This edition of the Early Church Fathers features the writings and sermons of 166 authors from about 30 to 600 A.D. and is an electronic reproduction of the 38 volumes of the Eerdman’s 19th century reprint of the Edinburgh edition. [Editor’s note: This title also comes in a Catholic edition.] It includes the complete texts of all editorial articles and the almost 50,000 footnotes that accompanied that edition. This electronic version allows scholars of early Christian history and writings to incorporate modern technology into their research and publication endeavors. For instance, scholars can add their own notes to keywords or articles, as well as cut and paste to any word processor. Cross references and Bible quotations are “live,” meaning that one can click and jump immediately to other references or to the quoted Bible verse. The software used to navigate this huge reference source is Logos 2.0, the publisher’s proprietary search engine. The Logos 2.0 users guide is included along with the software package and comprises 192 pages. It is an amazingly complete and extensive software navigation system, since this CD represents more than 18,900 pages of text, 166 different authors, 2193 individual articles or books, nearly 50,000 footnotes, and 293 editorial articles, all linked and connected by Logos 2.0. Language specific searches on embedded Greek and Hebrew words and phrases is an added plus for theological and religious scholars.
Loading and opening the software was easy; and the opening bookmarks are continuously listed to the left of the screen. The table of contents is divided into: Ante‐Nicene Fathers (100‐325 A.D.); Nicene/Post‐Nicene Fathers (311‐600), Series I and II. Numerous subdivisions by author and work are included under these two major headings. To illustrate and provide support for the numerous features of the Logos 2.0 software, the table of contents has a documentation section, exploring Logos searching, and an electronic version of the Logos 2.0 users guide included on the CD.
Having a background in theology and early Christian religion, I was impressed with the power of the Logos 2.0 software: the ability to use live links on almost all reference sources, writings, articles, footnotes, and text; as well as the sheer volume of scholarship included in this one CD. Users can virtually create their own personalized study copy of these writings, inserting notes and comments anywhere, as well as search for and combine the development of a specific topic or word throughout the writings of the early Church fathers. Anyone working in early Christian church history, the writings of the early Christian church, or theological and liturgical studies related to the early Christian church, definitely needs to obtain this product. This one CD is the equivalent of a large bookcase or wall full of over 50 volumes of thick books one would have had to have obtained 20 years ago in order to even begin to research this period of time. This CD is essential for any scholar of early Christian church history.
