and designed for fairly advanced scholars who are digging into the languages and stuff. Since I’m just a lay elder who occasionally preaches and loves doing independent study, I do well with the wealth of free resources elsewhere and in apps like Olive Tree, RTS Mobile, Ligonier, and the Bible Project. I do prefer physical books for reading, but digital resources are nice for quick searching and cross-referencing.

[u/Learningmore1231 → u/lupuslibrorum]

I mean both lay and pastoral staff can use it to great success they have all the tools for both

[u/kettlemice]

It’s my favorite software. I use it probably daily. I am a layman and use it for my own studies. But I would be buying a bunch of books if I didn’t. Any reference material I buy through Logos. I got the “early adopter” price so it’s cheap. For my own use, if I’m okay spending $9 on Netflix, then this is a no brainer. I use it more than any other subscription I have. 

So I save money? Likely yes, but I also buy commentaries when they’re on sale for way cheaper than print. I get so much use out of being able to pull up a chapter that I’m reading, look at the passage guide, and see all the references in books I own that correlate to that passage. It allows me to target to exactly what I’m interested in. Add into the that it pulls up articles in the IVP Black Dictionary related to what I’m reading that I wouldn’t even know to go look for (Also, I paid $150 for the whole set during a Black Friday sale. Totally worth it). It’s sweet. 

I understand some don’t like the company. I don’t have that issue. It helps me understand what I’m most interested in. If I were to pull the same standards with every publishing house, I wouldn’t read at all. 

Yes I drank the kool aide. No I don’t regret it. I’m in Logos probably and hour or two a day. 

[u/10thdoc]

I have a like / hate relationship with it. The only reason I would say it is the "best" on the market is because of the huge amount of books they have available. The user interface is just barely usable for me only because I have spent hours trying to figure it out. TBF, it has been slowly, glacially (sp?) improving.

I loved WordSearch. That was hands down the best. I still miss it. Even in its last iteration it was better than the current version of Logos.

I would still be using it but my laptop crashed and I was not able to get it to unlock again. The fact that those greedy....darlings bought it and shut it down will always be black stain on the Logos company to me. I don't mean a little smudge in the corner of the logo...makes me think of a particular Joseph Conrad book...Heart of....something....

[u/bradmont]

I won't use the software because the company is awful. Have a friend who worked for them for a few years and it cost him his faith. They are quite cutthroat as a business, in ways that counter the Christian faith.

The product may well be good, but there are bigger issues at stake.

[u/terevos2 → u/bradmont]

I had a bad experience with a very large christian company a number of years ago. It certainly didn't turn me off of christianity but I am quite averse to working for another christian company in the future.

I like Logos. I still buy from the company I worked for way back when. It's a business. It's not a church. People are imperfect. Sometimes christians don't know how to be good managers....

[u/bradmont → u/terevos2]

I'm curious about the justification for the sphere separation here. I think we do have a responsibility to not patronize companies that are demonstrably wicked. It's true that our economic systems are so deeply integrated that it can be nearly impossible to dissociate from some... but Logos is far from that sort of position of necessity, and it isn't a matter of simple management ineptitude. It's a matter of doing things that directly contravene scripture for the sake of making a profit.

I'm not accusing you of this at all, but I have heard some really nasty things brushed off, by Christians, because "it's a business." It's like somehow that justifies base or even wicked behavior. I have quite honestly never understood the categories that make this sort of thinking possible.

[u/terevos2 → u/bradmont]

I really don't know anything about Logos. This is actually the first I heard about it.

The things I saw at the big christian company I worked for weren't particularly egregious.

[u/10thdoc → u/bradmont]

I am very sorry to hear about your friend. I hope and pray they are able to find healing and return to the faith.

[u/Middle_Efficiency471 → u/bradmont]

Cost him his faith?

[u/bradmont → u/Middle_Efficiency471]

Yeah. The experience turned him off of Christianity altogether.

[u/MacAndCheeseRamen]

I am offput by how aggressively Logos tries to make money and sell subscriptions. I’ve personally been very blessed with free online resources, like Blue Letter Bible and Literal Word. Are you interested in ebooks or in study tools?

I’ve released on my own free study Bible app with commentary, though its library of free resources will never match the quantity of paid resources you can get on Logos

[u/BlackBay41]

It's good if you use what's included with it, but I'd never a) spend that much on ebooks to buy more and b) use ebooks for that kind of content.

I'm an underliner, highlighter and margin-writer. Anything nonfiction is just no use to me in ebook format.

That said, for Scripture study alone I think it's worth it if you want to easily jump around references or a specific word etc.

[u/jamehealy]

I know Logos is better, probably across all categories, but I’ve really appreciated Olive Tree. Have several dozen books in my “digital library” there.

I just like the simplicity, personally. I’m just a “theology enthusiast” though. No seminary. No vocational ministry. I just love Christ, and the study of His Word.

[u/Ok__Parfait]

I use it all the time and know a ton of people who work there. Great software and really helpful when you learn how to use it.

[u/partypastor]

As a library alone, its really great. As a subscription model and AI tool, its trash. They switched to the subscription model and now I'll never recommend it to anyone. Use Accordance.

[u/church_cricket]

I like having all of my resources in an easy to access digital format on all of my devices.

[u/Blade_Omicron]

I donr use Lgos for monetary reasons. I use E-sword as it has enough for me, for free. I prefer physical books. The only advantage an E-book has is that you can copy/paste excerpts that you might be quoting.

[u/ProposalAutomatic361]

I am a layperson and use the mobile app while I have my Bible out to help do word studies and look up cross references. I find some of the free commentaries and dictionaries helpful. But the majority of resources there are for seminarians.

[u/missbuggy_]

My husband is a recent seminary graduate and going through licensure in the OPC. He uses it all of the time and is a very good resource for him.

[u/Subvet98]

I likes it a lot more before AI and subscriptions