Christmas Gifts for the Reformers in Your Life

This past week I've been listening back and forth to conservative talk radio and liberal National Public Radio (NPR). While it's certainly two wildly different ways of looking at the current state of things, both are concerned about the economy. So, here's my meager attempt to help the economy. The following are a few gift ideas for that (rare) special someone in your life that reads the same sort of stuff I do.

Luther's Works on CD-ROM is now being offered by Concordia Publishing House for $159.99 [You Save $99.01 (38%) Free shipping on orders of $75 or more]. The disc contains 55 volumes. I've used it for years, and it's an excellent resource. Back when I purchased it, I paid... well, let's just say I paid a lot more.  This CD-ROM also gives you the Logos / Libronix Bible software program, which allows you to add on other resources, like the recent publication of volume 69 of Luther's Works (which Concordia is now offering for $14.99 [You Save $22.00 (59%)]. Back when I purchased it, I paid... well, let's just say I paid a lot more.

The Calvin 500 Collection CD-ROM is another mega-resource product featuring 108 resources on John Calvin.  I've been watching this product since its release. It's gone from around $1000 to $389.95. While I like the inexpensive Ages Calvin collection,  I'm fond of the Logos versions of things. The Ages software tends to be a bit clunky and cumbersome (and also, the Ages website doesn't appear to work anymore, simply try to purchase one of their products).  Also, make sure to check out the Calvin 500 blog which posts specifically on John Calvin.


Logos says their mission is "to serve the church." So, Logos software decided to cash in on the Roman Catholic market. For around $420 you can get the Catholic Library Builder (238 vols.). Serving the church? They state of this collection, "The Catholic Library Builder is a massive library of 238 books worth over $6,000 in print that gives you the resources necessary to study Sacred Scripture deeply and with the mind of the Catholic Church." Well, I guess I could do that in a purely academic way, but I don't think that's what they mean. Study Sacred Scripture deeply? I deny that adding an infallible authority and adding some vague category named "[T]radition" would produce the result Logos says it will.