c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • d i g i t a l h u m a n i t i e s a n d b u d d h i s m     4 7 digital humanities and buddhism: an introduction veidlinger, daniel, ed. digital humanities and buddhism: an introduction. boston: de gruyter, 2019. 234 pp. $29.99. isbn: 9783110518368. the first volume in the series introductions to digital humanities – religion, digital humanities and buddhism is an essay collection created for the purpose of tackling the various ways that buddhologists can and have accessed resources in a digital environment, how they are created, and the methods by which they are used. while the back cover of the book clearly states that the audience for this text is scholars at all levels interested in the use of technology in the study of buddhism, it is important to clarify this statement. scholars on all level will find something in this volume to take away and use; the essays, however, vary widely in their necessity for understanding the technologies used, and a depth of knowledge of buddhism is essential for much of it to make sense beyond a computational understanding. beyond the two introductory essays, which, in themselves, offer an extensive set of information on the variety of digital spaces one can engage in the study of buddhism, this collection is broken into three major themes: theory and methodology, conservation and archiving, and digital document analysis. carefully constructed and arranged, in most cases the essays follow one another in a logical progression of knowledge. however, that does not always mean that the required background knowledge of the field remains consistent and, in some cases, the reader still might choose to pass by essays that range in the highly technical areas or, alternatively, focus their study in technical specifics. the two essays contained in theory and methodology could not be more different. the first essay, written by the volume editor, requires some level of advanced knowledge of computational linguistics to be understandable, analyzing term frequency within the buddhist corpus through the utilization of different methodologies. in contrast, the second is a case study using a traditional methodology applied in a digital environment. specifically, it is an ethnographic study of zen buddhist communities in the environment of second life. this particular essay requires little background knowledge in buddhism, digital humanities, or even ethnography, but is still an informative and interesting read. the essays in the section on conservation and archiving all provide similar, useful information on the history of digital preservation and conservation of buddhist texts in their original languages. the essays are separated by the languages of the buddhist texts’ origins: chinese, sanskrit, tibetan, thai/lao, and chinese/japanese/korean. these essays will be of interest to anyone focusing on digital archives regardless of the field. what makes these essays of greatest use to buddhologists is the extensive information on the variety of digital sources created and still available. the three essays of the final section are devoted to digital analysis of buddhist documents. similar to the ethnographic study in an earlier section, these essays show a more practical application of particular systems and methods, rather taking a theoretical and historical stance. each focuses on a different lens. the first essay utilizes a particular set of chinese digital resources to build a geospatial map of history. the second uses a purely computational analysis, contrasting terminology without meaning by searching by syllable rather than word within sanskrit, tibetan, and chinese texts. the final essay considers the tibetan canon through the methodology of phylogenetics. the t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 4 8 author analyzes and compares different versions of the kangyur in an effort to trace how the text itself evolved over time, thus painting a picture of how and why texts differ across tradition. in the end, what the reader is left with is an excellent academic work that captures the broad array of what the digital humanities can and has to offer in the study of buddhism. is it an essential read or essential to a library collection? this answer to both is not so straightforward. for a researcher interested in the intersection of digital humanities and religion, it is an excellent source and a worthwhile read. for those working in the field of buddhist studies, however, it is a mixed bag. the appendix of digital resources alone is worth keeping this on the shelf for the modern researcher. the essays can offer history and some level of guidance when using the resources described, but most would not be something a researcher in buddhism would return to in order to peruse again and again for insight. that being said, this collection is a useful tool due to its identification of where to find resources in the digital environment and the insights it provides about the differing manners said resources can be manipulated to extract data. alexis nicole weiss reference and instruction librarian for theology loyola marymount university los angeles, ca ii theological librarianship an online journal of the american �eological library association journal information the purposes of theological librarianship are: to foster the professional development of theological librarians and to contribute to and enrich the profession of theological librarianship. tl publishes essays, columns, critical reviews, bibliographic essays, and peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of professional librarianship, within the context of a religious/theological library collection encompassing interactions with faculty and administrators engaged in religious/theological education. the primary intended audience includes: professional librarians in colleges, universities, and theological seminaries and others with an interest in theological librarianship. further information, including author guidelines and instructions on how to submit manuscripts, is available at the journal web site www.theolib.org. © 2008 american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 issn 1937-8904 editorial team david r. stewart, co-editor, luther seminary, st. paul, minnesota ronald w. crown, co-editor, saint louis university, st. louis, missouri andrew j. keck, section editor for columns, duke divinity school, durham, north carolina beth m. sheppard, section editor for bibliographic essays, seabury western and garrett-evangelical seminaries, evanston, illinois melody layton mcmahon, section editor for critical reviews, catholic theological union, chicago, illinois advisory board linda wilson corman, trinity college, toronto, canada penelope j. hall, bibliotheques européennes de theologie elyse hayes, seminary of the immaculate conception, huntington, new york william j. hook, vanderbilt divinity school, nashville, tennessee theodore patrick milas, florida state university, tallahassee, florida robert l. phillips , southwestern baptist seminary, fort worth, texas david powell, methodist theological school in ohio, delaware, ohio iren l. snavely, state library of pennsylvania, harrisburg, pennsylvania mary linden sepulveda, seattle university, seattle, washington jennifer lynn woodruff tait, independent scholar, huntington, indiana donald m. vorp, princeton theological seminary, princeton, new jersey theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 88 critical review volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 australasian religion index (ari) australasian religion index (ari) (http://www.anztla.org/ariabout.aspx.) for both institutions and individuals: $100 for anztla members, $150.00 for non-members. a ustralasian religion index (ari), published by australian and new zealand theological library association (anztla), is an online index of religious and theological literature. it continues the print index of the same name published from 1988 to 2008. ari is updated continuously and contains the entire contents of the print version. all articles are subject indexed. the search interface is a rather spartan beta version. articles can be searched by title, subject, or author. a keyword search option is available. however, it searches only the subject, author, and article title fields for each entry. so, one cannot limit searches to book reviews or search for the contents of a specific journal, although these kinds of searches should be available later. the list of serials indexed provided at the site is dated; there are more publications and more recent coverage than is indicated by the list. ari indexes more than 80 serials, all published in australia and new zealand. articles indexed include not only those from serials in religion and theology, but also from other fields, such as philosophy, bioethics, history, or politics, when they touch on issues in religion or theology. while the majority of the material covered focuses on christian denominations and issues, judaism, islam, and eastern religions are well represented, as are topics in the social and psychological study of religion. ari is very valuable resource. many of the serials indexed by ari deserve wider notice among north american researchers. for many of the subjects indexed there are literally hundreds of articles in ari that would be difficult to learn of from other sources. this is true not only for topics related to australasia, but for the whole range of subjects indexed. there is very little overlap between ari’s coverage and that of other databases available in north america, such as atla religion database (rdb) or catholic periodicals and literature index (cpli). only ten of the serials listed as indexed by ari are indexed by either atla rdb or cpli. given its extremely modest cost, there is no reason why any theological library should be without ari. this resource is highly recommended for every library supporting research in religion or theology. daniel kolb archabbey library, st. meinrad � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 editorial w e are pleased to present to you theological librarianship’s second issue, and hope you will find its contents to be stimulating, enjoyable, and helpful.the publication of tl 1(2) marks the end of our first volume/year, and is a good time to express once again our thanks to all those who, in different ways, have helped tl get off to such a fine start. the leadership and staff at atla have been supportive and patient at every turn; the advisory board has provided wise counsel and peer reviewing that has been diligent and uncompromising; the editorial board has been first-rate and very collegial; atla members and readers have provided helpful input and affirmation as well: thanks all around. but year two will be different from year one, in ways we can still only partly see. for one thing, we have been the fortunate recipients of writing projects, which appear to have been out there before we began, percolating, and just waiting for a venue like tl to be published in. that has been both welcome and helpful. but in the next phase we have the intriguing opportunity of marking out topics and themes which we think are especially important in our vocation, and then identifying who we think would be well-suited to exploring them in print. here are some of the topics we have in mind: management and administration leadership special collections history collection development we’d welcome your suggestions for other topics, or your questions about writing for the journal: here’s to an even better second year of theological librarianship. respectfully, ron crown david stewart managing co-editors • • • • • � column diktuon: bibliographic managers by andrew keck p roper citations have long been a hallmark of academic writing. they ascribe proper credit to others as well as allowing the reader to further explore the topic. direct quotations are documented, ideas are credited, and allusions are made explicit through the use of in-text citations, endnotes, footnotes, and bibliographies. while citations often share common purposes, they can be expressed in thousands of different styles with variations in abbreviation, conventions, and syntax. endnote, one of the more popular bibliographic management tools, has over three thousand different output styles. many of these styles are specific to a single journal or publication and are subtle variations of popular variations of popular styles such as apa, mla, cbe, and the chicago manual of style. a bibliographic manager seeks to do three things: to allow researchers to collect citations, to manage and search their citations, and to plug them into their papers using the correct style. software solutions endnote, procite, and reference manager are software-based solutions which can be licensed and installed on individual computers. the advantages of these software-based managers include the ability to use off-line, added functionality to customize styles and other features, and the lack of any arbitrary limitations in the number of records or size of attachments. endnote, procite, and reference manager are all part of the thomson reuters corporate family through a series of corporate acquisitions in the last 10-15 years. each has its own dedicated userbase but endnote tends to be more common in religion and broader humanities disciplines. web-based solutions refworks and endnoteweb are web-based products which can be used on any computer connected to the internet. users typically login to a website to collect and manage their citations but continue to use a plug-in to microsoft word that allows the proper formatting of citations within the word processor. endnoteweb has some integration with both the isi web of science and with regular endnote software. refworks was developed by cambridge scientific abstracts but is now part of proquest corporation. one notable feature of refworks is its ability to share or collaboratively build a database of citations. refworks is available through individual and institutional subscribers while endnoteweb is available only through institutional subscription. other solutions zotero also provides functionality for collecting, managing, and using citations that integrates into a popular web browser as a mozilla firefox extension. similar to the other software solutions, this product is currently limited to use on a particular computer. with zotero, a user can transfer citations, or even their entire library from one computer to another. a forthcoming version is expected to support synchronization between individual computers through a central zotero server. other advantages of zotero include its price (free!) and integration with other free or open-source projects such as openoffice, neooffice, and coins. andrew keck, section editor for columns, is associate director of duke divinity school library, duke university, durham, north carolina. � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 the future of bibliographic management almost all of the current bibliographic solutions provide some facility for storing full-text content (typically pdfs of journal articles). recent advances include ways of automatically finding full-text content, making that content searchable, and providing more ways to organize and find information in a growing database. new web-based services like librarything, citeulike, and connotea are providing new ways to connect users reading and citing similar books, articles, and papers. in the future, we may expect to see a blurring and merging of these web-based services with traditional bibliographic managers. s p e c i a l f o r u m • t h e l e o d e h o n l i b r a r y ’ s r e s p o n s e t o c o v i d 1 9     3 special forum: distance learning the leo dehon library’s response to covid-19 sacred heart seminary and school of theology by jennifer bartholomew and kathy harty online learning prior to march 2020 / covid-19 until this year, sacred heart seminary & school of theology (shsst) provided online classes solely to seminary students in india who are part of our ma program pathway—adveniat regnum tuum (art)—designed for roman catholic seminarians of the congregation of the priests of the sacred heart (scj) living abroad. art consists of seven asynchronous online courses and three face-to-face courses for which faculty travel to india. art delivers courses taught by six experienced online faculty. the main delivery mode is through our learning management system, populi. in addition, support for student learning (mostly writing and language skills) is provided by embedding our writing skills associate and the director of our english and cultural studies (ecs) program in the courses. march 2020 — spring semester goes online as news of the covid-19 viral pandemic spread, the rector and senior administration made the decision in mid-march to take our face-to-face courses online through the end of the semester. with the charge to transform all courses in a week, the academic dean partnered fulland part-time faculty into teams coordinated by an experienced faculty peer-mentor (including the research & technology librarian). each mentor had taken the university of wisconsin-madison’s certificate program in online teaching in 2019 upon receipt of an ats grant. academic administrators, it personnel, and library staff all provided support to faculty during the transition. progress was tracked in an online spreadsheet. specific needs were quickly identified. lecture notes were converted into powerpoints and videos. english and spanish faculty thought about how to teach, and what pedagogies would work best. online pedagogy varied widely but all classes were ready to go by the following monday. for the most part, online classes went well with a few bumps along the way. technology needs varied. the library continued to provide first-level help for students and faculty. we amended library services tracking, including faculty for the first time as we supported their tech issues. we shared our contact information and were available via personal phone, zoom, skype, and email. our research & technology librarian was very busy, providing expert populi support to both students and faculty. some students enjoyed robust wi-fi as they “sheltered in place,” while others who went home had a variety of tech issues. the ecs programs were particularly challenged by the online environment. different meeting software was purchased in early april for faculty who thought it would make small group work go more smoothly. jennifer bartholomew is director of library and academic support services at sacred heart seminary & school of theology. kathy harty is resource & education services librarian at sacred heart. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 4 services provided by librarians included: •  created a quarantine libguide describing library services and sharing basic details on how to access digital resources. librarians shared best practices at online faculty meetings, then added these to an online teaching libguide. tips such as: don’t send multiple emails, use a variety of features in populi (chat, calendars for weekly assignments), and update your syllabus as needed, all helped to improve communication and not overwhelm students. •  participated as consultants and mentors as faculty converted courses to online learning. worked with faculty to create online orientation materials and revise syllabi to include online resources and links. shared best practices for populi. added links to e-resources; also scanned and posted content for e-reserves. supported faculty as they learned to use technology (e.g., how to voice-over powerpoints, how to use zoom and webex). •  student outreach: the academic dean asked his support staff (the registrar, director of library and academic support services, the research & technology librarian, academic assistant) to reach out and call all students to see how they were faring in the new online environment. during the remaining seven weeks of class, we contacted students with specific questions regarding how things were going two times: once after two weeks online and again with two weeks left in the semester. •  faculty outreach: the library initiated an outreach program to all faculty. we called them to see how things were going, what their resource and technology needs were, and to determine how we could assist. these conversations were reassuring and fruitful, resulting in a number of suggestions for resource and technology purchases (zoom, ebooks, and a journal package). •  thesis support: provided online resources and helped with citation and style questions. july-august 2020 previous summer sessions have been geared to english language learners (about 50 students) who came to sacred heart from all over the world. this summer, as travel restrictions are in place and many cpe programs have been cancelled, we decided to offer an online session for ma and mdiv students. the library was included in the support team planning. our projects include: •  create special online orientation materials for students who haven’t attended sacred heart before. •  create libguides, post digital resources, and add best online teaching practices into a faculty guide. •  compile an faq for technology requirements, geared toward our new students. we’ll list what they’ll need for online learning: high-speed internet, camera, microphone, etc. once students register, we will determine how comfortable they are online and come up with an individualized plan on how best to support them. s p e c i a l f o r u m • t h e l e o d e h o n l i b r a r y ’ s r e s p o n s e t o c o v i d 1 9     5 •  work with faculty to determine writing needs for assignments. technology assistance will be offered by the research & technology librarian and it staff. •  purchase more digital resources and e-books. •  communicate via a weekly newsletter and planned outreach (by phone once to faculty and twice, at the start and middle of the term, to students) during this session. we have learned a great deal since march and will continue to adapt. for now, we are limiting library services and gearing them towards online learning. we are part of an eight-school consortium that shares a catalog and bin delivery service. we will also be thinking about our community patrons and how we can serve them safely. ii theological librarianship an online journal of the american �eological library association journal information the purposes of theological librarianship are: to foster the professional development of theological librarians and to contribute to and enrich the profession of theological librarianship. tl publishes essays, columns, critical reviews, bibliographic essays, and peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of professional librarianship, within the context of a religious/theological library colle ction encompassing interactions with faculty and administrators engaged in religious/theological education. the primary intended audience includes: professional librarians in colleges, universities, and theological seminaries and others with an interest in theological librarianship further information, including author guidelines and instructions on how to submit manuscripts, is available at the journal web site www.theolib.org. © 2015 american theological library association volume 8, number 1 • march 2015 issn 1937-8904editorial board david r. stewart, managing editor, section editor for essays, bethel university, st. paul, minnesota ronald w. crown, section editor for peer-review articles, pius xii memorial library, saint louis university, st. louis, missouri gary f. daught, section editor for columns, p.h. welshimer memorial library, milligan college, milligan college, tennessee daniel kolb, section editor for bibliographic essays, archabbey library, saint meinrad archabbey, saint meinrad, indiana miranda h. bennett, section editor for critical reviews, university of houston, houston, tx advisory board christopher j. anderson, drew university jennifer bartholomew, luther seminary odile dupont, beth teresa c. ellis, hardin-simmons university alvaro perez guzman, universidad bíblica latinoamericana, costa rica theodore patrick milas, college of information florida state university mary linden sepulveda, seattle university jennifer lynn woodruff tait, independent scholar mariel deluca voth, independent scholar https://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 106 critical review volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 encyclopedia of hinduism denise cush, catherine robinson, and michael york, eds. encyclopedia of hinduism. london: routledge, 2008. 1086 pp. $265.00. hardcover. isbn: 9780700712670. “ t here is a challenge in producing an encyclopedia of hinduism when the editors, many of the contributors, and scholarly debate in general are not sure that such a thing as hinduism really exists or that an encyclopedia can do justice to the fluidity, diversity, and complexity of the beliefs and practices so designated” (x). so begins the introduction to encyclopedia of hinduism. the term “hinduism” was coined in the west to denote the beliefs of people in a certain geographic area in northern india. the editors of this encyclopedia make clear that they are among those who question the use of the term hinduism to represent such a diverse set of beliefs. after making that point clear they delve into what constitutes the tradition known as hinduism. this volume does not assume any previous knowledge of hinduism. the term and concept definitions and short entries can be understood, for the most part, by those with little or no knowledge of hinduism. the longer entries seem to be intended more for those with a basic or more advanced knowledge of hinduism, but novices to the subject can comprehend the more complex entries with the aid of definitions and shorter explanations of concepts. a helpful section explains the layout of the volume and provides a thematic list of entries. this is useful, allowing a reader to view a list of all of the entries under a particular broad topic, and is of particular interest to those new to hinduism who wish to explore a broader subject and all the subtopics involved in that particular subject. a full index is provided. entries conclude with a list of suggested additional readings on a subject. the editors make clear their desire to provide an encyclopedia of hinduism that allows for a look at the origins, history, and traditions of hinduism. additionally, they want to focus on the present and what followers of hinduism believe, and how they put their beliefs into practice in their daily lives. the editors state in their introduction the areas of study in this encyclopedia that they feel are lacking or underrepresented. this sets a realistic aim for what can be achieved. this can be seen as both a strength and weakness of this volume, depending on the reader’s information needs. one weakness is that women’s issues are not as fully explored as they could be. the editors have admitted this weakness and attribute it to one of the biographic criteria for this encyclopedia, “that sufficient time had passed to facilitate an accurate assessment of their enduring influence” (xi). while there is truth in that statement, the role of women in hinduism throughout its history is sufficiently vast and has been documented well enough that it could have been more fully explored. the editors state that their aim is to make hinduism comprehensible to undergraduates. the presentation of topics is user friendly with an a-z listing that allows for easy browsing. the editors’ aims are achieved by including a well-rounded group of contributors providing entries on a very diverse set of issues. the contributors to the encyclopedia of hinduism are some of the foremost experts in the field. this book contains more than nine hundred entries that range from 150 to five thousand words. they vary from definitions to an in-depth look at history, theory, doctrine, and social aspects of hinduism. 107 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 the editors admit to a northern indian bias in terms of numerous areas of scholarship, and state that though they intended to provide more diverse opinions, they were not able to achieve this aim. the fact that certain areas of scholarship on hinduism are dominated by those in certain geographical locations, mainly northern india, is to be expected based on the dominance of the hindi culture in these areas; however, the editors’ attempt to provide views of hinduism throughout the world demonstrates a desire for objectivity. the editors strive for balance and objectivity by including contributors having a scholarly background in hinduism as well as those with a religious perspective, including practicing hindus. i recommend encyclopedia of hinduism for purchase for undergraduates in religious studies programs as well as graduate students in seminaries or schools of theology. this encyclopedia has achieved a fair balance between the traditions and history of hinduism as well as current-day issues and movements within the religion. christine pesch yale university t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 4 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 1 3 5 the oxford handbook of latin american christianity orique, david thomas, susan fitzpatrick-behrens, and virginia garrard, eds. the oxford handbook of latin american christianity. new york: oxford university press, 2020. 632 pp. $150. hardcover. isbn: 978-0199860357. the history of christianity in latin america is long and complex, spans a vast geography, is born from a diverse layering of cultures and international entanglements, and is made up of a large list of characters and events. any work that attempts to encompass and explore the reality of christianity in this context, in a way that does holistic justice to the material, has a daunting task to accomplish. though not exhaustive by any means, this is what the oxford handbook of latin american christianity (ohlac) attempts, and it is generally successful. it is a tour for the academic inquirer of latin american christianity in one volume, without oversimplification. this means that the ohlac is not a quick read or a popular summary, but it is a nuanced and useful resource for the serious student of religion. the editors have selected a roster of authors who approach their subject matter with precision and care. in fact, there are times that the level of scholarly focus has produced some very specific and rather narrowly defined articles. for example, matthew o’hara’s article, “time and christianity in latin america,” is a fascinating but surprisingly deep dive into conceptions of time amongst indigenous nahua groups and spanish missionaries in new spain (central mexico) (23–38). he explicates how these conceptions were synthesized together into the christianity of the colonial era. coming across an article of such specificity early on in the ohlac, one might wonder whether the forest gets lost in looking at the trees. however, when reading the articles presented as a collection, the landscape of latin american christianity does begin to unfold through these particular examinations because of the overlaps and interconnectedness of the articles. each scholar adds his or her specialty to the mix while major themes like the development of inculturation/contextualization, missionary strategies, liberation theology, or the charismatic movement are covered from multiple angles in various articles. of course, roman catholicism is going to loom large in a volume on latin american christianity, and it is rightfully given a large amount of space. however, there are really two large gravity wells in the ohlac between which most of the topics covered spin and spiral: roman catholicism and pentecostalism. one provides the initial starting point and cultural stage for latin american christianity while the other is the dynamic movement which has most shifted and influenced the roman catholic religious hegemony in many latin american countries in recent decades. most articles inevitably swirl in and out of the pull of these two expressions of faith. on the whole, there is a fair balance here, but there were times i wished more space were given to minority or niche groups. that may be why i found the article of lawson, xydias, and cragun on mormons, seventh-day adventists, and jehovah’s witnesses in latin america particularly memorable (411–34). their comparison of the ways each group did missionary work in latin america and their study of reasons for consistently underreporting or overreporting membership amongst these groups (contrasted with census data) was enlightening. while all latin american countries get a mention at some point, the editors do not seem concerned about giving equal time to every country. the more populated countries like argentina, c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • o x f o r d h a n d b o o k o f l a t i n a m e r i c a n c h r i s t i a n i t y     3 6 brazil, and mexico receive much attention. although not as large, guatemala, with its diversity of religious groups and the political/religious questions surrounding the civil war and evangelical dictator, riós montt, is the object of multiple discussions. for the reader looking for a guide into the religious history of countries like bolivia, paraguay, or uruguay, though, this is not the place to find it. the contributors and editors of the ohlac have created a wide-ranging and detailed look at christianity in latin america. articles provide close examinations of the phenomena of latin american christianity, as well as opening possibilities for further study. the writing tends to be sensitive and critical. while not written with the casual reader in mind, it is a useful reference work for the student of religion or latin american history. zachariah motts, mdiv mlis student kent state university kent, oh t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 1 8 special forum: distance learning serving our distance learners the work of the styberg library at garrett-evangelical theological seminary by daniel smith the ernest and bernice styberg library, formerly known as the united library, serves the students, staff, and faculty of garrett-evangelical theological seminary and bexley seabury seminary. both institutions have a growing number of online/distance students in their programs, and we are working to better connect with them to meet their information and educational needs. to this end, we have updated our policies, programs, and services to better serve this population, which is predominantly made up of students. we also continue to evaluate our policies and programs in order to best meet the needs of our online/distance community. finally, we intentionally listen and observe how our community is using online resources and seek to incorporate this into the way that we offer our services. while this work can be challenging at times—particularly connecting with distance learners—we remain committed to it. first, in an effort to make our distance learning policies, programs, and services more accessible and findable, we have created dedicated webpages with relevant content. on our website (library. garrett.edu), we have created a custom tab for distance learning that highlights the services and policies that are relevant to online/distance students. this tab features tutorials for some our most popular databases as well as brief tutorials about using the online discover layer—usearch. there is also a page with information about how to access electronic resources, like databases and e-book platforms. the tab also includes links for the most popular, promising electronic resources that are available through the library, specifically select databases and e-reference collections. regarding physical resources and access, we aim to extend our physical library to students at a distance (over 50 miles) by offering to freely mail any circulating materials to them, as long as they agree to send them back to us. this has proven to be a very popular service for our doctor of ministry students; however, others have taken advantage of this resource as well. in a similar vein, we offer an electronic document delivery service that allows students to request scans of materials that are available in our library. we then scan and send requested materials to students. similarly, we offer to interlibrary loan and email articles and chapters for our patrons who are online or at a distance. in terms of reference and research consultations, we are available via chat from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week. this service is attractive to our distance students, and we regularly assist online students with their questions about the library. currently, we use libraryh3lp which allows us to share links, content, and screens with our users. we have also created a virtual study room via zoom where we keep regular virtual office hours, and many students have connected with us this way. our online forms have also been a beneficial way of connecting with our distance students. of course, we continue to be available via phone and email as well. to assist our distance learning students with finding library resources, we have also increased our library research guides and aim to always include online content that is either freely available or available through the library. similarly, we have curated a list of religion databases that features daniel smith is research, instruction, & digital services librarian at garrett-evangelical theological seminary. http://library.garrett.edu http://library.garrett.edu s p e c i a l f o r u m • s e r v i n g d i s t a n c e l e a r n e r s     1 9 many open access, online resources. likewise, we work with our faculty to develop course guides and highlight our relevant, online resources. we also continually digitize our special collections and archives and make those available online. all of our digital content and library research guides are incorporated into usearch, which increases their discoverability and usability with our online/ distance community. tutorials that show how students can utilize these resources have also been created and continue to be expanded and enhanced. in addition to these services and resources, we endeavor to offer an online option (via zoom) for every program that we host in the library, including monthly writing nights, periodic workshops and instruction sessions, and faculty book talks. we also have online-only instruction sessions for online courses. embedded librarianship has proven to be a great way of connecting with distance students as well. being in the chicagoland area offers a lot of possibilities for supporting students, including those who are online or at a distance. we are affiliated with the northwestern university libraries, which gives us access to thousands of electronic resources, primarily in the form of articles, e-books, and media. this wealth of electronic resources is available to all of our online/distance students, and we are working to expand it to include even more relevant content. regarding additional connections/ partnerships, whenever possible, we also highlight the reciprocal borrowing program that is available through atla, and we have found that students are very excited about this possibility. as a recent graduate of the university of illinois urbana-champaign leep program, i seek to continually reflect upon my experience as a distance student to better meet the needs of our online/distance students. this experience has proven to be invaluable for me because i had previously only experienced online learning in a limited way. i am also currently a mentee in the acrl distance learning section’s beta mentorship program for new librarians who are engaged in supporting distance learning students. this has been a very rewarding experience, as it has connected me with a more seasoned distance-learning librarian who regularly encourages, challenges, and resources me, and this opportunity has motivated me to look for articles, like the many that have been published in theological librarianship, about distance learning. this online community of practice has given me ideas for future programs and services for our online/distance community. the styberg endeavors to serve our distance learners in the best ways possible. we try to offer a comparable experience to our on-campus students. the pandemic has given us opportunities to improve upon our policies, services, resources, and programs, and we continue to evaluate the ways that we can best serve all of our distance students. this continues to be exciting and rewarding work for us, and we are excited about what the future will bring in this regard! c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • o x f o r d h a n d b o o k o f m a r y     3 9 oxford handbook of mary maunder, chris, ed. oxford handbook of mary. oxford: oxford university press, 2019. 736 pp. $150.00. hardcover. isbn: 9780198792550. also available electronically as a part of oxford handbooks online. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198792550.001.0001. the oxford handbook of mary is a collection of forty-two essays which examine the effect mary—a jewish woman from an insignificant village within roman-controlled palestine—has had on believers throughout history via multiple lenses. the numerous authors of the essays have varied backgrounds, both scholastically and theologically. many are christians from across various denominations and roles. this enhances the unity and diversity regarding the role of mary in living out a christian faith. muslim and jewish authors are likewise represented, allowing the reader to note how mary is seen in those religions. anthropologists, artists, historians, and theologians in combination shine different lights upon mary’s identity. the editor arranged the essays into five sections that approximate the development of christianity. the first portion presents mary from the apostolic age through the great schism. in this section, essays focus on mary in the christian gospels and apocryphal writings, interpretations of these by numerous church fathers, and dogmatic presentations developed during the early church councils (431 and before). an essay dedicated to the role of mary in islam is also presented in this first part, as islam came into being before the great schism of 1054. the second section of essays in the oxford handbook of mary focuses on how mary is presented in the eastern churches, picking up a division in christianity that occurred as a result of the great schism of 1054. the focus of these contributions is the liturgical life of the byzantine churches aligned with constantinople, with special focus on greek and russian orthodox understandings of mary. these liturgical contributions include various hymns and homilies from significant figures in greek orthodoxy like proklos, a fifth-century archbishop of constantinople; romanos the melodist; and the monk and marian visionary gregorios palamas. from the russian tradition is a commentary on the works of pyotr bessanov, a nineteenth-century hymnist. the final essays in this section examine marian devotion in the eastern church during our times, focusing on finland, the eastern mediterranean, romania, and russia. after this exploration of the east, the journey moves to western europe and is spread over the next two essay groups. the first set examines the life of mary in the roman church from the great schism until the reformation; the second from the reformation to the current age. in certain essays, some authors examine a particular strand of marian thought throughout both eras; other essayists focus solely on one timeframe. in these clusters, some writers have contributed works on mary in the fine arts of the western churches. others focus on the development of marian doctrine in anglicanism, lutheranism, and roman catholicism. further writers explore what marian devotion looks like in asia and the americas, both within culture and within different religious traditions. certain essays reflect on marian devotion and how this helped and hindered women’s growth. in the final collection of essays, a major shift occurs in that the writers focus on mary as less a theological figure and more a cultural icon. authors examine mary as a cultural icon by examining pilgrimages, miracles, and apparitions. the initial essays discuss the role of pilgrimages to marian shrines with miracles, either healing or mystical. this theme of pilgrimage continues through exhttp://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198792550.001.0001 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 4 0 amining this devotion in light of multi-faith programs and migration as pilgrimage. later essays in this group examine the modern-day phenomenon of marian apparitions and how the messages are misappropriated to accommodate certain agendas that can be seen as fringe if not outright schismatic. while seemingly disparate, the articles on pilgrimages and apparitions are connected by the reactions of numerous devotees to mary. certain weaknesses do appear in this volume. first, no chapter attempts to place mary within her context as a poor jewish woman and mother in roman-controlled palestine. an essay on this topic would have been an excellent starting point for this volume. another weakness is that no exploration occurs in who mary is in the oriental churches, whose history reaches to the apostolic age. this gap is disconcerting because, while these christians may not be as well-known as their european counterparts, their contributions would have allowed exposure to how mary is seen by these believers. the editor rightfully acknowledges that a single tome cannot adequately serve as a thorough book on mary in the introduction, and these weaknesses reflect this statement. overall, this collection of essays is worthwhile for understanding how mary has been viewed throughout time and place, as well as in a myriad of religious traditions and academic fields. its transdisciplinary nature effectively moves marian studies outside the sole realm of theologians and asks scholars in different fields to assist in sharing how mary affects others. creating new connections among diverse disciplines is a needed trend in academia, and the oxford handbook of mary does this well. this book is highly recommended as an item that demonstrates current scholarship regarding trends in marian studies. br. andrew j. kosmowski, sm librarian north american center for marianist studies dayton, oh � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 web review by amy limpitlaw counterbalance http://www.counterbalance.org/ counterbalance is a freely available web site devoted to exploring complex and often controversial issues that intersect the fields of science, ethics, philosophy, and religion. some of the more prominent topics covered on the site include the stem cell issue debate, evolution versus creation, and the implications of genetic technologies. the name of the site—counterbalance—indicates its goal of presenting a balance of various perspectives. this is one of the strongest aspects of the site. the site attempts to present multiple perspectives on these complex issues, and it presents each perspective with respect. the perspectives presented also arise out of a variety of disciplines, both from the sciences and from the humanities. the other strength of the site is simply the plethora of resources it provides, both in terms of variety and amount. the site claims to encompass approximately 2600 topics, 300,000 links, and 150 hours of video. content on the site includes interviews (both written transcripts and video recordings), articles, documents, reports, surveys, conference presentations and proceedings, book excerpts, book reviews, video and audio clips, biographies, a glossary, bibliographies, and images. nearly all the links go to content within the site itself, which is a refreshing change from so many web sites that tend to link largely to content outside of the site. however, the vast amount and variety of resources available on the site is also problematic because it makes the site somewhat difficult to navigate. although the interface is comparatively uncluttered, there is simply so much being offered that it is hard to know where to begin. a simple search engine is provided but the results often take you to pages for which the context is unclear. the navigation on the homepage seems fairly clear, but it actually does not function so well. the homepage is divided into two columns. on the left are “subjects,” “themes,” and “questions” and on the right is an extensive list of “topic sets available.” right away this organizational scheme is problematic. what distinguishes “topic sets” from “subjects” or even from “themes”? each topic set in turn is accompanied by a small icon, but there is no key explaining what these different icons indicate. although it is fairly easy to determine that the icon that looks like a small video camera probably indicates some kind of video clip, other icons are not so self-evident. one is shaped like a small house, another like an arrow, and one appears to be a book. the ostensible purpose of these icons may be to help the user in navigating the site, but instead they simply raise more questions and create confusion. at the top of the page there are two sets of navigation tabs, the first with links to “home,” “news,” “interviews,” “resources,” and “about.” these links are self-explanatory and are typical of what can be found on many websites. the second navigation bar, directly beneath the first and with tabs in a different color, provides links to “subject,” “theme,” “question,” “term,” “person,” and “event.” the first three of these replicate the three sections in the main part of the page on the left. the “term” link takes the user to a glossary with mostly brief definitions. throughout the site, specific terms used link back to this glossary. the “person” link takes the user to an interesting page. like the homepage, this page is divided into two sections. amy limpitlaw is research & electronic resources librarian at yale university divinity school library, new haven, connecticut. � column on the left there is a list of links to featured contributors, most of which are accompanied by a photograph. on the right is a more extensive list of other significant names from a variety of fields. featured contributors reflect the aim of “balance” in the site and range from intelligent design advocates michael behe and william dembski to outspoken proponents of atheism such as richard dawkins. a wide range of disciplines and perspectives are represented among contributors to the site: theologians, ethicists, philosophers, historians, biologists, physicists, astronomers, and more. the representative thinkers are typically prominent leaders in their respective fields. among the theologians contributing to the project are luminaries such as wolfhart pannenberg, jaroslav pelikan, and david ray griffin; the scientists are equally prominent, including thinkers such as noted biologist francisco ayala, astronomer owen gingerich, and physicist neil turok. many of the contributors have long been involved in the science-religion dialogue, including a number of templeton prizewinners such as ian barbour, arthur peacocke, and john polkinghorne. clicking on a contributor link brings the user to a page with a brief biographical profile as well as further links to articles, video and audio clips, conference presentations, interviews, and other items available on the site. the “event” link provides links to information on a variety of events, including video and audio clips, and transcripts of event presentations. unfortunately, no events later than 2003 are included. this was a red flag that the site was perhaps no longer being updated and maintained. however, an email sent to the site elicited the response that although no conferences have been included since 2003, the site is still active and a major update is planned. users who would go to the link for events, however, will be disappointed to find that currently the link will not showcase upcoming events. sometimes providing more choices simply creates confusion, and that is indeed the case with this web site. the site appears to want to appeal to the user who is happy to simply meander and serendipitously make discoveries; however, it is quite unappealing for someone who is actually doing research. sometimes links on a page to ostensibly related topics prove to be more of a hindrance to finding further information than a help. a search on the term “euthanasia” using the search engine brought up three pages where the term appeared, one of which was the glossary entry for the term. the glossary entry in turn suggested looking at the related topics of “genetics” and “ethics,” with links to both these areas. however, following these links did not really lead to much that was obviously related to the topic of euthanasia, and it did lead to a number of links having nothing to do with that topic (both the “genetics” and “ethics” pages provided approximately 15-20 links from which to choose). eventually, after having tried a number of the links from both the “genetics” and “ethics” pages that turned out to be completely unrelated to the topic of euthanasia, one link from the “genetics” page entitled “genetics and suffering” did finally prove fruitful, as it led to a page with suggested related links on the topics of “aging,” “health,” and “pain and suffering.” all of these topics are much more directly pertinent to the topic of euthanasia than the general topic of “genetics.” why these were not the suggested links from the glossary entry on “euthanasia” is unclear. another surprising finding is that certain topics one would expect to find on this site are barely treated, including global warming, globalization, and the current economic crisis. although there is quite a bit dealing with the environment on the site, using the search box to search on “global warming” brought up just a single entry where the term was only briefly mentioned. the same result occurred when searching on “globalization.” this absence again suggests that the site has not been recently updated. however, despite the problems with navigation and the surprising lack of attention to certain important topics, this web site offers an incredible wealth of resources, many of which could be incorporated into faculty teaching. it � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 also provides a refreshing commitment to presenting a variety of perspectives. the site would be enhanced by more recent updates, by a site map to aid navigation, and by a key to the various symbols used throughout. since the site’s goal is to present a balance of various perspectives, it also might be improved by becoming more interactive, perhaps by incorporating discussion forums or some other means by which users could participate and contribute to the discussions presented on the site. 93 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 critical review religion past and present: encyclopedia of theology and religion, volume 1 hans dieter betz, et al., eds. religion past and present: encyclopedia of theology and religion, vol.1: a bhu. leiden: brill, 2007. 719 pp. $299.00 (series subscribers, $277.00). cloth. isbn: 900413980x, isbn13: 9789004139800. w henever an essential theological reference work is translated into another language, there is cause for celebration. the present happy occasion is the appearance of religion past and present, volume 1, the first volume in an english translation of a classic german encyclopedia, religion in geschichte und gegenwart (4th ed., mohr siebeck, 8 volumes, 1998-2005; index volume, 2007). rgg has long been an authoritative standard for german-speaking researchers, and rgg4 was thoroughly revised for broader coverage of topics that would have stronger international appeal. the publication of rgg4 for an english-speaking audience is therefore all the more timely and welcome. each volume includes a list of area editors and subjects covered, as well as a list of contributors to that particular volume, followed by about eighty pages of abbreviations for ancient sources, authors, and standard works. subject entries are arranged alphabetically in double-column format and conclude with a bibliography and contributor name. by design, entries aim for a balanced presentation of major ideas and competing issues but do not provide comprehensive coverage of a topic. likewise, bibliographies include only essential sources for further research without duplicating more exhaustive lists easily found in other works. many entries include internal cross references, which are indicated by an arrow (→) placed before a name or subject. cross references in any encyclopedia or dictionary are especially helpful for reference librarians and researchers in religion and theology, all of whom will be grateful for this essential feature. scattered throughout the main alphabetical sequence are see references, also indicated by an arrow. with an estimated 15,000 total entries when completed, coverage for the whole set is impressive. special emphases within rpp are given in a list of subject areas (x-xi). included are bible and archaeology, new testament, hebrew bible, church history, church music and liturgy, church law, ecumenism, systematic theology, fundamental theology, ethics and related social sciences, history of religion, judaism, philosophy, philosophy of religion, practical theology and related social sciences, religion and science, religious studies, and missiology. specific entries cover a broad range of topics: modern and ancient cities, including biblical place names; countries; biblical topics and theological terms; deceased figures in the history of christianity, theology, biblical studies, philosophy, psychology, music, art, and other disciplines. three examples of interesting or unexpected entries in volume 1 are: “bells”; “artificial life” (with a bibliographic reference to a wired magazine article); and “carola barth” (the first woman to receive a theology degree in germany, in 1907). article length varies considerably. many entries are one-fourth to one-half column in length, while others are several pages long. short entries often appear tersely worded. longer entries tend to address different perspectives or aspects by dividing the text into sub-entries. the two longest articles in volume 1 are “baptism” and “art and religion.” interested readers may want to consult a 39-page preview brochure that includes the entirety of the longest article, “art and religion” (http://www.brill.nl/brochures/rpp_preview.pdf ). illustrations are seldom included with entries, and color illustrations are rarer still. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 94 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 about 900 authors and contributors are listed for the first volume (xii-xix). as should be expected given the long history of rgg, german authors comprise the majority of contributors to volume 1. a significant number of contributors are listed as located in other european countries, with perhaps an even larger number of north american authors. though present location does not necessarily indicate ethnic origin, nationality, or subject expertise, the following countries are also given as locations of contributors to volume 1: india, brazil (x8), israel (x12), australia (x2), ghana, japan (x2), nigeria, china, mexico, argentina (x2), new zealand, and south africa (x2). according to the publisher, the finished rpp will include “over 3,000 authors from 88 countries” (http:// www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=18&pid=18103). the work of the editors, readers, and authors to enhance the english translation beyond its german counterpart is apparent. corrections listed in the index volume to rgg4 (published in 2007) have been included in the english translation. newly deceased authors have been so noted with a dagger (†) in the list of contributors at the front of the volume though unfortunately not also with signatures at the end of each entry (see carl bangs, p. 391; adrian hastings, p. 91). the editors and publisher of rpp have introduced other subtle differences in appearance and substance for added benefit of a new, english audience. for example, more space between lines of text makes for easier reading. use of small caps for author names in bibliographic listings of rgg4 has been dropped in favor of capitalizing only the first letter of author names. unlike rgg4, italics are used for titles of works in rpp bibliographies to better assist readers to separate author names from titles. where column numbering was used in rgg4, only pages are numbered in rpp. many authors have updated their bibliographies with additional citations published since the appearance of rgg4 (see, for example, “africa. iii. christianity”). where possible and appropriate, bibliographies in rpp offer english translations for sources cited, though with one notable caveat. any actual page number reference found in rpp will be to the original-language source as cited in rgg4, rather than to the page number of the source in english translation. this feature will no doubt lead to confusion for many researchers and librarians who are seeking specific pages cited. occasionally, an article in rgg4 has been replaced by a completely new english article in rpp, perhaps in an effort to reflect different audience sensibilities. see, for example, the entries on “aids” and “abortion,” and note the inclusion of “for rpp” after the author names. according to the publisher’s preface (vii), a few entries in rgg4 have been omitted because of a presumed limited appeal to a non-german audience. finally, to be included only in rpp are wholly new articles on individuals who have died since rgg4 was completed (e.g., john paul ii). in light of many considerable enhancements that accompany the english translation, it is surprising and disappointing that the publisher and editors have presented neither a longer preface nor any informative introduction to the work. perhaps that oversight will be remedied by the time the index volume is published. religion past and present will easily become a reference resource that researchers and librarians consult regularly. it compares favorably with a range of reference works that are likely already used in academic and public libraries. a quick, unscientific comparison of coverage in rpp with several other references works is presented below in table format for all alphabetical entries from “a” through “ab.” internal cross references and see also references are not included in the counts below. 95 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 the range of works considered for comparison here is: encyclopedia of philosophy (2nd ed., thomson gale); encyclopedia of religion (2nd ed., thomson gale); oxford dictionary of the christian church (3rd ed., revised 2005, oxford university press); and, the new schaff-herzog encyclopedia of religious knowledge (with supplements, baker). abbreviated title of reference work number of content entries “a” through “ab” number of see references “a” through “ab” total number of entries “a” through “ab” number of entries in common with rpp number of unique entries vs. rpp ep2 4 1 5 3 2 er2 16 5 21 6 15 odcc3r 27 7 34 20 14 nsherk 57 17 74 28 46 rpp 41 5 46 n/a n/a while religion past and present adds significant new content to library reference shelves, it is clear from the above data that it does not entirely displace the importance of other reference works. for instance, er2 has a high percentage of unique entries (15 out of 21 relative to rpp) due mostly to its much broader coverage of islamic history and culture in the alphabetic range used in the above table. it is interesting to note that nsherk, which originated almost three decades before the first edition of rgg, reflects the highest number of entries (28) in common with rpp, but it also has the largest number of unique entries (46 out of 74) relative to rpp. odcc3r and ep2 both have a high percentage of entries (58.8% and 60%, respectively) in common with rpp, but that leaves a considerable percentage of material in each work that is not found in rpp. it is unclear, without considerably more effort, what percentage of entries in rpp is unique to it relative to the entire group of other works listed above. as of october 2008, the first four volumes of rpp have been published. brill’s current plan is to publish all twelve volumes, including an index volume, by 2011. when completed, this new reference set will be a goldmine for topics in the history of christianity, biblical studies, and theology, as well as in related disciplines such as philosophy, religious studies, music, art, and social sciences. english-speaking researchers will value it for its breadth of coverage alongside other important references works such as oxford dictionary of the christian church, the new schaff-herzog encyclopedia of religious knowledge, and encyclopedia of religion. this new work belongs in all religious and theological libraries. despite its high initial cost, the set will also offer long-term value for college and public library reference collections. logan s. wright saint paul school of theology • • • • 62 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org oxford encyclopedia of biblical interpretation steven l. mckenzie, ed. oxford encyclopedia of biblical interpretation. new york: oxford university press, 2013. 2 vols: 1164 pp. $295.00 hardcover. isbn: 0199832269. the oxford encyclopedia of biblical interpretation focuses on several methodological approaches to biblical interpretation that have been or are currently being used in biblical scholarship. the purpose of the two-volume reference set, as stated by editor steven l. mckenzie, is “to exclude topics on biblical books, scholars’ biographies, and the like and to focus on interpretive approaches” (xix). to that end this two-volume work achieves its goal. the work contains a little over one hundred articles that cover a wide variety of topics, all of which have to do with some theoretical and methodological aspect of biblical interpretation. few of the article topics will be completely unfamiliar to anyone with a basic understanding of the discipline of biblical studies. due to the length and style of each entry, they would most appropriately be called essays rather than encyclopedia articles. furthermore, it perhaps would have been more accurate to call this a collection of essays rather than an encyclopedia since the collection is by no means comprehensive. in many ways this collection of essays has an eclectic feel to it. for example, there is little justification for the inclusion of some more minor approaches to biblical interpretation (like the wonderful essay on trauma theory) and the conspicuous absence of other, more significant, ones (such as neither a mention of the princeton school of interpretation nor an article on biblical theology). in addition, a few of the essays seem to be mistitled. for example, the entry entitled “asian american biblical interpretation” does not mention a single south or southeast asian biblical scholar and thus should more appropriately be entitled “east asian american biblical interpretation.” also somewhat unusual is the inclusion of articles on assyriology and ugaritology. while both of these essays cover important topics in biblical studies, they present a decidedly historical approach to biblical studies rather than a contemporary methodological approach (as the vast majority of the essays do), thus adding to the eclectic nature of the collection. it is not clear to the reviewer if the articles as a whole should be understood as an historical overview of select methodological approaches or as a discussion of current methodologies with their respective advocates and results. mckenzie acknowledges this unevenness in the preface, but this acknowledgement does little to explain it, and as a result it does limit the encyclopedia’s overall usefulness as a reference work. in other words, it seems at times that this collection of essays struggles with an overall cohesive theme or purpose. these weaknesses — which do not doom the work, in light of the essays’ high quality (see below) — do present a challenge in identifying to whom exactly this reference work might be best suited. undergraduates and those generally unfamiliar with the topics will likely find the essays instructive even if they might have to struggle through unfamiliar jargon. there is, however, the likelihood of confusion for these undergraduates because of the small number of articles, which may implicitly suggest a narrowness that does not really exist in biblical studies. while the hundred-page index in the second volume is a gold mine of cross referencing, the novice researcher is likely to miss this wonderful resource. on the other end of the spectrum, biblical scholars will most certainly appreciate the quality and summative nature of the essays, but will likely struggle to appropriate the material into any of their research. the essays, while informative, are likely to be too cursory for more than a “refresher” on a particular method. for whom then would this particular resource be most appropriate? it is likely that it would be most valuable for graduate students, especially those in seminaries. master of divinity students taking hermeneutical or biblical courses, for example, would likely find it to be of great value, since each essay covers many of the important scholars and includes titles of many significant books and journals. likely the survey quality in the essays will help graduate students with their research and will also help to launch them into further valuable resources for each approach. the same articles that would be overwhelming to undergraduates and underwhelming to established scholars will be of great use to divinity students or other graduate students taking graduate level bible courses. 63 critical review: oxford encyclopedia of biblical interpretation theolib.org to put this resource in a more positive light, it is important to note that these volumes are a wonderful resource for students looking for introductory essays on biblical interpretation topics that they are unlikely to find in any other resource. standard bible encyclopedias such as the anchor bible dictionary or the new interpreter’s dictionary of the bible do not offer the same type of introduction to these topics nor do they have the detailed bibliographies that this resource offers. furthermore, the fact that many of these articles have been written by leading proponents of their respective topics gives the reader an opportunity to hear firsthand the strengths of these different methods. that being said, librarians would do well to advertise this resource to their faculty if they would like to promote the encyclopedia’s use since many of the articles would likely prove great supplementary reading in many hermeneutics and biblical classes. several essays are worth noting. susan niditch’s article on “folklore and biblical interpretation” offers an excellent overview of the topic of biblical interpretation through the lens of folklore studies. her article covers not only the key ideas and theorists, but also is loaded with great examples so that the reader can associate the concepts with actual texts that might benefit from the method. walter kaiser’s article on “evangelical interpretation” masterfully explains the history and (more significantly) the theological motivations for evangelical interpretations of the bible. this article succinctly covers a huge body of literature in a way that even the most novice graduate student will be able to appreciate. kenton sparks’s summary of “form criticism” fills a gap in reference survey material with his contribution that carefully explains the elements of this particular interpretive approach. the same can be said of john christopher thomas’s “pentecostal interpretation,” as he surveys the growing corpus of pentecostal biblical scholarship. finally, it would be remiss not to mention david penchansky’s delightful essay on “deconstruction.” not only does penchansky bring out the most important elements of the method, he skillfully weaves them into conversation with key biblical texts. his essay’s first subheading, “in the beginning was derrida,” brought a smile to this reviewer’s face, as did some of the last lines of his essay, which serve as a good summary for the entire encyclopedia: “does deconstruction let in the cold? should we protect our children from it? does it bring chaos? first one must question the division of hot and cold. one person’s soul-paralyzing cold is another’s fresh air” (204). what does this resource do? it does a lot and also not too much. it clearly is a valuable resource for theological libraries to acquire, but likely its use will be based largely on the recommendation of those who can point learners to its essays. it is unlikely that its title’s promise will do this alone, but for those to whom the covers are peeled back it will be of great benefit. timothy senapatiratne bethel seminary, st. paul, mn s p e c i a l f o r u m • h o w c a n w e h e l p ?     2 3 special forum: distance learning how can we help? supporting online students through asynchronous and synchronous library services by joshua waltman and jeremy mcginniss in addition to serving residential students, the jerry falwell library at liberty university provides library resources and services to thousands of online students enrolled in over 450 online programs, including divinity programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. as the majority of liberty students are studying from a distance, the library has adapted its model to ensure comparable levels of service and access are available to students who are not on-site. examples of how the library has addressed this issue include expanding e-resource purchases and shipping physical items from the library’s collections to online students through interlibrary loan processes. the library has also reimagined the workflows for supporting online students’ research and for providing virtual library instruction. it is on this front that we would like to share both successes and learning opportunities gleaned from our experiences. the library’s multi-year evolution supporting online students in research and library instruction has taken on both asynchronous and synchronous components. asynchronous services are needed because of time zone differences, non-traditional student scheduling, and the fact that online students are working within a digital environment that creates different expectations and questions. accordingly, our library has addressed this need in three ways: website development, testing, and usability; the development and maintenance of a library faq knowledge base; and the development of a video tutorial channel. synchronous services are also needed to give “real-time” feedback and interaction to provide a sense of connection to the library’s resources along with more detailed instruction and assistance as needed. our synchronous efforts have involved leveraging a variety of technologies to facilitate communication as well as the creation of our research support center, which serves as the library’s “virtual front desk.” the first asynchronous focus is in our general approach to website development, testing, and usability. after all, for online students, the website is the library. the library site prominently features an assistance dropdown with multiple points of contact (phone, chat, and email). an online student landing page was created to highlight specific resources available for this student population. we have found that our thought processes have fundamentally changed in regards to the website development process. we now are as concerned, if not more so, about the online user perspective and experience in navigating the website. for example, new website changes should always include testing from mobile devices, since we have found that a significant percentage of our online users rely on smartphones when accessing library resources. in addition to the shift in attitude toward website development, another asynchronous component of our approach includes the creation and maintenance of a library faq knowledge base using springshare’s libanswers. users are able to filter according to topic and also search by keyword for their research question. this knowledge base provides opportunities for library faculty and staff to provide information to help users develop library skills, such as boolean search formations, joshua waltman is coordinator of the learning commons at liberty university. jeremy mcginniss is coordinator for research & instruction at liberty. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 2 4 and also to foster some basic information literacy competencies at the point of need in the more expansive entries. a last major component of our asynchronous approach involves the creation of a video tutorial channel to complement both the website and the faq knowledge base. at the time of this writing, there are 179 tutorial videos on the channel, all of which include requisite library branding, include closed captioning, and adhere to our internal set of best practices for video recording. tutorials are created using camtasia—a screen capturing and video editing software. tutorial videos are hosted through kaltura, a video-hosting platform, and embedded into many of the knowledge base faqs as well as the database listings on our website. one major lesson for us has been the success of embedding these tutorials in the library’s database descriptions on the webpage to make them available at the point of discovery and use. some students are indeed proactively searching for tutorials through the library video channel, but embedding these at the point of database access encourages use by those who are more inclined toward serendipitous discovery or who have more restrictive deadlines that prevent video tutorial browsing. we have found the videos to be highly used, with 44,988 total views to date. however, ongoing challenges with this use of technology are twofold. first, librarians and staff must develop effective video capturing and editing abilities. while it has become more commonplace in recent years to expect academic librarians to acquire these skills, it nevertheless can be a learning curve for those with no previous background in this area. second, effectiveness hinges on ensuring tutorials are kept up-to-date, reflecting ongoing changes to the website and databases. we have found that even small discrepancies between the live website environment and the presentation of that environment in our video tutorials are confusing for users. accordingly, establishing a plan for the maintenance of video tutorials is a prime consideration before starting any such initiative. for us, part of this maintenance effort has included incorporating evaluations of our tutorials in our regular workflow. we have also found that making the homepage of the featured database the starting point for many of our tutorials helps to decrease the number of video updates we have to make since our website changes more frequently than the database interfaces. last, the creation of the research support center (rsc) is the most impactful effort we have made to provide synchronous library support for online students. the rsc consists of eight highly trained full-time staff members, titled “research consultants,” who provide front-line assistance to online students through phone, chat, and email. along with contributing to the creation of the tutorial videos, maintaining the knowledge base entries mentioned above, and providing proactive resource checks and testing, these staff are dedicated to fielding all manner of library questions. they provide extended hours during nights and weekends and respond knowledgably to the vast majority of research inquiries. they are likewise trained in providing customer service-friendly referrals to the appropriate departments or liaison librarians. while the increase in online students served as the impetus for the creation of the rsc, on-campus students have benefited as well from the increased library support. a challenge with such an initiative can be the initial personnel cost. however, the student-tolibrarian ratio increase that comes with a burgeoning online population creates a logistical problem for libraries who still serve the residential population as well. this model efficiently uses the research support center to ensure librarian expertise is directed toward higher-level research and instruction needs while also working within current faculty personnel budgetary allocations. thus, the hiring and training of these staff has arguably greatly increased the library’s reach to students, s p e c i a l f o r u m • h o w c a n w e h e l p ?     2 5 demonstrating a strong return on investment in creating these positions. we have found that the research consultants field, on average, 14,988 emails, chats, and phone calls per year. one major lesson we have taken from the creation of the rsc has been the need to cultivate strong lines of collaboration and communication between departments in order to facilitate effective customer service in the interactions between research consultants and the students they serve, both residential and online. matters relating to circulation and group study reservations, for instance, require consistency in communication between the research consultants and our learning commons department. additionally, cross-training in these areas as well as the development of cross-departmental documentation of workflows has further aided in the communication. determining best practices in practical procedures, such as call transfers, has been important as well. various technology has likewise been leveraged to efficiently facilitate synchronous research instruction for online students by librarians. namely, individual research consultations are conducted not only through phone but also through teleconferencing technology. through cisco webex or ms teams, librarians can share their screen while talking with students across the globe. the investment in this technology has also opened opportunities to host online student research presentations during our annual research symposium as we pursue a comparable and seamless integration of the online population into the event. moreover, teleconference technology supports the library’s regular webinars highlighting subject specific research skills and issues. in this way, distance students are able to attend these library instructional sessions alongside residential students. the areas highlighted in this essay demonstrate how the faculty and staff at the jerry falwell library are utilizing technology and personnel to provide a range of research assistance and learning support for the online students at liberty university. it is important to point out that we have found there is no one-size-fits-all model that perfectly identifies how to support online students. rather, any model needs to recognize that student populations are very fluid because student needs are ever-changing, as they may be pursuing degrees entirely online, fully on-campus, or a combination of the two. what is present in each of these areas is a commitment to library service regardless of the medium, a willingness to experiment with different models and tools, and an outward communication that demonstrates the library is present to answer questions regardless of how a student receives his or her education. 58 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org dictionary of the old testament: prophets mark j. boda and j. gordon mcconville, eds. dictionary of the old testament: prophets. downers grove, il: ivp academic, 2012. 966 pp. $60.00. hardcover. isbn: 9780830817849. the dictionary of the old testament: prophets completes ivp’s highly regarded black dictionary reference series, totaling eight titles (the first volume in the series to be revised was released in october 2013). those familiar with the series will not be surprised to see that this installment continues the high standard begun with earlier releases. the series covers both the old and new testaments, and the dotp treats the major and minor prophets, lamentations, and daniel. dotp is comprised of 113 separate articles, authored by a wide range of christian and jewish scholars. while the publisher is often noted for representing evangelical scholarship, the editors attempted here to “portray a broad picture of contemporary scholarship on the prophets” (ix). this ultimately is a strength of dotp as it reflects the multifarious approaches current among scholars today. for instance, in “isaiah: book of,” h. g. m. williamson gives a reasonable (not dogmatic) defense for multiple author composition, while douglas stuart (“jonah: book of ”) offers “ample evidence to support the historicity of [jonah]” (460). as expected, each of the prophetic books receives treatment in a separate article. however, the major prophets also receive a second article on reception history (“history of interpretation”). additionally, the minor prophets are treated collectively in two similarly styled articles (as “book of the twelve”). there are also a number of articles on interpretive approaches, such as “canonical criticism,” “feminist interpretation,” “intertextuality/innerbiblical interpretation,” “rhetorical criticism,” etc. articles also address major recurring themes in the prophets, such as “angels, messengers, heavenly beings,” “covenant,” “day of the lord,” “justice, righteousness,” and “warfare and divine warfare.” the scope of articles that have broad interest to old testament studies is narrowed to the intersection of the topic with the prophetic books. for instance, brad e. kelle’s 26-page article “israelite history” devotes less than one page to a subsection called “assyria, israel and judah prior to the mid-eighth century bc.” likewise, in his article “afterlife,” philip s. johnston focuses exclusively on the themes of the afterlife found in the prophetic literature. the most striking omission from dotp is a separate article on assyria. (bill t. arnold’s article, “babylon,” spans eight pages.) given assyria’s prominent role in the destruction of samaria and the royal dynasties of the northern kingdom, as well as the attention given to assyria by the eighth-century prophets, this is surprising. the subject is instead covered loosely in a seven-page subsection within kelle’s article, “israelite history.” the article “habakkuk” by j. k. bruckner is representative of the treatment given to most of the prophetic books. the book is discussed in its final canonical form, and only brief mention is made that “most scholars take the combination of genres as evidence of an uncertain redaction history by the author and/or editors” (295). bruckner’s discussion of genres in habakkuk is surprisingly balanced. instead of choosing between two exclusive options as most scholars tend, he reads 1:1-4 and 1:12-17 as a “lament used in a dialogical complaint” (295). this interpretation directs the reader away from the tendency of some to view the book as a product of the wisdom tradition. the article does not attempt to outline major viewpoints on issues of interpretive dispute, as often is the case in similar encyclopedic books. for example, the view is taken that the “wicked” in 1:4 is a reference to jehoiakim (and company), with no discussion of the alternative theories that the text may indicate the assyrians or the babylonians. the article concludes with a brief, yet balanced look at the new testament appropriation of habakkuk 2:4b (“the righteous will live by his faith”) in romans, galatians, and hebrews. similar to the discussion of other prophetic books in dotp, bruckner’s article maintains balanced focus on the biblical text (with copious cross references) with little attention to divergent scholarly claims. he concludes with a helpful bibliography containing the major commentaries and monographs produced in the last half-century. 59 critical review: dictionary of the old testament theolib.org “rhetorical criticism,” by joel d. barker (whose doctoral work under boda was a rhetorical reading of joel), serves as a very useful introduction to the methodology with an informed discussion of the history of the discipline. although a wide variety of approaches to the prophetic literature has fallen under the rubric of rhetorical criticism, barker demonstrates sensitivity to the current direction of scholarship, noting that it “provides a well-suited approach to consider the ways in which the prophets attempted to persuade their audiences” (677). he gives a brief discussion of muilenburg’s seminal address to the society of biblical literature in 1968 and the impact he had on rhetorical criticism. however, he rightly notes that muilenburg’s approach “bears a strong resemblance to aesthetic or stylistic analysis as it focuses on the text’s use of literary devices as an end in itself ” (678). more attention is given to the developments by scholars such as wilhelm wuellner and yehoshua gitay, who both sought to reestablish a more classical understanding of rhetoric as a means of persuasion. barker does a great service to those new to rhetorical criticism by suggesting a methodology adapted from george kennedy’s work on rhetoric in the new testament. the essay concludes with a consideration of newer methodologies, such as speech-act theory, “interested” methodologies (i.e., ideological criticism), and discourse analysis. the article “covenant” by tiberius rata provides an illustration of the treatment given to an ancient near eastern cultural practice by dotp. rata works from the premise that covenant is an early development within israel’s history (fifteenth century bce). after a very brief discussion of covenants in general, the article is organized around the bearing of four covenants on the prophetic literature: 1) the abrahamic covenant, 2) the mosaic covenant, 3) the davidic covenant, and 4) the new covenant (three of these sections are divided into subsections on the major prophets and minor prophets). the longest discussion, not surprisingly, concerns the mosaic covenant. rata demonstrates how the prophets often operated by criticizing the people for breaking the stipulations of the covenant “by referring back to the ten commandments” (100). the ensuing analysis systematically moves through allusions to the decalogue within the prophetic literature (e.g., idolatry, sabbath, bloodshed, adultery, stealing, and lying). a minor subsection is given to short treatment of the priestly covenant. the section on the new covenant discusses not only the text in jeremiah 31, but also other allusions as found in isaiah and ezekiel. although he makes reference to it, it is unfortunate that rata does not devote some attention exclusively to the hittite suzerainty treaties of the second millennium. the stipulations are certainly important to understanding the prophetic literature, but so too are the historical prologue, witnesses, and sanctions (blessings and curses are treated separately in an article by robin routledge). aside from the minor criticisms mentioned above, dotp is a remarkable resource for its single-minded focus on the prophetic literature. it is refreshing to see diverse perspectives represented among the contributors, and the quality of the articles is consistently high. this important resource should quickly become a necessary reference tool for all engaged in research in the prophetic literature, from undergraduate to graduate level. theological libraries with a program in biblical literature will find this volume to be a useful addition to their collection. justin j. evans north central university, minneapolis, mn 77 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 critical review masterplots ii: christian literature john k. roth, ed. masterplots ii: christian literature. pasadena, ca: salem press, 2008. 4 vols: 2125 pp. $385.00. hardcover. isbn: 9781587653797 (set). t he masterplots and masterplots ii series are known to library professionals for providing brief summaries and critical discussions of selected works of fiction (including poetry, drama, and other genres) and nonfiction. masterplots ii: christian literature, the latest title in these series, performs a similar function for fiction and nonfiction works which the editor and publisher have categorized as christian literature. this four-volume set ranges widely, particularly in terms of types of material (besides novels, poetry, drama, it includes autobiographies, philosophical and theological treatises, scriptural texts, papal encyclicals, and so on), diversity of authorship (writers from africa to wales), and dates of coverage (works from the tenth century b.c.e. through 2006). a list of reviewers and their affiliations appears at the beginning of the first volume; most are from colleges or universities in the united states. the set’s intended audience, “general readers and secondary and collegelevel students in a variety of courses, from literature to the history of religion” (xi), suggests that these volumes might be mostly of interest to theological libraries in colleges and universities with undergraduate religious studies departments (though perhaps not as much to seminary libraries, unless one lumps them under “general readers”). the volumes consist of short articles, usually 3-5 pages in length, in alphabetical order by the title of the work. each article begins with bibliographic information about the work; classification into a genre and subgenres; a list of “core issues” (subjects) about which the work is said to deal; and a brief summary of the work, including a list of characters if it is fiction. the bulk of the article is divided into an overview of the work, which can range from detailed summaries to critical analyses, and a section on “christian themes.” articles conclude with short bibliographies of items related to the specific work or intended to illuminate its themes. the set begins with a publisher’s note, an editor’s introduction, and a brief essay on “the bible in history.” it ends with a number of appendices (a brief bibliography of “secondary works important to the study of christian and inspirational literature” (xii); a list of relevant electronic resources; and a chronological list of titles) and indices (core issues, genre, geographical, title, and author). strengths include the set’s already-mentioned generic, geographic, and chronological range, as well as its inclusion of a large number of recent works, many of a popular nature. in fact, about 75% of the works were published since 1900, with almost 20% (90 of the total 502 titles) appearing between 2000 and 2006 (the same number of titles represents the time period from the chronological beginning of coverage to 1700). indeed, the preponderance and diversity of recent works almost ensures that readers will not have heard of many of them, thus making the set into something of a reader’s guide to christian literature, a place from which to go out and explore more fully items about which it has created awareness. there are, however, at least two questions about masterplots ii: christian literature that i do not find that the volumes answer in a convincing fashion: what is christian literature? and, why these specific examples of the theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 78 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 genre? to begin, then, with the definitional question: both “christian” and “literature” are contested terms, and the difficulty of defining the phrase is acknowledged in the publisher’s note that opens the first volume. the publisher illustrates this difficulty with quotations from books by barbara j. walker and john mort, each of whom has written a guide to the genre of christian fiction and has noted in those guides that “christian fiction” appears to be very much in the eye of the beholder. (both, however, are able to come up with definitions for it, despite the attendant complexities.) suggesting that the definitional task is that much more complicated for those who would add non-fiction to the mix, the publisher nevertheless manages to settle on the kinds of work that will be included in this collection. all titles will be “the greatest and most representative works identified with the genre”; a core will be “classics”; though “several of the titles were not written exclusively for a christian audience, all works covered in these volumes have been consulted, examined, taught, or analyzed from a christian perspective”; and “[m]any of the titles . . . overtly emphasize the christian experience, and often these works were written expressly for the purpose of addressing christian concerns or simply providing a good ‘christian read’” (x). besides failing to define “literature” explicitly, potentially confusing readers who assume that literature has qualities that separate it from “mere” popular fiction and other non-literary materials, the publisher tries to be as inclusive as possible and thereby almost completely dilutes the category “christian literature.” considering that many works of all kinds have been “consulted, examined, taught, or analyzed from a christian perspective,” one is left to conclude that any selection will be purely arbitrary. so, while the set includes titles that would generally be considered christian literature—books like john bunyan’s the pilgrim’s progress and thomas à kempis’s the imitation of christ—other titles appear only, it would seem, because christianity plays some role in the work itself or its reception, even if that theme is incidental to the work or the author does not view himor herself as a christian with a christian purpose in mind in the work’s production. some examples: max weber’s the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, which deals with protestantism and catholicism but does so to advance an economic and sociological argument, not for religious reasons; plotinus’s the enneads, apparently included in this set because it had “a significant influence on later thinkers, both pagan and christian” (542) despite the fact that plotinus was not a christian (under this criterion, works by plato and aristotle should also be included); william butler yeats’s “a dialogue of self and soul,” in which, the reviewer admits, “yeats turns the christian message almost upon its head in order to affirm our human life as it is lived rather than as it should be lived” (458); and sinclair lewis’s elmer gantry, which the reviewer sees as a critique not simply of ministers but of religion itself as something best left behind in a technologically advanced society. even in cases where the works selected “emphasize the christian experience” and were written for christian purposes, the choice of the specific titles in question (and the absence of other titles) can sometimes be baffling. why include robert schuller’s recent book don’t throw away tomorrow when other works by him (such as the be happy attitudes) are surely better known and more likely to be the objects of reader interest? why richard john neuhaus’s death on a friday afternoon, a set of meditations on jesus’s last words, instead of the naked public square? out of my life and thought, albert schweitzer’s autobiography, appears, but his the quest of the historical jesus does not. karl barth’s epistle to the romans is here, but church dogmatics is not. completely missing are works like eusebius’s church history, boethius’s the consolation of philosophy, other titles by early latin and greek christian writers, as well as relatively well-known items mentioned in the bibliographies of other works (brother lawrence’s practice of the presence of god and richard foster’s the celebration of discipline are a couple of 79 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 examples). instead, the reader finds many recent science fiction, romance, and mystery novels, and quite a lot of poetry, some probably known to certain readers but quite a lot of it new to many readers, with much of it unlikely ever to end up on a high school or college syllabus. of course, as the publishers acknowledge, “any list defined as the ‘best’ and most representative of the vast number of works now appropriated as christian literature will be highly selective—and subjective” (xi), and i agree that selectivity and subjectivity are unavoidable. and yet, i wonder if a narrower definition of “christian literature” (perhaps a complete replacement of the term in favor of “christian writings”), coupled with a greater balance between what might be called “classic christian literature” and more recent works, might make the selectivity a bit less arbitrary and the subjectivity a bit less pronounced. this is not to say that recent material—some of it, like the left behind series, also highly popular—be excluded from this set. it is laudable to take these titles into account; such inclusivity shows that christian literature is living and growing. but no set is limitless in size, and selection decisions are always made. thus, a better sense of what the genre of christian literature is and why particular books are included in the set would have been welcomed. other criticisms might be made; the occasional article that does something other than summarize the work (e.g., the treatment of ascent of mount carmel and dark night of the soul, which sounds more like an appreciation than a summary, and the article on jong chun park’s crawl with god, dance in the spirit, which reads like a book review). but my overall evaluation is based on my lengthier criticisms above, and that evaluation is somewhat mixed. for institutions (and individuals) that want a solid collection that summarizes the “classic works” of christian literature from the beginnings to the present, this set is, as i have indicated, problematic. institutions that offer christian (or religious) literature courses might find the set helpful, particularly for the short bibliographies that accompany the entries; but such courses would probably have to be as eclectic in their reading selections as these volumes to find them very useful. but for those institutions which do not mind the eclecticism of these volumes, and which have a clientele interested in discovering more recent, perhaps lesser-known writings that might broadly be construed as christian, this set may be appealing. chris benda vanderbilt university s p e c i a l f o r u m • q u a l i t y a s s u r a n c e     1 1 quality assurance in an academic library contact center by nita mailander introduction as libraries have been transformed by virtual services and online learning, academic libraries are focusing on customer-driven services to support students, faculty, and staff. in his editorial “distinctive signifiers of excellence: library services and the future of the academic library,” walter (2011, 7) challenges librarians to “engage the question of what array of services our users should expect to find in a 21st-century academic library” and to include services, not just collections, in our discussions of “distinctive signifiers of excellence.” bell (2019), in his editorial in library journal, also challenges academic libraries to embrace the “customer-driven service culture.” today, every student, faculty, and staff member in higher education is potentially an online student, instructor, or telecommuter. including quality assurance measures in the academic library contact center designed to meet library customer needs regardless of physical location is an effective, distinctive approach to providing library services. background grand canyon university (gcu) began in 1949 as baptist-affiliated prescott college, prior to moving to west phoenix in 1951. in 1984, the college transitioned to grand canyon university and from being owned and operated by the arizona southern baptist convention to being self-owned by the board of trustees. in 2008, on the brink of bankruptcy, the university transitioned again to a forprofit institution with the help of capital from an initial public offering that allowed the university to continue operating. in 2018, the university transitioned back to its historical roots as a non-profit institution (gcu 2020). for the fall semester in 2019, the campus served more than 22,000 traditional students, and more than 80,000 online students (larrison 2019). the library staff growth has reflected the successful growth and transition of the university over time. in 2007, there were two professional librarians and one paraprofessional on the library staff. in 2010, with seven professional librarians and four paraprofessional staff, the gcu library established a new model of centralized ask-a-librarian services to answer all questions regardless of subject and origin, providing virtual and face-to-face, on-demand individualized research assistance to students, faculty, and staff. the academic library contact center launched as a full virtual instruction and consultation service. literature review although contact or call centers are discussed in the published literature in a variety of organizational settings, there is very limited discussion regarding the academic library contact center, much less continuous quality assurance programs for virtual library services. in their 2004 article “call nita mailander is director of library services at grand canyon university. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 1 2 centres for enhanced reference services,” sattar chaudhry and jeanne identified monash university library and the new brunswick libraries of rutgers university in new jersey. both academic call centers handled general inquiries and transferred any subject-specific inquiries to branches or specialists. calls were generally expected to be resolved in five minutes and there was no mention of quality assurance measures. in 2006, burke and berenak wrote about the telephone enquiry service (tes) which was implemented at bundoora campus library at la trobe university in australia which served the need “to answer in a central location those repetitive directional queries such as opening hours and queries about library holdings” (212). there was again no mention of quality assurance measures. likewise, there is literature discussing telephone reference in academic libraries, but very limited discussion of academic library contact centers. in 2009, murphy published her findings regarding applying six sigma philosophy as an example of continuous quality improvement at the ohio state university libraries. the discussion regarding assessment and reference services continues with the case study “implementing the customer contact center,” which describes the model that ohio state university libraries adopted. murphy and cerqua (2012) not only describe the centralized academic library services but also provide insight and detail into the quality assessment of calls recorded through their “ask us!” library services. they assert that “libraries that develop systems for monitoring and improving the quality of their interactions with customers can maintain their relevance” (299). brehm-heeger et al.’s (2013) article “library call centers” reviews public library call centers. each of the five public libraries and library systems described had call centers that had a primary role for “redirecting calls from the public service desk” (33). some of the call center staff also handled email and chat reference services when not providing phone service. johnson county library’s call center in kansas was identified as including a quality assessment program through the use and review of voice recording software, but no details were included. the gcu library contact center the gcu library has a team of twenty-two librarians and seven paraprofessionals. fourteen fulltime and three part-time librarians, along with five paraprofessionals and a team of student workers, staff the ask-a-librarian contact center through the in-person, phone, email, and chat service points. staff are cross-trained to provide support for all the library’s resources, regardless of subject matter or type of resource. on-demand customized research assistance is provided, including assisting with interlibrary loan requests, appointment scheduling, computer and media instruction, and answering and referring questions regarding the university’s academic services and resources. the ask-a-librarian service is open for students, faculty, and staff ninety-nine hours per week. group library instruction is also a responsibility of librarians on the ask-a-librarian service team and the one-shot library instruction sessions are scheduled virtually or face-to-face as requested by faculty. the library also runs a robust webinar schedule of recurring virtual instruction sessions across twelve webinars, including such topics as library introduction, doctoral research, apa formatting, and more. the ask-a-librarian service answered over 73,000 inquiries from july 2018 to june 2019, and the librarians taught 562 sessions with 13,955 attendees, with the mission to support and meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff where they are academically and geographically (grand canyon university library 2019). s p e c i a l f o r u m • q u a l i t y a s s u r a n c e     1 3 quality assurance initiative in 2012, phone queue software was implemented in the gcu library ask-a-librarian service to further provide efficient call flow and maximize customer service efforts. the library joined the ongoing university-wide qa initiative in 2018 with the launch of the recording and analysis of inbound and outbound phone calls to the ask-a-librarian service. the library’s chat service was also added to the qa initiative in 2019. the library’s phone and chat qa initiatives measure eight areas of staff competency focused on customer service, including the following areas: opening, knowledge and understanding, communication, advising and problem solving, ownership, branding, and closing. two inbound calls and one outbound call are evaluated each month for the librarians and student workers who answer phone calls for the ask-a-librarian service. additionally, for the librarians who staff the chat service, three chat sessions are evaluated. calls and chat sessions are graded by the university’s quality assurance team evaluators and the evaluation results are accessible via a personal staff dashboard for each staff member and are reviewed by library department supervisors and managers who provide individualized feedback and coaching. staff members reaching and maintaining one hundred percent compliance are recognized quarterly and become part of the university’s qa 100 club. quality assurance metrics since implementing the phone qa initiative in september 2018, over 42,000 phone calls were received by library staff through april 2020. for the ask-a-librarian chat service qa implemented in june 2019, over 4,000 chats were received by library staff through april 2020. as a result of these initiatives, 1,020 evaluations were completed resulting in an average departmental score of 98.55% percent (out of 100%). this quality assurance model promotes and sustains a high level of customer service and supports an organizational culture of assessment and improvement across the library team. conclusions the implementation of quality assurance to the gcu library’s ask-a-librarian service has strengthened the library’s continuous improvement processes, enhancing the library’s quality and overall effectiveness in providing academic support to students, faculty, and staff. library staff, although initially cautious to embrace the new quality assurance model, have found great success and external confirmation of the quality, caring customer service provided. for library supervisors and managers, the quality assurance model has allowed a new level of norming, training, and accountability to high customer service standards across the library’s in-person and virtual service points. by using a continuous quality improvement process coupled with centralized services and an emphasis on customer service with a servant’s heart, the academic library contact center can provide a level of dynamic, distinctive services that demonstrate the library’s value to the academic community. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 1 4 works cited bell, steven. “academic librarians’ c-word problem: from the bell tower.” library journal. accessed may 27, 2020. www.libraryjournal.com/?detailstory=academic-librarians-c-wordproblem-from-the-bell-tower. brehm-heeger, paula, monica duffield, sue klinke, m. j. howe, cindy phillips, and barb wrightwisner. 2013. “library call centers: five unique examples.” public libraries 52, no. 1: 32–6. publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/01/library-call-centers. burke, liz and lea beranek. 2006. “call us: development of a library telephone enquiry service.” australian library journal 55, no. 3: 211–23. doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2006.10721853. grand canyon university. 2020. “history of gcu.” accessed may 27, 2020. www.gcu.edu/why-gcu/ history-of-gcu. grand canyon university library. 2019. “about the gcu library.” accessed may 27, 2020. libguides. gcu.edu/aboutus. larrison, ashlee. 2019. “another record year in store for grand canyon university.” gcu today. accessed may 27, 2020. news.gcu.edu/2019/08/another-record-year-in-store-at-grand-canyonuniversity/. murphy, sarah anne. 2009. “leveraging lean six sigma to culture, nurture, and sustain assessment and change in the academic library environment.” college & research libraries 70, no. 3: 215–25. doi.org/10.5860/0700215. murphy, sarah anne and judith cerqua. 2012. “implementing the customer contact center: an opportunity to create a valid measurement system for assessing and improving a library’s telephone services.” portal: libraries and the academy 12, no. 3: 299–314. dx.doi.org/10.1353/ pla.2012.0031. sattar chaudhry, abdus and chua jeanne. 2004. “call centres for enhanced reference services: a comparison of selected library call centres and the reference point at national library of singapore.” library review 53, no. 1: 37–49. doi.org/10.1108/00242530410514784. walter, scott. 2011. “‘distinctive signifiers of excellence’: library services and the future of the academic library.” college & research libraries 72, no. 1: 6–8. doi.org/10.5860/0720006. http://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailstory=academic-librarians-c-word-problem-from-the-bell-tower http://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailstory=academic-librarians-c-word-problem-from-the-bell-tower http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/01/library-call-centers http://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2006.10721853 http://www.gcu.edu/why-gcu/history-of-gcu http://www.gcu.edu/why-gcu/history-of-gcu http://libguides.gcu.edu/aboutus http://libguides.gcu.edu/aboutus http://news.gcu.edu/2019/08/another-record-year-in-store-at-grand-canyon-university/ http://news.gcu.edu/2019/08/another-record-year-in-store-at-grand-canyon-university/ http://doi.org/10.5860/0700215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2012.0031 http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2012.0031 http://doi.org/10.1108/00242530410514784 http://doi.org/10.5860/0720006 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 4 4 believing in bits: digital media and the supernatural natale, simone and d. w. pasulka, eds. 2020. believing in bits: digital media and the supernatural. new york: oxford university press. 264 pp. $35.00. paperback. isbn: 9780190949990. in the nbc television series parks and recreation, two characters show what we might call the extremes of the reception of technology’s place in the everyday human life. on one end is the curmudgeonly department director ron swanson, a staunch libertarian and immensely private person. after receiving a personalized ad while shopping online for a model airplane, he calls in his assistant, april, to explain how such an invasion of privacy occurred. while explaining cookies and the personalized ads they inform, she tells a gobsmacked ron to put his home address into google earth if he really wants to see the extent of the invasion of privacy, which he does to his horror. the scene cuts to ron carrying the computer and monitor outside and throwing them into the dumpster with much aggression. at the other end is the entrepreneurial tom haverford. in a different episode, tom’s propensity for using his phone while driving ends in a car accident. a judge rules that tom must refrain from using any screens for one week. tom cannot navigate his short commute from home to work without a gps, creates a disappointing cork board pinterest page, observes a coworker using a computer with a handheld mirror, constructs a paper iphone, and finally laments to ron, “life without screens is pointless.” later, after failing his digital detox and again crashing a vehicle, he tells ron that he is so fixed on his digital life because “a lot of the stuff in my real life isn’t going that great. so i’d rather play [an online game] than think about that.” april and ron’s conversation demonstrates the language many use to describe digital interactions. it remembers, creates, and learns, underscoring the separation between human programmer and machine that makes us believe the machine actually knows us or reads our minds. tom’s addiction reveals how others construct digital identities to project a desired reality or escape from one’s “real” life. in religious studies language, digital media is taboo for ron and a totem for tom; ron must avoid the digital at all costs, while tom structures his life around the digital. believing in bits: digital media and the supernatural, edited by simone natale and d. w. pasulka, explores the spectrum of digital media and the religious. the central category informing this conversation is belief, and the unifying assertion of the book is “that religious belief and practices are inextricably linked to the functioning of digital media” (3). this argument is worked out in three parts. “archaeologies of the digital supernatural” shows how contemporary applications of digital media are rooted in the language of spirituality in the past. a person who wonders how digital products and platforms from amazon, google, and other developers read her mind interprets the phenomena through an imaginary informed by nineteenth-century psychic studies. victorian mindreading has provided a metaphor utilized by the fields of cybernetics, programming, and artificial intelligence. this metaphor makes computer technology appear magical and supernatural. another victorian movement, spiritualism, is relevant to contemporary media and literary history because its nomenclature considers how technology intersects with human consciousness and mortality. as humanity creates and uses new technology, spiritualism offers language useful for both endorsing and criticizing the technology as either a mode of immortality or a paragon of human annihilation. it is also useful for assessing new media modes in contrast c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • b e l i e v i n g i n b i t s     4 5 with their antecedents, such as the loss of sounds in digital media compared with the phonograph. this archaeology exposes the importance of belief in assessing technology. part two, “believing in digital worlds,” considers the function of belief in four examples: digital gaming, safety kitty on instagram, karma memes, and disciples of the new dawn (dotnd). digital gaming shows the potential of the medium in evaluating belief because of the unique experience gaming offers. the rules governing digital games, both in terms of player ability and computer actions, introduce a balance of power that gaming explores in profound ways, though the game itself ultimately has the most power. belief in the rules and world of the game makes the immersive gaming experience possible. thus digital gaming presents religio—“the subjective disposition to believe” (74), belief itself, and the experience of transcendence. belief in magic underlies the use of safety kitty on instagram. these memes function like a digital trinket to protect users from chain posts of harmful or grotesque images, while also signaling danger for those who do not participate in the chain. belief in the power of #safetykitty forms a community of users who propagate #safetykitty and perform the rituals associated with it. karma memes offer mass interpretation of a complex religious teaching that reduces it to mere retribution. karma, in these instances, is meted out by users as they interpret good or harm that comes to particular people. this belief in a co-opted karma gives users the power to determine how actions shape outcomes, though this belief is almost always deterministic. dotnd offers users a digital performative space that mirrors the religious by providing ritual, community, identity, and authority. on the other hand, it offers opponents a space to identify what is not religion in their critiques of the actions and purpose of dotnd. though dotnd is, by all measures, a fake religion, belief in its positive or negative messages makes it real in the minds of participants and opponents. the final part, “entre nous: spiritual relationships between technology and humans,” explores the boundaries of the human and the computer through telepathy, tulpa communities, revelation and secrecy in ufo communities, virtual reality, and algorithms. digital advancements that incorporate physiological phenomena like eye tracking or facial expressions reveal the possibility of alternative modes of communication. online communities that co-opt the buddhist idea of tulpas create non-corporeal, autonomous entities within themselves who provide companionship. the internet is the space where these tulpamancers describe their tulpas and acknowledge their own identities as plural beings. this tulpamancy introduces positive internal plurality that challenges the stigma of mental illnesses manifesting in plurality that are almost always diagnosed as harmful. ufology offers a rich ground to complicate simple notions of belief. these communities circulate government secrets through digital means and thrive not in the proving or disproving of alien ufos, but in the labyrinths of secrecy extended by these so-called revelations. digital repositories allow ufologists to collect these secrets and distribute them. in other words, the digital world allows ufologists to produce ufos. digital repositories also provide spaces for augmented and virtual reality devices to mediate immersive religious experiences like digital pilgrimages. in addition to these possibilities, the study of algorithms through the lens of animism and magic shows the hermeneutics used in human-algorithm interaction and reveals the potential of religious discourse to elucidate the digital world. there are some weaknesses in this book that undermine its otherwise instructive nature. one problematic feature is its loose interpretations of religion, worship, ritual, spirituality, supernatural, the sacred, etc. for instance, the chapter on safety kitty likens the use of the hashtag as religious ritual and its community of followers as worshipers. these correlations seem overstated, especially t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 4 6 since worship goes undefined and the use of ritual is murky in its scope. the chapter on dotnd is the most problematic essay. a stated aim is to problematize defining religion. yet, this aim is explored at the expense of coherence. one notable moment is when the author describes the dotnd in the language of postcolonial theory. using homi bhabha to evaluate the hybridity of dotnd on the digital borderlands is a confusing, albeit original, take (132). however, applying postcolonial theory to an anonymous group of internet trolls who antagonize for antagonism’s sake (127) is nonsensical. without fail, the chapters most interested in problematizing definitions spend so much space in theoretical grounding and/or are so full of jargon that they are incoherent and unconvincing. perhaps problematizing the definition of religion, explicitly or implicitly, is the point of the book, in which case, mission accomplished. perhaps the taxonomies provided by academic religious studies do not adequately consider the religiosity behind human interaction with digital media. does muddying the waters constitute a contribution to the field? believing in bits is indeed a quirky book, but this quirkiness is a welcome intrusion into religious studies. though some attempts at muddying the waters—such as those listed above—miss the mark, other essays demonstrate the value of digital media studies as a fresh source of interlocutors for scholars and students of religion. the essays on victorian spiritualists and their discursive contributions to common language of digital media are both fascinating and convincing. the highlight of the book is the essay on digital gaming. it is a medium that so frequently intersects with religion and is beginning to receive scholarly attention. the essay’s discussion on the nature of belief in the act of playing games is a welcome contribution to that scholarship. as to its usefulness, it may be best read in bits (no pun intended) and pieces. graduate students in religious and media studies will find several chapters useful depending of the focus of their research. historians of religion will appreciate part one for its evaluation of victorian spirituality. theological librarians should be aware of its features and recommend it especially for those studying the nature of belief. alex gunter parrish information services librarian moody bible institute chicago, il 56 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org the encyclopedia of caribbean religions patrick taylor and frederick i. case, eds. the encyclopedia of caribbean religions. urbana: university of illinois press, 2013. 2 vols: 1192 pages. $250.00. hardcover. isbn: 0252037238 (set). the editors’ goal for the new two-volume the encyclopedia of caribbean religions is to encourage “a better understanding of the role of religion in caribbean life and society, the caribbean diaspora, and wider national and transnational spaces” (volume 1, xiv). the editors take a multidisciplinary approach, “[presenting] caribbean religions in a way that combines the breadth of the comparative approach to religion with the depth of caribbean spirituality as an ever-changing and varied historical phenomenon” (volume 1, xiii). editors patrick taylor of york university and the late frederick i. case, formerly of the university of toronto, are both respected scholars and authors in the field of caribbean studies. the fact that they are scholars of caribbean studies generally and not scholars of caribbean religions specifically is apparent in the variety of topics covered by the encyclopedia, including gender, sexuality, politics, art, music, and literature. this multiplicity of subjects and perspectives is further enriched by the diverse backgrounds of the consulting editors and contributing authors, which include international scholars, researchers, and practitioners. this international and interdisciplinary effort results in an emphasis on the relationships between world religions and their incarnations in the caribbean as well as the relationships among caribbean religions themselves. the ecr provides multiple methods to navigate the entries, including tables of contents for each volume, a comprehensive index in volume 2, and cross-references to other entries in boldface within each entry. general entries on broad religious categories (such as christianity) and geographical territories in the caribbean (such as cuba) serve as useful starting points for users beginning their research. these general entries provide the user with an overview of the subject and contain numerous cross-references for further exploration. bibliographies at the end of each entry direct users to additional resources beyond the ecr which are as varied in approach as the ecr itself, enhancing the ecr’s value as a foundational reference tool. most of the bibliographies include both recent and older works, providing an excellent overview of the literature for a researcher beginning a project. volume 1 includes sixteen color plates, primarily of religiously inspired artwork, and a limited number of black-and-white photographs appear throughout the text for visually minded readers. the ecr’s wide-ranging entries and multidisciplinary approach also make it a useful resource for researchers who are already familiar with the subject generally but are examining particular aspects of caribbean religions. entries on topics such as gender relations, literature, and politics are useful for researchers studying caribbean religions through a specific lens, and researchers seeking information about specific individuals or institutions will also find relevant entries. perhaps the most interesting and unique feature of the ecr is the inclusion of personal narratives, which are meant to give “scholars as well as practitioners…the opportunity to share their varied understandings of the sacred in a sincere and scholarly manner among themselves and with the wider international community” (volume 1, xix). although not as plentiful as the ecr’s introduction suggests, these narratives provide the reader with a glimpse into the personal experiences of the author, enhancing the reader’s understanding of both the subject and the author’s perspective when writing the entry. these entries are unfortunately not clearly and consistently identified as personal narratives, which could cause confusion among users, but this problem is mostly addressed by the noticeable shift in tone in the narratives (they are written in first person, unlike the vast majority of the rest of the ecr) and the fact that the titles of most of these entries include differentiating words such as “memoir,” “my story,” or “personal.” this combination of the scholarly and the personal invites the incorporation of author bias into entries, but for the most part the ecr’s contributors remain evenhanded and openly recognize their biases. all entries are signed, and brief contributor biographies in volume 2 allow users to assess authors’ qualifications and perspectives. when necessary, special note sections at the ends of the entries provide information about any potential author biases, such as membership in the 57 critical review: the encyclopedia of caribbean religions theolib.org church being described in the entry. (these notes also include information about any relevant fieldwork or additional contributors.) however, a sampling of entries did reveal some intrusion of unacknowledged bias and judgment. for example, the “managing the same sex debate” subentry within the “sexuality and the church” entry reflects the author’s belief that criminalizing or vilifying homosexuality is “detrimental to civil rights” (volume 2, 953), despite the evidence presented in the entry about “the fundamentalist disposition of the caribbean population” (volume 2, 951), which would indicate that a substantial number of caribbean churchgoers disagree with that belief. a significant flaw of the ecr is its inconsistency in coverage, treatment, and organization. although all of the contributors use a similar writing style, they each arrange their entries differently and often cover completely different topics within each entry. these differences are most apparent when comparing entries of similar types, such as those for geographical locations. for example, the entry for “cuba” comprises twenty-seven pages and includes an overview of the history and current state of religion in the country as well as a number of subentries on various special topics. conversely, the entry for “haiti” includes only the historical and current overview and is a mere three pages long. the types of information included also vary from entry to entry: some authors favor a quantitative approach, while others prefer qualitative descriptions. users should be prepared for varying amounts of coverage and not expect specific information under one entry merely because it is included in another. despite these shortcomings, the ecr is by far the most comprehensive reference work available on caribbean religions and as such is a valuable and much-needed contribution to the field. the editors identify “researchers and readers… [and] teachers and practitioners” (volume 1, xiv) as the target audience for the ecr. the work is scholarly in nature and requires an advanced college-level reading level for full comprehension. strong information literacy competencies are also necessary to navigate the mixture of personal narratives with objective scholarly writing and to critically assess any biases. the encyclopedia of caribbean religions is highly recommended for seminary libraries and libraries serving graduate students as well as those supporting undergraduate programs or faculty in caribbean or religious studies. public libraries serving caribbean populations should also consider purchasing the work. although it is suited to scholarly research, the ecr is, as the editors suggest, also of interest to teachers and practitioners. nicole c. dittrich syracuse university libraries t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 3 6 theologians and philosophers using social media: advice, tips, and testimonials oord, thomas jay, ed. theologians and philosophers using social media: advice, tips, and testimonials, 2017. 523 pp. $25.00 isbn: 9780578193991. thomas jay oord begins his introduction to theologians & philosophers with several musings on marshall mcluhan’s often-quoted phrase, “the media is the message.” while oord believes mcluhan overstates the matter, he does believe that our media, in this case social media, significantly shape the content. in a few words, “media matters” (1). theologians and philosophers attempts to offer readers a glimpse into how the changing media landscape affects the mode of communication in the titular academic fields. remaining true to its title, theologians & philosophers is composed of ninety-one testimonials of scholars in the fields of religion and philosophy. each contributor loosely follows a set of guiding questions, posed by oord, which ask the scholars to reflect on why they entered the public arena of social media, what projects have emerged due uniquely to the nature of social media platforms, and tips for other theologians and philosophers wanting increase their social media presence. in oord’s words, “the essays lean more toward a ‘how to’ than toward a ‘why so’” (18). topics covered in the book that the title does not anticipate are blog sites (just about every contributor references their stint with wordpress), open access journals through open source platforms like pubpub (48–62) and massive open online courses as explored by dr. christine helmer (344–52). in these latter two chapters, the authors detail the origins of their projects, their learning process with the technology, and their reflections on the project’s impact and what they would do differently if given the chance to do the project over. these two chapters are highly recommended for those interested in communication technologies outside of social media. moreover, their project-oriented testimonials accentuate their contributions among the banal majority of contributions, which essentially say many of the same things about wordpress, facebook, and social media practices (more on this below). there is neither a stated nor an apparent organizational logic behind the arrangement of contributions, short of the alphabetical listing by last name. while the general disciplinary field of each contributor is listed by each name, this designation does not seem to influence the contribution; there are few who attempt to offer musings on social media from the perspective of a “systematic theologian,” for example. this makes the addition of each contributor’s field seem superfluous. reflections by scholars from the fields of “theology & media” and “religion & science” explore the relationship between social media, doctrine, and religious practice. for example, david dault’s chapter reflects on the connection between how people treat others in person and how interpersonal dynamics play out in virtual spaces (188–90). dault portrays social media as a space which can not only amplify our unsavory characteristics, but can also help us practice social virtues to embody in person as well—virtue ethics through social media! within another generation, most students of religion and philosophy will be “digital natives.” religious studies and philosophy must explore the implications of these digital horizons. indeed, the global pivot to telecommuting for everything in 2020 to the vital role of social media platforms in racial justice movements betray humanity’s dependence upon communication technologies. theoc r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • t h e o l o g i a n s a n d p h i l o s o p h e r s u s i n g s o c i a l m e d i a     3 7 retically speaking, the greatest strength of the book is providing readers an inside view of how academics in these fields navigate these virtual spaces. now, theoretical is the operative word. as alluded to, a majority of the contributions blend together: the author recounts the advent of certain social media platforms and other digital technologies, explains why she or he hones in on one or two platforms (usually facebook and twitter), and offers advice on using social media, which more or less pertains to knowing your audience, striving for a healthy balance between your time on social media and your time with people, and being yourself. while hearing a renowned theologian, like miguel de la torre, share his social media strategy was exciting, overall the book becomes less engaging as the same formula is followed by scholar after scholar. this is not to say, however, that all contributions read the same. there are some contributors whose testimonials stand out. along with the authors already mentioned, there were other contributors whose testimonies were particularly insightful and unique. for example, bradly shavit artson (rabbinic studies) not only offers a brief glimpse into the required work of successfully managing multiple platforms to promote and communicate content, but also reflects on what interactions with others on these platforms reveal about this generation’s spiritual longings. by engaging new audiences, artson recognizes that modern communities still desire wisdom that affirms human flourishing. these new audiences have pushed artson to reimagine what his faith tradition has had to say to such audiences. to grow his audience, he did not have to generate new content, but rather discern how to communicate that wisdom and perspective in a meaningful way for interested audiences. artson’s story with social media goes beyond the rote “know your audience” or “popularize your scholarship” syllogisms in most chapters. to be fair, the differences between memorable contributors like artson and the more uniform ones reflects the need for a more intentional prompt (or perhaps more collaboration between editor and contributor). encouraging the writers to root their chapters in a current project or narrative might have yielded more insightful testimonies. in oord’s words, perhaps a little more “why so” would have increased the value of this book. on a related note, it would be a mistake to blame the overall uniform nature of this book on the editorial guidelines. the who matters just as much as the what. in academic fields notorious for being primarily composed of cis-straight, white men, more work needs to be done if one wishes to collect a diverse range of voices in these fields. there is no apparent intentionality shown in this area by the editor. as grace ji-sun kim, along with other female-identified contributors in their chapters, notes, there “are not many diverse voices in the mainstream religion, politics, society. we must have diverse voices… social media provides such a platform for various voices to be heard and it is good that i can share my voice through such a platform” (434). unsurprisingly, every contributor coming from a disenfranchised background tells similar stories about finding a voice in hegemonic spaces. as social media experts like zenyep tufecki remind us, social media platforms give voices to the voiceless and create momentum for grassroots movements. if another version of theologians & philosophers were to be published, hopefully it would include more voices who speak to the way social media is changing the social landscape of academic religion and philosophy. despite its shortcomings, this book still carries value for certain demographics of readers. scholars in religious studies and philosophy new to the world of social media will find many of these chapters insightful. moreover, well-established scholars who publish frequently might find helpful tips on using social media to promote their work. in addition to wanting writers with scholarly ext h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 3 8 pertise, publishers are becoming significantly more interested in a (prospective) author’s social media following. as alexis james waggoner notes, “nowadays publishers, event bookers, and others who may look to hire me are interested in follower numbers—for good or ill” (629). even veteran scholars, like amos yong, are encouraged by their publishers to increase social media activity (656). related to scholarly interest, there are several authors whose reflections might prove helpful for instructors looking to incorporate social media tools into their pedagogy. some of these authors, like darren iammarino, present examples from their classes where integrating social media or other digital communication technologies in the classroom has improved content retention, increased class engagement, and raised students’ grades. in the pertinent chapters, authors describe various ways of incorporating these tools in their teaching style: facebook groups for student discussions, youtube recordings for asynchronous lectures, blog sites for student reflection (instead of the comments section of their course management system) and more. a book like theologians and philosophers is a risky venture. the complexity and functionality of social media and other tools are constantly evolving on social and technical levels. in another decade, these reflections and testimonials may seem archaic to the next generation of theologians and philosophers, indeed all scholars. however, as oord’s quotation of mclaughlin reminds us, our deep, human questions about media never age. each generation’s insight will offer some guidance on the perennial dynamic of the “media and the message.” this book is not the end-all-be-all of this conversation, but it does get the conversation going in a few promising directions. christopher lopez public services assistant & religious studies liaison ucla los angeles, ca 89 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 critical review the routledge companion to christian history chris cook. the routledge companion to christian history. new york: routledge, 2008. 365 pp. $29.95. paper. isbn: 041538362. $120.00. hardcover. isbn: 0415383625. t he idea of creating a timeline of the history of christianity would be daunting and intimidating to many writers, but chris cook has set out to do just that in the routledge companion to christian history. in this medium-sized volume, cook presents timelines that provide historical and political insight into various aspects of christian religions over the past 2000 years. in a work of this size with a topic so wide-reaching, not all continents and issues can be covered equally, but cook presents what he considers to be essential to understanding the current issues of christianity from a western reader’s perspective. the book is designed to be a quick reference work to find key facts, dates, and statistics, and as such, presents information in a concise format with short entries under each key date in the chronologies section, clear definitions in the glossary, and easy-to-read tables and statistical data in the compendium. part 1 of the book, which is about two-thirds of the book, features chronologies of relevant or noteworthy events for many specific topics within the broad category of christian history. a small sample of the scope of topics covered includes: “the early church,” “christianity in north africa (to 698),” “christianity and the rise of islam,” “the northern reformation,” and “the church in the age of the dictators, 1918-45.” part 2 is devoted to a glossary of terms and events, and part 3 is a compendium of lists, tables, and statistics. cook’s stated audience is the individual interested in the historical contexts of christianity, whether that is the theologian, the religion student, or the historian studying the role of christianity throughout time. “the book is intended particularly to provide some of the background dates, data, and other key information concerning the role and place of christianity in the world of the twenty-first century” (xiii). the book was specifically written for those interested in the historical aspect of christianity in order to better understand the current state of religion throughout the world, including “the rise of militant islam, the revival of christianity in the former soviet union, the embracing influence of the ‘religious right’ in the usa” (xiii). although cook states that the intended audience is the reader searching for historical facts about christianity, this reviewer contends that the writer of this work underestimates its usefulness to theologians. theology instructors at all levels would consider this a treasure for all those dates they feel they should know but can never remember, students could use this as a study guide tool for those classes that ask them to memorize key dates, clergy could make use of the book to reference in preparing sermons, and librarians in theological libraries could happily keep this at arms length for those ready-reference inquiries. there are many points of entry in this work, so readers at all levels can easily find needed information. despite, or perhaps because of the book’s concise entries, browsing is a pleasure. events overlap and are repeated in appropriate timelines with cross references in the index and glossary. the reader wanting to learn about one topic will only have to read through that timeline instead of flipping through the book to find related events. students and instructors alike can easily find talking points or research subjects with a quick glance through the book. the theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 90 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 broad scope of the book does not allow for in-depth treatment of any topic, and no analysis is presented on any subject, so this book would best be used as a fact finder. without commentary of any sort, the reader is left with the task of creating meaning and conclusions based on the hard facts that are presented. the glossary does not reference page numbers, which makes browsing in this section less efficient than it could be. however, the index does include the glossary entries as well as entries for the chronologies and compendium of data. it would be helpful to have more sources cited throughout the work; the book features citations sparingly throughout the chronology section with more citations in the compendium section. a relatively brief bibliography, which is made up of a carefully selected hundred works, is provided in an effort to make further research in the topics easier, but the relationship between each work and the content of the companion to christian history is not provided. the compendium in this work is extensive. it is broken down into broad fields such as “the spread of christianity,” “persecution and martyrdom,” “the religious orders,” “the modern missionary age,” “the development of christian doctrine,” “pilgrimages and cults,” “church membership in the modern era,” “selected offices and office holders” and “rulers and monarchs.” within each field are sub-categories to help narrow down a search, and these are included in the table of contents. finding needed information in this section is only possible if one uses the succinct table of contents or index since there is no real order to the subjects. with such a large and broad topic that can take off in so many directions, cook manages to keep the ambitious work on track by keeping his purpose in the forefront. cook writes in the introduction that the study of the history of religion, christianity in particular, seemed to become unfashionable in the twentieth century due to the rise of science, technology, communism, consumerism, and the internet. with the fall of the berlin wall in 1989 and the september 11, 2001 terrorist attack, religion has once again come forward as a key player in world affairs. thus, the goal of the book is to provide context for the relationship of christianity with islam and judaism, orthodoxy in non-western countries, the power of christianity moving from the u.s. and europe to africa and asia. this work achieves this without pushing a political or religious agenda; it is a history book that provides factual context without conclusions. it is not for the lazy reader hoping to be told why militant islamists attack or if the fundamental christians in the american south have too much political sway in the country, rather one might get an understanding of the development of those issues and how the stage was set. cook writes this book with a background as the head of the modern archives unit at the london school of economics using primarily that library as well as the institute of historical research. he presents an unbiased look at the context for various aspects of christianity. for example, in the compendium cook provides estimates of the number of early christians at the time of constantine’s conversion as about 5 percent of the population of the roman empire while also noting that some historians put that number at 10 percent (273). there are no additional contributors to this work but this is acceptable since there is only fact presented—it would be difficult to find a dissenting opinion on the data provided, although there are some in the field who would argue that many of the early dates are estimates or even just educated guesses. the routledge companion to christian history would make a nice addition to any library that serves a theological population. historians with interest in religions could find this work useful as well. sophie schottler mlis student at the college of st. catherine, mn 1 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org profiles: peter de klerk (1927-1997): bibliographer extraordinaire by lugene l. schemper in 1973 peter de klerk made a presentation at the atla annual conference held at moravian theological seminary in bethlehem, pennsylvania. he advocated that atla “initiate a more scholarly publication with a broader scope and a wider circulation” than that of its current newsletter. he proposed that atla publish a professional journal to disseminate studies in theological librarianship.1 forty-one years later he would no doubt be delighted to see the journal theological librarianship in its seventh year of publication. he might be surprised, but not disappointed, that the breadth of its distribution is accomplished solely in a digital format. his library world was primarily a world of print, although in the last decade of his work he began to use and appreciate the impressive electronic tools coming over the horizon. peter’s early years were spent in amsterdam, the netherlands, where he was born in 1927 and where he received his early education. as an adolescent he experienced the trauma of the nazi occupation of that city. in 1945 he attempted to enlist in the royal dutch navy, though any thoughts of a military career ended when his application was rejected because he could not measure up to its standards for eyesight. three years later he graduated from the royal school of landscape architecture in boskoop, the netherlands. in the meantime he also studied in gouda and received a government certificate in floral design. as a young man he saw opportunity in north america, and emigrated to winnipeg, manitoba, in 1951. in his local congregation of the christian reformed church of north america his involvement in youth work and an interest in theology led him to begin study for the christian ministry. he graduated from calvin college in grand rapids, michigan, in 1956, and continued his study at calvin theological seminary. after working for several years in toronto, he enrolled at westminster theological seminary in philadelphia, where he received his m.div. degree in 1963. further study brought him to emory university, where he received his m.ln. degree in 1968, and where he worked as a cataloging librarian at the pitts theological library of candler school of theology from 1967 to 1969. in 1969 he accepted a position as theological librarian for calvin college and calvin theological seminary and as head of the theological division of hekman library (a joint college and seminary library) in grand rapids, michigan. in 1971 he was also appointed as curator of the calvinism collection of the library, which in 1983 became the h. h. meeter center for calvin studies. as theological librarian he saw himself as a servant of the church and its seminary. one of his faculty colleagues, john stek, remarked that “his office and its overflow may not have been a model for others, but all who sought peter’s help in mining the library’s resources…benefited from his sure sense of where to dig.” his master’s thesis at emory was entitled “a study of the reading interests of ministers of the christian reformed church,” and he continued a lifelong interest in serving not only his local academic community but also pastors with bibliographic needs. that interest was international in scope. from 1976 until 1995 peter served as a member of his denominational committee for educational assistance to churches abroad. in this work he was instrumental in distributing many books and periodicals to numerous theological libraries and academic institutions in developing countries. this included travel to some of those countries in africa as library consultant. 1 peter de klerk, “does atla need a journal,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 27 (january 1, 1973): 97–98. lugene l. schemper is theological librarian at hekman library, calvin college, and calvin theological seminary. 2 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org as theological librarian at calvin he worked hard to develop the range and depth of the library’s theological holdings. one particular area of bibliographic interest was john calvin. his pursuit of calvin bibliography is legendary. whenever he travelled in the united states, he would visit theological or university libraries and check their holdings on calvin and calvinism against a case of 4x6 cards in shoeboxes, noting special or unique items that he found. on international trips he would do the same, but with a more modest paper file. he notes that “while attending an atla conference, you might enjoy some free time or a concert or a tourist trap, but you probably would find me near the card catalog of the library with my shoeboxes, adding cards to my file.”2 a colleague tells me that in the mid-1980s a high-schoolage nephew was visiting peter from the netherlands for the summer. peter invited my colleague’s high-school son to accompany them on a six-week road trip in his volkswagen bus. the three of them travelled across the country from grand rapids to san francisco, back across to the east coast, and back again to the midwest. the two young men soon found out (to their dismay) that this was not to be a trip interrupted by frequent excursions to disneyland, national parks, ocean beaches, or other tourist attractions, but was primarily focused on zigzagging across the country, visiting a host of large university libraries as well as small theological libraries in dogged pursuit of calvin bibliography. on the basis of this bibliographic research he built up a massive collection of books, monographs, pamphlets, and dissertations by and about john calvin and early calvinism, including many works by and about calvin’s closest associates, such as william farel, theodore beza, martin bucer, and pierre viret. the goal that he established for the h. h. meeter center was to collect exhaustively in the area of john calvin. this included all books written by and about calvin, in all editions and in any language. as part of this work he developed a “calvin article file” containing copies of articles and essays published about john calvin. at the time of his retirement this file contained over 12,000 items (it currently contains approximately 23,000 items, and its bibliographic contents can be accessed through the calvinism resources database [http://www.calvin.edu/library/database/card]). for 24 years, from 1972 until 1995, peter published an annual calvin bibliography in the fall issue of the calvin theological journal. this work has kept the scholarly world informed about calvin studies throughout the world, and continues to be published annually in the calvin theological journal by peter’s successor at the meeter center, paul fields. peter’s bibliographic work extended beyond john calvin. he compiled an exhaustive bibliography of the writings of the professors of calvin theological seminary (1980), as well as bibliographies of henry stob, ford lewis battles, a. c. van raalte, willem van 't spijker, w. h. neuser, cornelis augustijn, and others. most of these appeared as chapters in collected works and festschrifts. as a member of the calvin studies society, he regularly edited collections of the papers presented at their colloquia held biennially throughout the united states. as an immigrant from the netherlands, peter had an interest in the dutch immigrant experience in north america. his research in this area focused on a disastrous episode of dutch immigration to colorado in the late nineteenth century, and also the migration of various dutch-american immigrant colonies to texas early in the twentieth century. this research took him to state and national archives throughout the u.s. (again, in his volkswagen home on wheels), the netherlands, and south africa. the results of this research have been published in various local history publications as well as the nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis. peter was a member of atla from 1968 until his death in 1997. he hosted the thirtieth annual conference of atla in grand rapids, michigan, as part of the 1976 centennial celebration of calvin college and seminary. he served on the publications committee from 1977 to 1981. he was a member of the atla board of directors from 1983 to 1986. in 1980 he served as co-editor of essays on theological librarianship: presented to calvin henry schmitt, published by atla. in the late 1990s an international group of calvin scholars prepared a festschrift for peter to be presented to him on his seventieth birthday. when peter got wind of the project his bibliographical inclinations (or obsessions) moved him to volunteer to prepare a bibliography of his published works. in the festschrift, entitled calvin’s books,3 the editors gave peter a tribute worthy of the envy and aspirations of any librarian: “peter de klerk is the expert in the field of the 2 peter de klerk, “developing the calvinism collection,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 35 (january 1, 1981): 10–15. 3 wilhelm h. neuser, herman j. selderhuis, and w. van 't spijker, calvin’s books: festschrift dedicated to peter de klerk on the occasion of his seventieth birthday (heerenveen: j. j. groen & zoon, 1997). http://www.calvin.edu/library/database/card 3 columns: peter de klerk (1927-1997) theolib.org countless number of books and contributions which appeared on john calvin. this knowledge he made available to anyone who consulted him, often with great personal effort . . . . with a gift from their hands and hearts they would like to gladly and sincerely thank him for his permanent helpfulness and warm friendship.” in early 1997 peter experienced a sudden illness and died on march 18, a month shy of his seventieth birthday. the volume became not only a tribute, but also a commemorative work, with the revised preface noting, “we remember peter as a diligent scholar, a faithful friend, and a brother in the lord.” theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 54 critical review volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 the oxford companion to the book michael f. suarez, s.j. and h. r. woudhuysen, eds. the oxford companion to the book. oxford; new york: oxford university press, 2010. 2 vols.: 1327 pp. $325.00. hardcover. isbn: 9780198606536 (set). o n first looking into the oxford companion to the book several questions quickly present themselves. does its appearance now in 2010 represent a summing up of a medium of communication that has had a noble, four-thousand-year history, but which inevitably must step aside as the digital revolution advances, blurring at best and even calling into question, as it marches forward, the distinctions among physical formats that have shaped our culture for so long? are editors suarez and woudhuysen seeking to both elegantly and elegiacally pay their penultimate respects to the book as material object before it disappears from the everydayness of life, saying, in effect, this is the way we were? or does this companion attest that the book as we have known it yet has a future? addressing the question of editorial perspective is worthwhile, and there is much to say about this aspect alone, but it is only one of several lenses through which this major undertaking may be viewed and appreciated. the oxford companion to the book is, by any measure, a stunning accomplishment. no less in the beauty of its production as a two-volume, boxed set than in its wide-ranging, authoritative content, the companion pays homage to the inestimable importance and impact that recorded texts in all their manifestations have had on societies and cultures the world over throughout history. at 1,327 pages and weighing just under 11 lbs., this “companion” is not for the beach or the backpack. but on a shelf within easy reach it will travel marvelously with anyone who is seeking reliable information about any aspect of the book: its history, production, dissemination, influence on culture, and much in addition. befitting its subject, the companion is an exemplar of book making. quarter bound in a vivid burgundy with gold lettering and with richly patterned, decorative endleaves and high quality, glossy paper, it gives evidence of consummate care in every aspect of its production. in short, it has curb appeal. oxford has also published an electronic edition under its digital reference shelf banner (not seen), but one can easily imagine the initial impression of the digital version on the part of the interested student or scholar being much different, less impressive if you will, than its print counterpart. inside its covers, the set consists of over 5,000 a-z entries, preceded by fifty-one essays, of which nineteen are thematic studies and thirty-two histories of the book from a national or regional vantage point. the essays occupy about two-thirds of the first volume with the much shorter a-z entries taking up the rest of volume one and all of the second. to produce the remarkable breadth and depth of information about the book, past and present, the editors assembled a team of associate and assistant editors, essayists, and contributors, altogether numbering nearly 400 scholars and practitioners. among them are professors of literature, book and cultural historians, antiquarian booksellers, librarians, special collections curators, archivists, and typographers. in their introduction the editors clarify that “book” in the title is a synecdoche of sorts, the one standing for the many (x). thus newspapers, maps, music, prints, etc. are not excluded. at the same time, while recognizing the 55 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 inadequacy of the term, they state that “book” does suggest a degree of emphasis. the “book,” however, is not to be equated with “books,” that is, viewed only as a finished object apart from the fascinating kaleidoscope of details surrounding book making, selling, reception, and, ultimately, how the book has shaped, and been shaped by, societies through the ages. to this end the essays and a-z entries work together to present a cornucopia of knowledge that will satisfy both the ad hoc need for definition (“blind tooling”), brief historical background (“index librorum prohibitorum”), and biographical detail (“baskerville, john”) as well as a means of more sustained and contextual investigation, e.g., essays on “bookbinding,” “the book as symbol,” “the history of the book in britain, c. 1475-1800.” the companion’s navigational aids consist of a thematic index of entries, a general index, and a network of cross references directing the reader between entries, from entries to essays or the reverse, and from one essay to another. the thematic index serves as a cognitive map of the whole, allowing more systematic study by making it possible to see and move easily from entry to entry within a larger topic area. in keeping with the inherent serendipity of classification, numerous interesting and some surprising discoveries can be made by scanning this index. for example, under “censorship, pornography, and control,” the entry for alexander solzhenitsyn’s soviet-era novella one day in the life of ivan denisovich reveals that initially it was approved by nikita khrushchev himself as a propaganda tool against stalinist hardliners but was later suppressed when the parallels between stalinism and communism became too apparent. nor are present-day phenomena overlooked; for example, incorporated under “reading,” just below “mcguffey readers,” is an entry for “oprah’s book club.” but more importantly, what one would most expect to find covered here is indeed here: “gloss,” “uncial,” “vellum,” subsumed by “ms book, the”; “engraving,” “intaglio,” “desktop publishing,” with methods and types of “reproduction”; “bibliothèque nationale de france,” “melk,” “bodleian,” “pierpont morgan,” together with hundreds more “libraries.” in short, with every page turn of the index, the impression of the comprehensiveness of this effort is heightened. while the thematic index is invaluable in allowing the reader to see at a glance the host of entries related to any major aspect of book history, one might also wish to see the entries themselves, in reverse fashion, point back to the index, facilitating a scan for related entries and thus allowing a reader to gage quickly where the entry “fits” in the world of the book. another helpful feature not included would have been a list of articles grouped by their authors. nevertheless, on balance, the companion does a very worthy job of providing a structure for organizing and collating content topically. the book as vehicle of divine revelation, the intimate connection between a text and adherence to a faith tradition, has been given its due in the companion. “the sacred book” is the second in the array of thematic essays in which carl olson (religious studies, allegheny college) discusses the beliefs of five of the world’s religious traditions concerning the authority of their written scriptures. he defines the special nature of books deemed sacred while indicating that in most cases the ascent to sacred status is gradual and dependent on consensus concerning origin and completeness. brian cummings (english, university of sussex), writing in “the book as symbol,” points to the metaphorical association between the physical form of the book and divine purpose. in the christian tradition he cites passages from isaiah (34:4) and revelation (6:14) which liken the passage of time in the created world to “a book which opens and which finally is closed” (63). craig kallendorf (classics and english, texas a & m) in “the ancient book” summarizes the development of the physical book and writing in early civilizations. greek and roman reading practices, libraries, and standards of textual criticism are also highlighted, and much interesting information is dispensed along the way. discussing the book trade in greece and rome, kallendorf explains that theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 56 volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 the concept of “publication” initially meant a public reading (recitatio) by an author of his new work. reading aloud was commonplace in classical culture and because of the attendant requirements of proper breathing, vocalization, and gesture was listed in many medical texts as an activity that promoted good health (30). in other essays, christopher de hamel (librarian, corpus christi college, cambridge) lends his expert knowledge to an overview of the manuscript book in the medieval era; christina dondi (research fellow, lincoln college, oxford) describes the rapid transformation in book production ushered in by printing with movable type and the rise of the scholar printer-publisher; emile g. l. schrijver (special collections, amsterdam university library) surveys the significance of books and manuscripts for the transmission of knowledge and faith in judaism; and m. antoni j. üçerler, s.j. (jesuit historical institute, rome) writes on the role printing played in the christian missionary enterprise. the physical components of books, such as paper, binding, and illustration, along with an overview of the growth and change in print technology, are each the subjects of other informative essays. an impressively thorough set of thirty-two national and regional “history of the book in” surveys concludes the collection of essays. all of the essays and many of the a-z entries include bibliographic references. most are to publications within the last twenty years, and a surprising number are within five years. although they are not numerous, the black and white illustrations serve to enhance the essays and entries they accompany, particularly those that depict the variety of technologies used in printing. but what of the future? in their essay on “the electronic book,” authors eileen gardiner and ronald g. musto (codirectors of the american council of learned societies humanities e-book project) state that “authorial intention and control over the reader’s experience of the text” is “one of the chief issues in electronic publishing” (167). they speculate that the capabilities of hyperlinking and the inclusion of almost unlimited quantities of supplemental material, fast becoming standard features in e-publishing, will result in a different reading experience, one in which “authorial voice and point of view are contested much more actively than in print” (167). it is this aspect of the “reader’s experience of the text” that suggests, that rather than being eclipsed by the digital world, print culture is making room for digital culture just as manuscript culture made way for print. in a similar way, printed books and the advent of title pages, tables of contents, chapters, etc., changed the reader’s experience of the text, we are witnessing another set of changes. some changes will be (and already are) exhilarating as they enhance and intensify the experience of reading. others will be not that useful or aesthetically mediocre. for some purposes, the material book will still be the best option. here in the west, at least, the ever-present ordinariness of books has masked a long, complex, and, most significantly, still-developing history. nevertheless, we continue to marvel at how waxed boards, parchment scrolls, vellum manuscripts, hand press books, and now digitally produced and read books continue to bear witness to, in the editors’ apt phrasing, those “whose lives have been variously sustained by ‘the book’ in its rich pluriformity and diverse contributions to our common humanity” (ix). to this end the oxford companion to the book is a superb testament. highly recommended for all academic and special libraries. bruce eugene eldevik luther seminary library contents iii theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 editorial welcome to our third issue of theological librarianship “ t hird time’s the charm,” as the saying has it, and we hope you find the contents—ranging from essays by three library directors on the response of theological librarians to the current economic difficulties to a provocative proposal that theological libraries (and their parent institutions) support open access to theological scholarship—relevant and challenging. even as theological librarianship 2 (1) comes to completion, there is some momentum building for the future. for one of our next issues, along with our usual mix of essays, articles, columns and reviews, we are especially eager to receive submissions with a global focus, i.e., items relating to theological libraries and librarianship outside of north america. here are some possible ideas for essays, bibliographic essays, and articles: theological libraries/librarianship in a particular (non-western) country/region religious/theological collections (including special collections) with a particular (non-western) focus bibliographic essay on reference sources/monographs useful for the study of global christianity inter-faith relationships in a non-western setting and the impact on theological libraries and their parent institutions the potential list of topics is much longer than this, of course, and we welcome your proposals. suggest a potential writer, or offer to write yourself! as always, we welcome your comments regarding the journal whether on particular pieces we publish or on the journal overall. thanks again go out to all who have contributed their efforts to producing this issue of the journal—to the entire editorial team, the very helpful and supportive atla staff, the peer reviewers, the advisory board, and, most of all, to the authors! ron crown david stewart co-editors • • • • � column web review by suzanne m. estelle-holmer etana: electronic tools and ancient near eastern archives http://www.etana.org/ etana, hosted by vanderbilt university with grants from the andrew w. mellon foundation and the national science foundation, is composed of several cooperative projects supported by the american oriental society, the american schools of oriental research, case western reserve university, the cobb institute of archaeology at mississippi state university, the institute for the study of the ancient world at new york university, the international association for assyriology, the oriental institute at the university of chicago, the society of biblical literature, the sonia and marco nadler institute of archaeology of tel aviv university, the state university of new york at stony brook, vanderbilt university, and virginia polytechnic and state university. the site offers access to an expanding set of electronic resources for the study of the ancient near east (ane), including a collection of digitized books and reports, primary sources in english translation, and a collection of links to open access web resources. there is also a repository and archive for archaeological data that is under development. etana currently is composed of five sections built upon the rich portal abzu, launched in 1994 and originally hosted by the oriental institute at the university of chicago. since then abzu has been edited by charles e. jones, now head librarian at the institute for the study of the ancient world at new york university. the site migrated to etana in 2001 and there are plans “to extract all the content from these web pages to populate a database of resources relevant to the field of ane.” it is difficult to ascertain how much progress has been made in this direction, as many dead links still remain. the site nevertheless serves as a central point of access for a diverse universe of specialized information—evocative of the abzu, the watery subterranean abode of ea, the babylonian god of wisdom. the outstanding feature of etana is the collection of digital “core texts” published before 1925, which are now freely available online for the purpose of teaching and research. these include excavation reports, autograph copies of cuneiform tablets and hieroglyphic inscriptions, translations, and monographs. these texts are fundamental to the study of egyptology, assyriology, and hittitology and continue to “have significant value for scholarly research.” only a few libraries own all the print volumes, and they often are in fragile condition, due to acidic paper and handling by successive generations of students and scholars. the digitized books now available on etana in (adobe) pdf format are easy to download. although full text keyword searching is not available across all the documents, some texts may be individually searchable within the pdf format. all the textual components of etana can be retrieved from the abzu search interface. the layout is simple and intuitive. it is possible to browse all resources by author and to browse the etana core texts by title, as well as to carry out keyword, subject, title, and author searches. this site is highly recommended because ongoing editing, maintenance, and development ensure that all entries are reliable and high quality. etana is most likely to be used by students and researchers in the specialized disciplines it serves. however, to the extent that the study of the ane and the ancient mediterranean world are an essential component of biblical studies, the site will also be useful to graduate students and researchers in theological and seminary libraries. suzanne m. estelle-holmer is reference and instructional services librarian at yale divinity school library, new haven, connecticut. � editorial team david r. stewart, co-editor, luther seminary, st. paul, minnesota ronald w. crown, co-editor, saint louis university, st. louis, missouri andrew j. keck, section editor for columns, duke divinity school, durham, north carolina beth m. sheppard, section editor for bibliographic essays, seabury western and garrett-evangelical seminaries, evanston, illinois melody layton mcmahon, section editor for critical reviews, catholic theological union, chicago, illinois advisory board linda wilson corman, trinity college, toronto, canada penelope j. hall, bibliotheques européennes de theologie elyse hayes, seminary of the immaculate conception, huntington, new york william j. hook, vanderbilt divinity school, nashville, tennessee theodore patrick milas, florida state university, tallahassee, florida angela g. morris, louisville presbyterian theologcial seminary, louisville, kentucky robert l. phillips , southwestern baptist seminary, fort worth, texas david powell, methodist theological school in ohio, delaware, ohio iren l. snavely, state library of pennsylvania, harrisburg, pennsylvania mary linden sepulveda, seattle university, seattle, washington jennifer lynn woodruff tait, independent scholar, huntington, indiana donald m. vorp, princeton theological seminary, princeton, new jersey atla publications committee beth bidlack (2007-2010), university of chicago, chicago, illinois amy limpitlaw (2007-2009), yale divinity school, new haven, connecticut michelle y. spomer (2008-2011), azusa pacific university libraries, san dimas, california barbara kemmis, ex-officio, director of member services, american theological library association theological librarianship an online journal of the american �eological library association journal information theological librarianship publishes essays, columns, critical reviews, bibliographic essays, and peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of professional librarianship in the setting of a religious/theological library collection (whether or not that collection comprises the entire library collection). the primary intended audience includes professional librarians in colleges, universities, and theological seminaries and others with an interest in theological librarianship in those settings. the purpose of the journal is to support the professional development of theological librarians; contribute to and enrich the profession of theological librarianship; contribute to and enrich theological and religious studies; and to serve as the official publication of record for the american theological library association. further information, including author guidelines and instructions on how to submit manuscripts, is available at the journal web site, www.theolib.org. © 2008 american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 issn 1937-8904 � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 information literacy: more to learn—and teach! by robert phillips robert phillips is associate dean of libraries at a. webb roberts library at southwestern baptist theological seminary, fort worth, texas. t he emphasis on information literacy has moved library instruction to a new level. before, we focused on the library as the repository of information, on the tools librarians had created to manage that repository, and on the librarians themselves with their accumulated training, experience, and knowledge of both the place and the tools. yet without formal instruction, students learned that no longer are libraries the only source for information; that computer programmers can also create tools for information retrieval; and that librarians, though knowledgeable, are not always available when needed. librarians must counter this trend by saying, “wait, we weren’t finished. there is still more to learn.” this “more” has been captured in the 2000 acrl “information literacy competency standards for higher education.”1 traditional library instruction is now standard two: “the information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.” three of the remaining four standards stress planning a research project, evaluating sources, and presenting information. the last standard links information use with responsible behaviors. understanding these five parts as one whole requires study and reflection. one good place for librarians to begin this study is to read the work of booth, colomb, and williams in either their emerging classic, the craft of research,2 or in their shorter version published as part 1 of the new edition of turabian’s manual for writers.� both present research as envisioned in the standards. the writers approach research not as librarians but as writing instructors; the authors can help librarians better understand our “readers as writers.” the opening chapters present familiar information about planning research and gathering sources. later chapters show why information literacy instruction programs fail if they do not include training students to engage and use their sources. as explained by the craft of research, this is more than note taking; it is finding and analyzing points of agreement or disagreement while discovering ideas and facts to be used in the final report. the heart of the craft of research, “making a claim and supporting it” and “planning, drafting, and revising,” matches the heart of the acrl standard “using and presenting information.” for both, research is not complete until convincingly presented as a possible answer to a question of interest to another reader. not to do this takes a shallow approach to the topic and does little to hold the reader’s attention or interest. in short, it is an ineffective use of the information found. however, when research is understood as contributing to a problem’s solution or deepening one’s understanding of an issue, writers hold not only their readers’ interest but also hold their own as they work to complete their final report. to do this effectively, booth, colomb, and williams advocate the pattern of informal logic developed by stephen toulmin in 1958: offer an answer, give reasons that support the answer, provide evidence to support the reasons, consider and answer possible objections, and pay attention to underlying warrants or assumptions.� advice on drafting and revising the report offers both instruction and review of the basic principles of composition, including how to report others’ ideas without plagiarizing. 1 association of college & research libraries, “information literacy competency standards for higher education,” http://www.ala. org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm (accessed 20 april 2009). 2 wayne c. booth, gregory g. colomb, and joseph m. williams, the craft of research, �rd ed. (chicago: university of chicago press, 2008). � kate l. turabian, a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th ed. (chicago: university of chicago pr., 2007). � stephen edelston toulmin, the uses of argument (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1958). http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm � column l. r. elliott, a 19�0s pioneer in theological librarianship, dreamed that one day seminaries would be known for their library collections and the use students make of them. the craft of research provides a model for understanding how libraries can be well-used for research. they have also shown us that there is more for us to teach—and learn. 20 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org latinos’ informational needs in attaining accredited theological education filomena saxton is a student in the school of information resources and library science at the university of arizona. abstract this paper explores published articles that report on theological education in the hispanic/latino community. it looks at u.s. demographic changes and the needs of the latino community to provide civic and church leadership within their communities. the article reports on past efforts, and challenges, to increase latino enrollment in graduate theological education. it looks at current strategies by asociación para la educación teológica hispana (aeth) to collaborate with american theological schools (ats) and the american theological library association (atla) to certify unaccredited bible institutes so that the educational standards will be strengthened and create a clearer pathway for latinas/os to enter ats-accredited member schools. the purpose of the paper is to present the aeth commission report and discuss ways in which theological librarians can assist in providing the informational needs of students in bible institutes. introduction the rapid increase of the latino population is transforming the u.s. cultural landscape. yet, compared to the surge in growth, latinos academic performance is stagnant. according to one source, “latinos are the largest and fastest growing minority group in the u.s. yet have the lowest education attainment level of any group in the united states.”1 the outcomes of how these two realities will play out in our national identity should cause all of us concern. between 1990 and 2000, the u.s. latino population grew by 50 percent. in arizona, latinos make up 31 percent of a total of 6.5 million residents.2 if national trends continue, latinos will represent 60 percent of arizona’s population by the year 2050 and will make up 29 percent of the u.s. population overall. in arizona, when age is calculated with race, the population is increasingly more latino/hispanic in the younger age categories, and over 80 percent white in the 65 and older category. nearly 100 percent of hispanic children under the age of 5 in arizona — children of both documented and undocumented parents — are u.s. citizens, according to the u.s. census bureau. even states with the lowest latino population are experiencing huge growth. from 2010 to 2011, for example, alabama has seen a 158 percent increase in latino population, moving from 72,000 to 186,000. south carolina and tennessee saw increases of 154 percent in the latino population.3 a 2011 report from the department of education stated that by every achievement measure, hispanic students are performing at or near the bottom. fifty percent of hispanic students do not receive a diploma four years after entering high school. nearly nine out of ten (89 percent) of latino young adults say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number — 48 percent — say that they themselves plan to get a college degree. the report concluded that a “persistent educational attainment gap remains between hispanics and non-hispanic whites.”4 1 see the report “winning the future: improving education for the latino community” (washington: u.s. department of education, 2011). 2 see the report “winning the future: improving education for the latino community” (washington: u.s. department of education, 2011), 1-2. 3 pew hispanic center, statistical portrait of hispanics in the united states, 2010 (february 21, 2012); retrieved from http:// www.pewhispanic.org/2012/02/21/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2010/ 4 see the report “winning the future: improving education for the latino community (washington: u.s. department of education, 2011): 1-2. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/02/21/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2010/ http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/02/21/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2010/ 21 essays: latinos’ information needs theolib.org as the latino population in arizona, the southwest, and nationwide increases, an intentional effort to develop latino leadership is critical. latinos need to be ready to step into positions of leadership in academic, religious, and civic institutions, as well as private and business corporations. the lagging latino educational performance heightens the urgency to create an environment of achievement that will produce civically and economically engaged participants. one area that needs urgent attention is in the training of religious and civic leaders within the latino community. latino population is growing, which means that latino churches are on the rise as well. the percentages of community and spiritual leaders who have gone to an accredited theological intuition is very low. in 2012, according to american theological schools (ats), only 4 percent of the 70,000 theological students in accredited schools were latino, just slightly above native americans.5 this paper seeks to recognize and affirm current community efforts, specifically the asociación para la educación teológica hispana (aeth), in its crucial role in fulfilling its mission of developing the leaders needed to radically transform the church and the hispanic/latino community in the u.s., puerto rico, and canada and contribute to their vibrancy, health, and growth. (aeth serves the local community by providing resources to the more than 120 bible institutes that are dedicated to training and equipping community members to serve within their own communities.) literature review latinos, today and in the past, have valued spiritual connections. a comprehensive study undertaken by hispanic churches in american public life (hcapl), funded by the pew charitable trust, provided statistics on religion and public life among u.s. latinos, presented in the published report in 2003.6 hcapl learned that 93 percent of latinos surveyed identified themselves as christian. the christian group with the highest identification level was roman catholic at 70 percent, followed by protestant at 23 percent. seven percent identified themselves as having no religious preference/other/none. a more recent study7 shows that latinos self identifying as having no religious preference/other has grown to 12 percent. even though secularism is on the rise, spirituality is embedded in the latino culture. as stated by mejido, religion “provides structure and moral order in a destabilized and vulnerable life world.”8 many latinos live in a state of “inbetweenness,” straddling the ancestral /private and dominant/public. latino spiritual history provides a transcendent point, a sacred place to deal with this hybrid reality. religion, according to mejido, is a vehicle of social empowerment, a place where community and networks are forged, a place where social activism is nurtured, a place where every voice is heard. religion within any marginalized cultural group can serve as a vehicle to perpetuate their cultural heritage, and a buffer against forces of assimilation. university graduate programs and seminaries “have a responsibility to ensure that latinos/as can obtain the education they need to serve their growing community.”9 the national survey showed that latinos pursued further religious training to meet the needs of their community. respondents stated pastoral counseling (90 percent), social service (75 percent), and youth work (69 percent) among primary fields of interest. young latina/o leaders showed high interest (89 percent) in learning about community development and social work. religious schools provide not only spiritual leaders for churches but also community leaders in civic groups, and counselors and social workers who can serve within their communities. latino families and communities face many life challenges in our complex world. they need trained, informed, and specialized professionals to design and provide services such as family counseling, economic and community development, and civic leadership. 5 association of theological schools factbook and data tables, 2012 (pittsburgh: the association of theological schools in the united states and canada), table 2012-2013. 6 g. espinosa, e. elizondo, and j. miranda, “hispanic churches in american public life: summary of findings. (south bend, in: institute for latino studies at the university of notre dame, 2003) 7 j. navarro-rivera, b. kosmin, and a. keysar, “u.s. latino religious identification 1990-2008: growth, diversity, and transformation.” http://www.trincoll.edu 8 m. mejido, “u.s. hispanic/latinos in the field of theological education.” theological education (34(2), 1998: 58. 9 e. i. hernández and k.g. davis. “the national survey of hispanic theological education,” journal of hispanic/latino theology 8, no. 4(2001): 44. http://www.trincoll.edu 22 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org there are many barriers between latinos and higher education, and not all of them are academic. edwin hernández conducted a pew charitable trust national survey to assess and provide data in understanding hispanic spiritual leadership.10 this was the single largest study of latino religious leaders ever conducted. the study provided wide presentation from diverse religious denominations. the questionnaire was bilingual, included 302 queries, and was sent to 16,240 hispanic religious leaders. the responses collected in 2001 from more than 2,000 returned questionnaires provided a large data pool to help understand the role of theological education in the lives of latinos. hernández identified the barriers that hinder latinos advancing to higher education. this survey provided insight into the role of bible institutes, and the realities of university graduate programs and seminaries for the latino/a student. (i will discuss bible institutes more specifically later in the essay.) with respect to accredited graduate studies, the respondents cited family responsibilities and the necessity to stay employed as factors that hindered their completion of academic studies. added to this fact, the majority of latino churches are not able to support fully their pastors or leaders in vocational positions. financial factors were seen as key barriers (seventy-two percent) to finishing their master’s and phd programs. respondents cited reputation, location, and treatment of minorities as other key concerns in choosing a pathway for advanced education. reputation — defined not by academic status, a reputation for spirituality, or theological standing, but by reputation in perceived treatment of latino/a populations — was a primary concern for prospective students. latinas/os, students, faculty, and published scholarship are inadequately represented in theological education. hernández’s survey indicates that financial need, scarcity of time, and cultural marginalization contribute to this shortfall. as we have stated previously, ats latino enrollment is at 4 percent. latino faculty are underrepresented as well: out of 2,925 total faculty in ats member schools, only 130 of them are from the latino community.11 the number virtually stayed the same from 200 (100 male and 30 female faculty) to 2012 (98 male and 32 female). the effects of this are seen throughout the institutions. the courses and curricula lack a relevant component to latinos. curricula are most effective when integrated with a cross-cultural concern, and engaged in the plurality of social realities that are facing the latino community. this begs the question of how effective training can take place when curricula are detached from the real needs of the latino community. the low number of latino faculty places additional pressure on the ones who are there, making it extremely difficult for latino students to have access to latino mentors, advisors, or dissertation committee members. institutions place minority faculty on committees as well as expecting them to build minority enrollment. lastly, there is a lack of hispanic scholarship. latina/o attendance and papers presented at the american academy of religion (aar) are embarrassingly low. in september 1993, the journal church history published a bibliographic article entitled “american religious history in the eighties: a decade of achievement.”12 the author, martin e. marty, provided a comprehensive analysis of scholarly books dealing with the religious history of the united states published during the period 1980-1989 and commented, “sadly deficient was the attention paid to the largest non-english speaking group in america, hispanics.”13 the fact that u.s. latinos’ religious life is dismissed seems like a bad dream. however, the reality is that the cultural record and history of latino protestants is being greatly neglected. hernández’s research led to a new fellowship program, the hispanic theological initiative (hti), which helped overcome some of the barriers that had exited betweeno latinas/os and higher education. over the course of ten years, hti has supported numerous latina/o scholars with the following mission:14 • to help identify and prepare highly trained educators and leaders who can articulate, model, and help teach values and ideas that will inform and make an impact in our latino faith communities and communities in general 10 ibid. 11 association of theological schools factbook and data tables, 2012 (pittsburgh: the association of theological schools in the united states and canada), table 2012-2013. 12 m. marty, “american religious history in the eighties: a decade of achievement,” church history (1993): 336-371. 13 marty, 353. 14 hispanic theological initiative, princeton theological seminary. mission: http://www.ptsem.edu/uploadedfiles/hti/home_ page/publications/final%20brochure%2011-12.pdf http://www.ptsem.edu/uploadedfiles/hti/home_page/publications/final%20brochure%2011-12.pdf http://www.ptsem.edu/uploadedfiles/hti/home_page/publications/final%20brochure%2011-12.pdf 23 essays: latinos’ information needs theolib.org • to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of latina/o phd students across the nation by uniting and leveraging institutional resources (human, financial, and infrastructural) • to increase the presence of latina/o faculty — especially tenured faculty — in seminaries, schools of theology and universities • to provide a forum for the exchange of information, ideas, and the best practices to address the needs of latina/o faculty and students this study and creation of the hti moved the ball forward, but has still left theological education of latinos/a in the hands of a very few. in the past fourteen years, hti has successfully supported the graduation of forty-three master’s and seventy-four phd latina/o students in theological and religious education.15 even so, that works out to three master’s and five phd graduations a year, for a total number of 117, assuming there is no overlap. accredited theological and religious schools are still out of reach for so many latinos. the desire and need to have future leaders be more fully trained and academically sharpened has led many churchand denomination-based institutions to provide it for themselves. community-based and “organically grown” theological education in contrast to mainstream, academy-based theological education, the majority of latino pastors and lay leaders receive training through local bible institutes. these schools are in large urban areas and are tailored specifically to the needs of latinos in their communities. advantages of bible institutes for many latinos are that they are accessible, small, inexpensive, offer night classes, and — most important — do not require a bachelor’s degree for admission. these unaccredited schools provide much of the leadership training, if any, that latino pastors and community leaders receive. however, there are disadvantages as well. attendees are poorly trained in critical thinking and research methods. many do not pursue master’s or doctoral studies. in 2011, the asociación para la educación teológica hispana (aeth) received funding to collaborate with the association of theological schools (ats), with two goals:16 (1) to promote and improve the theological education of eligible bible institutes, so that their graduates can function at a baccalaureate level, and become equipped to become leaders for the transformation of church and society; and (2) to provide accessible pathways to enrollment in ats-accredited graduate theological schools for graduates of aeth-certified bible institutes. for this to occur the commission recommended certain criteria for bible institutes to become certified. once the bible institute goes through a self-study and makes the changes needed, a visiting team from aeth evaluates its progress. after certification is granted, graduates will have access to attend ats member schools, which are fully accredited seminaries and divinity programs, sometimes affiliated with universities. this approach will set up bible institutes as “feeder” schools to accredited theological programs, and will require ats to be in close partnership with the aeth certification process.17 not only will institutional partnerships will be forged, but students from the various institutes enjoy the benefit of increased opportunities to connect with each other. the report cited specific ways for libraries and librarians to assist each bible institute to achieve certification status.18 each institute must have access to adequate library resources, including both online resources, and resident collections of books and periodicals. students need to exhibit information literacy skills, such as finding and using common digital and printed information resources, and engaging in library research, as well as the ability to use computers and the internet. the report states that students will be expected to conduct focused research on latina/o contributions to mission and theology, and prepare written and oral reports. the assumption, then, is that the bible institutes will house, or develop, 15 hispanic theological initiative, “story” (http://www.ptsem.edu/uploadedfiles/hti/home_page/publications/final%20 brochure%2011-12.pdf ) 16 the asociación para la educación teológica hispana (aeth), 2013 (http://www.aeth.org/) 17 e. i. hernández and k.g. davis, “the national survey of hispanic theological education,” journal of hispanic/latino theology 8, no. 4 (2001): 44. 18 www.aeth.org http://www.ptsem.edu/uploadedfiles/hti/home_page/publications/final%20brochure%2011-12.pdf http://www.ptsem.edu/uploadedfiles/hti/home_page/publications/final%20brochure%2011-12.pdf http://www.aeth.org/ www.aeth.org 24 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org collections good enough to facilitate such inquiry. this would be a challenge for any institution, but for communitybased, small, and privately run institutes/colleges, these standards can pose a heavy burden. miguel figueroa, former director of member programs for the american theological library association (atla), discussed aeth’s needs for services, programs, and resources to expand in order to be a success. he observed that “the biggest challenge in first generation bible college or other institutions is that they are ill prepared for the research component.”19 right now even fully accredited theological graduate programs and seminaries, barely have a minimum of resources. “they have what is easy and available,” observed figueroa. when i asked him about what programs, services, collections, and technology he would design specifically for them if he could, his response was that having a “core collection” of latino resources for bible institutes and ats member schools is crucial to meet the deeper and prevailing needs of the latino community. developing this would require a wider discourse between ats and aeth. “theological collections in libraries and repositories do not even know what they have.”20 to this end, there needs to be a comprehensive assessment of latino resources, as well as the ways and means for bible institutes to access effectively and integrate such resources with their course work. moving forward for information to be accessible to a user, it must be available, findable, reachable, comprehensible, and useable.21 the information provider in this scenario has the burden, or duty, of the “production” of information material. the quality of resources enhances users’ access when materials are organized, distributed, and communicated clearly. when there is a shortfall of producing library resources for a marginalized group, this exacerbates the information-seeking deficiencies of that group. this lack of access furthers disenfranchises the minority group. bible institutes that want to empower their community members and provide in-depth education that helps develop critical thinking skills and the ability to write about complex issues that will empower their voice on the national stage need to identify, collect, and create information resources for the benefit of that community. similarly, it is important now to bring an innovative and a holistic approach to the design model. new empirical data documented in “a new culture of learning: digital storytelling and faith formation as well as engagement 2.0”22 and “how the new digital media can invigorate civic engagement”23 shed light on how this can have a transformative effect. a new “culture of learning” has been ushered in by shifts in learning and energized by widespread access to digital technologies. learning shifts are described in terms of participation rather than time based virtual rather than face to face. this, along with the data on how digital story telling can provide group identification, can help foster the creation of a virtual social network that can provide a powerful link between participants and resources, foster community identity, and inform community members of local and national issues. in summary, for information resources to be effective in strengthening the latino community, they must be accessible digitally, foster a sense of community identity, and provide some means of linking users to community activity. how might theological librarians and religious communities seek to assist aeth in fulfilling its goals? some good starting points are a careful study of the aeth commission report, along with reflection on past and future trends in theological librarianship. these could lead to a design model of a centralized, virtual full-service library specializing in latino resources. such a deliberate endeavor could not only prove strategically beneficial for bible institutes but also for theological programs that seek a bigger presence of latino informational resources within their institutions. 19 m. figueroa, personal communication with the author, february 16, 2014. 20 ibid. 21 k. mathiesen, “facts of access: a conceptual and standard threats analysis” (paper presented at the iconference, berlin, march 2014). 22 mary e. hess, “a new culture of learning: digital storytelling and faith formation,” dialog: a journal of theology 53 no. 1 (2014): 12-22. 23 lindsay pettingill, “engagement 2.0? how the new digital media can invigorate civic engagement.” conference papers — midwestern political science association (2008 annual meeting): 1-22. 25 essays: latinos’ information needs theolib.org the aeth report points to two challenges that need to be overcome: (1) the lack of resources that are identified and accessible for students and professors in bible institutes, which will affect the strength of course curriculum; and (2) the absence of support services and training to access informational resources, as well as to gain proficiency in research and writing that will enable students not only to succeed and go on to an accredited theological institution but create lifelong learners. theological institutions and religious communities, can provide collaborations and intelligence that could greatly advance this design model. suggested activities to make “latino 2.0” a reality are • a careful evaluation of the information-seeking habits of latino bible students and teachers • the creation of clear links to library resources and support services currently available to them locally • the identification of latino theological resources; a “core collection” that will be accessible online • the creation and design of an online course, or instructional aids, that are culturally relevant to help develop skills and writing proficiency • the provision of a virtual space to record and display historical and cultural portraits of faith in the u.s. latino context, looking at current issues from a faith-based ideology. it is the hope of many to see such a design model come to fruition, and that a greater number of latinos will have access to theological education that facilitates transformation throughout the latino faith community while at the same time helping to shape national identity. community leaders who can meet the needs of the whole person — spiritual and emotional — and who can be a voice of encouragement, are needed as latinas/os seek to overcome barriers to the theological education and empowerment they need. conclusion this paper has outlined current challenges that face theological education today, as well as current efforts to overcome the obstacles latinos encounter in their endeavors to secure accredited theological education. we have also discussed current strategies by aeth to strengthen educational standards in latino bible institutes. finally, we have attempted to explore ways in which theological librarians and the religious community can work alongside aeth in developing an effective strategy for providing research resources. fulfilling a challenge as great as this will not be easy, and it will take time. nonetheless, it is an opportunity that theological and religious communities are uniquely equipped and empowered to undertake, together. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 8 special forum: distance learning covid-19 response “playbooks” at boston university school of theology library by amy limpitlaw, stacey duran, and sean smith librarians historically have had to adapt their services and offerings to changing circumstances. usually, however, there is time to assess the changed landscape and implement changes gradually and after careful consideration. in spring 2020, however, the unusual situation of a global pandemic forced librarians everywhere to quickly modify their services and implement what in many cases were radically new procedures and offerings. at the school of theology library of boston university, such changes were decided upon and implemented literally in the space of six days. while not having the advantage of time to carefully and judiciously decide on how to change its services, the staff members of the library were not without a foundation upon which to build. the library already had been purchasing e-books for its collection for many years. and a program for serving distance learners was already in place, having been implemented after the launch of the school’s largely online doctor of ministry degree program. the task, then, became one of how to extend and, if needed, modify this foundation to respond to the new situation. in what follows, we will describe in more detail how the library staff worked collaboratively to implement various “playbooks” for serving patrons remotely during the pandemic. recent changes to e-book collection policies as noted, one of the foundations already in place prior to the crisis was the library’s collection of e-books. prior to 2012, the theology library did not have a policy in place for the selection and purchase of electronic books. when amy limpitlaw, the head librarian, broached the possibility of purchasing more of its collection in electronic format with faculty, the response she received was mixed. some faculty expressed their dislike of e-books, expressing their strong preference for the physical print book. there was also concern about the stability of the medium and licensing. taking these concerns into consideration, the head librarian worked with the faculty members serving on the library committee to create a policy for limited procurement of e-books (for example: only buying e-books if a physical copy was available locally, allaying concerns of faculty). the overall outcome was that, although the library did increase its collection of e-books, in many cases electronic was not the default or preferred medium and a large bulk of its collection remained in physical format, even when electronic could have been procured. the move to a remote learning environment in mid-march revealed some of the shortcomings of this approach. while the number of e-books in the collection was not insignificant, many required texts for courses now being taught remotely were not available electronically. the staff quickly went to work to locate electronic versions of texts required for classes, as well as for texts being requested by students for research assignments. in addition to accelerating its purchase of e-books, the library also looked into the various offerings made by publishers, vendors, and other providers for temporary free access to electronic resources or discounted rates for e-books. for the most part, the staff quickly learned that it was simply easier for library staff to do the legwork to find amy limpitlaw is head librarian, stacey duran is instruction & collection development librarian, and sean smith is outreach & public services librarian at boston university. s p e c i a l f o r u m • c o v i d 1 9 r e s p o n s e “ p l a y b o o k s ”     9 the desired e-book, rather than pointing students or faculty to the various places where they could search themselves, and so the library encouraged faculty and students to contact staff directly with their requests. existing services to our distance program the second foundation already in place was the library’s program of support for the school’s single online degree program. when the school unveiled its first online degree—a hybrid online/on-site doctor of ministry program—in 2014, stacey duran, then the access services librarian, proposed a multi-layered response. the collection development policy was adjusted to prioritize e-books where possible for course readings. reference services were expanded to include virtual reference via skype and, as part of the library’s ongoing personal librarian program, duran volunteered to serve as permanent liaison to the program. as liaison, she coordinates library orientation and instruction sessions during the brief on-campus portions each semester, as well as screencasts of document delivery procedures and workshops that could be viewed remotely. access to library materials would be the most difficult part of the library’s pandemic response, of course. distance services for the doctor of ministry program relied heavily on reciprocal borrowing privileges through the boston theological interreligious consortium (bti), boston library consortium (blc), and the fledgling atla reciprocal borrowing program. however, the library also experimented with a back-up plan using document delivery (via mail) of books in addition to chapter and article scans. developing “playbooks” for rapidly changing circumstances as the covid-19 crisis deepened in early march 2020, careful planning for multiple contingencies and adaption of currently existing distance education infrastructure was vital for school of theology library services and support to keep pace successfully with the rapidly changing world. we defined “effective support” based on the following three factors: (1) continued (but safe) access to reference services, instruction, and librarians; (2) facilitating access to our collections, both physical and electronic, as safely as possible, and (3) clear, consistent communication with our community of users on how to access these services. library staff, led by outreach and public services librarian sean smith, began creating “playbooks” highlighting potential library services based on many different potential institutional-level responses to covid-19 in early march, during the very early stages of the crisis, with clear checklists for implementation. this involved collaborative planning among staff for all possible contingencies, from implementation of basic physical distancing measures (e.g., adjusted circulation procedures and spacing of seating) to the seemingly slim chance of a shift to fully remote teaching for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester. as circumstances rapidly changed, so did the look of library services: from business as usual, to open to the public limited hours with physical distancing protocols, to fully remote teaching (with a fully virtual library!), within the span of six days. a special, continually updated covid-19 response page on the library’s website, coupled with consistent communication with the community across all platforms, communicated these changes with our community. a key lesson learned from the covid-19 pandemic is to expect rapid change during crises, and to anticipate and prepare for quick pivots. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 1 0 in conclusion, our “playbooks” for remote learning rely heavily on the use and expansion of the existing infrastructure serving our distance education community. reference assistance continues virtually; library staff have significant experience with online instruction and screencasts for the distance education community. while the physical building may be closed, the library facilitates access to our physical collections via document delivery scans, a service not previously available to on-campus students. instructions on utilizing document delivery already existed, needing only slight adaptation for our covid-19 world. the distance education program provided a catalyst for our robust e-book purchasing program (including purchasing all course reserve material electronically, if available). to highlight these collections, staff created course guides for all spring 2020 classes showing e-books related to each course, which were then shared with faculty and on course reserve lists. these and other adaptions of existing infrastructure facilitated quick implementation of our “playbooks” as the situation rapidly changed, as all students soon became “distance students.” t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 6 special forum: distance learning online library at catholic distance university by sr. rebecca abel, osb when covid-19 called for closure, many schools began scrambling to find ways to offer distance education. not so with catholic distance university, which has had distance education since 2004 when all degrees were completely online. this means there is no campus, nor buildings for classrooms or library. the only bricks and mortar are administrative offices that reside in charles town, west virginia, and a small print library, housed in one of the offices. students reside throughout the united states and in several foreign countries. no students reside on campus and they live in different time zones and locations. as a result, classes and services need to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. this is possible via our lms (learning management system). all student services, classrooms, library, student center, café, and chapel are online. these services reside on the lms making cdu a “virtual” rather than an “actual” space. the following is a description of the digital library the cdu librarian has designed on the lms, called canvas. the library our online library has modules instead of rooms. these modules resemble libguides linking to multiple pages on a specific topic. these pages contain research resources and can be accessed through embedded links, videos, pdfs, images, and other formats. nine modules contain library resources. for example, the first module, “browse the library,” links to a page called “index,” a sort of card catalog for the online library. an additional page in this module, “general references online,” lists websites offering open access to resources. the next module, “check out an ebook,” links to the atla e-book lending program, which supports consortial purchase and sharing of e-books. the program has its own website (www.theologicalebooks.org), so students use a username and password to check out e-books. an additional page in the “check out an ebook” module is “books: open access and public domain.” this page contains links to open access books required for classes or relevant to their studies. another module, “journal articles and dissertations,” contains links to ebsco/atlaserials and project muse. students access these databases through canvas, with no need for additional passwords. online encyclopedias are also accessed through canvas in this way. a module on “research and writing” accesses pages with links to the online chicago manual of style, to the other various writing guides, and to specific term paper and citation guidelines required by the cdu faculty. pages on writing skills are also included. other modules access various library resources. these nine modules contain the greater part of the cdu online library, making resources easily accessible to students and faculty 24/7. the e-book library and a small print library also are available via web access and require passwords. the librarian’s role is twofold: to maintain the online library and to assist students and faculty with research and resources. maintaining the online library means maintaining links. the course link evaluator in canvas is a great help. other tasks include acquiring content and distributing it onto canvas or the e-book library. assisting students and faculty is perhaps the easiest duty, as the communications provided by canvas are efficient, including both email features and an online chat line called pronto. announcements regularly make students and faculty aware of new e-books and sr. rebecca abel, osb, is librarian at catholic distance university. http://www.theologicalebooks.org s p e c i a l f o r u m • o n l i n e l i b r a r y a t c a t h o l i c d i s t a n c e u n i v e r s i t y     7 other sources of information. students can also contact the librarian via regular email or telephone, with contact information posted on canvas. another source of communication for the librarian to use with students is zoom. this resource is helpful both as one-on-one and small-groups work. the “share screen” option provides an excellent white board for teaching. zoom recordings can be used to develop teaching videos, such as “how to” topics and introductions to “literacy, intellectual and online.” using these and other tools provided by canvas, the librarian is able to develop and maintain a digital space for the library. cdu’s library does not involve bricks and mortar but does provide digital and downloadable material. digital information, besides being available around the clock, provides economical and practical ways to make more resources available as budgets shrink. a “single sign on” feature means accessing all library services on canvas is simple and economical. but canvas has its limitations. there is no “one search for all” as with discovery software, so students and faculty must do extensive searching. access is limited to students and faculty who have a password for canvas. library staff cannot share that password with patrons outside the library. a library website could provide access to alumni and staff without an account in the learning management system. not all theological texts are available in digital formats, especially older texts not in the public domain. cdu does have a small print library housed in the offices at west virginia and staff coordinate the interlibrary loan books delivery of books to students. the librarian, however, is in indiana, so cataloging and maintaining the print collection requires travel. given covid issues, at present, no personnel are available to mail books. moreover, because there is no full-scale brick and mortar library, cdu cannot participate in the atla interlibrary loan project with other libraries. the librarian does maintain a close connection with library colleagues and is able to request resources from them. the librarian also contacts other librarians for permission for cdu students to use nearby libraries in accord with various library policies. communication is limited in the online library environment. zoom and similar programs can provide opportunities for social interaction, but they cannot really replicate the value of face-to-face interaction. of the pros and cons cdu’s online library has faced, these are the main issues the librarian is working to address. the online library at cdu has and continues to be a project in discovery and learning. how to provide adequate resources that are easily accessible to students and faculty in a digital world of learning is the challenge. collaboration among colleagues, sharing of resources though consortiums, and working with atla and other library associations are part of the answer. thomas phillips and his efforts for obtaining open access is providing much needed resources. vendors are finding ways to give access while maintaining their companies. harnessing technology to managing the digital space of an online library requires time and technical expertise. working with technicians to design programs and simplify the process will enable online libraries to become digital gateways. if it “takes a village to raise a child,” it “takes all of the above and more for designing a gateway to digital resources.” before covid, the thought of distance education and online libraries might have been in the realm of “the future of libraries,” but the pandemic has clearly brought this idea “into the present.” the administration, faculty, staff, and librarian of each academic institution will have to decide how best to implement this idea and perhaps the above information will provide them with thoughts on how to embrace more electronic resources distance education in the future. 83 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 critical review church-state issues in america today ann w. duncan and steven l. jones, eds. church-state issues in america today. westport, ct: praeger publishing, 2008. 3 vols: 840 pp. $300.00. hardcover. isbn: 0275993672 (set). c hurch-state issues continue to play a significant role in our politics, our public schools, and our public life. from the religious views of political candidates, to the teaching of evolution or creationism in our public schools, to issues of biomedical ethics, americans tend to have strong opinions on issues that center around church and state. their concerns are often personal, and reactions many times are passionate. church-state issues in america today endeavors to address these current issues by examining the intersection of religion and politics. the editors of this work, ann w. duncan and steven l. jones, bring to the project a variety of experiences and expertise in the subject area of church and state. duncan’s educational background is in american religious history and religious studies, and her research, publications, and conference presentations have focused essentially on the relationship between religion and politics. jones is associate professor of sociology at grove city college and is the former associate director of the center on religion and democracy at the university of virginia. his primary areas of academic interest are political sociology and family, state, and church conflicts. each volume of the set consists of a collection of essays written by a wide range of scholars. these contributors bring a diversity of expertise from political science and public administration, to law and international relations, to history, ethics and theology. this variety of perspectives brings richness to the overall work. church-state issues in america today is part of the praeger perspectives series, a series of multi-volume works dealing with current events. this three volume set on current issues concerning church and state in the u.s. covers the spectrum of this often controversial topic. volume 1 deals with the broad topic of religion and government. volume 2 speaks to the issues of religion, family, and education, and volume 3 of the collection deals with religious convictions and practices in public life. in their preface to volume 1, religion and government, duncan and jones pose the question, “in this time of increasing diversity . . . in a nation still primarily christian, to what extent is latent influence or traditional reference to god acceptable?” (vii) this question is addressed by the various contributors as they focus on how religion and politics intersect in federal, state, and local governments and as they demonstrate the difficulties in defining the establishment of religion. the volume is comprised of eight chapters: “historical perspectives on church and state,” “religion, rhetoric, and ritual in the u.s. government,” “public expression of faith by political leaders,” “the internationalization of church-state issues,” “the status of faith-based initiatives in the later bush administration,” “political endorsements by churches,” “the relevance of state constitutions to issues of government and religion,” and “the limits of free exercise in america.” barbara mcgraw’s excellent introduction to the set provides the historical context for church-state issues and the framework that established the american identity. her well crafted foundation furnishes the lens through which the subsequent essays should be viewed. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 84 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 volume 2, religion, family, and education, turns to the intersections of religion and government that address the more personal issues of parental rights, children, and the role of religion and religious observance in the schools. this often emotional topic is discussed from both sides of each issue, from an atheist’s opposition to the pledge of allegiance to an advocate of creationist curriculum in the public schools. the contributors take on these highly volatile issues giving historical background for perspective as well as citing key court cases, laws, and policies that have helped to determine our present course. william lester’s chapter on “student religious expression within public schools” begins with a description of the three major competing viewpoints regarding issues of church and state: the separationists, the perspective of neutrality, and the accommodationists. lester notes that the path to compromise is a difficult one given such divergent viewpoints. lester presents historical background for religious expression in public schools. citing a variety of court cases that provided the basis for the application of the first amendment to student religious expression, he shows that freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceable assembly, and the right to petition government all have an important impact on the issue as well as the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. in addition to the various laws and court cases, lester also offers a helpful discussion of the “u.s. department of education guidelines regarding public school prayer.” he addresses prayer in school as well as prayer during extra-curricular activities such as athletic events and graduation ceremonies and concludes this section with a discussion of baccalaureate ceremonies. lester takes this discussion a step further by pointing out common sources of conflict and confusion that school administrators often encounter. the chapter includes some of the technical readings of the policies and laws that have been enacted concerning student religious expression within public schools but also provides a plethora of illustrations that focus more on the practical aspects of this often volatile issue. the discussion is thorough, and provides an invaluable guide for navigating these difficult waters. in addition to the chapter on “student religious expression within public schools,” volume 2 includes essays on “the family and religion,” “the creation-evolution debate in the american public school classroom,” “freedom, commitment, and the challenges of pledging of allegiance in america’s public schools,” “free speech and the protection of children,” “school vouchers in america,” and “religion and higher education.” volume 3, religious convictions and practices in public life, covers a wide variety of topics, some of which on the surface appear to be unrelated to church and state. the essays reveal how pervasive the impact of religious conviction is on political action and how volatile the discussions can become when people on divergent sides of an issue believe they are protected by the constitution. one of these volatile issues is addressed by francis j. beckwith in his essay on “the history and controversies of the abortion debate.” beckwith begins with a discussion of personhood and the nature of human beings and the ongoing controversy of when life begins, all of which he concludes are explicitly or implicitly addressed by virtually every religious tradition. he then reviews the history of abortion and the current laws that impact the practice of abortion, beginning with the lesser known cases that preceded roe v. wade through george w. bush signing into law a federal partial-birth abortion ban in 2003, which was upheld by the supreme court in gonzales v. carhart (2007). beckwith continues with a variety of arguments on the topic from philosophers, theologians, and other scholars. he expresses a number of interesting insights, such as judith jarvis thomson’s contention that if “a pregnant woman is not responsible for her unborn fetus in cases of consensual sex--then the moral grounds of our child support laws vanishes” (3:21). beckwith concludes 85 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 his essay by examining the problem suggested by some who believe that if a pro-life position on abortion became law, it would violate the separation of church and state since such a law would place a religious view of human nature at its center and thereby obstruct the religious free exercise rights of those who disagree with that view. the chapter includes helpful information on the history of the abortion issue as well as a lively discussion of the various perspectives on the topic. additional essays found in the third volume of church-state issues in america today are “religiously motivated political action and same-sex marriage,” “conscientious objection to military service in the united states,” “religiosity, public opinion, and the stem cell debate,” “tracing sanctuary and illegal immigration as a church and state issue,” “native american sacred sites under federal law,” “consecrating the green movement,” and “religious liberty and authority in biomedical ethics.” each of this set’s three volumes concludes with an appendix of selected cases that were discussed or referenced in the chapters of that volume. in addition, each volume is well indexed and each essay concludes with extensive notes as well as a “further reading” section. church-state issues in america today makes a unique contribution to the literature relative to this topic. the set is extensive in its coverage of the subject, providing a theoretical framework, ample historical documentation of the various topics, well balanced discussions of the issues, and practical information that can be utilized by those for whom the subject is pertinent. the set is written for upper level and graduate university and theological studies students, faculty, and lay persons interested in the subject of church and state. based on these features, the threevolume set church-state issues in america today will be an excellent addition to any theology or religion reference collection. teresa cardin ellis logsdon seminary c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • r e l i g i o n a r o u n d j o h n d o n n e     4 1 religion around john donne eckhardt, joshua. religion around john donne. religion around. university park, pa: pennsylvania state university press, 2019. 208 pp. $49.95. isbn: 9780271083377. the religion around series from penn state university press explores the religious contexts surrounding writers, artists, and other “cultural icons.” the work of some of the figures treated in this series, such as virginia woolf and billie holiday, contains little that is overtly religious. not so for this recent entry on john donne. through his devotional poetry and his sermons, donne’s reputation is built on religion. in fact, joshua eckhardt, associate professor of english at virginia commonwealth university, points out that the religious themes and contexts of donne’s work have been exhaustively charted by literary and religious historians. why then, is another volume on religion and john donne called for, and how should it be approached? eckhardt’s unique approach makes his book particularly relevant to librarians, archivists, and manuscript historians. eckhardt aims to read donne’s work by surveying “the religion around donne in the manuscript collections, composite volumes, private libraries, and bookshops of some of the people responsible for reproducing and preserving his works” (2). rather than looking broadly at the religious culture of early modern england or giving a close reading of donne’s writing in light of other important religious texts of the day, eckhardt “zooms in on the religion right around donne in his library, and in his hands” (3). this gives the project a very concrete shape as eckhardt seeks out the “religion that has been actually, physically ‘around’ donne and his writing” (4). in this way, eckhardt’s approach is quite literal, and it makes his book of particular interest to those of us who spend our lives developing and preserving collections of religious literature. by honing in on personal collections and examining how readers treated donne’s work in relation to those collections, religion around john donne functions as a focused history of certain early modern religious libraries. by looking closely at the way donne’s books were handled in various personal libraries and bookshops, eckhardt engages in “proximate” or “material intertextuality” (3). instead of a standard intertextuality that would examine donne’s treatment of religious texts in his own writing, we see how donne himself collected and arranged physical copies of the writings of other english religious figures. we also see how collectors distributed donne’s books and manuscripts in their own libraries. while donne’s poems are filled with the language of heaven, hell, and individual souls, eckhardt’s book “makes no claims about heaven or souls, but it has a lot to say about actual library books” (12). the bridgewater collection, currently held at the huntington library in california, is the first collection that eckhardt explores. this family library includes items collected by thomas egerton, a contemporary of donne, and developed by his son and daughter-in-law, john and frances bridgewater. this collection includes manuscript copies of several of donne’s poems and some of his printed sermons. surveying the shelves of this family library places donne amidst the religious controversies of his day in a way that a 17th century reader would have experienced them. the other books and manuscripts in the library provide context that enlivens and complicates donne’s work, also showing certain blind spots in donne’s own perspective on english religion. for example, donne sends egerton poems that show concern for persecution of catholic recusants, and egerton’s papers show his own involvement with the prosecution of recusants. however, those same papers detail prosecution of nonconformists, a group that donne did not have in view. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 4 2 while eckhardt looks to collections curated by others to interpret donne’s religious writing, he examines these collections through a grid provided by donne himself. in an interlude between chapters one and two, eckhardt highlights the three types of religious characters that donne describes in his poem “satyre iii.” there is “mirreus,” the roman catholic, “crawle,” the calvinist, and “graius,” the conforming church of england parishioner. eckhardt uses these types to explain how the bridgewater library and the subsequent collections discussed give a picture of the range of early modern english religion. as he puts it, “the characters that donne devised to see the religion around him… help us see the same in the rest of this book” (54). while donne himself critiques each of the three types described in the poem, he can look more or less like mirreus, crawle, or graius— depending on the viewpoints represented in the books that surround his own. other collections explored include donne’s own personal collection, the books sold alongside donne’s in several london bookshops of the day, and the personal holdings of donne’s biographer, izaak walton. eckhardt’s approach also brings donne into conversation with some less-than-obvious partners. he crosses the atlantic in the library of the mather family, indicating some of the ways that readings of donne influenced the developing religious culture of colonial america through a figure like cotton mather. one important feature of religion around john donne is its demonstration of the essential nature of archival work and the preservation of personal libraries as collections, not just as individual volumes. this is particularly evident in the manuscript copies of donne’s poems from which eckhardt works. trying to follow along with some of the poems in my everyman’s library edition of the complete english poems is tricky but informative. there is significant disparity between the texts. some of donne’s poems in the bridgewater library were transcribed from original manuscripts and, as eckhardt points out, errors in transcription can indicate something about the theological assumptions of the day—or at least of the individual doing the transcribing. these nuances only fully come to light when these unique collections are considered as a whole. eckhardt’s discussion of some of the mistakes made in early editions of donne’s published poetry illustrates another way that his literal approach to the religion surrounding donne offers insight into the history of donne scholarship. specifically, the second edition of donne’s work features an important mistake: “the inclusion… of a defiantly catholic poem that donne could not possibly have written” (93). the poem, written by elizabethan catholic henry constable, was often included in manuscript collections alongside donne’s. it quickly became so associated with donne that it was mistakenly included in early editions of his poems. through examining this error of attribution, eckhardt shows how varied and unsystematic methods of manuscript composition created a context where misattribution became possible. in this case, the religion around donne gave a warped and inaccurate view of donne’s poetry and thought. the poem in question served to highlight passages in other poems that could be interpreted as sympathetic to catholicism. it made donne appear more catholic than he was. eckhardt demonstrates how collection practices and the physical history of manuscripts can either warp or clarify our collective memory of religious figures. though his focus is on the material culture surrounding donne’s work, eckhardt’s approach actually makes a significant, if backdoor, contribution to the task of interpreting early modern literature. through examining specific practices of collecting, annotating, and organizing books and manuscripts in this period, he draws out nuances of the religious views of those who valued and preserved these materials. by offering a focused history of particular early modern personal libraries, eckhardt demonstrates how the curation and evolution of collections function to interpret the c r i t i c a l r e v i e w s • r e l i g i o n a r o u n d j o h n d o n n e     4 3 work of the authors and the views of the collectors. book and manuscript collections do not only preserve the religious culture of previous periods; they also serve as texts to be interpreted. as library collections develop and librarians make important and difficult decisions about building our collections, providing diverse materials in varied formats, and strive to make those collections accessible and functional, it is essential to remember that these collections are not simply deposits of information. the act of providing literary materials, and the means through which we provide them, have an interpretive function. as theological librarians, we influence the way that our patrons access, understand, and think about religion. the ways that we choose to collect and preserve religious literature influence the development of our various traditions. these are not new issues for libraries and archives, but eckhardt’s illustrations from early modern collections add historical depth and specificity to these considerations. other features of the book that deserve mention are eckhardt’s discussions of donne’s marginalia and donne’s collection of sammelbände, which were “composite volumes made of multiple slender books bound together” (59). eckhardt describes one sammelband as a “mega-book,” or “physical database” (16). he discusses various sammelbände found through the various collections dealt with in the book, and they serve as the perfect example of eckhardt’s larger project. by showing which books donne and various collectors chose to bind together into larger volumes, we get concrete examples of the religion that surrounded donne. andrew c. stout associate librarian for public services covenant theological seminary st. louis, mo theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 98 critical review volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 encyclopedia of philosophers on religion bernard j. verkamp. encyclopedia of philosophers on religion. jefferson, nc: mcfarland & company, 2008. 229 pp. $65.00. hardcover. isbn: 978032868. t here have been a number of good dictionaries and encyclopedias published in the area of philosophy of religion in recent years. however, bernard verkamp’s new encyclopedia of philosophers on religion is unique in that it uses a biographical approach to provide insights on key philosophical figures who have made significant contributions in the area of religion. this biographical, rather than conceptual, approach makes the encyclopedia both interesting and informative. the author, bernard verkamp, is a professor of philosophy at vincennes university in indiana. he has written several books, including the sense of religious wonder, senses of mystery, and the evolution of religion. he has also written a number of scholarly articles related to such topics as religious pluralism, world religions, and religious history. his encyclopedia is both religious and historical, quite in keeping with the author’s areas of interest and expertise. this work provides coverage on 152 philosophers. it deals with figures from different religious traditions, and covers a wide range of time periods. entries are between one to two pages in length and provide general information on the philosophers’ religious background as well as specific information on their religious perspectives. entries also include a list of bibliographical resources that contains both primary and secondary sources. there is also a helpful index of approximately twelve pages. verkamp selects major figures who have written significantly in the area of religion. the entries might be viewed as falling into one of several categories. the author has included some figures who are mainly regarded for their religious or theological ideas, such as abelard, anselm, augustine, kierkegaard, schleiermacher, and whitehead. others included are quite hostile toward or critical of religion, such as feuerbach, flew, horkheimer, hume, marx, nietzsche, and voltaire. a third group is comprised of major philosophical thinkers, such as aristotle, descartes, kant, plato, and socrates. a fourth category incorporates those who focus specifically on the psychology or philosophy of religion, such as hartshorne, hick, and james. a fifth group is made up of philosophical figures from the classical period, such as cicero, epictetus, epicurus, heraclitus, pythagorus, and zenophanes. psychologists such as freud, jung, and piaget are included, as are sociologists such as durkheim, weber, wach, and bellah. in all the entries one finds clearly written and relevant information for understanding the philosophers’ religious thought. the author consistently provides insight into their religious life and religious ideas. while he is a religious person, he does not attack the ideas of those who are critical of religion. neither does he overly praise figures, such as augustine, who are highly significant in the history of christianity. the author attempts to maintain a level of objectivity in all his entries. when examining the entry on martin heidegger, for example, one finds information about his early baptism into the catholic faith and his thoughts at age twenty of becoming a priest. the entry also discusses his strong 99 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 criticism of catholicism as well as his later anti-semitic leanings during the 1930s and early 1940s. after this general discussion, there is specific focus on heidegger’s philosophical ideas regarding religion. following this is a bibliographical listing of approximately eighteen works. after reading this entry, one has gained not only good insight in the philosopher’s philosophical ideas but also in the historical and biographical context surrounding the formation of those ideas. verkamp, in his preface (ix), gives some indication of his goals in writing this book. he notes that frequently people think of contemporary philosophers as uninterested in religion or as hostile to it. philosophers are often seen as agnostic or atheistic in their approach to religious thought. the author notes that this perception is not completely accurate, as many philosophers are religious and many more are at least interested in religion on a philosophical level. verkamp writes, in part, to show how many of the significant philosophers, past and present, have addressed the subject of religion in a substantial way. the author also notes in his preface that his work is a “biographical encyclopedia” that provides a “bird’s-eye view of the major points of the many different philosophers” (ix). verkamp is well aware that, in the scope of his book, he cannot provide thorough coverage of all the religious ideas of the philosophers. instead, his goal is more modest—he provides an introduction or outline of the philosopher’s religious thought. given the goals the author seeks to achieve, it is clear that he is successful. verkamp is able to present information on a large number of significant philosophers who have an interest in religion and to show the significance of their religious thought. additionally, he provides a biographical encyclopedia that gives a good overview of over 150 philosophers. he does so in a clearly written, interesting style. the encyclopedia is not without weakness, however. there is little coverage of eastern philosophers, so that the title might more appropriately be “encyclopedia of western philosophers of religion.” additionally, the work would be far stronger if a greater number of philosophers were examined. the selection of philosophers seems somewhat arbitrary and limited. verkamp, for instance, includes augustine but not aquinas. also, the author does not explore the connections between the philosophical thinkers. he does not, for instance, show the linkage that flows from hegel to feuerbach to marx. the feuerbach entry does not mention marx, and the marx entry does not show the influence hegel and feuerbach had on his religious thinking. this is a significant criticism, for it is necessary to understand the philosophical influences on a philosopher if one is to understand accurately the ideas of that philosopher. also, one needs to understand how a particular philosopher was influential on others, thus showing his/her philosophical impact. verkamp neglects to provide the linkages. another weakness is the comparatively small amount of space in entries devoted to the philosopher’s specific ideas on religion. generally, only three to four paragraphs address this dimension, while significantly more space is given to the religious and biographical information. while the biographical context is helpful, in a subject area such as this the specific religious ideas are more important. this work, to be comprehensive and thorough, needs to be twice as long. having entries of two to three pages would address the problem. it is interesting that one of the good encyclopedias of the philosophy of religion, the concise encyclopedia of the philosophy of religion (oxford, 2005), even as a concise work, is 344 pages in length. verkamp would have done well to expand both the number of entries and the length of them. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 100 volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 all things considered, however, the encyclopedia of philosophers on religion is an excellent and unique work that complements other reference works in philosophy of religion. verkamp’s creative biographical approach helps to ground the ideas of the philosophers in real life. college and seminary students likely will find the book to be useful and easy to understand. the encyclopedia will make a good addition to any religion/theology reference collection. john jaeger dallas baptist university 35 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 peer-reviewed article the impact of distance education on libraries by jeff groeling and kenneth a. boyd abstract: technological advances and the internet have radically changed the way people learn, live, and grow. in higher education, libraries have been challenged to look at how to serve people not only locally but at a distance. at asbury theological seminary these changes have revolved around three issues: providing resources online equivalent to those available locally, information literacy, and the importance of collaboration. h igher education is at a crossroads. this statement should give pause not only for colleges and universities, but across the spectrum of higher education, from community colleges to graduate schools and seminaries. the situation is becoming so serious, according to gordon gee, the president of ohio state university, that institutions of higher education must reinvent themselves or face extinction.1 what has brought about this state of affairs? part of the blame can be ascribed to current economic conditions, but at least part is attributable to changes in how people think about higher education—such as expecting more explicit return on investment, more government involvement via student loans, concern over student debt accumulation, and changing notions of tenure, research, and teaching. given the situation, institutions of higher education must reflect on whether and how they are meeting the needs of today’s student. as often as not, students in higher education are commuting to school or taking courses at a distance, challenging the status quo of the traditional residential student. in the state of indiana, the ivy tech community college system (primarily a commuter school) has grown in size to become the largest post-secondary system in the state with more than 120,000 students, surpassing indiana university and its extension campuses.2 seminary education is not exempt from this developing paradigm shift. although there are other manifestations of this change evident within individual institutions, one of the more significant challenges facing seminaries is how best to serve this growing population of non-residential students. distance learning, in particular, has driven seminaries and their accrediting bodies to examine how best to “do” seminary education. one of the most notable outcomes of distance learning in the seminary setting is the association of theological schools (ats) accreditation requirement that completion of a seminary degree at a distance requires at least one year of courses to be completed residentially, emphasizing the importance of community in the spiritual formation of a seminary student.� another issue, and one that will be the focus of this paper, is how the seminary library can best serve 1 paul fain, “gordon gee says colleges face ‘reinvention or extinction’,” chronicle of higher education, february 9 2009, http:// chronicle.com/daily/2009/02/111�1n.htm. 2 ivy tech community college, “ivy tech community college sets spring enrollment record,” http://www.ivytech.edu/about/ news-stores/spring_enrollment_011409.html. � association of theological schools, “frequently asked questions about accreditation: information for the general public,” http:// www.ats.edu/accrediting/pages/faq.aspx. jeff groeling is affiliate professor of information technology, asbury theological seminary and dean of online learning, taylor university. kenneth a. boyd is dean of information services, asbury theological seminary. http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/02/11131n.htm http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/02/11131n.htm http://www.ivytech.edu/about/news-stores/spring_enrollment_011409.html http://www.ivytech.edu/about/news-stores/spring_enrollment_011409.html http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/pages/faq.aspx http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/pages/faq.aspx theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 36 volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 students at a distance and how asbury seminary has tried to accomplish this goal over the last eleven years that asbury’s extended learning (exl) online program has been in existence. in the early 1990s, asbury theological seminary was fortunate to receive a sizeable bequest that included money for upgrading infrastructure. asbury became one of the leaders in the use of technology in theological education. however, it wasn’t until the start of asbury’s exl online program that the use of technology became a part of the institutional “dna.” suddenly, paper-based systems such as course registration, bill payment, and library databases were to be made available online. this was especially true in the library. as part of the institutional upgrade, the library computing system was replaced and new workstations were put in place throughout the library. at the time of the upgrade, the library was not ready for technology integration. the only computers allowed in the library were for access to the online catalog, with no access for e-mail or the internet. consequently, computer labs with internet access, e-mail, and word processing were set up in the information technology area located in another building. the library was not yet ready to acknowledge that there had been a change in how resources were accessed and how research was accomplished. eventually, the computer lab was shifted to the library, although relegated to one corner. the launch of the online program in 1997 helped to facilitate change in the library. from a purely numerical perspective, the importance of online resources became evident as the number of online students increased. each student usually enrolled in more than one course. in 1998-1999 there were �99 exl course enrollments. by 200�-2004 the numbers had risen to 2,720. in 2007-2008 the total number of exl enrollments was �,579 in comparison to 1,�91 course enrollments for our florida campus and 8,02� for the kentucky campus. distance education and seminary libraries the growth of distance learning at asbury has highlighted the need to pay attention to the fundamentals of librarianship. a re-examination of critical functions of a library such as collecting, organizing, preserving and ultimately making knowledge available all come under scrutiny when applied to the distance learning context.4 in interviews with seminary faculty, delamarter found that faculty were concerned that students at a distance were missing a critical component of seminary education by not physically being in the library.5 delamarter also noted a concern of faculty as to whether students at a distance were able to get access to the same resources as residential students. organizations such as the american library association have released best practices� and accreditation bodies have provided requirements7 that address how libraries should best serve students at a distance. how best to provide library services to distance learning students has been a concern in the seminary community as demonstrated not only by the ats handbook of accreditation guidelines for evaluating library and information 4 susan mcknight, “distance education and the role of academic libraries,” in handbook of distance education, eds. michael moore and william anderson (mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, 200�), �77-�8�. 5 steve delamarter, “theological educators and their concerns about technology,” teaching theology and religion 8 (2005): 1�1-14�. � association of college & research libraries, “standards for distance learning library services,” http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/ divs/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning.cfm. 7 association of theological schools, “guidelines for evaluating library and information resources,” http://www.ats.edu/ accrediting/documents/handbook/handbooksection9.pdf. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning.cfm http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning.cfm http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/documents/handbook/handbooksection9.pdf http://www.ats.edu/accrediting/documents/handbook/handbooksection9.pdf 37 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 resources8 but also in the literature of the seminary library community. as the internet became more pervasive in the 1990s, seminaries and their librarians were struggling to understand how this new phenomenon was going to fit into the seminary context. many of the conversations at the american theological library association (atla) annual conference focused on topics such as how librarians could provide services to seminary students at a distance9 as well as the changing role of the academic library in distance education.10 in 2001, stover compiled several articles dealing directly with the impact of the internet on seminary librarianship.11 along with other authors in the book addressing the changes in seminary librarianship brought about by the internet, harmeyer addressed the issue of theological distance education and focused heavily on standards and opportunities in theological distance education. he also highlighted resources that not only benefited students at a distance but residential students as well.12 harmeyer speculated on the future of library services, and one of the points he emphasized was that seminary librarians should be proactive in their approach to service, and look for opportunities to apply their expertise through the medium of tomorrow’s educational technology.1� educational technology in this case was not only limited to the traditional classroom, but would also include the internet and any resources or pedagogies enhanced by online delivery. more recently, a roundtable conducted by the association of college and research libraries (acrl) in 200� discussed the changing role of the academic library given the revolution in teaching and learning brought about by digitization, the internet, and other technological advances.14 the roundtable recommended three essential actions libraries must make to achieve the necessary transformation to remain relevant in the years ahead: 1) librarians must evolve from print media to user-focused media and become information specialists; 2) the culture of libraries and their staffs must change from a mindset of primarily ownership and control to one that seeks to provide service and guidance in helping users find information regardless of the format; and �) libraries must assert their evolving role not only within their institutions but share their information dissemination and retrieval expertise in other markets.15ammerman related the changing role of the academic library specifically to the seminary library.1� he identified three factors that seminary libraries should address as they move into the future: 1) collaborative models of scholarship and pedagogy involving both physical and technological infrastructure; 2) globalization, especially made possible by technology including providing library services to those at a distance; and �) changes in scholarly 8 ibid. 9 allen w. mueller, “library services to real students from virtual and extension programs,” american theological library association: summary of proceedings 51 (1997): 257-�1. 10 linda c. smith, “the academic library’s role in distance education,” american theological library association: summary of proceedings 5� (1999): 125-�2. 11 mark stover, ed., theological librarians and the internet: implications for practice (new york: haworth press, 2001). 12 dave harmeyer, “theological distance education: a librarian’s perspective,” in theological librarians and the internet: implications for practice, ed. mark stover (new york: haworth press, 2001), �9-8�. 1� ibid., 85. 14 association of college & research libraries, “changing roles of academic and research libraries,” http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/ divs/acrl/issues/future/changingroles.cfm. 15 ibid. 1� jack w. ammerman, “jam to-morrow and jam yesterday, but never jam to-day: the dilemma of theology libraries planning for the twenty-first century,” theological education 40, no. 1 (2004): 11-�0. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/future/changingroles.cfm http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/future/changingroles.cfm theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 38 volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 publication and the digitization of information including cooperative arrangements for distributed collections.17 each of these factors are relevant to academic libraries in general, but especially important to the future success of seminary libraries. how seminary libraries address these factors will contribute to the success or failure of the institution. as mentioned earlier, asbury theological seminary has been grappling with many of these issues for the better part of the last fifteen years. many of these issues became even more pronounced with the advent of asbury’s distance learning program, exl, in 1997. the following sections focus on issues related to seminary libraries as experienced at asbury seminary. they include the mandate of providing the equivalent resources online, information literacy, and the importance of collaboration. providing equivalent resources online the first issue is both the idealistic goal and an accreditation/best practices expectation of the library to provide information resources to all constituents, whether residentially or at a distance. the expectations are clearly set forth in the acrl guidelines: “the library has primary responsibility for making its resources and services available to its users regardless of physical location.”18 this notion is further reinforced in the ats handbook of accreditation—“how does the library integrate print collections, access to electronic information, and other resources to foster information literacy”19—and with the ala definition of the outcome of information literacy— “a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”20 these mutually reinforcing best practices regarding the provision of information resources with the goal of improved information literacy provide the foundation of many of the ats library accreditation requirements. in many institutions including seminaries, the library is viewed as a cost center. since so much money is expended in procuring, storing, and delivering information resources, it is important to ask how effectively the library supports the institution. in most institutions, library spending has been flat for recent years so libraries have to be creative in acquiring and delivering new resources, especially when the cost of resources continues to increase.21 at asbury, as the impact of technology and online learning grew, the librarians realized the need for a better way to integrate both technology and support for online learning into their services. as a result, the decision was made to merge the library with information technology to form a department of information services managed by a dean who reported to the provost. up to that point, the online learning program had been managed as part of information technology. with the merger, an information commons model was adopted in the library where both resident and online users could get support for library services, computer assistance, or the online learning program. 17 ibid. 18 association of college & research libraries, “standards for distance learning.” 19 association of theological schools, “guidelines for evaluating library and information resources.” 20 ibid. 21 timothy d. lincoln, “what’s a seminary library for?” theological education 40, no.1 (2004): 1-11. 39 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 as the departments merged to form information services, the decision was made to locate in the library all staff working directly with users; other staff providing “back-end” services were located in the offices formerly designated for information technology. this reorganization of staff helped put a greater emphasis on customer support. by mixing the library and information technology staff, some of the “we/they” dynamics that plague some library/ information technology mergers were avoided. information technology staff that worked directly with users to provide computer support were moved to the library, while programmers stayed in information technology. on the library side, acquisitions/technical services were moved from the library to information technology. the shifting of staff and reporting structures was not the only change brought about by technology and the expectation of serving students at a distance. another challenge was the impetus of providing information resources in a variety of formats besides books. online access to information resources has minimized the differences between residential users and users at a distance. once the resource becomes available electronically, it can be accessed by a user anytime, anywhere. along with the change in institutional structure and alignment to make better use of resources at asbury, there has been a corresponding shift in the type of resources provided. as an embodiment of this mentality of anytime, anywhere access to resources, the seminary administration requested the digitization of core materials with the ultimate goal of making all materials available to all students, whether on the kentucky, florida, or virtual campuses. having all materials available to all students is still a dream; however, while there has been an increase in book and periodical spending, there has also been a corresponding increase in spending on online databases, which has increased from $19,488 in 200�-2004 to $51,400 in 2007-2008. during the same time the book acquisition budget rose from $1�2,755 to $227,04� while periodical spending rose from $82,2�� to $122,4�2. although all three categories showed an increase, spending on online databases more than doubled. the changes in copyright law and the need for making materials available to online students has required us to seek copyright permission and to purchase materials for both online and on-campus classes. florida and exl campuses are sent digital copies of periodical articles or materials from our reference works/general collection needed for research. turnaround time is generally 24 hours. digital copies of articles/materials can be requested through interlibrary loan from other libraries as well as between campuses. asbury has begun developing a digital repository to house materials, particularly those that relate to asbury’s traditions. collections include archive digital collections (collections, finding aids, archive photos), books and periodicals (those that relate specifically to the asbury tradition), dissertations/thesis/conference papers (d.min., d.miss., ph.d., and ma), institutional repository (academic catalogs, seminary herald, pentecostal herald, chapel services, syllabi), and instructional resources (faculty lectures, instructional photos). in addition to the digital repository, an initiative utilizing itunes u is being developed. initially, there will be audio and video messages from the seminary president, student stories, and chapel services from the kentucky and florida campuses, as well as interviews and lectures. thus, students will be able to download podcasts of these offerings, which could include the delivery of classroom-related media resources. not only has the type of available resources been changing in academic libraries, the role of the librarian has been changing as well. twenty years ago the work of a librarian was generally centered on a specific task (cataloging, theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 40 volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 reference, circulation). the librarian of today does not have the luxury of focusing on a single, specific task. the convergence that has come as part of the digitization movement has in turn empowered the librarian to break the shackles of task-orientation and has shifted the emphasis to the user. the librarian today can offer direct assistance to the user in locating needed information, whether online, media-, or paper-based. stewart writes that a librarian needs to function as a catalyst rather than a clerk.22 the focus is on customer service versus an emphasis on backoffice functions. at asbury this change has been manifested in a number of ways, including the creation of the information commons desk and a significant change in the function of interlibrary loan. the information commons brought together library reference services, library circulation, computer labs, computer support, instructional support, media production, and exl/online support. questions could come from someone walking in the front door, calling on the phone, or e-mailing. to support our online students, the information commons staff can access the students’ computers remotely to assist with technical problems, and can also assist students in locating resources or to provide library instruction. information services staff were also impacted by the information commons approach. by using a team approach, economies of staffing were accomplished while extending support hours for many of the services. cross training between areas and using a database to monitor and track questions, requests, or projects helped achieve the goal of creating a one-stop shop. in order to stay in touch with user needs, all members of the team spent time at the information commons desk assisting users. to foster collaboration between professional and clerical staff, cubicles replaced individual offices. along with the changes at the information commons desk, there has also been a large increase in interlibrary loan requests as a result of the addition of the florida and virtual campuses. in 1997–1998 there were 9� interlibrary loan requests; requests increased to �92 in 200�–2004 and to 1,8�7 in 2007–2008. the growth in interlibrary loan is at least partially due to enrollment in the exl program. information literacy providing the right information effectively and efficiently is just one aspect of information literacy emphasized by ats in the handbook of accreditation.2� gragg provides two additional reasons to be concerned with information literacy in seminary education.24 first, a significant percentage of students entering seminaries are returning to school after spending years in other careers. this influx of new students unfamiliar with the nuances of navigating alternative resources (other than books) effectively will require intentional instruction in order to overcome these deficiencies. second, even after getting students to an acceptable level of information literacy, further training is required for specialization in the seminary context. unfortunately and ironically, one of the greatest obstacles to overcome in fostering information literacy is also one of the best sources for finding information, the google search engine. it is not an overgeneralization to say that many students today search google and proceed no further. many librarians and professors decry the growth 22 david r. stewart, “issue editor’s introduction,” theological education 40, no. 1 (2004): iii-ix. 2� association of theological schools. “guidelines for evaluating library and information resources.” 24 douglas l. gragg, “information literacy in theological education,” theological education 40, no. 1 (2004): 99-112. 41 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 of wikipedia because students take what is found there at face value, not realizing that anyone can contribute information to the site and what this implies for the accuracy of any information obtained. falciani-white considers this tendency to focus on google, wikipedia, and similar resources to be characteristic of seminary students belonging to the millennial generation.25 the millennial generation, those individuals born between 1982 and 2002, have different expectations of education and the library than previous generations. falciani-white examines the impact these differences are having and will continue to have upon seminary libraries as these students enter seminaries in increasing numbers. according to falciani-white, students today are confronted by a tremendous amount of information in which they can easily become lost, and they rely heavily upon search engines for their information needs in order to navigate and manage the information glut they face.2� students are comfortable using google because they regularly use it for mundane tasks such as obtaining driving directions and movie times, so they regard it as sufficient for academic research purposes. this reliance upon google does not mean that millennials are incapable of doing good research or being good students—rather it could be an indication of unfamiliarity with other research options available. seminary librarians are not unaware that there is a glut of information available due to the changes wrought by the digitization of resources. crawford et. al. acknowledge that google searches could be inadequate for sifting through the wealth of seminary resources that are available on the web and proposed a cooperative project relying upon the expertise of seminary librarians to help manage these resources collaboratively.27 the google search engine algorithm has no way of determining whether one web site is more scholarly than another. the collaborative effort proposed by crawford et. al. would be a means for seminary librarians to provide a value-added service in support of the research of their respective constituents. there are other issues related to the ocean of information available to library users on the web. search engines do not index many web resources (sometimes called the hidden, deep, or dark web) whose sum is several orders of magnitude larger than the surface web.28 library users doing a google search will not find these hidden resources because the search engine has not indexed or is not capable of indexing a particular website. password-protected databases either do not show up in google results because a password is required for the site to be indexed or they show up far down the search results because google search results are at least partially based on the number of sites that are linked to a particular website. also, dynamically generated webpages, such as those used in content management systems (cms), cause problems for search engine indexing which would in turn be responsible for sites appearing lower in the google search results. ganski regards the issue of finding resources in the hidden web 25 nancy k. falciani-white, “running with perseverance: the theological library’s challenge of keeping pace with changing students,” theological librarianship 1, no.2 (december, 2008): 1�-27, http://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib/article/ view/�1/115. 2� ibid., 21. 27 eileen crawford, amy limpitlaw, and bill hook, “is there anything worthwhile on the web? a cooperative project to identify scholarly resources in theology and religion,” theological education 40, no. 1 (2004): 49-58. 28 michael k. bergman, “white paper: the deep web: surfacing hidden value,” the journal of electronic publishing 7, no.1 (august, 2001): http://dx.doi.org/10.�998/����451.0007.104. http://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib/article/view/61/115 http://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib/article/view/61/115 http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0007.104 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 42 volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 as an organizational issue at least partially related to navigation for the users of seminary libraries.29 librarians should take a proactive approach in managing their digital resources so that their users can find the information they need in a timely and effective manner. again, the issue for seminary librarians is not so much the incapability of library users in finding these resources but more an issue of training and bringing these resources that are outside of the “normal” google sphere to the attention of their users. asbury has dealt with information literacy issues in a number of ways over the years. the seminary recognized the need for information literacy when the merger of information technology and the library to form information services took place in 200�. one of the vision statements for the creation of the information commons called for increased computer, information, and instructional literacy. in other words, the statement addressed not only concerns about both information and computer literacy for faculty, staff, and students but also concerns about instructional design issues such as learning styles, assessment, and classroom instruction (instructional literacy). the information commons model adopted has helped to address computer, instructional, and information literacy. with the start of the exl in 1997, there was an emphasis on just-in-time learning. the benefactor for our online program was a strong proponent of just-in-time learning, as well as making knowledge available and accessible. with online databases, the seminary library was now available 24/7. as a result, library instruction as part of new student orientation was discontinued. instead, a series of online tutorials was created that would be available whenever required by students, staff, or faculty. tutorials were added for the asbury information system (course registration), asbury e-mail, asbury scholar (interlibrary loan and integrated database searching), bible works, prolepsis (sage digital library and logos library system), ebscohost, productivity software (word, powerpoint, imovie, and final cut pro), proquest dissertations and theses, and worldcat. in addition to the tutorials, to address just-in-time learning, the information commons staff have worked proactively to schedule library instruction as part of specific classes. when students are ready to start their research, the information commons staff provide training designed for the specific class/subject. although this has been slow in getting started, there were eleven sessions in 2007–2008, and fourteen were conducted through the first half of 2008–2009. the importance of collaboration the ever-increasing digitization of resources and the corresponding increase in global connectivity created by the internet have provided a wealth of opportunities for collaboration and cooperation heretofore unavailable. accreditors demand and organizational best practices recommend cooperation and collaboration between institutions in higher education. with the interconnectivity between individuals and institutions facilitated by the internet, collaboration with a colleague is only an email, twitter, or facebook wall post away. in the seminary context, there are many opportunities for collaboration. crawford et al. called for seminary libraries to collaborate 29 kate l. ganski, “accessibility of e-resources from theological library websites,” theological librarianship 1, no.1 (june, 2008): �845, http://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib/article/view/14/�0. http://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib/article/view/14/30 43 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 on managing their web resources.�0 hotta discussed opportunities for seminary libraries to collaborate nationally (i.e. atla, wabash center for teaching and learning theology and religion), and regionally (i.e., chicago area theological association, graduate theological union).�1 the opportunities for collaboration better leverage institutional financial resources and librarian expertise, and serve end users better by providing access to broader information resources than would be possible if a library was operating independently. asbury is a member of the theological education association of mid-america (team-a) consortium, thus users at other seminaries in the midwest use and access to resources at asbury. asbury is also a member of the kentucky virtual library initiative, in which colleges and universities in the state of kentucky collaborate to subscribe to online resources and databases as a consortial group, achieving better access to online resources and improved stewardship of limited finances. the seminary also shares its library software and database with asbury college, physically located across the street from the seminary. along with opportunities for institutional collaboration are opportunities for professional collaboration between seminary librarians. these connections already existed through professional associations and related conferences (i.e., ala, atla), but the convenience brought about by the growth and use of the internet for peer-to-peer communication has made these connections easier to foster and maintain. for example, theological librarianship probably would not exist if not for the internet. in the 1990s, asbury hosted a series of conferences for faculty, librarians, and information technology staff titled ats 2000, where schools were able to share and collaborate on information resource development and changes going on at their respective schools. over the five-year course of the ats 2000 conference, more than 200 seminaries and colleges participated. within the institution there are further occasions for collaboration brought about by the technological changes. mcmahon provided examples of how librarians can partner with teaching faculty not only in providing guidance to information resources but as a collaborator in assessment, pedagogy, and professional development.�2 librarians should be proactive and invest themselves in the life and community of the institution. as the internet continues to change how and where seminary education is delivered, the librarian is transitioning to an active part of the teaching and learning process, and the reach of the librarian is extended beyond the four walls of the library. at asbury, the original focus of the information commons was to create a one-stop service shop for students no matter their location (kentucky, florida, or virtual), but once the information commons was established and performing well, faculty began to ask for a similar service. the result was the creation of a faculty information commons located in the lower level of the library. the faculty information commons provided the same services for faculty, but added course conversion (on-campus to hybrid or online), copyright compliance, support for the course management system (moodle), and technical support for laptops as well as support for classroom �0 crawford, limpitlaw & hook, “is there anything worthwhile,” 5�. �1 ann hotta, “is there a strategic alliance in your future? lessons learned from library consortia,” theological education 40, no. 1 (2004): 89-98. �2 melody mcmahon, “librarians and teaching faculty in collaboration: new incentives, new opportunities,” theological education 40, no. 1 (2004): 7�-88. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 44 volume 2, number 1 • june 2009 technology and collection development. faculty began to see the library as a place where they could get the support they needed, and the information commons staff became more involved with the teaching and learning responsibilities of the faculty. one of the by-products of the creation of the faculty information commons was the presence of more faculty in the library. through the faculty information commons at asbury, the development and refinement of courses for distance learning delivery created partnerships between faculty and librarians that were much more intentional in nature and not only related to resources but also pedagogy.�� one librarian unexpectedly experienced a benefit of the faculty information commons. although initially very resistant to losing a personal office and sharing space with other faculty information commons staff, this librarian grudgingly acquiesced to the dean’s request. the librarian quickly realized that faculty were regularly coming into the faculty information commons for help with their laptops. while the faculty were waiting for their laptops to be serviced, the librarian was given the chance to “ambush” the faculty with ideas to integrate library and information resources, such as recommending a database or book in support of the faculty member’s research, offering help in finding an online resource for a class, or providing a recommendation for an acceptable substitute resource so students might avoid purchasing additional textbooks. clearly, the scope of changes in the library at asbury seminary—providing equivalent resources online; expecting information literacy, and emphasizing the importance of collaboration—are not limited strictly to distance education, but the changes have been implemented in such a way so as to service the greatest number of constituents, no matter their role or location. the drive to provide services for distance learners has resulted in benefits for all library users. implications for seminary libraries how has distance education influenced the seminary librarian? it has changed the definition of the library. the library is no longer simply a physical building with four walls. the library, like a church, has the heart of the people that form it. librarianship is changing from managing books to connecting people and quality resources while at the same time delivering resources efficiently and providing the best customer service possible. the emphasis is shifting from what librarians do to how they do it. in a digital world, resources are becoming more of a commodity. learning how to navigate the increasingly complex morass of information is and will continue to be the domain of the librarian. the academic librarian provides added value to the teaching and learning process. as long as there is a need for learning resources, there will be a need for a guide to navigate those resources regardless of the modality used in delivering those resources. �� jeff groeling and lester ruth, “the times, they are a-changin’: how a training seminar for online education changed a seminary one faculty member at a time,” theological education 42, no. 2 (2007): 57-��. s p e c i a l f o r u m • s u p p o r t i n g d i s t a n c e e d u c a t i o n s t u d e n t s     1 special forum: distance learning supporting distance education students by stacie schmidt biola university, located on the los angeles side of the los angeles/orange county border in california, has approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students. biola students are primarily residential or local, with close to 500 distance education or online students across several programs. approximately 110 of these distance education or online students are talbot theological seminary graduate students. attempting to discern the exact number of distance education students was a challenging task, as biola does not easily differentiate between in-person and distance education students. furthermore, biola does not consider itself as having “distance education students”; instead, biola has “online students” who may be in any location. similar to the perspective shared across the university, the biola library does not differentiate services for distance education students. we do have a page on our website “for online learners”—the phrase “online learners” was chosen over “distance education students” because biola emphasizes the style of delivery format (online) over location (distance). our services for online students are a mixture of concessions for biola students studying at a distance and promotion of our existing online services. students in online classes have the same access to our librarians and staff as in-person students. reference services offers chat, phone, and email support that is heavily used by online students for research assistance. our major concession to students who do not live locally is that they can use interlibrary loan to request copies of articles or a book chapter we only have access to in print, and we will provide a scanned copy. we ask students to come in and copy it themselves if we notice that they have a local address. we do not mail books to students. the biola library maintains membership in a number of nationwide reciprocal programs, including atla, which allows students to access libraries closer to them. our librarian and staff support for distance education students is superb. they receive the same high caliber of research and resource assistance as our in-person students. students appreciate the personal connections that can come from repeated use of our reference services, and some have come to introduce themselves when they visit campus. our interlibrary loan staff provide timely and valuable assistance to obtain articles or chapters for distance education students. our technical services prioritizes electronic purchases of e-books, journals and other resources to provide material that is accessible for our students who do not have easy access to our physical collections. unfortunately, there are a number of recurring issues. several online programs at biola have reduced or cut their required research training, which means that students are less equipped to do library research. there can be a significant disconnect between some distance education students and the library. many students are unaware of existing services or online resources, attempting to do their studies without utilizing the resources available to them. some students expect or anticipate services that the library does not offer. quite a few distance education students are disappointed when they realize that we do not mail books. some students are in foreign countries without easy access to libraries or required textbooks and ask the biola library to provide all required resources electronically. these situations are frustrating for all involved, but provide avenues for future growth. stacie schmidt is reference services librarian at biola university. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 2 covid-19 has turned all biola students into distance education students and revealed some of the weaknesses of our support for distance education students. biola’s emphasis on format (online) versus location (distance) has led the library to focus on online material and support. american copyright law restricts us from copying more than a chapter or 10%, whichever is less, of a physical item in our collection. this restriction, while necessary to meet copyright standards, means that our distance education students have less access to our physical materials. i know this equity issue has plagued libraries for decades and has been a keen source of friction for our patrons during our covid-19 closure. many of our fellow atla libraries mail books to their students. while the biola library had considered this option before and deemed it difficult to implement, mailing physical books to students would alleviate significant research and resource needs of students who are not local. additionally, stronger marketing and departmental engagement by the library liaisons could ameliorate a lack of knowledge on the part of distance education students. each librarian is a liaison to a specific school at biola. i am hopeful that the experiences of covid-19 will have radical implications on how we support distance learners in the future. covid-19 has made each one of us into distance education students, staff, faculty, or librarians. we are now dealing with the same experiences that distance education students have dealt with for years: limited resources, poor connections, lack of content, and the list could go on. as the biola library moves towards reopening amid an uncertain world, we are eager to find improved ways to support our distance education students. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 2 6 special forum: distance learning distance learning at the general theological seminary by melissa chim the general theological seminary is located in the heart of chelsea in new york city. the seminary is fortunate enough to keep classes very small, and as the reference librarian i am able to know all of the students by name. the library plays an integral role in upholding the seminary’s sense of community. this proved challenging with the onset of the coronavirus, which required faculty and staff to work from home and hold classes via zoom. however, with the seminary’s introduction of a new online doctor of ministry program, discussions around distance learning had already happened before the changes brought by the pandemic. additionally, as a student who attended my mlis course completely online while working, my experiences have inspired me to serve both as a reference librarian and archivist to students at a distance. i aim to provide services to remote students with a three-pronged approach: webinars, online communication tools, and library guides. webinars as an mlis student, i chose to pursue a concentration in both academic librarianship and archives. while taking courses online, i was also able to get hand-on experiences in archives through my internships in local historical societies. however, my current and future online students at the seminary may not have the same opportunity to come visit our special collections as often as they would like. women’s history month was the perfect time to celebrate the history of women at the seminary, and i coordinated with the library’s manager, the academic deans, alumni relations, and many other departments to construct a webinar for the end of march 2020. our archives hold a wealth of information regarding the first female students, and this webinar was able to bring the rich resources of special collections to students in the comfort of their own homes. at the beginning of this project, i used the remaining days i had working physically in the library to collect copies of relevant photographs and institutional publications. i collected graduation photos, particularly those of the first female students from the class of 1974, peggy muncie and paige bigelow, and materials related to famous activist pauli murray and christian education pioneer professor doris p. chaplin. i also gathered board meeting minutes from as early as 1917, which revealed that grace amelia littel served as interim librarian without being afforded the title. i framed these experiences into the context of women as a whole in the episcopal church and encouraged female students and faculty members to share their own stories. next, various departments helped me in advertising my webinar through our seminary newsletter and by posting flyers through high traffic areas, such as the refectory and dormitories. i organized all of my findings into a powerpoint and broadcast it via zoom, giving students and faculty the opportunity to submit questions and feedback live. ultimately, the webinar’s success was due to timing. in lieu of the regular academic advising hour taking place each wednesday, the deans gave faculty and their advisees permission to attend my webinar instead. i had thirty participants in total, which reflects more than half of the current student body. melissa chim is reference librarian at general theological seminary. s p e c i a l f o r u m • d i s t a n c e l e a r n i n g a t t h e g e n e r a l t h e o l o g i c a l s e m i n a r y     2 7 in order for future students to have access to this webinar, the library plans to upload the mp4 to its website. one challenge to consider before creating future webinars is the platform. i was the only participant to have both audio and video. students and faculty who wanted to join in the discussion were limited to using the chat function, which resulted in unformatted blocks of text. for future webinars, i intend to work with the registrar in structuring these presentations as one would an online class. this will allow all participants to be able to use both audio and video, which will strengthen their sense of community and engagement. online communication tools communicating with students is an essential component of being a reference librarian, and often remote students express feeling cut off from the library while away from campus. this is especially true in the weeks leading up to final exams when the writing center (of which i am the manager) is inundated with questions regarding citations and formatting. our library has recently started to implement a live chat function on our webpage in addition to answering questions by email and phone. in my experience, i have found that my students are overall more comfortable contacting me by email than through the live chat. on average, i may receive one message through the live chat during the day, compared to dozens of emails from students. the chats i receive are usually easy to answer queries, such as what the library’s hours are and if a student can renew a book. my students feel much more comfortable asking more in-depth questions via email, such as asking for help in finding sources and how to construct strong thesis statements. as we welcome more distance learning students in the future, i expect to see an increase in the amount of live chat questions i receive. the library advertised our live chat function by campuswide email, but as our student body grows we may explore other options, such as advertising in the weekly newsletter. curating a stronger social media presence, especially on instagram and twitter, will also be beneficial for communication and increasing the visibility of the special collections. fortunately, i am able to stay connected to the student body and continue providing reference services using these virtual resources. library guides in lieu of an in-person tour of the library, i compiled a library guide for the incoming doctor of ministry students and a separate guide for ma students. they are comprehensive instruction manuals on how to use the library, ranging from how to register as a patron to how to submit their thesis. although directions for accessing the collections are the same for both sets of students, the requirements for the thesis differ in length. the guides are in a pdf format and will be located on the resources section of our website. i paid the most attention to crafting sections on how to access our collections and other important resources remotely. our library is fortunate enough to have access to a wide range of e-books through our catalog. in my guides, i added step-by-step instructions with screenshots on how to access these books through our catalog and how to subsequently create accounts for proquest and ebsco. additionally, i included information on the atla reciprocal borrowing program. i hope to make these guides helpful for both on-campus students and students at a distance. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 2 8 as the general theological seminary welcomes more remote students, i plan to develop libguides on subjects related to theology, history, and philosophy. due to budget restraints, we may not be able to afford a traditional libguide platform. however, i may pursue nontraditional platforms such as creating online resource guides through google docs and sharing them with the student body. conclusion serving students at a distance presents both opportunities and challenges for the general theological seminary. the library is an essential resource for both remote and on-campus students. the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of a new online program allowed us to consider how to best reach students who are away from campus. as the reference librarian, my approach to serving remote students is to provide webinars, online communication, and library guides. my goals for the future are to provide more web-based services and to increase the library’s online presence while bringing visibility to the special collections. consequently, the library will continue to be an integral component of both the online and virtual general theological seminary campus. 60 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org crash course in library services to people with disabilities ann roberts and richard j. smith. crash course in library services to people with disabilities. santa barbara, ca/denver, co/oxford, england: libraries unlimited, 2010. 159 pp. $30.00. paperback. isbn: 9781591587675. despite the unfortunate words “crash course,” crash course in library services to people with disabilities begins by explaining its title. patrons with various physical or mental challenges are not “disabled people,” which makes the disability the most important thing, but people who have or suffer from disabilities. the authors spend the introduction and the first part of chapter 1 on this point. seeing these individuals as persons first and foremost is an important ingredient in providing successful library services to these patrons. the book aims to provide practical information and resources to libraries that lack services for patrons with disabilities, partly by using the work of some libraries as models. there are six chapters. the first two cover general topics and issues related to serving patrons with disabilities. chapters 3-5 concern specific services to different populations, and a concluding chapter summarizes the book. an appendix provides information on resources for libraries, and a second appendix offers sample forms for libraries to use. in the first chapter, “taking stock,” the authors first challenge librarians to examine their attitudes toward people with disabilities. next, the authors go straight into planning for library services to people with disabilities. the chapter covers a wide array of topics, including legal and related matters, such as the requirements of the americans with disabilities act and the american library association’s policy regarding services for people with disabilities. it offers specific descriptions of issues for libraries in terms of collections, services, accommodations, etc. there are many specific suggestions about, for instance, the appropriate width of library doors and the conditions under which a service animal may be excluded from the library. chapter 2, entitled “learn by example,” covers a wide array of topics paired with good library examples to follow. it begins with a discussion of where to get statistics to build the case for making a library more accessible, including the decennial census long form. this is followed by several other topics, and for most of them the authors describe a library as an example of the recommendation. for example, when describing the idea of “in-home library services,” the book presents the chelsea district library in chelsea, mi, which offers several programs for seniors and home delivery service. the authors then consider how to market in-home library services and the necessary screening process for employees and volunteers who are involved in providing these services. in an abrupt change of subject, which is common in this book, the authors talk about the desires of those with disabilities to have video games that are accessible. after several paragraphs, the authors state that librarians who are seeking to engage this population can offer gaming as attractive programming, including “wii-habilitation.” turning to a topic relevant to almost all libraries, chapter 3 looks at “assistive technology and total access.” the authors introduce technology issues for those with disabilities. this is followed by a description of the “alliance for technology access,” a network of individuals and organizations that address such issues. the authors offer considerations for communicating the availability of services, preparing the facility, and ensuring that access to the programs and services of the library is fair, equitable, and “should not, even unintentionally, screen out people with disabilities” (52). considering technology more specifically, the book stresses the need for library computers to be usable by people with vision, hearing, dexterity, or other limitations. a key component of assistive technology is having staff and volunteers who understand how to use the technology. the chapter includes several self-assessment tests and forms to use in dealing with gaps. next the authors discuss library website accessibility, including specific standards and tests to see how well a site measures up to the standards. as a “pragmatic approach,” the book considers the necessary balance between current needs of patrons, available resources, and anticipated needs of potential users. concerning library computers, this reviewer has experienced multiple academic libraries with computers that are “locked” so that screen resolution, 61 critical review: crash course in libraries theolib.org mouse pointer size, and other factors are not adjustable, either by the patron or by the library staff, and that would be problematic for patrons with certain disabilities. it is why the authors recommend having at least one workstation that offers assistive technologies for patrons with varying needs. the chapter ends with a list of several common assistive technologies in libraries, from magnifying glasses to computer software and hardware. chapter 4, “services to baby boomers and older adults,” begins by giving reasons that local libraries should be courting older adults, especially the millions of baby boomers who want to stay active. following a brief treatment of the changes that occur as adults age past fifty, the authors offer (ala) guidelines for providing library and information services to older adults. some of the recommendations relate to assistive technologies covered in chapter 3. the authors give particular attention to computer training for older adults and library websites, especially web 2.0 social media. some of these are simple, such as using 12or 14-point fonts for body text on web pages. the book frequently points to good examples, and for this point it offers http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/senior. several pages are devoted to offering (electronic) games, such as the wii, as part of library programs for senior adults. some academic libraries have embraced offering the wii for the student body, but indiana state university at terre haute also seeks to engage seniors in the community with the wii. the chapter also offers programming ideas to improve the physical and mental health of senior adults, and describes options for the blind such as audio books. the last major subject covered in the book is “library services to persons with mental and learning disabilities” (chapter 5). the chapter offers a brief introduction to these illnesses, but urges those with a regular patron with such a condition to get additional help. it also covers recommendations for offering services to the homeless, who may or may not have mental disabilities. libraries increasingly have to deal with the homeless. therefore, libraries need to develop policies that are fair to all, and the library staff should be trained in how to interact with the homeless. there is also a section on providing library services to people with dementia. the authors also describe the symptoms of various mental illnesses such as panic disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and learning disabilities, such as dyslexia and adhd. the three-page chapter 6, “summing it all up,” does exactly that, repeating the essential issues covered in preceding chapters. this book is indeed a “crash course,” as it begins by giving a variety of tips without any meaningful context or any apparent logical order. chapter 1 is more like a “frequently asked questions” web page than a structured approach to this subject. readers may want to read chapters 2-5 and then come back to chapter 1 again, once they have more information to use in understanding what the authors suggest. one of the issues that the book touches on is that having services and technology in place does not mean that people with disabilities will know about them or use them. as the reviewer has seen, if a patron who needs accessibility services that are not available comes into the library, there is not much a librarian can do. so, as the authors urge, librarians need to anticipate their patrons’ current and potential needs and plan to meet those needs. this book will be helpful primarily to librarians in public libraries, which serve a wide array of patrons. academic and special libraries are less likely to encounter many of these issues. for librarians in these types of libraries, chapters 1 and 3 will be of most help. the book would have been a better resource if it had addressed more issues that are relevant to all libraries or that are particularly significant in academic and special libraries. theological libraries will find chapter 1 helpful in planning and chapter 3 and, to some extent, chapter 4 useful as well. chapter 3 offers them recommendations for making the collection more accessible to persons with various disabilities, and this is relevant with the beginning of chapter 4 on serving senior adults. both students and clergy may need assistive technology due to impaired vision, not least from aging, or other physical challenges. this need could be especially acute if patrons need to access concordances or resources related to greek, hebrew, aramaic, or other ancient languages, as these tools generally use very small fonts. overall, the book is helpful in providing pointers to resources to help libraries address the needs of persons with disabilities and for information and resources for such patrons. kenneth d. litwak azusa pacific university, azusa, ca http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/senior 4 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org web review: the association of religion data archives (arda) http://www.thearda.com by shaneé yvette murrain the association of religion data archives (arda) is an essential access point for quantitative data sets on religion. founded as the american religion data archive in 1997 and going online in 1998, the initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in american religion. the target audience and data collection have greatly expanded since 1998, now including american and international collections and developing features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers. the site, which is freely accessible, aggregates data from a wide variety of sources, covering a range of subjects, from congregational statistics to basic religious profiles for countries worldwide. data included in the arda are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the united states, including the public religion research institute (prri), pew research center, portraits of american life study (pals), national studies of youth and religion (nsyr), and u.s. census bureau research data center. users can view reports, maps, and charts, or download raw data files for analysis with statistical software. while some international data sets are available, the greatest strength of the arda is its collections of data on religion in the united states. the search feature is excellent and provides intuitive results. for example, a basic search of “quakers” returned results organized by relevance ranking, listing matches in each of the primary resource categories. included in the results were religious membership reports for all 50 states, citations of both “quakers” and “friends” from the sociology of religion searchable bibliographic database, and denominational profiles (evangelical friends alliance, friends general conference, rocky mountain yearly meeting of the friends church). latest available map data reported from 2000 do seem a bit dated, however. each report in the archive begins with brief biographical and historical information about the denomination, data sources, important variables in data collection, and notes about how members are counted. the data source on quakers, for example, comes from the 2010 u.s. religion census: religious congregations & membership study (rcms), a county-by-county enumeration of religious bodies in the united states published (since 1990) by the association of statisticians of american religious bodies (asarb). the study is an update of the 1952, 1971, and 1980 studies originally done by the national council of churches and the glenmary research center. the county-level detail of the asarb study expands the u.s. census research data center’s national-level detail. the top of the arda homepage features an image menu with four featured “research centers”: the learning center, religion research hub, the press room, and congregational resource center. the navigation tabs with drop-down menus across the top of the page are duplicated in the main body of the page including lists of links and multiple search boxes. while this duplication provides alternative means of getting around and discovering resources, the visual clutter can be a bit overwhelming, detracting from the overall appeal of the site. one can browse arda files by category, alphabetically, view the newest additions, most popular files, or search for a file. selecting a report entitled “cross-national socio-economic and religion data, 2005” from the cross-national section under the international surveys and data category includes a preview of the survey results. the funding source, collection and sampling procedures, principal investigators, and variable information are outlined in addition to an option to search the entire report by phrase or keyword. users are required to agree to conditions of usage and copyright before downloading data files. shaneé yvette murrain is reference and public services librarian at duke divinity school library, durham, north carolina. http://www.thearda.com 5 columns: the association of religion data archives theolib.org one exceptional feature of the archive is the “question bank,” which allows users to develop their own questionnaires. users can also create categories for maintaining groups of questions for future use. of special interest for the study of american religion are the denominational family trees under the “religious groups” tab. the most recent membership data and quick fact information for a “family member” (highlighted in red) appears in a new dialog window when selected. interactive gis maps provide demographic and geographic information on religious groups and congregations across the united states by zip code, address, or other place of interest. users are able to customize reports on religious adherence data down to the county level to reveal relationships, beliefs, and membership trends over a particular time span. the arda’s interactive gis maps are powered by social explorer, an online research tool distributed by oxford university press. (social explorer was named “outstanding reference source” by the ala’s reference and user services association [rusa] in 2010.) in addition to visually interpreted population densities and quantities, users are able to download variable details and reports from sources such as the u.s. census bureau and the interuniversity consortium for political and social research. as alluded to earlier, one criticism of the arda is the site’s usability and visual inconsistency. though the arda immediately demonstrates its value to the user, the site is plagued by imbalanced images, text, and multiple and varied points of entry that can be overwhelming to the first-time user. the site lacks a sense of professional cohesiveness, organization, and intuitive navigation one would expect from a modern website. another disappointing aspect of the arda is its limited international data. though useful, currently available content tends to be limited to country and regional profiles, encyclopedic descriptions of religious groups, and maps on various social and political indicators. despite these criticisms, the time spent getting familiar with and using the arda is well worth the reward of discovering standardized data that are transparent and well cited, especially for the study of religion in the united states. the data archive assists users with collecting quantitative data providing a context for placing such questions as prevalence, growth/ decline, and intensity of religious belief. the numbers reported in arda profiles, maps, and reports constitute broad cultural categories, demographic characteristics, social and political views, and beliefs and practices, which undergird the importance of sources for theological research, teaching, and service. 28 essay an open access source for the study of religion and the law: the proceedings of the old bailey: london’s central criminal court 1674-1913 by fred guyette fred guyette is reference and government documents librarian at mccain library, erskine college and seminary, due west, south carolina. abstract: the work of theological librarians is in a state of rapid flux as collections of digitized texts become more widely available, and as theological education continues to shift from paper to a more electronic research environment. the proceedings of the old bailey, london 1674-1913 is a rich collection of court records, now freely available on the world wide web (http://www.oldbaileyonline.org). the study of a small, but meaningful selection of texts from the obp shows how theological librarians can use this resource to advance the conversation between religion and law. five examples are offered to indicate how this might be done. when has there ever been a more exciting time to be a theological librarian? thanks in large part to the world wide web, we have more texts available for research, more sources for indexing and abstracting, and more people with whom we can form creative partnerships than ever before. for example, theological librarians and religious historians have good reason to embrace each other as natural allies. they share an interest in helping students gain access to primary historical texts, and in teaching them how to evaluate these texts in a critical way.� many scholars in religious and theological research are astonished to find out just how alive these primary documents can be.� thus, when a remarkable historical resource becomes available online at no cost to the user, it is worth bringing to the attention of theological librarians and historians of religion alike. a recent fine example is the proceedings of the old bailey: london’s central criminal court 1674-1913,� a digitized version of contemporary published accounts of trials at this famous london courtroom. the website contains a wealth of information about the proceedings and essays on the historical context in which trials at the old bailey took place. especially worth noting is the essay on “the value of the proceedings as a historical source,”� of particular usefulness for librarians/teaching faculty who want to provide illustrations of the critical evaluation of source material. in short, there is enough information available on the web site to allow even a novice in the field of british legal history to make judicious use of this resource. five examples drawn from this archive of legal texts illustrate how librarians and religious historians might use them to advance a conversation on the historical relationship between religion and law.� (�) inquiring about something as commonplace as the relationship between catechisms and truth-telling in court can lead to questions about traditional forms of christian education and the challenges it faces today in liberal democratic societies. (�) cases involving mental illness, such as the trial of john wright, shed light on the shifting boundaries between law, � marcus c. robyns, “the archivist as educator: integrating critical thinking skills into historical methods instruction.” american archivist 6�:� (fall/winter �00�), p. �6�-�9�. samuel s. wineburg, “historical problem solving: a study of the cognitive processes used in the evaluation of documentary and pictorial evidence” journal of educational psychology �99�, v. 8�, no. �, p. 7�-8�. � jane e. hicks, “‘i wasn’t prepared for the emotion’: archival research in religious and theological studies” teaching theology & religion february �00�, v. 6, no. �, p. ��-�7. � http://www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk/index.jsp; the project is a result of collaboration between the open university and the universities of hertferdshire and sheffield. see guy gugliotta, “digitizing the hanging court” smithsonian, april, �007, pp. 66-7�. � http://www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk/static/value.jsp � winnifred fallers sullivan, “using legal materials in teaching religion” teaching theology and religion �000, v. �, no. �, pp. ��-��. 29 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 psychology, and religion. (�) liberal traditions protecting freedom of speech make it unlikely that anyone today would be prosecuted simply on account of their religious commitments. at the old bailey, however, important cases were tried in which religious speech was interpreted as treason. trial records in such cases can lead to greater appreciation for what roland bainton calls “the long travail of religious liberty.” (�) three cases involving jews as plaintiffs can help students develop greater awareness about the history of religious toleration, and how important it is for communities of faith to be able to cross the gulf from alienation to neighborliness and mutual respect. (�) the genre known as “last dying confessions,” records the words of condemned persons as they addressed the crowds gathered to witness their executions. these documents can be used as catalysts for discussing the meaning of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. “have you learned your catechism?” when children were called to the old bailey as witnesses the overall picture of christian education in reformation england has been described by fredrica thompsett as a complex tapestry involving (�) hearing, reading, and studying scripture, (�) learning the creed, the lord’s prayer, and the ten commandments, and (�) participating in divine services meant to encompass the whole of a person’s life.6 ian green’s study, the christian’s abc: catechism and catechizing in england ca. 1530-1740, describes in further detail how the edwardian catechism was embraced by elizabeth i and incorporated into the ���9 book of common prayer.7 in this official version, the catechism consisted of just thirteen questions and answers, and it took up only seven pages. revised in �60�, more thorough teaching on the sacraments was included, and it grew to fourteen pages. those who learned about the christian faith through the catechism probably ranged from five to about thirty years of age. it was a flexible form of christian education that might be used to instruct young people in church, at school, or at home. soon many other catechisms were being composed apart from the aegis of the church of england, and these also began to flourish. alexander nowell’s catechism, for example, was warmly received by university students, and was noted for the attention it devoted to each of the ten commandments.8 whenever a young person was called into the old bailey as a witness, it was common for the judge to ask whether he had been taught some form of the catechism. an affirmative answer was taken to mean that the witness had a basic understanding of the ninth commandment, and knew that “bearing false witness” was contrary to divine law as well as human statute. three documents from the old bailey give a sense of how children were likely to answer when asked in court about their understanding of the relationship between christian faith and telling the truth. a case from �78� involves a nine year-old boy who had been left in charge of a shop by his father. while the father was absent, a watch was stolen from the shop. the judge was none too pleased that the father had left such a young child with the responsibility of running the place entirely on his own. before accepting testimony from the boy, the judge wanted to determine whether he was mature enough in judgment to testify: court to [boy]... how old are you little boy? nine years and four months. 6 fredrica thompsett, “godly instruction in reformation england: the challenge of religious education in the tudor commonwealth” in john h. westerhoff iii and o.c. edwards, jr. (eds.), a faithful church: issues in the history of catechesis (wilton: morehouse-barlow, �98�) p. �8�-�9�. 7 ian green, the christian’s abc: catechism and catechizing in england ca. 1530-1740, (oxford: clarendon press, �996). 8 william paul haugard, “john calvin and the catechism of alexander nowell” archiv für reformationsgeschichte �970, v. 6�, no. �, p. �0-66. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 30 volume �, number � • december �008 have you learned your catechism? yes. have you ever heard the nature of an oath upon the bible? yes. do you know the consequence of speaking falsely and telling a lye afterwards? going to the devil.9 “going to the devil” or some variation on this answer is very common in the records of the court. e. p. thompson laments that such statements are signs that children could be subjected to “the worst kind of emotional bullying to confess their sins and come to a sense of salvation.”�0 by �8��, however, it was becoming much more common for children to be advised in a more serene manner that they should “be ready to meet jesus,” rather than that they should tremble in fear of divine retribution.�� a second case, from �78�, shows that the court might also ask about other forms of christian teaching. stephen self came before the court to be tried for the murder of william ringrose, his servant. neighbors testified that self withheld food from the young man and often beat him. another witness was even closer to the facts of the case. john moss had worked right alongside the deceased. moss, however, was only thirteen years old. before receiving the testimony of moss, the judge inquired of him as follows: to john moss, the deceased’s fellow apprentice. how old are you? – thirteen years of age. who made you? – god. can you say your catechism? – yes. can you say the lord’s prayer? – yes. repeat it. – [repeats the lord’s prayer.] if you don’t tell the truth, where will you go when you die? –to the devil. what book is that, look at it? 9 old bailey proceedings, trial of john thomas. �0 e. p. thompson, the making of the english working class (london: gollancz, �96�), p. ���-���. �� mary clare martin, “relationships human and divine: retribution and repentance in children’s lives, �7�0-�870”, in kate cooper and jeremy gregory (eds.) retribution, repentance, and reconciliation (rochester: ecclesiastical history society), p. ���-�6�, and christopher tolley, domestic biography: the legacy of evangelicalism in four nineteenth century families (oxford: clarendon, �997), p. �-��. 31 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 – a testament. court. swear him, [he is sworn.] �� so, in an effort to emphasize the court’s need for reliable testimony, in just a few minutes the judge was able to invoke four elements of christian teaching as they might encourage truth-telling: the catechism, the lord’s prayer, the threat of divine judgment, and an oath made while touching the bible itself. a less serious case gives us something of a reverse image—a judge losing patience with a father who had not taken the time to teach the catechism to his son. the accused was said to have stolen some cloth and weaving supplies from the loom of a mr. brown, and now brown’s son was called upon to give evidence. q. to brown. do you understand the nature of an oath? have you learned your catechism? brown, the father, answers, that his son was not book-learned. court. what is the reason you do not teach your children their catechism, &c. the neglect of childrens education, is the occasion of half our business here... �� what can we glean from studying these appeals to “knowledge of the catechism?” westerhoff and murphy are among the contemporary religious educators who have been critical of “indoctrination” and rote learning in christian education.�� they emphasize instead that the rituals and symbols of liturgy are the best form of education for christians – in short, that “liturgy is education.” however, when english judges asked children whether they had learned their catechism, they had the advantage of being able to depend on assumptions about shared values which were rooted in explicitly religious instruction. it was apparently difficult for the court to trust young witnesses, even in the catechism-shaped eighteenth century, but shared assumptions about truth-telling are even harder to come by today in more secularized societies. in light of such difficulties, craig dykstra and elmer john thiessen have called for renewed emphasis on catechisms as a way to help young people acquire the basics of a religious vocabulary, the better to grow in faith and moral judgment.�� even so, there are good reasons for being critical of religion when it is used primarily as a means for social control.�6 the social control approach to religion views it as an ideological construct, valuable to elites chiefly as a way to impose on others something that they value more than religious faith itself – in this case, law and order. that does sometimes seem to be the role envisioned for religion by england’s courts, especially in the case where brown was taken to task for failing to teach the catechism to his son. learning to recognize the subtle ways in which religion can be “used” to advance such agendas is not always easy. the prophets remind us that the life of faith, as it is lived �� obp, trial of stephen self. for others, however, the oath itself could be problematic. see edwina newman, “ ‘children of light and sons of darkness’: quakers, oaths, and the old bailey proceedings in the eighteenth century” quaker studies �007, v. ��, no. �, p. 7�-88. �� obp, trial of thomas oakes. �� john westerhoff, “liturgics and catechetics”, worship 6�.6 (�987), p. ��0-��6, and debra dean murphy, “worship as catechesis: knowledge, desire, and christian formation”, theology today �8.� (�00�), p. ���-���. �� craig dykstra, “youth and the language of faith”, religious education 8�.� (�986), p.�6�-�8�, and elmer john thiessen teaching for commitment: liberal education, indoctrination & christian nurture (leominster: gracewing, �99�). �6 rodney stark and william sims bainbridge, religion, deviance, and social control. (new york: routledge, �996). randall mcgovern, ““he beareth not the sword in vain”: religion and the criminal law in eighteenth century england”, eighteenthcentury studies �� (�987), p. �9�-���. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 32 volume �, number � • december �008 from the “inside,” grows by a logic of its own, and can lead us to experiences of social transformation that are not altogether exhausted by “social control” explanations.�7 rebuking unclean spirits: the case of john wright by today’s standards, john wright would probably be declared incompetent to stand trial. he came before the court on june �8, �7�8, because he had written a threatening note to william dolley.�8 wright’s note demanded thirty pounds from dolley, which he believed was only a small portion of the gold the prosperous ironmonger must have “hidden” in his home. if dolley did not comply, wright promised that he and his desperate “accomplices” would come and burn down his house. dolley was alarmed and hurried to inform the constable. wright had been easily apprehended before the threat could be carried out. “insanity is defined by experts but discovered by laymen,” says michael macdonald.�9 in �7�8, there were few recognized experts who might come to wright’s defense. nevertheless, wright’s friends were called to speak on his behalf. the first was william cruikshank, who testified that in the two years he had known wright, he had often seen him in a deep melancholy. wright’s family had never baptized him, because they were quakers, and consequently he feared that god had abandoned him. wright had finally been baptized and received his first holy communion in �7��. this seemed to settle his unquiet mind for a while, but soon his melancholy returned. since then he had tried to take his own life on two occasions, by drowning and by hanging. cruikshank added that he believed the “accomplices” referred to in the note could only be imaginary. next came rachel bamfield, wright’s aunt. bamfield remarked that wright’s disorder afflicted several other members of their family, including his father and a sister, who was now confined. mary telford followed, and she described the frightening episodes that came over wright as “flights,” during which he had been known to wander away for days at a time. one of these flights had come over him recently, and she had temporarily succeeded in calming him down by singing him “a verse from the ��8th psalm.” psalm ��8:7 would certainly have fit wright’s situation: “though i walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me... thy right hand shall save me.”�0 robert forest also testified about wright’s fevered search for the assurance of faith. forest had counseled him to “mind his duty to god, and not to concern himself so much about sacred things.” another friend, ivel northam, had allowed wright to stay in his home. northam, too, had seen evidence of the prisoner’s troubled mind. he had heard wright say, “is it not better for me to leave off all religion than to be such a scandal to it as i am?” finally, richard gardiner addressed the court. he told of a time in which wright’s unsettled state of mind had led him to seek out roman catholic priests, with the intention of hearing what they had to say about “transubstantiation and the infallibility of the church.” whether wright meant to dispute with them or merely to listen is hard to tell from gardiner’s testimony. �7 h. richard niebuhr’s discussion of f. d. maurice and “christ as the transformer of culture,” is a reflection on the possibility that the christian faith might also inspire prophetic actions that lead to profound changes in social practice. h. richard niebuhr, christ and culture (new york: harper & row, �9��), p. ��8-��9. �8 obp, trial of john wright. �9 michael macdonald, mystical bedlam: madness, anxiety and healing in seventeenth-century england. cambridge: cambridge university press, �98�) p. ���. see also dana y. rabin, “searching for the self in eighteenth-century english criminal trials, �7�0-�800” eighteenth-century life �7.� (�00�), p. 8�-�06. �0 donald capps, “biblical models in pastoral counseling”, pastoral psychology �980, v. �8, no. �, p. ���-�6�; patrick miller, “the psalms and pastoral care” reformed liturgy and music �990, v. ��, no.�, p. ���-���. 33 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 it is remarkable that wright had so many friends willing to speak on his behalf. it is easy to imagine that they loved him, but also that they were completely exasperated by his bizarre behavior. they had done their best to give him wise counsel, and they did not forsake him when he needed them. what more could they have done? the court appears to have been unmoved by their testimony, however, and the last word in the record of his trial is the sentence of death. some interpreters may feel certain that a psychological critique of religion, one thoroughly rooted in suspicion, would hold the key to wright’s recovery. as wright himself wondered, would it not have been better for him to abandon his religious seeking altogether? freud’s book, the future of an illusion stands as one important landmark for that kind of interpretation.�� however, a very different tradition, one open to the depths of religious truth, harkens back to jesus’ healing of the demon-possessed man in the fifth chapter of mark. the balance of that man’s mind was restored, not by his determination to establish his own autonomy, nor by some kind of “adjustment” or resignation to his fate, but by a form of healing in which christ freed him from the powers of darkness.�� religious offences against the king and the travail of religious liberty under queen elizabeth i, a series of laws were passed with the intention of discouraging anyone in england from practicing roman catholicism. in the obp, such cases can be searched for under the category known as “religious offences against the king.” in �680, william russel, henry starky, charles parry, and alexander lunsden were sentenced to be drawn, hanged, and quartered, because they had “several times administred according to their priestly function, the sacraments, and also confessed and absolved... and had received chalices, oyl-pots, and several other trinkets belonging to the alter...”�� another priest, mark anthony de la port, received a sentence of “perpetual imprisonment” for performing a catholic marriage in �7�0. mary evans testified that she was present at this ceremony, and though “she did not understand french nor latin... she saw the form of a marriage... the ceremony of the ring, joyning of hands, &c. and witnessed the certificate.”�� under the same body of law, the court could also pass judgment on very small sects. in �677, lodowick muggleton, founder of the “muggletonians,” was brought before the court. muggleton and one of his followers believed they were appointed as the last two representatives of god on earth: ...and that they had absolute and irrevocable power to save and damn whom they pleas’d; to which end one call’d himself the blessing, the other the cursing prophet. and the said reeves dying some years since, muggleton pretends [that reeve’s] spirit was left with him, and the whole power of witnessing, blessing, and cursing, devolved into his hands, which he as impiously practised upon the least affront or opposition; pronouncing persons damn’d by their particular names, blasphemously adding, that god, angels, or men could not afterwards save them.�� the penalty meted out to muggleton included three days in the public pillory, the burning of his books, and a fine of five hundred pounds. �� sigmund freud, the future of an illusion (new york: liveright, �9�7). �� gail r. o’day, “hope beyond brokenness: a markan reflection on the gift of life”, currents in theology and mission �988, v. ��, no. �, p. ���-���. �� obp, trial of lionel anderson et al. �� obp, trial of mark anthony de la port. �� obp, trial of lodowick muggleton. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 34 volume �, number � • december �008 in �8��, james clark was arrested for selling a book that made “wicked, scandalous, and blasphemous” claims against the bible, the christian religion, and the lord jesus christ. the court’s indulgence of clark’s defense is somewhat curious. he was allowed to go on speaking for five hours, during which time “he ridiculed most of the prophecies and miracles contained in the holy scriptures, and made the most indecent and shocking reflections upon the characters of the prophets and apostles.”�6 at the end of his speech, clark was sentenced to three years in prison. roland bainton refers to such cases as episodes in “the long travail of religious liberty.”�7 we tend to forget that progress in establishing freedom of religion often comes about as a result of someone standing up in court for the sake of conscience. john locke is one important voice in that story. locke’s version of toleration is based on a quiet respect for the innermost convictions of others: if a roman catholic believe that to be really the body of christ which another man calls bread, he does no injury thereby to his neighbour. if a jew do not believe the new testament to be the word of god, he does not thereby alter anything in men’s civil rights. if a heathen doubt of both testaments, he is not therefore to be punished as a pernicious citizen.�8 richard john neuhaus is an advocate for a different model of pluralism and toleration, a “noisy public square” in which religious partisans are continually preaching at one another. who among us does not sometimes grow weary of so many conflicting voices? upon reflection, however, we might conclude that a public space, one in which churches function as mediating structures for voices of participation and dissent, is better than the totalitarian alternatives which have caused so much suffering in the last one hundred years. �9 can strangers become friends? when jews came into the old bailey important facts concerning a case of theft in �8�� were provided by a witness named moses ansell. the stolen items were sorely missed because they were used in worship by the jewish synagogue in duke’s place: on the night of the �0th of december last, the synagogue was broken open—a window was taken out; there is a place in the synagogue which we call the ark, in which we keep the books of the law, and the valuable instruments for ordinary use—the silver pointer was in the ark, and the books of the law are adorned with silver ornaments; the ark has two locks to it, both of which were broken there was a copper box with money in it in the pulpit; that was also broken—the silver pointer, which we read the law with, was stolen, and some silver bells taken off the books of the law—six rollers, which were attached to the pentateuch; they were ornamented with bells, which were also taken away; the book of the law was cut from them and left behind.�0 almost a hundred years earlier, in �7�8, there had been a similar case of theft. in this case, too, the missing objects used in worship had been carefully accounted for. the clerk of the synagogue, adolphus cohen, testified �6 obp, trial of james clark. �7 roland bainton, the travail of religious liberty (new york: harper & brothers, �9�8). �8 john locke, john locke, a letter concerning toleration, in focus ed. john horton (new york: routledge, �99�), p. ��. john perry, “locke’s accidental church: the letter concerning toleration and the church’s witness to the state” journal of church & state spring �00�, v. �7, no. �, p. �69-�88. �9 richard john neuhaus, the naked public square (grand rapids: eerdmans, �98�). theodore m. kerrine and richard john neuhaus, “mediating structures: a paradigm for democratic pluralism” the annals of the american academy of political and social science �979. vol. ��6, no. �, p. �0-�8. barbara hargrove, “churches as mediating structures” theology today �9.� (�98�), p. �8�-�9�. �0 obp, trial of samuel davis. 35 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 as to the specifics. in that earlier case, however, the court appeared to be a little uncertain about the items he was describing: cohen. on the �9th of february, when i opened the synagogue, i found the key of a closet in which we put several things, and when i opened the door, i found that the poor’s box was broke open, and the money taken out; i sent for a smith to open the door of the altar, and there is a cupboard under the altar, and there were some particular things in that, which we only use on particular days, which were taken away; there was the covering of the law, the altar vails, and five pair of bells, which we put on to our laws at particular times. q. explain yourself what you mean by the laws. cohen. the five books of moses, which are wrote on parchment, and rolled up on two sticks... [the five pair of bells, the altar vails, and the covering of the law, were produced in court]. q. what are these bells called? cohen. they are called aaron’s bells.�� how did it come about that the practices of judaism required an explanation before the court in �7�8, but none was needed in the case of �8��? “the central theme of jewish history in western europe since �700,” writes todd endelman, “is the migration of the jewish people from the self-sufficient world of rabbinic tradition and corporate autonomy to the desacralized world of the modern european state.”�� in large measure, jews were drawn to london by the spirit of religious toleration embodied in john locke’s writings. in general, england’s experience with religious toleration provided the jews a safer environment than they found in most other european countries.�� even as the idea of religious toleration was gaining ground in the eighteenth century, however, a third case reveals how difficult it could be for christians and jews to live together as neighbors. rosh hashanah is the jewish observance of the new year. on october 7, �78�, moses lazarus, the son of a barber, was among a group of jewish boys who were celebrating rosh hashanah by setting off firecrackers and squibs near the synagogue. porter ridout, a distiller who lived next door to the synagogue, could stand the noise no longer. he left his house and had angry words with the boys. there was a scuffle. several of them fell to the ground, including ridout. one witness said ridout could not have been hurt badly at this point. ridout himself said that while he was on the ground, the boys stole fourteen pounds from him and threatened to take his life. ridout returned to his home. two minutes later a window in his house flew open. ridout pointed a gun in the direction of the boys. he fired the weapon. lazarus fell dead on the street. had ridout formed an intention beforehand to do violence? saul mordecai testified that bitterness against this jewish celebration had indeed been growing in ridout’s heart for many years. he had spoken openly about a plan to put a stop to the merrymaking as early as the middle of september: i have known him these twenty years, and upwards; about a fortnight or three weeks before this affair happened, i happened to go into mr. ridout’s house for some liquors, the discorse fell out about some holliday, he asked me in hebrew, what i meant to make skoke yonck of, that is, we always preserve fruit, �� obp, trial of jeremiah levi. �� todd m. endelman, the jews of georgian england 1714-1830 (philadelphia: jewish publication society, �977), p. �. �� gerald reitlinger, “the changed face of english jewry at the end of the eighteenth century”, transactions of the jewish historical society of england v. ��, p. ��-��. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 36 volume �, number � • december �008 a fruit which we never eat till that time comes, it being the new year, to make a blessing off; i told him, your time is coming on, that you think so troublesome, that is, simka sacra we call it in hebrew, it is the rejoicing of the lord, in english; i asked him, if he remembered the time that he run after a boy into the synagogue, with either a sword or cutlass, he said, he was better provided for them now, for he had a piece that would carry a ball or two now nicely; and he would take care some of them should have it among them.�� this testimony should have weighed heavily against ridout. it was not even necessary for the prosecution to prove that a crime of murder had been directed against a particular individual. if a man committed an act from which death followed, one that showed blatant disregard for the safety of others, that was just as blameworthy as targeting a specific individual. in the face of such overwhelming evidence, the jury’s verdict of “not guilty” is difficult to comprehend. ridout did have many friends come forward to testify that he was a “harmless, inoffensive man.” one the other hand, the earlier incident with the cutlass should undercut their testimony to some extent. had the jury chosen in the end to side with one of its own against a minority that they were not yet willing to accept as full-fledged neighbors? “last dying words” and the significance of confession in �679, robert foulks was convicted of murder. what made this case sensational was that foulks had been serving as minister of a church in shropshire at the time of the murder. because he was a trusted member of the clergy, foulks had been appointed guardian over a young woman. however, he seduced her and she became pregnant. he was unwilling for his parishioners to learn the truth about their affair. when the baby was about to be born, foulks lured the young woman to another town, falsely promising that he would send for a midwife when her time came. instead, he delivered the baby by himself, and quickly killed the child. he had hoped that this would prevent a scandal, but the very next day the cover-up had come unraveled and his fate was sealed—death by hanging. by today’s standards, foulks’ dying confession is unusual because of its directness and honesty.�� he does not seek to blame anyone else. there is no claim of diminished capacity. he acknowledges that he has sinned against god and man. he does not try to escape the penalty that awaits him. when the end is near, he addresses the crowd from the gallows: i thank my great god i am too conscious of my own guilt in the least to deny but that both by the laws of god and man, i have thereby forfeited that life which i am now going to lay down; [that] horrid sin was very great in it self, but yet is much aggravated being done by one of my function or calling... here are several learned and pious ministers that can in part manifest my cordial and unfeigned sorrow... i hope the great god, whose face i trust i shall in a few minutes behold, doth both see my contrition, and will through the benefits of the blood of jesus accept me for it, oh therefore i beseech you, if my ill example has disrepresented [the church], let my last penitence and dying hatred and abhorrency of so black a sin recommend her again to your practise and obedience, without which you must never expect to be happy.�6 �� obp, trial of porter ridout. �� j.a. sharpe, “ “last dying speeches”: religion, ideology and public execution in seventeenth-century england”, past and present �07 (�98�): p. ���-�67. �6 obp, trial of rob foulks. 37 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 foulks had committed a very wicked deed, and it had come about as the last in a sequence of other terrible transgressions that had preceded it. yet his last words of repentance seem to be free of hypocrisy. he gives every indication that he is earnestly seeking god’s forgiveness. it does not seem possible that he could gain any advantage on earth from such a confession. had he found the reconciliation with god promised in i john �:9? “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” conclusion perhaps such cases do not provide us with answers so much as they provoke us to question and to wonder. could it be that we know our own faith and vocation better after encountering these voices from another place and another time—the young witness who is called upon to speak the truth, the person who suffers persecution for practicing his faith, the neighbor who suffers because we remain strangers, the one who exists in some fashion “outside” the law? in a lovely little book, fiction in the archives: pardon tales and their tellers in sixteenth century france, natalie zemon davis writes about similar legal texts in the archives of france.�7 her love for these documents came about in part because of their narrative quality. we can get a sense of this in the book and the film, le retour de martin guerre / the return of martin guerre. but she alludes also to other stories, as yet untold, waiting for someone to discover them and bring them to light. the online proceedings of the old bailey provide theological librarians and others the opportunity to do just that. �7 natalie zemon davis, fiction in the archives: pardon tales and their tellers in sixteenth century france (stanford university press, �987), p. �. 54 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org religious leadership: a reference handbook sharon henderson callahan, ed. religious leadership: a reference handbook. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. 2013. 2 vols: 783 pp. $350.00. hardcover. isbn: 9781412999083. also available electronically via sage, gale, ebl, ebscohost, ebrary, and credo reference; contact vendor for pricing. religious leadership: a reference handbook, available in both print and electronic formats, is part of the sage reference series on leadership. the goals of this series are clearly stated by the editor, lucretia mcculley, a liaison librarian for leadership studies at the university of richmond. leadership studies, as a discipline, has emerged in the last twenty years by drawing “on established resources in the social sciences, humanities, and organizational management” that address this broad interest. mcculley contends that since leadership studies has typically been an interdisciplinary field, it has not had established resources devoted specifically to the topic. the handbooks from sage seek to fill this gap and to “provide a starting place for students who want an understanding of primary leadership topics within a particular discipline. each chapter covers key concepts, controversies and history, among other issues. they also introduce central figures within the discipline being covered” (xi). rl is one of a number of handbooks on the topic of leadership that sage has recently published. rl is a two-volume set that “tackles issues relevant to leadership in the realm of religion. it explores such themes as the contexts in which religious leaders move, leadership in communities of faith, leadership as taught in theological education and training, religious leadership impacting social change and social justice, and more. topics are examined from multiple perspectives, traditions, and faiths” (http://www.sagepub.com/booksproddesc.nav?prodid=book235989). the print version of the handbook is broken into six broad sections with subjects that include “the u.s. religious context” and “formal and informal leadership in spiritual and religious traditions.” in the print edition these are further broken down into subtopics. for example, part iv, “dialogue and action for the common good and peacebuilding,” encompasses the subtopic “leading action for common good” and a “spotlight” section that addresses “leaders who have shaped religious dialogue.” leaders included range from the rev. dr. martin luther king to fetullah gulen and karen armstrong. the electronic version does not include these divisions, which were helpful in navigating the table of contents and in understanding the categorizations used in the handbooks. to take a closer look at the content itself, part ii on “formal and informal leadership in spiritual and religious traditions” provides an example of material contained in rl. within this section is a chapter entitled “innovations in mainline protestant leadership” by anthony b. robinson. robinson is president of congregational leadership northwest and a senior consultant with the center for progressive renewal. this chapter briefly outlines “changes that have led to challenges for mainline protestantism while also looking ‘at a host of movements of renewal.’” the author describes seven renewal movements that are changing and affecting mainline protestantism. he asserts that the “end of north american christendom” and the “waning of modernity” represent a call that “requires learning and change, new thinking and new behavior on the part of churches and church leaders” (100-101). this chapter, like many of the others, is thoughtful and engaging. the authors and topics covered represent a wide range of perspectives on the forms that religious leadership can take throughout the world. to get a better understanding of the contributors to rl, a brief description of each is included at the beginning of volume 1. it’s hard to consider rl as a reference item without comparing the usability and navigation between the print and digital. the handbook contains a vast amount of information that is opened up with the digital version. the index for the print version is incomplete, which makes it slightly confusing to use. for example, i was interested in finding a particular faculty member who had written a chapter for this resource, and his name was not indexed in the print version. it was only found by looking through each chapter in the table of contents. also, authors that are included in the “references http://www.sagepub.com/booksproddesc.nav?prodid=book235989 55 critical review: religious leadership theolib.org and further readings” at the end of each chapter had more linked material in the digital version. for instance, when i looked for phyllis tickle in the digital version, i was linked to chapters 12 and 97. however, in the print version only the chapter 12 reference was included. when i searched for the word “prophecy” in the digital version, i received results in eleven different chapters. “prophecy” was not included in the print index at all. another advantage of the electronic is the ability to easily cite articles in any of four styles: apa, harvard, mla, or chicago. these can then be exported to seven different bibliographic managers, including common ones like endnote and refworks and surprising ones such as procite. because of these factors, plus the general climate of shrinking library budgets and a preference to purchase digital materials when available for reference, the electronic version is an easy choice. however, the collection development decisions and challenges do not stop there. rl can currently be purchased from six different sources with a choice among eight different purchase options. the sage e-book license, which was the first purchasing option made available, offers unlimited access and a perpetual license. despite these attractive features, however, licensing directly with the publisher can be time consuming. rl is also available through ybp and as part of the gale virtual reference library (gvrl). if the handbook is purchased directly from gale, it can be added to the library’s existing gvrl collection and is searchable within it. in our library’s experience, rl could not be added to gvrl retroactively after purchase directly from sage, so libraries that would prefer to make the handbook’s content available on the gale platform should investigate the available options carefully. anecdotally, many of the students (mdiv and phd) who passed by my desk while the handbook was sitting there paused to flip it open and express their interest. it easily garnered more attention than most of the items surrounding me. leadership is a topic of current interest in theological education, and rl is a unique contribution with chapters written from a number of different perspectives covering many faith traditions. whether you choose to buy the electronic or print version, it is sure to be a useful addition to your reference collection. trisha a. burr luther seminary library, st. paul, mn 43 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 peer-reviewed article daniel r. roland, ph.d. is an assistant professor in the school of library and information science at kent state university and primary researcher at the center for the study of information and religion. using sermon text archives to investigate the construction of social values: a proposal for a collaborative research agenda in social epistemology by daniel r. roland abstract: this article presents a detailed description of a research agenda and methodology inspired by jesse shera’s notion of social epistemology as the study of “the ways in which society generates new knowledge, disseminates it, and uses it to contribute to the values the society seeks.”1 the research agenda is ambitious and echoes the call that shera put forth with margaret egan that librarianship be a discipline “for the effective investigation of the whole complex problem of the intellectual processes of society.”2 the research agenda focuses on sermons as a communication medium that significantly influences the social construction of knowledge. with the advent of the world wide web and the increasing ease by which anyone may publish messages of every sort for all the world to receive and for scholars to study, egan and shera’s vision of macrocosmic bibliography and documentation is coming to fruition. the article proposes a collaborative effort between theological librarians and researchers in the field of religion and information science in order to facilitate egan and shera’s call to analyze “the production, distribution, and utilization of intellectual products [i.e., sermons] in much the same fashion as that in which the production, distribution, and utilization of material products have long been investigated” (133-134). introduction m any religious leaders were early adopters of the world wide web as a distribution and archival system for the sermons that they prepare and deliver on a regular basis. a growing number of religious leaders blog and podcast their sermons every week. many of these sermons date back as far as the mid-1990s so that many websites contain archives of several hundred sermons. these sermons are typically stored in the websites of the local congregations served by the religious leaders in one or more formats including text, audio, and video, and made available to the public. the congregational websites include links to the sermons with instructions for interested persons on how to download, open, read, listen to, or view the files. as such, these congregational websites contain a treasure trove of primary data for researchers in the areas of religion, communication, sociology, and more. this article proposes a systematic and potentially collaborative method for the collection, organization, and indexing of large volumes of these sermons and thus creating digital repositories of primary data for the facilitation of research. 1 jesse shera, libraries and the organization of knowledge (hamden, ct: archon books, the shoe string press, inc., 1966), 66. 2 margaret egan and jessa shera, “foundations of a theory of bibliography,” the library quarterly 22 (1952): 132. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 44 volume 5, number 1 •january 2012 a search of the literature indicates that what little research has been done using sermons as primary data has focused on small quantities. ethelston analyzed twenty-four sermons that spanned nearly sixty years for instances of what he called “the misguided voice” in sermons delivered by evangelical religious leaders.3 haskell, paradis, and burgoyne analyzed seventy-eight sermons all delivered on easter sunday, april 16, 2006, in the search for references to supposed challenges to the christian faith in discourses of popular culture.4 witten analyzed fortyseven sermons in order to compare how religious leaders from two different denominations within the christian faith tradition interpreted the same passage of sacred text.5 historical studies of sermons include garner’s analysis of eighteen posthumously published sermons by the sixteenth-century scottish theologian robert rollock.6 washington analyzed an unspecified number of sermons and layman’s speeches in three christian congregations located in tokyo from 1890-1917 as vehicles for social change by creating a new discursive space previously unknown in japanese culture.7 by contrast with these small data sets, the data collection and management method presented below facilitates research projects such as these and other potential research scenarios that expand the data pool by many factors of scale. the article describes a methodological approach that enables researchers to greatly expand the scope and volume of primary data collection across many variables such as time, space, gender, particular events, passages of sacred text, and religious affiliation. the sheer volume of sermons currently archived and added to the internet each week presents logistical problems for data collection and invites a collaborative effort by a network of librarians and researchers. sermons are distributed over thousands of websites, in different digital formats, and lacking a systematic filing and naming scheme. organizations such as the american theological library association (atla) and the center for the study of information and religion (csir) are logical networking nodes for collaborative efforts to standardize and systematize a pioneering research agenda in the area of information and religion. the document collection and management software the dimensions of the primary data under consideration include hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of individual documents spread over thousands, perhaps tens of thousands or more, websites. the mere collection of these documents is a daunting task. even more so is the organization and management of these documents once collected. the current author has compiled a collection of more than twenty thousand sermon texts from approximately two hundred congregational websites over the course of just two months. these sermons were prepared and delivered between the years 1996 and 2011. however, this collection is but a very small fraction of the growing number of sermons delivered in religious congregations each week. to adequately address the magnitude of the situation, a collaborative network of librarians and researchers using a shared technology platform could divide the data collection and management process by such natural divisions as faith tradition, denominational affiliation, and geographic area. 3 graham ethelston, “appraisal in evangelical sermons: the projection and functions of misguided voices,” text & talk, 29 (2009): 45-70. 4 david m, haskell, kemmeth paradis, and stephanie burgoyne, “defending the faith: easter sermon reaction to pop culture discourses,” review of religious research 50 (2008): 139-156. 5 marcia g. witten, all is forgiven: the secular message in american protestantism (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1993). 6 mark garner, “preaching as a communicative event: a discourse analysis of sermons by robert rollock (1555-1599),” reformation & renaissance review: journal of the society for reformation studies 9 (2007): 45-70. 7 garrett washington, “pulpits as lecterns: discourses of social change within tokyo’s protestant churches, 1890-1917,” japanese studies, 29 (2009): 381-399. 45 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 one potential platform is the knowledge management tool devonthink pro office.8 billed as a smart information assistant, devonthink pro office easily facilitates the collection of documents from websites, automatically converts documents for keyword searching, includes a powerful concordance tool, facilitates customized document tagging, and much more. a strong user community that includes user forums, video tutorials, faq pages, and much more supports the software. devonthink pro office is the software of choice for the current author, and its use is explained below. unfortunately, devonthink pro office only works on the apple macintosh platform. similar software products include evernote, which is available for both mac and windows platforms as well as popular mobile devices.9 evernote offers free downloads for computers, tablets, and smart phones and effortless synchronization between devices via its cloud-based platform. a more ambitious proposal would involve asksam sdk,10 a web server mounted, full-text searchable database for the facilitation of collaboration among an unlimited number of users. the data collection process the most time-consuming, labor-intensive step in the data collection process is locating congregational websites that include sermons. denominational websites often include directories of regional and state levels of organization within each denomination, which in turn often include directories of local congregations and links to congregational websites. the current author employs a graduate research assistant to conduct the initial searching of websites and to record the findings on a cloud-based spreadsheet in google docs. the urls of congregational websites found to contain sermons are recorded in the spreadsheet state by state and denomination by denomination, along with contact and demographic data regarding the author of the sermons and the location of the congregation. a simple collaborative effort might involve seminary libraries and denominational research offices creating and maintaining web-based directories of congregational websites that include sermon texts. such an effort could divide the task of initial searching into manageable portions and be of invaluable assistance to researchers in finding sermons for data collection. for example, a seminary library located in new england might commit to creating and maintaining a directory of congregational websites with sermon text archives of all congregations, or just those of a particular denomination, located in a particular state or region. other seminary libraries around the country might commit to do the same, and a list of these links could be accessible from the home pages of atla and csir. this and other collaborative proposals are presented in more detail in the conclusion of the paper. the current author and other researchers would save a great deal of time by using such directories. the method used by the current author involves copying and pasting the url of a congregational website into the devonthink pro office “import site” feature under the file menu. the download manager includes options for types of file to be imported and controls how far to drill into the website in search of sermons (see figure 1). the import function can include the entire host or subdirectories, or be limited to a single directory. a potential concern might be that of copyright regarding the sermon texts. while some clergy members include a copyright statement within their sermon texts, most do not. many of the texts do not include the name of the clergy member, nor the date of preparation and delivery, nor the location. these attributes add to the problems of data organization and retrieval. only sermons archived on publicly accessible websites are collected. the sermon 8 http://www.devon-technologies.com/ 9 www.evernote.com 10 www.asksam.com/products.asp theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 46 volume 5, number 1 •january 2012 figure 1 contents are not used by the current author in any form that misrepresents the intellectual content as belonging to anyone other than the original author. clergy members are never identified by name or location in any write-up of research findings. advantages of the data collection method. the primary advantage of the data collection system described above is the ability to access a large and growing body of primary data in a timely and efficient manner. creating an archive of sermons spanning fifteen years and representing numerous religious affiliations and geographical locations enables multiple strategies for information discovery. these strategies include such possibilities as researching sermon content on particular dates, regarding particular events and issues, or regarding particular passages of sacred text. these and additional strategies are presented in more detail below. disadvantages of the data collection method. there are several disadvantages to the data collection system described above. first, the system collects only those sermons posted to the world wide web. while increasing numbers of religious leaders are adapting the practice of posting their sermons to the web, not all do so and perhaps some never will. second, the system does not collect sermons prepared and delivered by those who do not prepare a written text. many religious leaders prepare only an outline of a sermon so that large portions of the spoken message are extemporaneous. this practice is common throughout particular denominations and faith traditions so that the data collection system described above is not representative of all denominations and faith traditions. third, the system favors data collection from the websites of congregations that belong to denominations with more organizational structure. the data collection system depends on denominational directories of organizational regions, synods, presbyteries, conferences, etc., in order to locate congregational websites. therefore, independent congregations or those only loosely affiliated with a governing body are more difficult to locate on the world wide web. 47 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 finally, the system does not currently collect sermons posted to the world wide web in an audio-visual format. more and more religious leaders and congregations are utilizing technology to create podcasts and streaming video of sermons and entire worship services. this is especially true of those denominations and faith traditions mentioned above for which a written text of a sermon is uncommon. while the data collection system can be adapted to allow for the addition of audio-visual files, the inability to search these files for keyword content discourages the expenditure of time, effort, and computer memory space to include these files at the present time. the data organization process the following section describes how the current author uses devonthink pro office to organize and analyze primary data used in research of sermons. the goal here is simply to articulate and demonstrate a particular method and thereby provide a potential starting point for discussion, collaboration, and standardization for the systematic collection, organization, and analysis of sermon documents for the sake of social epistemology. the hope is that librarians and researchers will find the following information intriguing enough to desire to enter into constructive conversations that share similarities and suggest improvements in research methodology. organization of the data in devonthink pro office begins with creating a file directory system that begins with the largest common denominators such as “religious leaders,” “denomination,” “gender,” “year,” and “location.” each of these data identifiers requires a “group” that is easily created from the “data/new/group” menu or by clicking on the “group” icon in the toolbar. the folder icons that designate groups resemble the data organization schemes in both windows and apple operating systems. within each large group, smaller groups are required for individual denominations, gender, years, and locations by country and/or state. within the “religious leaders” group, a new group folder is required for each religious leader whose sermons are collected with each group labeled by last name, first name, and the denominational affiliation of the religious leader. the sermons are imported from finder by highlighting the appropriate group folder and selecting “import: files and folders” from the file menu. changing the label on the finder file from which the sermons were imported to blue indicates that the files are within the devonthink pro office database. the second level of organization of the sermon documents requires the replication of the documents to appropriate sub-groups. the replication creates an alias of the document rather than a duplicate in order to save computer space, but any change to the original document also applies to every replication. any documents within a group for an individual religious leader that properly belong to another group should be moved before the replication process. for example, if the files imported from a congregational website are found to include sermons from more than one religious leader, you must create a separate group for each religious leader and move the appropriate documents to the proper group. the replication process begins with the selection of document files that share the least common denominator such as year, as demonstrated in figure 2. an archive of sermons may contain documents that span several years in the career of a religious leader. organizing these files by date creates a vital search feature for the database. this is also another challenging and time-consuming step in the data organization process since the various document filenames lack a universal code, but rather reflect the preferences of the document author. while many file names include a six-digit code to indicate month, day, and year or even the full spelling of the date on which the sermon was delivered, many more file names include only a sermon title or perhaps just a linear numbering system. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 48 volume 5, number 1 •january 2012 figure 2 devonthink pro office sorts documents within groups by file name, modification date, document type, and url; this feature can help in determining the delivery date of a sermon. it is also possible to search the documents for a reference to a particular delivery date or year. the next step is to select all the documents that fall within a particular date range and replicate them to the appropriate year group. this process can be repeated for as many different years as are represented by the documents in the particular religious leader group. next, all of the documents within the particular religious leader group can be selected and replicated to the appropriate groups for denominational affiliation, gender, and geographical location. once this organizational step is completed and after you select a single file, different tags or labels will appear along the bottom of the file window. these group tags facilitate boolean searching within the database in order to quickly and easily expand or narrow a search for a custom set of document files. when all the documents within a particular religious leader group are replicated to the appropriate sub-groups, the group name can be highlighted “flagged” to indicate that the replication process is complete. the information discovery process data become information when it is viewed from a particular context. the database of sermons described here allows the researcher a variety of contextual perspectives from which to view the data. the organizational scheme detailed above allows the researcher to easily view the data from the contextual perspectives of denominational affiliation, gender, geography, individual religious leader, and time. the researcher can easily narrow these rather broad perspectives by using the boolean search logic built into devonthink pro office. these contextual perspectives are presented below along with examples that illustrate how to use the various search and discovery tools within devonthink pro office. 49 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 denominational or faith affiliation. by highlighting one of the group folders labeled by denomination or faith affiliation, the researcher may search just the sermon files within that particular group by selecting the appropriate folder and entering a search term. for example, figure 3 displays findings for a search of sermons prepared and delivered by united methodist religious leaders in which the word “abortion” appears. devonthink pro office returns a weighted list of documents that contain the search term based on the number of occurrences of the word and the perceived importance of the word within the particular document. by clicking on a file name within the search return list, the document contents appear in a windowpane below the list of documents, and you can review the individual document. at the bottom of this pane is a bar that includes all of the group tags applied to the particular document. at this point, the researcher may wish to add a tag that applies just to the individual file, e.g., the sacred text passage from which the sermon is based, or a tag that designates that the sermon takes a “pro-choice position,” or a “pro-life position.” to do so, the researcher can simply click on the bar with the group tags and type the individual document tag. this tag will then appear in a list figure 3 on the left side of the computer screen in order to facilitate the easy application of the tag on additional documents by simply clicking and dragging documents to the tag. geography. does the content of sermons differ from one geographical area to another? do religious leaders in arizona speak about illegal immigration with the same frequency and message as religious leaders in wisconsin? do religious leaders in california speak about same-sex marriage with the same frequency and message as religious leaders in kansas? did religious leaders serving congregations along the gulf of mexico have more to say about theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 50 volume 5, number 1 •january 2012 the deepwater horizon oil spill than did religious leaders in the pacific northwest? such queries of this data management system lead to both quantitative and qualitative results. patterns emerge from the data that lead to the construction of theory and call for additional data to check for theory consistency. by combining the devonthink pro office database with an online survey tool, the researcher is able to quickly identify potential survey informants and take the discovery process to the next level. individual religious leader. as mentioned above, many of the sermon archives located and downloaded from congregational websites span several years in the career of a particular religious leader. this affords the researcher an opportunity to take a longitudinal view of sermon content. what patterns emerge over time in the interpretation and application of sacred texts by a single religious leader? do positions on certain issues change over time or remain the same? with such data as a starting point, the researcher could seek to explore deeper into the life of the religious leader and the congregation served by use of a case study method. what impact have the sermons of this religious leader had on the values and beliefs of congregation members? what has happened in the life and understanding of this religious leader to effect change or the lack thereof in the interpretation and application of sacred text and current issues/events? current issues or events and the smart group tool. a very helpful and time-saving tool in the devonthink pro office database is the smart group. the smart group allows the researcher to create and save a query that automatically searches the database of existing documents and all new documents during the import process to create and continually update a list of documents containing the search terms. this tool effectively saves any search string found to be useful for a particular research project and eliminates the need to repeat the search process manually and on a regular basis. perhaps the researcher is interested in references to marriage within sermons or to healthcare, the environment, 9/11, or any number of issues or events. this research method allows the researcher to quickly scan the primary data and then to drill deeper by organizing the data by date, location, denominational affiliation, and so on, in the search for patterns and concepts for theory development. sacred text passage or doctrine. the research method facilitates searching the primary data for particular passages or phrases from sacred text or in reference to particular doctrines. the researcher can use the smart group tool to create and save queries for “john 3:16,” “an eye for an eye,” “take up your cross,” “original sin,” and so on. what patterns emerge in the use of particular passages of sacred text or doctrine in relation to gender and/or denominational affiliation or over time? recurring events. religious congregation members expect their leaders to create and deliver sermons that address particular and recurring events important to the particular faith and social institution. these include but are not limited to christmas, hanukah, easter, passover, thanksgiving, mother’s day, and the fourth of july. again, the research method facilitates the comparison of sermons addressing these events by a number of variables relating to religious leaders and time. time. what did religious leaders speak about in a particular year? what was the content of sermons following a major event such as 9/11 or a particular natural disaster? when did a particular phrase such as “purpose filled life” begin to appear in sermons and spread geographically or increase/decrease in frequency over time? which resources did religious leaders cite and refer to in a particular year and what patterns emerge in citations and 51 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 references? what events or issues during a particular period received the most or least attention from religious leaders as reflected in the content of sermons? the research method facilitates the exploration of such questions and more. an example in the use of the research method from this particular perspective is described below. an example of the information discovery process as of april 6, 2011, the primary research database contained 22,006 sermons that spanned the time period from 1996 through march 2011. in order to search only those sermons prepared and delivered in 2010, the researcher first prepared a new database labeled as “sermons 2010.” within this database, he created separate groups for each of the denominations and faith traditions represented within the database. he labeled each group with the name of the denomination or faith tradition and the year 2010. the researcher then returned to the primary database and selected the tags view, clicked on the tag “2010,” and then command-clicked on the tag for a denomination or faith tradition, such as united methodist. he selected all of the document files in the list of search results and duplicated them to the sermons 2010 database and the united methodist 2010 group. after repeating this process for each of the fifteen denominations and faith traditions represented in the database, the sermons 2010 database contained 3,150 sermons, prepared by 123 different religious leaders representing 15 denominations and faith traditions. the breakdown of these documents by denomination/faith tradition and the number of religious leaders per denomination/faith tradition is found in appendixes a and b. it is important to note that the document sample is only for purposes of demonstrating the information discovery process. it is not presented as representative of all sermons prepared and delivered in 2010. browsing. by selecting concordance from the tools menu and then selecting the sermons 2010 database, the researcher is presented with a list of all the words contained in all of the sermons within the database that are at least three characters in length. the word length is easily adjusted at the bottom of the concordance window in order to focus on words longer than three characters. the concordance tool sorts the words by frequency, the number of groups in which each word appears, word length, and weight, each of which are helpful for information discovery and also for quality control. the groups column allows the researcher to look for occurrences of words that are unique to only one or just a few groups. for example, the word “achicha,” a hebrew word for “needy kinsmen,” occurs four times in three different documents in the database, but in only one group. somewhat predictably, the single group is that of the jewish faith tradition. by contrast, the word “justice” occurs 1,805 times in thirty-three groups (see figure 4). the concordance tool also provides a list of the sermons in which the word occurs. area searching. browsing the word list of the concordance can be rather time consuming so the software features a “similar” tool to assist the researcher. as demonstrated in figure 5, highlighting a word in the word list such as “forgiveness” and then clicking on the “similar” button gives the researcher a list of words weighted by their relevance to the search term, “forgiveness.” in this example, the similar words include “sin(s),” “forgive,” “forgiven,” “christ,” and others. the researcher may highlight any of the similar words, click the “search” button, and see a list of documents containing the new word. keyword searching. entering key words in the search window of the concordance accelerates the information discovery process. for example, a search for the word “clementi” reveals that only five sermons in the database mention by name the young student from rutgers university who committed suicide in 2010 after his roommate published a video on the internet showing clementi in a romantic encounter with another male student. by theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 52 volume 5, number 1 •january 2012 figure 4 figure 5 53 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 highlighting “clementi” and clicking the “similar” button, the researcher discovers that the database associated many other names and words such as “suicides,” “bullying,” “webcam,” and the names of several other young men who also committed suicide because of persecution for their sexual orientation. by using the “similar” tool, the researcher discovers four additional sermons that spoke to the situation without mentioning tyler clementi by name, but rather spoke to the “it gets better project,” a media campaign that targets troubled youth, especially gay youth suffering from bullying. by double clicking on the sermon file links to open the documents, the researcher is able to quickly see how different religious leaders spoke about this event, how immediate to or removed from the suicide occurrence they spoke about it, and to what extent and in what context. for example, in their sermons addressing this event, three religious leaders from three different denominations used the same passage of sacred text from the gospel of luke 17:11-19. this passage relates a story of jesus healing ten lepers, social outcasts because of their disease. the religious leaders speak to the tendency of many to think of homosexuality as a disease and to use that as an excuse to separate themselves from such persons as tyler clementi. however, the religious leaders compare tyler clementi to the single leper who returned to give thanks to jesus for the healing: a samaritan and therefore a man who is not just shunned because of his disease but hated by society because of who he is as a person. in contrast to the tyler clementi story, the devastating earthquakes that struck haiti and chile in 2010 received mentions in eighty-two and twenty-three sermons, respectively. the haiti earthquake in particular received sustained mentions throughout 2010 due to the subsequent outbreaks of cholera and the hurricane that struck later in the same year. while using the keyword “chile” to search the database for documents mentioning the earthquake in chile, the researcher also discovered fourteen documents referring to the chilean miners stuck underground for more than thirty days. moving from discovery to research project. the juxtaposition of these events and the disparity in the number of references in the sermons raises potential research questions: why is there such a disparity in the number of references in sermons between natural disasters and the social ostracizing of people based on sexual orientation? what is the respective level of awareness by religious leaders regarding these two situations? what are the information resources used by religious leaders that affect awareness, or the lack thereof, regarding these situations? are there extenuating circumstances that affect the decision-making process of religious leaders whether or not to address particular situations? the potential research questions naturally lead to speculation on potential answers and the awareness of need to design a survey for additional data collection in order to move beyond speculation and towards valid theory construction. conclusion and a proposal for collaboration the importance of the research method presented above is reflected in the fact that the vast number of sermons made public on numerous congregational websites represent a large body of knowledge that is largely untapped and unexamined by the academic community. these documents represent an important element in a process of knowledge construction that occurs on a regular basis throughout a rather large portion of society. from the perspective of information science, the religious leaders access data in the form of sacred text and put the data within a particular context that reflects their individual and corporate belief system according to theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 54 volume 5, number 1 •january 2012 denominational affiliation and faith tradition. this contextualization turns the sacred text data into information, which is then packaged and presented as an information product in the form of a sermon. these sermons are presented to members of religious congregations, each of whom incorporate the messages into their own personal context that affects how they understand and interpret the world and their daily existence. in other words, the sermons become a part of the individual and social knowledge base. by exploring the content of sermons across a number of variables, researchers may hope to realize shera’s dream of understanding the generation, dissemination, and use of knowledge in the construction of social values. however, even with the advent of the world wide web and computer software capable of locating and retrieving vast numbers of sermons from congregational websites, the task is too much for any one person to manage. any hope for a comprehensive and thorough project reflective of the traditional commitment and quality of the library and information science discipline requires a collaborative and networked approach. the current author envisions the creation of a special interest group (sig) focused on social epistemology and religious knowledge that would meet each year at the atla conference starting in the summer of 2013. to that end, the following steps might work as a means towards implementation: 1) interested parties contact the current author by e-mail at droland1@kent.edu. 2) the use of an online real time conferencing platform is implemented for regular meetings open to all interested parties. 3) the current author establishes and maintains a wiki site open to all interested parties for the recording and sharing of ideas, questions, assistance, etc., in the effort to lay the groundwork for creating the sig. 4) the atlantis listserv is used to announce additions to the wiki site, online meetings, etc., in order to recruit additional persons, and 5) if a critical mass of interested persons is reached, the current author submits a proposal to atla for the initial meeting and organization of the sig at the 2013 annual conference. once created and organized, the sig membership would set goals and objectives, divide and assign various tasks, and assess the collaborative efforts on an annual basis. once established at atla, the sig might also hold regular meetings at the annual conference of csir in order to expand its membership to include researchers from other fields relating to information and religion. 55 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 5, number 1 • january 2012 appendix a: the number of sermons by denomination/faith tradition 1) american baptist 181 2) disciples of christ 136 3) evangelical lutheran church in america – 1,026 4) episcopal – 186 5) rabbinical – 54 6) lutheran church missouri synod – 495 7) mennonite – 84 8) north american lutheran church – 103 9) presbyterian church usa – 269 10) southern baptist – 42 11) united church of christ – 258 12) united methodist church – 138 13) united presbyterian church – 24 14) unitarian – 90 15) wisconsin evangelical lutheran synod– 64 appendix b: the number of religious leaders per denomination/faith tradition 1) american baptist 5 2) disciples of christ 7 3) evangelical lutheran church in america – 36 4) episcopal – 10 5) rabbinical – 5 6) lutheran church missouri synod – 16 7) mennonite – 5 8) north american lutheran church – 4 9) presbyterian church usa – 8 10) southern baptist – 2 11) united church of christ – 10 12) united methodist church – 4 13) united presbyterian church – 1 14) unitarian – 9 15) wisconsin evangelical lutheran synod – 1 s p e c i a l f o r u m • l i f e t o g e t h e r     1 5 special forum: distance learning life together at wartburg theological seminary in a digital age by craig l. nessan wartburg theological seminary (wts), founded in 1854, was for most of its history a highly residential seminary with a strong focus on life together in community. about 15 years ago, however, we began a process of developing distance education in both our master’s degree and certificate programs that are preparing candidates to become church leaders as pastors and deacons. this shift has made theological education accessible to many more students. we now have students in 36 states, including alaska, and are equipped also to work with international partners. the wts faculty employed findings from the “learning pastoral imagination” project of auburn seminary in the design of new curriculum. christian a. b. scharen and eileen r. campbell-reed (2016) write: “we find through listening to ministry leaders across the country that ministry today is less about exercising the authority of an office or role and more about embodying an authentic contextual wisdom only gained by daily practice of leadership on the long arc of learning ministry.” we value the six key findings of the learning pastoral imagination study: (1) learning pastoral imagination happens best in formation for ministry that is integrative, embodied, and relational; (2) learning pastoral imagination centers on integrated teaching that understands and articulates the challenges of the practice of ministry today; (3) learning pastoral imagination requires both the daily practice of ministry over time and critical moments that may arise from crisis or clarity; (4) learning pastoral imagination requires both apprenticeship to a situation and mentors who offer relational wisdom through shared reflection and making sense of a situation; (5) learning pastoral imagination is complicated by the intersection of social and personal forces of injustice; (6) learning pastoral imagination is needed for inhabiting ministry as a spiritual practice, opening up the self and community to the presence and power of god (scharen and campbell-reid 2016, 14). a deep commitment to learning in context, specifically congregational contexts, informs the wts curriculum design. four years ago, we implemented an innovative new curriculum with three models—residential, collaborative, and distance—and two tracks—synchronous and asynchronous (stache and nessan 2018). residential students (rl) attend class on our campus in classrooms equipped with interactive video technology. collaborative students (cl) are doing ministry in congregations while they are attending classes synchronously in real time using zoom. distance students (dl) participate in the very same classes but can do so either synchronously or asynchronously, using materials prepared by instructors just for them. we approach each population of students as adding value to the whole: residential students bringing their experiences in robust on-campus activities, collaborative students bringing learnings from their contextual sites, and distance students reflecting on their daily work and local congregations. the changing role of partners is significant for this paradigm shift. historically, a limited number of congregations served as internship sites for students in the third year of their four-year degree program. a new category of “collaborative congregations” has been developed. these unique congregations, supervisors, and mentors work with students in their congregational placements during their entire four years of seminary—teaching, learning, and accompanying the student on craig l. nessan is academic dean and professor of contextual theology and ethics at wartburg theological seminary. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 1 6 the journey. the vital role and responsibility that partnerships have in all three models, particularly for the cl students, becomes even more indispensable for the ongoing formation of students. moreover, it is incumbent on the seminary to be in a state of readiness to learn from these partners, including especially from the congregations, supervisors, and mentors who are working with our students daily. the addition of new models and tracks in theological education demands new ways to accumulate and assess data. wts has built on previous methods of data collection for assessment by adding real-time listening posts to gather student feedback. regular formal and informal faculty conversations take place about what we are learning through formal and informal assessment in and out of the classroom, in order to constantly improve the educational experience. gathering information is only the first step, however. we need to employ feedback mechanisms to make midcourse corrections as needed. becoming nimble as an organization has been crucial for our ability to learn and respond, envision, and execute. as one example of our efforts at ongoing assessment, distributed and collaborative students had been asking about new modes for wts to embody what it means for us to be a worship-centered community. a vital worship grant from the calvin institute had begun to facilitate a study process on digital worship with consultants in fall 2019. a series of podcasts (www.buzzsprout.com/949903) were one fruit from grant activities to inform our practices in digital worship. the consultation was occasion to generate creative reflection on the possibilities and limits of livestreaming chapel services, something that we then were able to implement for the participation of all students and members of the wts community at a distance in march 2020 with the onset of the pandemic. the new wts curriculum gives attention not only to education but to the formation of students. this accords with significant research on reimagining theological education as “practical wisdom” (bass, cahalan, miller-mclemore, scharen, and nieman 2016). the origins of this undertaking are ancient, rooted in the classical notion of phronesis. how does theology become incarnate in bodies, in praying, in everyday life, in congregations, and in popular culture? formation focuses on how theology becomes embedded in every fiber of life—personally, communally, and ecologically. our distance education program has been enhanced by membership in the digital theological library (dtl), which provides more than half a million resources to our students in a digital format. as its website states, “the digital theological library is a co-owned, born-digital library of religious and theological studies. the mission of the dtl is to provide its co-owning institutions with the highest quality digital resources in religious and theological studies at the lowest possible costs. use of the dtl’s leased and purchased information resources is restricted to the dtl’s co-owning institutions.” the dtl became an even more indispensable resource for study and scholarship now under the conditions of social distancing during the pandemic. we are involved in a brave new experiment in becoming one seminary and one community with one curriculum in a digital world. this effort has been led by a creative faculty working together to deliver theological education that is accessible to students, who have many different life circumstances. now with the covid-19 pandemic, wts has been able to transition to a totally online delivery of courses to our students, including those who have needed the flexibility of accessing their education either synchronously by zoom or asynchronously through our course management system. while this has been a profoundly stressful time for all of us, we have been able to provide a new structure to our seminary life, including daily chapel for all our students at a distance. http://www.buzzsprout.com/949903 s p e c i a l f o r u m • l i f e t o g e t h e r     1 7 works cited bass, dorothy c., kathleen a. cahalan, bonnie j. miller-mclemore, christian b. scharen, and james r. nieman. 2016. christian practical wisdom: what it is, why it matters. grand rapids, mi: wm. b. eerdmans publishing co. scharen, christian a. b. and eileen r. campbell-reed. 2016. “learning pastoral imagination: a five-year report on how new ministers learn in practice.” auburn studies 21: 1–14. pastoralimagination.com. stache, kristine and craig l. nessan. 2018. “adventures into digital teaching, learning, and formation: a case study from wartburg theological seminary.” journal of religious leadership 17: 20–45. http://pastoralimagination.com http://pastoralimagination.com t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 2 0 special forum: distance learning library support for distance learning at colorado christian university by oliver schulz colorado christian university (ccu) is a four-year liberal arts school founded in 1914 as denver bible institute. its student population currently exceeds 8,400 students (about 3,500 fte), enrolled in one of two colleges: the on-campus/in-seat college of undergraduate studies (cus—50+ degree programs) and the college of adult and graduate studies (cags—80+ degree programs), which offers classes at extension centers and online. the cags programs currently represent about 75% of the enrollment. the clifton fowler library, named after the founder of the denver bible institute, currently employs four full-time librarians: the dean of the library, an information services librarian, a technical services librarian, and a research and instruction librarian. the librarians are supported by a library services assistant, a part-time reference and web library coordinator, and up to nine student employees. the library has been methodically and strategically improving its collections and services towards the increasing off-campus student population. first, ccu has increased the number of online journal databases to the current 142, ranging from general databases such as ebsco academic complete to specialized ones such as the atla religion database with atlaserials. simultaneously, the library has reduced its physical holdings for journals as they became available online. the library also conducted an overlap analysis of its resources and discovered significant duplication in two large databases, one published by ebsco and the other by proquest. after evaluating various aspects of the two, the proquest database was canceled. naturally, some titles were lost; however, the library invested those savings to upgrade the ebsco database, resulting in a significant increase of unique resources without additional expenses. second, since 2018, the library has shifted significant resources from physical to electronic book purchasing. the library previously preferred physical resources for cus patrons and electronic resources for cags patrons. however, the increasing duplication of academic programs in both colleges, and the commonly-cited advantages of e-books (title is available 24/7, accessible from anywhere, can’t be lost/damaged, etc.) led to a change in policy: the library now purchases the electronic format whenever it is available and will purchase physical titles only if the electronic format is unavailable and if they are requested by cus faculty or students. this has led to a reversal of acquisition numbers; while ccu purchased more physical than electronic books in 2017–18, the library now acquires electronic books at a 2:1 ratio over physical books. third, in order to increase the e-book collection, ccu has increased the number of vendor and publishing partners. ccu has added overdrive in order to provide a limited number of academic titles to patrons. while the access models offered by overdrive are less preferable compared to others, this move has allowed ccu to provide access to e-books that are not available through other vendors. ccu has also established agreements with other vendors, including various university presses, project muse, jstor, etc. by increasing its base of vendors, ccu has improved its ability to purchase products on the best-possible terms: vendors and publishers sometimes differ in either oliver schulz is technical services librarian at colorado christian university. s p e c i a l f o r u m • l i b r a r y s u p p o r t f o r d i s t a n c e l e a r n i n g     2 1 their pricing or access models, allowing ccu to purchase titles at reduced rates and/or through better access models. however, we also discovered that certain desirable titles were not available electronically; some smaller publishers simply did not convert their titles to e-books. ccu librarians have reached out to such publishers and have successfully linked several of them to e-book vendors. in another case, a publisher expanded its e-book offerings after extensive communication with a ccu librarian. while not every interaction with publishers has led to increased availability of resources, the successful ones have led to access to important, even essential, resources in a number of ccu’s academic programs. a fourth way that the ccu library has increased its support of off-campus students is by consistently reviewing and updating the library’s website and libguides. we had previously conducted a usability survey test of the website and had planned to conduct another one that had to be canceled because of the covid-19 crisis. similarly, libguides, accessible directly from the library’s homepage, are constantly being reviewed and updated. the library currently has 33 guides grouped into 12 different subject areas reflecting the academic programs at ccu. a recent review revealed that many titles were not merely outdated, but were also only available as print copies. while financial restraints prevented the library from bringing all libguides up-to-date, it was possible to update many in the past year, almost exclusively with titles in electronic format. trying to be fiscally responsible, the library first investigated various options, and then either waited for items to be on sale or negotiated lower prices with the publisher/vendor. in terms of serving the online student population, the ccu library implemented an appointment reference service called “book a librarian” (bal) in 2013. from the start, librarians offered this service both in-person for the cus community and as online video conference meetings for the online cags community (currently using zoom). students click on the bal link located on the library’s homepage, provide their contact information and research topic, and then pick a time to meet with one of the librarians. a librarian then uses a purpose-built template to draft an email with links to the appropriate libguide(s) and search results of both books and journal articles, along with information regarding which databases were used and a post-interview survey. during the reference interview, the librarian discusses various search strategies with the student. at the end of the session, the librarian sends the email with the links to the student so that the student can continue their research. additional resources that are not available as full text can easily be requested by the student through the interlibrary loan system. these reference appointments have been immensely popular with students as well as faculty. some professors now require their students to make bal appointments; their feedback has been that the quality of resources used in research papers has dramatically improved. besides word-of-mouth, librarians have pushed for active advertisement for bal services in several ways. first, the research and instruction librarian promotes bal during cags-oriented instruction sessions, which are held three times a year (summer, fall, spring). librarians have also lobbied to add a bal link in addition to the library link to the course shells of ccu’s learning management system. while this has not yet happened for all courses, there has been some success. finally, even though limited in its staff, the library attempts to cater towards all students by offering extensive hours with librarians on duty, in person, and via phone, chat, or e-mail. librarians are usually available all week during the fall and spring semesters, with evening hours four days a week. students in the cags programs often work during the day; others may live in a different time t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 2 2 zone. by being available outside of the regular office hours, the librarians are able to serve those students, including with bal reference services. the library does provide after-hour chat reference services by subscribing to a third-party provider. this service is particularly popular during the summer months when the library does not provide extended hours. in march 2020, like so many other institutions, ccu decided to move all on-campus instruction to an online format. no institution or library could have foreseen the extent of the covid-19 crisis. however, this switch was relatively smooth for the ccu library because it was already supporting a large off-campus student population. the library shifted some funding from physical to electronic acquisition, purchasing a number of high-demand electronic titles/licenses to support the university’s mission in this emergency. all in-person bal appointments were simply moved to zoom meetings. it is immensely satisfying to personally hand a student a resource that will help them in their studies. the current covid-19 crisis and the greater trend to distance education do not always allow for that kind of experience. however, by planning, implementing, and refining access to electronic resources and online reference interviews, the librarians of the ccu library believe that they significantly contribute to the education of the next generation no matter where they are located. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 80 critical review volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 encyclopedia of missions and missionaries jonathan j. bonk, ed. encyclopedia of missions and missionaries. new york: routledge, 2007. 473 pp. $190.00. hardcover. isbn: 9780415969482. i ts title notwithstanding, this encyclopedia is neither about missions nor missionaries—at least, particular missions and missionaries. thus, it is not a reference work to consult for a nicely written sketch of the lives and accomplishments of pioneering missionary leaders, e.g. james hudson taylor or david brainerd. nor is it the place to find a well-rounded summary and assessment of the impact of important missionary movements and organizations such as the international missionary council or the lausanne covenant. other recently published sources (notably gerald anderson, ed. biographical dictionary of christian missions, and a. scott moreau, evangelical dictionary of world missions) have covered this historically based approach admirably. rather, from the introduction one learns that this encyclopedia, the most recent in the routledge encyclopedias of religion and society series, instead seeks to create its niche by exploring the “missionary enterprise” as a phenomenon that has intersected with the “major social, economic, and political movements” of the modern era. as such this encyclopedia is intended as a resource that “non-theological reference librarians and their clientele” (xi) can turn to to better understand the influence that the missionary movement has had on our global society. employing an alphabetic arrangement, the introduction explains the system of “tiered” entries, from the most general—and thereby lengthiest (5-6 page)—survey essays, e.g. “africa, history, protestant churches;” through second-tier articles dealing with academic disciplines or schools of thought which have an interest in christian mission, “economics,” “postmodernism,” “sociology;” to thirdand fourth-tier treatments of more specialized or subordinate areas of missiology such as “archives,” “libraries,” “medicine,” “short-term missions.” to write these entries, general editor, jonathan bonk, who serves as executive director of the overseas ministries study center in new haven, ct and also edits the international journal of missionary research, has assembled, primarily from academic institutions, a well-qualified group of contributors of diverse theological and professional perspectives. all entries contain a list of sources for further reading, most having been published within the last twenty years. for added effect, some articles are supplemented by sidebars that augment the text through captioned black and white photographs or as excerpts from primary source documents. the photographs, it must be said, are a disappointment. they are usually less than half a page in size and lack acuity. their primary purpose appears to be adding a small bit of visual relief to the columns of text. a very useful index concludes the work, sufficiently detailed to make access to sub-topics and themes as well as persons and organizations possible. overall, this reference work is a fine achievement and accomplishes what it has set out to do by assembling a wealth of engaging articles that, taken together, form a mosaic of the missionary impulse and how it has shaped and been shaped by the growth and development of modern political, social, economic, cultural, etc. movements and institutions. it is the synoptic and synthetic quality of the articles, their ability to see and analyze the interplay between missiological concerns and societal forces, which give rise to new insights and form contextual understanding surrounding this uniquely christian phenomenon. 81 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 several examples may illustrate. in his thoughtful article on “history,” stanley skreslet discusses the problem of writing mission history from inside the discipline of missiology. while historians of christian mission are not exempt from the same rigorous techniques required of historians in other disciplines—a respect for the rules of evidence and the ability, so far as possible, to disentangle facts from perceptions—at the same time the spiritual convictions of those being studied and to some degree of the historian also must be accounted for and not simply “bracket[ed] out” (179). history from within the perspective of missiology, no less the wider fields of theology and biblical studies, requires a “critical empathy” (180). history will be critical by subscribing to modern methods of analysis and interpretation, but will be empathetic to views that ascribe to events causation that extends beyond human agency. jessie lutz’s article on “education—religious, theological” explores the dynamics of missionary efforts in starting schools, their intent in doing so and, in some cases, outcomes that differed from their intentions. catholic missionaries/educators sought a setting wherein children could be taught christian doctrines. protestant missionaries established schools set apart from heathen influence where students could learn to read the bible for themselves. instruction eventually expanded to include a western curriculum which was assumed to be superior, “the source of western political and military power, industrial expansion, and cultural achievements” (134). a western education, in a colonial context, soon began to be seen as a door to greater economic and social opportunity which, in turn, led many to seek out christian schools, not for the purpose of becoming christian, but to learn english and improve their standing. attesting to the reach of christian schools, lutz points out that by mid-twentieth century, more than one-third of india’s 279,309 educational institutions were administered by christian churches. readers of this journal will want to note in particular the number of entries that survey the various sources and avenues available for conducting missions and missionary research. rosemary seton has written a helpful article on the important role played by archival collections. mission work by its nature, taking place in remote locations far from the missionary’s homeland, extended family, sending churches and, in many cases, away from ready access to publishing sources, led to the production of an enormous amount of unpublished material that now has assumed a crucial role for writing its history and, furthermore, represents a considerable challenge to preserve. ms. seton concludes by listing a number of websites that profile and provide selected content from significant archival collections here and overseas. in an entry on “journals,” terry barringer discusses the use missionary organizations made of periodicals to keep supporters informed, to mobilize financial and prayer backing, and to attract recruits. later came along journal publications devoted to the scholarly study of missions. barringer also includes an interesting account of how missionary publishers were not hesitant about using new technology. china’s millions, a publication of the china inland mission whose first editor was j. hudson taylor, from the beginning incorporated high quality illustrations and maps, thereby imitating popular, secular magazines. many other missionary magazines and journals quickly adopted this practice. paul stuehrenberg has contributed an article surveying international libraries (“libraries”) that hold rich collections for studying missions and world christianity. intended for the non-specialist, this article helpfully lists the categories of published and unpublished literature one might expect to find within these libraries. philippe denis has a very enlightening essay on the nature and purpose of “oral history” and its place alongside documents based history. gerald h. anderson surveys academic “professional associations” devoted to missiology, the journals they publish, and their web addresses. martha smalley, also a consulting editor for this project, profiles “reference tools” (survey histories, encyclopedias, atlases, directories, theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 82 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 handbooks, and guides for locating primary and secondary sources) and their functions. included in her survey are freely available websites such as the dictionary of african christian biography (www.dacb.org) and the biographical dictionary of chinese christianity (www.bdcconline.net), sites that will, in all likelihood, only continue to grow in importance. in an interesting shift of focus, several entries describe how mission and missionaries have influenced areas of western art and culture. in separate entries, jamie s. scott reflects on how both history and our imagination surrounding missions have inspired works of “fiction” and “film”. portrayals have traversed the spectrum from the “heroic” to the “hypocritical” with many, “the ambiguous” (165), residing in between these two poles. two waves of mission activity have been particularly fruitful for story telling: the portuguese, spanish, and french catholic missions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (e.g. silence [novel] by shusaku endo and black robe by brian moore [novel and film]) and the british and north american protestant missions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (e.g. things fall apart by chinua achebe [novel] and jungle drums of africa [1953 film directed by fred brannon]. tricia pongracz’s article on “art” looks at how asian christian art has developed a worldwide following. through its spotlight on “central themes” of mission from an interdisciplinary vantage point, the encyclopedia of missions and missionaries occupies a unique place within the array of reference tools that describe and interpret the phenomenon of christian missions. while it is no doubt true that “non-theological” librarians and students will benefit from this study of missions as a movement within a much wider societal context, it seems equally the case that theological librarians and students, those looking for thoughtful articles that summarize and synthesize widereaching topics and provide a springboard for further research from a solid foundation, will also be well served. this work is highly recommended for all academic libraries. bruce eugene eldevik luther seminary library 89 critical review: the bloombury guide to pastoral care theolib.org the bloombury guide to pastoral care bernadette flanagan and sharon thornton, eds. the bloomsbury guide to pastoral care. london: bloomsbury, 2014. 230 pp. $49.95. hardcover. isbn: 9781441125170. what do we think when we see the word “guide”? do we think about a map, or a set of instructions, or someone showing the way? and what does it mean for this book to be titled “guide to pastoral care”? do we expect it to show us the way or the lay of the land? these questions come to mind when i see the title of this book. the bloomsbury guide to pastoral care provides a set of essays on a variety of topics in the area of pastoral care, both in europe and in north america. the essays look at pastoral care in many areas. some of these are, one might say, typical ministries such as working with families and the aging, but other topics discussed seem more contemporary, for example, cyberbullying and working with clients who are asylum seekers or are considering the use of reproductive technologies. by covering a wide variety of topics, this work shows that those engaged in pastoral care minister to a wide range of people who are walking through many different experiences. the two essays at the beginning of each section provide some background and historical context to the european and north american practice of pastoral care. in the first essay, which introduces themes and trends in europe, the author, kevin egan, provides a look at some terminology and then goes on to distinguish between pastoral care and pastoral counseling, which seems to be his primary focus. according to egan, pastoral counseling has as its frame of reference the larger field of psychology, while pastoral care draws on the field of theology. for egan it is essential not to forget the theological frame of reference; it is what sets those who practice pastoral care apart. egan also writes about the fields have developed differently as professions in europe and north america. in europe, the profession of those who practice pastoral care is part of the broader counseling profession, while practitioners in the united states have their own professional organization. in the first essay of the second section, the authors provide a historical look at the field of pastoral care in the united states. this survey also shows the influence of psychology on pastoral care, and the authors call on those who practice pastoral care to find the treasures within their own traditions and fields. these two introductory essays provide the reader with an overview of the field and a call back to the heart of pastoral care. the essays in between then offer the reader ways of providing pastoral care in a variety of settings. i do not know if the tension between the use of psychology and theology is as evident in these essays as the authors of the two introductory essays make it out to be. the authors of the essays in between seem to demonstrate how pastoral care providers use both theology and psychology in their practice. as a case in point, in the essay on asylum seekers, the author suggests that these clients are navigating landscapes of loss, hopelessness, and despair. to me the author demonstrates the use of a theological mindset with an emphasis on best practices in counseling techniques to provide support to these clients. some essays seem to emphasize the counseling aspects of pastoral care, but i do not think this takes away from the ideas presented. best practices can be drawn from many areas. the essay about health care systems and how pastoral care practitioners help clients navigate choices provides a good balance. it describes the pastoral care provider helping to navigate health care decisions in light of denominational polity or religious beliefs and values, but the essay also provides tools from a more secular setting to help with decisions. for this reader, this book demonstrates the value of both streams of pastoral care and pastoral counseling. i think the two introductory essays help to set a tone for focusing on the heart of pastoral care. they provide a good historical context for readers and practitioners working with clients as they think about a frame of reference for their work. i also feel the 90 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org other essays show the value of these two streams working together. as a guide, this book lays out a map for thinking about pastoral care and provides background and suggestions for what is at the heart of pastoral care. the essays dealing with specific issues then provide ways to work with clients and guide practitioners in their work. i feel this work is a good addition to the literature on pastoral care. jennifer ulrich eastern mennonite university, harrisonburg, virginia 49 bibliographic essay ronald knox: a bibliographic essay by james chappel james chappel is a research fellow at columbia university, new york, new york. r onald arbuthnott knox (1888-1957) was the public face of catholicism in england for many years. the son of an anglican bishop, he converted in 1917 and became a priest soon after. unusual for a catholic clergyman, his sparkling literary career impacted english intellectual life over the succeeding decades as his unique combination of encyclopedic knowledge and incisive wit—the daily mail once referred to him as “the wittiest man in england”—made him one of the premier public intellectuals of his time.1 a primary assumption made in this bibliographic essay will be that his achievement cannot be understood on its own, as he was part of a remarkably fertile outburst of catholic intellectual activity in england in the first half of the twentieth century. his writings and influence have been vast, and the interested reader would likely feel disoriented when confronted with the great quantity of material—both primary and secondary—available. this essay is designed to introduce the reader to ronald knox. in the first section, relevant contextual literature will be discussed, while in the second section the focus will be on knox’s most indispensable work. last, secondary literature on knox himself will be explored. i: the catholic context ronald knox was only one of many prominent converts to catholicism in the early years of the twentieth century, leading some to claim that the catholic faith had, paradoxically, become fashionable in steadfastly protestant england. as mentioned above, knox cannot be profitably studied apart from this context: his conversion was tied, both historically and conceptually, to those of r.h. benson, g.k. chesterton, and others. in this section, the most helpful secondary sources dealing with this revival of english catholicism will be listed and briefly described. the efflorescence of talented catholic intellectuals in early twentieth century england is sometimes referred to as the “third spring,” in reference to john henry newman’s famous 1852 sermon, “the second spring.” adam schwartz employs this as the title for his own work, the third spring: g.k. chesterton, graham greene, christopher dawson, and david jones (washington, d.c.: catholic university of america press, 2005). this thorough study is an admirable introduction to the most significant catholic thinkers of england between the first and second world wars. a similar account can be found in the catholic revival in english literature, by ian ker (notre dame: university of notre dame press, 2003). ker helpfully traces the interwar revival back to its nineteenth century roots, with gerard manley hopkins serving as a transition figure between newman (1801-90) and the interwar writers of the third spring. literary converts: spiritual inspiration in an age of unbelief by joseph pearce (san francisco: ignatius press, 1999) deals with knox at greater length than ker or schwartz, and three chapters are explicitly devoted to placing him in the context of catholic and english intellectual life. humphrey carpenter, in the brideshead generation: evelyn waugh and his friends (london: weidenfeld, 1989), provides a group biography of waugh and his contemporaries, knox included, which is notable for its evocative depiction of oxford’s cultural and intellectual ferment during the years knox lived there. one shortcoming of these works is that they are quite insular, failing to take into account either international catholicism or british protestantism. patrick allitt partially corrects this oversight in his catholic converts: 1 cited in penelope fitzgerald, the knox brothers, (washington, d.c.: counterpoint, 2000), 173. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 50 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 british and american intellectuals turn to rome (ithaca: cornell university press, 1997). he points out the many connections between the catholic revivals in britain and america, focusing on knox as a representative figure. for instance, he uses the image of the “spiritual aeneid”—the title of knox’s autobiography—as a metonym for the english convert tradition as a whole. the protestant context is also essential to any understanding of knox, who began his career as an internal critic of protestantism. of course, the literature on english protestant theology is enormous. when read together, b.h. reardon’s religious thought in the victorian age: a survey from coleridge to gore (new york: longman, 1980) and peter hinchliff’s god and history: aspects of british theology, 1875-1914 (new york: clarendon press, 1992) provide the necessary context for understanding knox. the best overview of english christianity as a whole during this period can be found in a history of english christianity: 1920-1985, by adrian hastings (london: collins, 1986). ii: ronald knox: primary sources in addition to studies that focus on knox’s historical context, those wishing to engage in a thorough study of this fascinating figure have access to his own works. knox was an exceptionally prolific writer. a full bibliography, which i have compiled based on an unpublished version prepared by patricia cowan in 1964, can now be accessed at the website of the ronald knox society of north america (www.ronaldknoxsociety.com). it runs to well over one thousand items, including over eighty books, and more will inevitably come to light in the future. his literary output is as varied as it is massive: he published stories, novels, sermons, poems, reviews, and, most spectacularly, a full translation of the bible from the vulgate. while the space allotted here does not allow for more than a sketch of his oeuvre, a few of his most significant works are highlighted. original publication data is given, while the bibliography at the end of the essay will list the most recent edition. readers interested primarily in knox’s apologetics should begin with the belief of catholics (london: ernest benn, 1927), the most extensive defense of catholicism, and the fullest description of his own version of it, he ever wrote. those seeking more detail might look at proving god: a new apologetic (london: the month, 1960). knox was working on this when he died and the fragments were assembled posthumously by evelyn waugh, who also provides a preface. difficulties: being a correspondence about the catholic religion between ronald knox and arnold lunn (london: eyre & spottiswoode, 1952) consists of a series of letters between knox and lunn, then a rather agnostic protestant who had earlier attacked knox and other converts. knox was not, however, primarily a theologian, and was more at home preaching than speculating. these shorter, more informal works can most conveniently be found in in soft garments (london: burns, oates, and washbourne, 1942) and the hidden stream (london: burns, oates, and washbourne, 1952), two collections of his oxford conferences. in addition, a collection of knox’s sermons has been recently published as pastoral and occasional sermons (san francisco: ignatius press, 2002). knox was not merely known in catholic circles, as his work was widely read outside the small catholic community in england. his early work is mostly satirical in tone, and can best be found in essays in satire (london: sheed and ward, 1928). this early collection includes “absolute and abitophell,” his early dryden-inspired mockery of theological modernism, and the famous essay, “the authorship of ‘in memoriam,’” in which he uses the most up-to-date tools of textual criticism to prove that the poem in question had been written by queen victoria. his middle period might best be represented by caliban in grub street (london: sheed & ward, 1930) and broadcast minds (london: sheed & ward, 1932). each of these essay collections turns satire to a serious purpose, as knox ruthlessly criticizes certain popular commentators on christian topics and, in the latter book, presciently sounds a 51 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 warning about the possible misuse of mass media. readers might then turn to the end of his career and his god and the atom (london: sheed & ward, 1945). this essay, written at an uncharacteristically fevered pitch, represents knox’s thoughtful and anguished engagement with the bombing of hiroshima. lastly, readers should consider knox’s more properly literary achievements. he was an accomplished writer of detective stories, of which the best known is probably footsteps at the lock (london: methuen, 1928). among his novels, let dons delight (london: sheed & ward, 1939) remains the most widely read. in addition, one should consult a spiritual aeneid (london: longmans, green, and co., 1918), a memoir of his youth in the anglican church and his painful conversion to catholicism. those researching knox, however, may consult not only the few of his publications highlighted here, but also several outstanding secondary studies about the life of this notable priest and his contribution to the third spring. iii: secondary literature on knox in the preface to his biography of knox, evelyn waugh wrote, “this book, i surmise, will prove to be the forerunner of many weightier studies on him.”2 in the end, this has not quite come true, as waugh’s biography remains the standard source on knox’s life. there have, however, been numerous contributions that flesh out waugh’s treatment. these will be detailed in the following section, which includes the most significant secondary literature on knox. waugh’s monsignor ronald knox (boston: little, brown and co., 1959) remains a useful source. it is quite thorough and clearly written from a position of great knowledge of, and sympathy with, his subject. it was subject to criticism from other catholics, so it should be read along with derek worlock’s assessment in “pulpit beyond the grave” which appeared in the 1960 dublin review (vol. 234, no. 486: 372-8). the most significant biographical work to appear since waugh’s is penelope fitzgerald’s the knox brothers (new york: coward, mccann & geoghegan, 1977), written before she became a booker prize-winning novelist. it is a group portrait of the four knox brothers, one of whom was fitzgerald’s father, and thus provides less specific information on ronald knox than waugh does. it does provide, however, a remarkable evocation of the edwardian period in which the brothers matured. it is also more anecdotal and occasionally judgmental than waugh’s solemn account. those looking for a shorter overview of knox’s life and career can read sheridan gilley’s excellent article on knox in the oxford dictionary of national biography (new york: oxford university press, 2004). several other monographs have appeared since waugh’s, valuable in that they all focus on different aspects of knox’s life and work; none of them, however, attempt the sort of synoptic overview provided by waugh and fitzgerald. in ronald knox: the priest [and] writer (new york: sheed & ward, 1965), thomas corbishley and robert speaight explore knox’s two professional identities. corbishley examines knox’s clerical activities, largely downplayed in other accounts. he was a friend of knox, and a fellow priest; his account is predictably sympathetic and anecdotal. in addition, he provides a helpful discussion of knox’s apologetics in the context of his life as a priest. robert speaight’s work on knox treats him as a literary figure, covering much of the work that was not explicitly clerical: the novels, stories, satire, and translations. susan oleksiw, herself an author of crime fiction, produced an article in this vein in a collection called mystery and suspense writers: the literature of crime, detection, and espionage (new york: scribner, 1998). she focuses on his “decalogue,” a set of rules for the writing of detective fiction, while also discussing his essays on holmes and the way that knox’s catholicism impacted his own detective fiction. 2 evelyn waugh, monsignor ronald knox, (boston: little, brown and co., 1959), 13. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 52 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 the most recent monograph on knox is fr. milton walsh’s ronald knox as apologist: wit, laughter, and the popish creed (san francisco: ignatius press, 2007). walsh provides a helpful biographical summary, more sensitive to knox’s intellectual context than fitzgerald or waugh, before entering into a lengthy and detailed discussion of knox’s apologetics. he examines a wide variety of topics—including, among others, knox’s teachings on reason, the will, the intellect, and prophecy—making this the most extended and fruitful discussion of knox’s thought currently available. this was quickly followed by second friends: c.s. lewis and ronald knox in conversation (san francisco: ignatius press, 2008), in which walsh provides a fascinating tandem reading of two of england’s most prominent twentieth century christian thinkers. the other set of works available treats knox in his religious context. in the article “anglo-catholicism in the church of england, 1895-1913: abbot aelred carlyle and the monks of caldey island,” rene kollar describes the anglican monks of caldey island, whom knox visited often between 1906 and 1910 during his anglo-catholic phase. knox is quoted at length, and the article as a whole presents an interesting account of the tensions inherent in anglo-catholicism, which proved to be too much for knox and the monks themselves, who converted to roman catholicism en masse in 1913 (the harvard theological review, vol. 72, no. 2 (apr., 1983): 205-224). those interested in this topic should also read reminiscences of an octogenarian (london: hutchingson, 1935), the autobiography of edmund knox, ronald’s father. in “‘god and the atom’: british churchmen and the challenge of nuclear power, 1945-1950” (albion, vol. 29, no. 3 (autumn, 1997): 422-457), kirk willis provides the context for knox’s god and the atom, discussing its relationship with other religious responses to the atomic bomb. conclusion in this bibliographic essay, readers are introduced to the most significant works by ronald knox, one of the foremost thinkers in the period known in england as the third spring. also, the secondary literature necessary to fully understand his life and the context in which he was writing was presented since his contribution to religious literature cannot be fully appreciated apart from this remarkable period of history. those seeking further information on knox’s literary output are encouraged to visit the website of the ronald knox society of north america to find a full bibliography of his works. works cited n.b. those works with an asterisk are included here for reference’s sake, but not discussed in the text because they are scarce and not aimed at the general reader. allitt, patrick. catholic converts: british and american intellectuals turn to rome. ithaca: cornell university press, 1997. carpenter, humphrey. the brideshead generation: evelyn waugh and his friends. london: weidenfeld, 1989. *chambers, frederick walter and ronald knox. monsignor ronald knox and the converts’ aid society. sussex: ditchling press, 1960. corbishley, thomas and robert speaight. ronald knox: the priest and writer. new york: sheed & ward, 1965. corbishley wrote the first section, entitled “ronald knox the priest,” while speaight wrote the second section, “ronald knox the writer.” these were originally published separately, and then combined in the edition cited here. *donaldson, norman. “ronald arbuhnott knox.” armchair detective. vol. 7 (1974), 235-46. fitzgerald, penelope. the knox brothers. washington, d.c.: counterpoint, 2000. 53 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 gilley, sheridan. “knox, ronald arbuthnott (1888–1957).” oxford dictionary of national biography. ed. h.c.g. matthew and brian harrison. new york: oxford university press, 2004, 41-4. also available online: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34358. (accessed november 18, 2008) hastings, adrian. a history of english christianity: 1920-1985. london: collins, 1986. hinchliff, peter. god and history: aspects of british theology, 1875-1914. new york: clarendon press, 1992. ker, ian. the catholic revival in english literature. notre dame: university of notre dame press, 2003. *kingman, james. “in defense of ronald knox.” armchair detective. vol. 11 (1978), 299. knox, edmund. reminiscences of an octogenarian. london: hutchingson, 1935. knox, ronald. the belief of catholics. san francisco: ignatius press, 2000. ______. broadcast minds. london: sheed & ward, 1932. ______. caliban in grub street. london: sheed & ward, 1930. ______. essays in satire. port washington, ny: kennikat press, 1968. ______. footsteps at the lock. new york: dover, 1983. ______. god and the atom. london: sheed & ward, 1945. ______. the hidden stream. san francisco: ignatius press, 2000. ______. in soft garments. garden city, n.y.: image, 1964. ______. let dons delight. london: sheed & ward, 1980. ______. proving god: a new apologetic. london: the month, 1960. ______. a spiritual aeneid. new york: sheed & ward, 1958. knox, ronald and arnold lunn. difficulties: being a correspondence about the catholic religion between ronald knox and arnold lunn. london: eyre & spottiswoode, 1952. this reference is to the second edition, notable in that it contains extra letters from lunn written after his conversion. kollar, rene. “anglo-catholicism in the church of england, 1895-1913: abbot aelred carlyle and the monks of caldey island.” the harvard theological review, vol. 72, no. 2 (apr., 1983): 205-224. oleksiw, susan. “ronald knox.” mystery and suspense writers: the literature of crime, detection, and espionage. new york: scribner, 1998, 559-68. *overstreet, edward. ink in his blood: a story of monsignor ronald knox. notre dame: dujarie press, 1960. pearce, joseph. literary converts: spiritual inspiration in an age of unbelief. ignatius press: san francisco, 1999. reardon, b.h. religious thought in the victorian age: a survey from coleridge to gore. new york: longman, 1980. schwartz, adam. the third spring: g.k. chesterton, graham greene, christopher dawson, and david jones. washington, d.c.: catholic university of america press, 2005. walsh, milton. ronald knox as apologist: wit, laughter, and the popish creed. san francisco: ignatius press, 2007. walsh, milton. second friends: c.s. lewis and ronald knox in conversation. san francisco: ignatius press, 2008. waugh, evelyn. monsignor ronald knox. boston: little, brown and co., 1959. worlock, derek. “pulpit beyond the grave,” dublin review, vol. 234, no. 486 (1960), 372-8. willis, kirk. “‘god and the atom’: british churchmen and the challenge of nuclear power, 1945-1950.” albion, vol. 29, no. 3 (autumn, 1997), 422-457. c o n t e s t w i n n e r • o u t o f t h e c l o i s t e r     2 9 out of the cloister theological libraries as spaces for spiritual formation by briana grenert n o t e this essay is the winner of our 2020 student essay contest. for more information on the winner and the contest, please visit: www.atla.com/blog/theological-librarianship-briana-grenert. theological librarianship plans to run another essay contest in 2021; announcements will go out early next year. so many people warned me that seminary would not nurture my soul. well-meaning people admonished me to cautiously discern—was god calling me to “cemetery”? the problem they were not so subtly hinting at is laid out in clearer terms by eugene peterson in subversive spirituality. he claims that the most frequently voiced disappointment by men and women who enter seminary has to do with spirituality…[students] commonly enter seminary motivated by a commitment to god and a desire to serve their lord in some form of ministry, and then find they are being either distracted or deflected from that intention at every turn. [t]he professors seem far more interested in in their spelling than in their spirituality. they find themselves spending far more time on paradigms than in prayer. (peterson 1997, 54) students frequently complain that their academic work is disengaged from their spirituality and in fact working against their formation. peterson (1997, 55) explains that “ever since the enlightenment split between the heart and the head in the seventeenth century, schools have not been easy allies in a life of worship, prayer, and the love of god.” many innovative and bright minds have written books and articles to address the issue of spiritual formation in theological education (see, e.g., amirtham, pryor, and world council of churches 1991; bain, hussey, and sutherland 2018; muszkat-barkan and rosenstein 2018; paulsell 1998). new courses, new disciplines, new committees, and new initiatives have been launched to address this issue. one vital campus space, though, that has already been re-examining its role on campus by diversifying its programming, is underutilized in the quest for institutional support of spiritual formation: the theological library. in this paper i would like to suggest that theological libraries have unique potential to contribute to the spiritual formation of students. i begin by sharing how princeton theological seminary’s library space has already been intentionally (and successfully) used to connect academic and spiritual formation. then, i consider how theological libraries have a unique opportunity to contribute to resisting that post-enlightenment divide between the heart and mind, first by exploring medieval monastic conceptions of learning and formation before introducing how descartes’s disengaged reason decoupled experience from the mind, contributing to the artificial separation of education from formation. finally, i open a discussion on how the intentional use of the library as a space that fosters academic compassion, vis-à-vis disengaged knowledge, can challenge the dissonance between spirituality and academic work in theological education. briana grenert is an mdiv student at princeton theological seminary. http://www.atla.com/blog/theological-librarianship-briana-grenert t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 3 0 use of library space some students naturally are drawn to a sense of transcendence and theological creativity within the walls of the library. libraries serve students with a wide variety of needs. for some students, library spaces are inherently conducive to spiritual connection and formation. some students here at princeton theological seminary (pts) can be found praying silently on the couches or by the windows or aloud in group-study spaces to re-center themselves in the midst of exhausting work. some students are guided and formed by the content of the books they read, or the papers they write within the library. at least one student, upon finding that the pts library had the entire patrologia graeca cursus completus in print, spent several hours there connecting with the divine by pulling volumes off the shelf at random and just reading for the joy of reading. but many students do not naturally see the connections between the work they do in the library and their calling, or between their academic work and their formation. how can libraries participate in spiritual formation for these students? i would like to begin with a practical answer, concerning how the pts library has already participated actively in spiritual formation. first, pts is blessed to have a new library (opened may 2013) whose space was intentionally designed by rayford law (“new library building welcomes scholars, pastors, and the community,” library place 1, fall 2013, library.ptsem.edu/newsletter/ new-library-building). in the words of the reverend jan ammon (2020), the minster of pts’s chapel, the library “creates the space for beautiful things to happen.” it is a space full of light, with wide open windows and atriums, grounded in the seminary’s vision to, as caryl chambers recorded for posterity in his notes from the tours law gave, provide a library to the world. with that in mind, [law] sought to create the sense of being in the world when one is in the building. this inspired the design of the large bay or oriel windows that project beyond the surface of the exterior walls, placing anyone occupying a bay window space “outside” the building. then, to allow the world “in,” transparency was important so that those outside could witness what is taking place inside. mr. law stressed again and again that the intent was to break down the barriers between the world of the scholar and the world outside. (chambers 2015, 1) the oriel windows, rough-hewn sandstone walls, tower, colonnade, entrance arch, all hold great symbolism, and the building is designed to be inviting: “from every angle, the building, as well as its colonnade, should pull one inside along a natural path” (chambers 2015, 3). the tower, for example, according to law, is physical, as it literally guides one’s eyes to the heavens and cosmos and thus, it is symbolic of the expansive character of its purpose, but supportively, it is also a beacon, a traditional marker of safety and enlightenment. as part of the library’s outreach and reaffirming presence in the princeton community, we also saw the tower, amongst the many others in the vicinity, as a building element and a welcoming icon, signifying its role in the common fellowship of scholarly pursuits. (chambers 2015, 3) not every theological library is blessed with such a beautiful, intentionally designed, light-filled space (and certainly pts’s previous libraries were not). however, that does not remove the potential for theological libraries as sacred spaces that can intentionally be used for more holistic approaches to learning and knowledge, in line with the seminary’s mission.1 what brings the formation to life is the use of the space, as in pts’s “wandering worship.” the concept of “wandering worship” was born as a thoughtful response to the fact that, even prior to covid-19, seminary life was disrupted because many buildings on campus are under construction, http://library.ptsem.edu/newsletter/new-library-building http://library.ptsem.edu/newsletter/new-library-building c o n t e s t w i n n e r • o u t o f t h e c l o i s t e r     3 1 leaving classes and residences shifted. the rev. ammon and the chapel office wondered what might happen “if worship was invited to move,” too, and so a set of services was designed for spaces other than the chapel (ammon 2020). the inaugural service was held wednesday, september 18, 2019 in the library. the experience was profound for the chapel office, for the library staff, and for many students. people who would not normally attend worship gathered together and took time to intentionally pray for the library itself and the people who serve there. it was possible to name out loud and to bless the activities that happen there and to frame the work of the library staff as ministry. this sense was only amplified when an ash wednesday service was held in the library this past february. the circumstances of ash wednesday’s move to the library were different: the chapel had flooded over winter break, so worship became permanently wandering. the chapel office asked to use the library because of the size of the atrium. for the rev. ammon (2020), “having these worship services in the library really helped to name that formational piece.” in fact, having worship in the library a second time was like finding herself at a crossroads: people from disparate parts of the community were drawn together. at seminary, theological education is central to everything, and liturgy, worship, community, spiritual practices, paper-writing, and exam-taking all participate in that wider goal. frequently, though, it is easy to lose sight of that, so bringing worship into the library gave clarity to that connection between formation and academic work, and added an invitational piece to worship. students who frequently feel lost in the academic whirlwind stopped, sang, and blessed the space. the library was recognized as sacred space in a way that was both profoundly disruptive to its normal function and in harmony with its design, and the activities of study and research were specifically honored as works of formation. the unique position of theological libraries a satisfying analysis of why theological education and formation are so divorced is far beyond the scope of this paper. that given, a few remarks on the issue are necessary to better elucidate how libraries are uniquely endowed to challenge that post-enlightenment division of the mind from the heart. first, this divide is not inevitable. historically, libraries and schools have linked love of learning and spiritual formation. that very connection is explored thoroughly in jean leclercq’s (1982) the love of learning and the desire for god, which studies the relationship between les lettres (literature, philology, etc.) and monastic culture/theology in 12thand 13th-century europe. in that monastic culture, “love itself is knowledge: the more one loves, the more one knows” (208). quite the opposite of the grueling and bleak picture that many people in theological education paint today, education “was not a screen between the soul and its god, but rather it was transcended” (143). study was the way into love, rather than a block to that love, and that shaped monastic theology and monastic practice both. for monks, “in the monastery, the lectio divina, which begins with grammar, terminates in compunction, in desire for heaven” (72). the role of grammar in that process “is to create in him an urgent need for total beauty,” which came together with eschatology’s role, which was to “indicate the direction in which to look for its fulfillment” (260). knowledge, even things as mundane as paradigms, was seen as essential because even “elegant style” was homage rendered to god (258). education could not be separated from spiritual effort. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 3 2 libraries were central to that effort. libraries provided monks with access to that learning they so desperately needed to fuel and to quench their desire for the divine. scripture, works of the fathers, works of pre-christian greco-roman writers, and all other sorts of “scientific” knowledge were necessary to cultivate and use an “attention full of curiosity” (20). now, students of today are not premodern european monks, nor should we try to be—and the libraries of today do not hold the same place as a medieval monastic bibliotheca. both learning and love and education and formation can be linked, and theological libraries can actively participate in that, as they have in the past, but in a new way adapted to the modern world. already, there is extensive discussion about the changing/expanding role of academic libraries in a more diverse, digital age (e.g., fallon and breen 2012; hisle 2005, 10). academic libraries are rediscovering the possibilities of libraries as communal spaces (gayton 2008). can theological libraries adapt to intentionally use their space resist the separation of knowledge from love, and to participate in spiritual formation? as i said above, the exact causes of this separation are beyond the scope of this paper, but one possible contributing factor is “disengaged reason,” which first, according to charles taylor’s (1989) sources of the self, comes to fruition in descartes, who takes an augustinian emphasis on inwardness and redefines it to situate the source of morality within the self (143). descartes famously said “i can have no knowledge of what is outside me except by means of the ideas i have within me,” which is a fundamental rejection of self-revealing reality (144). reality is constructed by the individual, and this causes a strikingly different separation of the mind from the body than had previously existed. in order to know anything “we have to objectify the world, including our own bodies, and that means to come and see them mechanistically and functionally, in the same way that an uninvolved external observer would” (145). we have to disengage ourselves from our experiences to really know anything. cartesian dualism “no longer admits that the bodily can be a sort of medium in which the spiritual can appear” (146). this is in sharp contrast to the monastic understanding of knowledge and love as irrevocably intertwined. instead, “the cartesian option is to see rationality, or the power of thought, as a capacity we have to construct orders which meet the standards demanded by knowledge” (147). the self is effectively buffered from not only the experience of other selves but from our own self, as well. while most of us do not go around actively thinking about this, we in the west are heirs to this post-enlightenment limitation on knowledge, which is particularly keenly felt in theological education. students enter, filled with love and desire for service, and find that education demands that they disengage from that love in order to know. as i have mentioned above, many sources and even branches of theology itself (for example, constructive theology in the christian tradition) are trying to reclaim lived experience as a legitimate source of knowing and spirituality as an embodied experience, but the organization of schools (and western society) is still built around dividing knowledge from love and education from formation. this distancing of knowledge and learning from the rest of life, particularly from feelings such as compassion, is particularly alien in theological education and has certainly contributed to that sense of the seminary as a cemetery. bo karen lee (2019, 55), in her chapter of the soul of higher education, shares that “as a scholar, i have wrestled with the pressing task of bringing compassion explicitly into my academic discourse—and also with stewarding our shared academic work to increase compassion in the world.” she also notes that “compassion and academic rigor often seemed at odds with each other,” which is particularly problematic and disorienting in spaces where stuc o n t e s t w i n n e r • o u t o f t h e c l o i s t e r     3 3 dents are pursuing theological education. while it is impossible for modern people to replicate the experience of 12th-century monks, is it possible that academic compassion is a path towards resisting that divide? lee’s concern, in her work, is for how the academic environment can be a space that nurtures and encourages compassion in the classroom, but bringing that discussion into the library is equally legitimate. how can the library be a space that encourages and fosters compassion through its provision of resources, to feed the mind and the soul together? lee suggests the use of contemplative techniques in the classroom. even more than classrooms, libraries, with their combination of quiet and group-oriented spaces, are equipped to create an environment of contemplation and thoughtful engagement with knowledge. ajit pyati (2019) has already argued that the public library is a contemplative space and has a role to play in cultivating the inner lives of patrons, well beyond information access and public sphere functions. how much more, then, are these opportunities open to the theological library? conclusions theological libraries have a unique opportunity to address that divide and to participate in formation because they are wells of resistance to too much emphasis on inwardness. they carry works that demonstrate that the mind-body divide, which so much of western epistemology takes for granted, is neither inevitable nor the only viable way to be in the world. further, because libraries are so strongly associated with academic work, whenever libraries are able to host events or use their spaces in ways that connect knowledge to ministry and community, the relegation of knowledge to something separate from normal life is inherently challenged. as academic libraries in general adapt and rediscover their identity as communal spaces, theological libraries have the particular opportunity to reclaim the library as a space of spiritual formation. i think that is why pts’s “wandering worship” was so profoundly meaningful to the students, staff, and guests present. it did feel like a crossroads that connected theological education with the vocation of all present and named the library as a space where formative activity happens. because libraries are inherently academically formative spaces, it is a particularly meaningful space to foster an active connection between that academic labor and students’ callings, be it academia or ministry or some other activity. many people miss the opportunity to really see the relationship between their daily activities and their spiritual development, which falls back into that cartesian divide. libraries are spaces people take for granted as academic. what would happen if that space were claimed as something formative, and if that academic work were named as something both quotidian and sanctified by the library itself? it is noon on ash wednesday and the library is full of light and filled with the voices of hundreds of students, staff, and guests singing. it is midnight on a frigid december night, and a student is blearily trying to finish her last paper in the florescent-lit bowels of the library basement. a guest is combing the library’s commentary collection, trying desperately to understand the meaning of a hapax legomenon before their sermon on sunday. a church history professor is wishing his syriac was not so rusty because he cannot for the life of him figure out what a stray feminine pronominal suffix could possibly be referring to (and misinterpreting it could collapse his whole argument!). all of these are acts of love and devotion and contributions to a religious community as much as they are, in many ways, mundane acts. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 3 4 by the nature of their collections and the populations they serve, theological libraries have already crossed the divide between “secular” and “sacred.” some libraries, like pts’s, have the advantage of being able to invite a sense of transcendence with their architecture and the opportunity to hold services in their spaces. but all theological libraries have the opportunity to own their space, the work of librarians there, and the activities of library users as in some way sacred—to name the activity within their walls as ministry and service. in that way, theological libraries, whose ministry is the conservation, accumulation, and organization of knowledge, have both a particular opportunity to help students connect their knowledge to compassion and a particularly high calling as spaces of spiritual formation. works cited amirtham, samuel, robin j. pryor, and world council of churches, eds. 1991. the invitation to the feast of life: resources for spiritual formation in theological education. geneva: world council of churches, programme on theological education. ammon, jan. 2020. “wandering worship.” talk given via webex, may 6, 2020. bain, andrew m., ian hussey, and martin p. sutherland, eds. 2018. theological education: foundations, practices, and future directions. australian college of theology monograph series. eugene, or: wipf & stock. chambers, caryl. 2015. “merged tours notes,” june 9, 2015. fallon, helen and ellen breen. 2012. the changing role of the academic library in learning and teaching. national academy for integration of research, teaching and learning. mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/4453/1/hf_publications_12_471496579.pdf. gayton, jeffrey t. 2008. “academic libraries: ‘social’ or ‘communal?’ : the nature and future of academic libraries.” journal of academic librarianship 34, no. 1 (january 1, 2008): 60–6. doi. org/10.1016/j.acalib.2007.11.011. hisle, w. lee. 2005. “the changing role of the library in the academic enterprise.” presented at the acrl twelfth national conference, april 7–10, 2005, minneapolis, minnesota. www.ala. org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/pdf/hisle05.pdf. leclercq, jean. 1982. the love of learning and the desire for god: a study of monastic culture. third edition. new york: fordham university press. lee, bo karen. 2019. “the compassionate christ in the classroom.” in the soul of higher education: contemplative pedagogy, research and institutional life for the twenty-first century, edited by margaret benefiel. advances in workplace spirituality: theory, research and application. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, inc. muszkat-barkan, michal and marc j. rosenstein. 2018. “professional identity formation in a liberal israeli rabbinical seminary: spiritual transformers in the learned curriculum.” religious education 113, no. 4 (august 8): 392–405. doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2018.1436017. paulsell, stephanie. 1998. “spiritual formation and intellectual work in theological education.” theology today 55, no. 2 (july): 229–34. peterson, eugene h. 1997. subversive spirituality. grand rapids, mi: wm. b. eerdmans publishing co. pyati, ajit k. 2019. “public libraries as contemplative spaces: a framework for action and research.” journal of the australian library and information association 68, no. 4: 356–70. doi.org /10.1080/24750158.2019.1670773. taylor, charles. 1989. sources of the self: the making of the modern identity. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/4453/1/hf_publications_12_471496579.pdf http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/4453/1/hf_publications_12_471496579.pdf http://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2007.11.011 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2007.11.011 http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/pdf/hisle05.pdf http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/pdf/hisle05.pdf http://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2018.1436017 http://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2019.1670773 http://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2019.1670773 c o n t e s t w i n n e r • o u t o f t h e c l o i s t e r     3 5 endnotes 1 as the acrl says in its academic library impact report, libraries have a unique call to balance the pressure of ranking and the demands of prestige while they “also must conversely strive to address the unique needs of specific stakeholders and surrounding communities.” see lynn silipigni connaway et al., “academic library impact: improving practice and essential areas to research” (chicago: association of college and research libraries, 2017), 3. iii editorial: achieving literary liftoff achieving literary liftoff ideas are among our most valuable commodities. when they are in short supply, our options and our optimism are always compromised. this applies to writing as directly as it does to any other dimension of our work. for example, i might have the urge to write, and even the time and the energy. but these aren’t much use if i have little idea of what to write about. no less a writer than george bernard shaw (allegedly) observed that, “you say something better if you have something to say.” while this is very true, it is far from being a hopeless or intractable situation. here is one area where we as editors can be of some help. let me explain: 1) if you’d like to write, but don’t quite know where to begin, a review is an excellent option. with a review, the topic and the task are taken care of for you. at the same time, the discipline of reviewing — considering what a reference work’s objectives are, and thoughtfully assessing whether they are achieved — is not only useful to a broader readership but is an excellent way of building confidence as a writer. 2) if you’ve had “something” in mind for a while, but aren’t certain that it amounts to an idea, or is worth writing about, we editors are very good people to talk to. we can help you shape and develop what you’ve been thinking about, developing the right structure and placing it in the genre to which it is best suited. most of all, we want you to succeed in your writing, and are quite happy to begin wherever you are, and help you get where you want to go. writing for our vocational community is a rewarding experience. we’d be honored to have you join our ranks of writers. and now, a word about transitions: first, with our january 2014 issue, there’s been a change in the makeup of our editorial board. melody layton mcmahon has been an energetic contributor and collaborator on tl almost since the journal’s outset. with many other projects and responsibilities to consider, she has decided to step aside. we extend our deepest thanks for all of melody’s contributions. at the same time, with this present issue we are pleased to welcome miranda h. bennett as our new critical reviews editor. miranda has significant experience within the atla community, and we are already enjoying working with her. thanks also to all the other fine candidates who expressed an interest in this tl opportunity. it is most encouraging to have had such a talented group to discuss the position with. second, we’ll be changing our publication schedule slightly (from january/july to march/october). our next issue after this one will be published on 15 march 2015. this revised schedule will shift our publication dates away from times of the year that are especially demanding for atla staff, who play an important part in the production of tl. thanks for reading. drs p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • p a m p h i l u s t h e l i b r a r i a n     2 2 pamphilus the librarian and the institutional legacy of origen’s library in caesarea by paul hartog a b s t r a c t pamphilus of caesarea maritima (who died around 310) managed the caesarean library that was rooted in the book collection of origen. pamphilus’s significant library rivaled other collections of late antiquity, causing several modern scholars (cf. carriker, grafton, williams, and vleeschauwer) to investigate the nature and contents of his book collection. this article, however, will initially focus upon the roles and responsibilities of pamphilus as a librarian, rather than upon the nature and contents of his library. although scholarly accounts of the history of librarianship have not properly recognized pamphilus’s dedicated librarianship, he and his caesarean successors fulfilled seven roles that have persisted in librarianship. with this initial examination in hand, the essay will secondarily draw some conclusions regarding the sustained institutional legacy of origen (beyond his literary, philological, exegetical, and theological legacies). viewed through this institutional legacy, pamphilus, eusebius, constantine, and jerome appear in a new light. origen was an author, linguist, teacher, and theologian, but he was also a librarian. the thirty-thousand-volume caesarean library that eventually grew out of his private collection endured throughout late antiquity (mcguckin 2004, 16). after origen’s death, pamphilus of caesarea curated and developed the collection. gregory thaumaturgus recounted some of the holdings, and eusebius’s life of pamphilus shared a catalog list (gregory thaumaturgus, panegyric to origen 13; cf. grafton and williams 2006, 68; cadiou 1936, 478). jerome (on illustrious men 113.1) still referred to the bibliotheca origenis et pamphili, named after both the collection’s creator (origen) and developer (pamphilus).1 although the caesarean library rivaled other collections of late antiquity, modern scholarship has often overlooked or downplayed pamphilus’s dedicated work of librarianship. for example, levine’s (1975, 113–14) study of caesarea under roman rule highlights “the prominence and prolific literary activity of two church fathers,” as “the presence of origen and eusebius drew students and scholars to the city.” such statements highlight the dual caesarean presence of origen and eusebius, but neglect the third yet significant role of pamphilus.2 a similar twofold emphasis upon origen and eusebius, implicitly downplaying the role of pamphilus, appears in the title of a noteworthy work by grafton and williams (2006): christianity and the transformation of the book: origen, eusebius, and the library of caesarea. to be sure, despite the narrowed reference to origen and eusebius alone in its title, the book does bring pamphilus into the broader discussion. within their first chapter, grafton and williams cite johannes trithemius’ in praise of scribes, printed in the 1490s, which claimed the threefold heritage of origen, pamphilus, and eusebius.3 grafton and williams’s last chapter commences with this statement: “origen, pamphilus, and eusebius, we have argued, forged their innovations in producing and designing works of christian learning in different historical contexts” (233).4 nevertheless, the final sentence of the monograph declares, “in many respects, we are still the heirs of origen and eusebius” (243). as in the volume’s title, pamphilus has faded from mention. by contrast, i wish to embed pamphilus paul hartog is director of library services at faith baptist bible college and theological seminary. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 4 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 1 2 3 firmly into the caesarean library’s legacy. in order to do so, i will examine specific librarian roles that pamphilus fulfilled. i will then conclude with some final reflections upon the institutional legacy of origen’s caesarean library. library and information science (lis) literature examining the history of the profession has not properly recognized pamphilus or his caesarean collection. for example, pamphilus does not receive any “hits” in the library literature & information science index (llisi), in the library & information science source database (liss), or in the library, information science & technology abstracts database (lista). this present investigation will fill this astounding research gap by describing how pamphilus fulfilled seven roles that parallel important responsibilities within academic librarianship today. through these seven roles as a librarian, pamphilus continued the institutional legacy of origen and greatly influenced succeeding generations of christian scholars in subtle but significant ways. pamphilus and his library pamphilus was born in berytus (beirut) of a noble family, and he studied in alexandria’s didaskaleion under pierius, who was also known as “the little” or “the younger” origen (photius, library 118; cf. schaff and wace (1979), 321 n. 42; soligniac 1984, 150–4). eusebius of caesarea (martyrs of palestine 11.2) described pamphilus as “a man who through his entire life was celebrated for every virtue, for renouncing and despising the world, for sharing his possessions with the needy, for contempt of earthly hopes, and for philosophic deportment and exercise.”5 in 307, pamphilus was imprisoned during an intensified persecution of palestinian christians under the governor urbanus (during the imperial reign of maximinus daia), and he was martyred around 310 by decapitation (eusebius, martyrs of palestine 7; jerome, on illustrious men 75.4; cf. amacker and junod 2002, vol. 1, 77–8). pamphilus’s “life-long dedication was the amassing of a library of scope and quality” (casson 2001, 139), and he eventually assembled a collection of around 30,000 volumes (triginta volumina milia) (isidore of seville, etymologies 6.6.1; cf. humphreys 1994, 138).6 jerome (on illustrious men 75; cf. isidore of seville, etymologies 6.6.1) described pamphilus as being “on fire with such love” for his “sacred library.”7 the library of caesarea probably inherited most of its earliest volumes from origen, who died in 251 of complications resulting from injuries suffered during the decian persecution (staikos 2007, 107; cf. crouzel 1989, 33–6; frenschkowski 2006, 81). an original core of origen’s library probably came from or was copied from his hometown of alexandria, a city famous for its repositories of texts (jacob 2003, 13–22).8 while origen began his career by purportedly giving away “all the books of ancient literature that he possessed” (eusebius, church history 6.8–9),9 he evidently turned again to collecting literary sources (grafton and williams 2006, 67–8). mcguckin (1992, 20) theorizes that origen procured some of his library collection while on his frequent travels.10 he reasons that origen acquired books throughout palestine, in athens, and probably from rome (126). in turn, surmises carriker (2003, 11), “pamphilus was probably drawn to settle at caesarea because of the reputation the city enjoyed as the home of origen’s library.” with the death of origen, pamphilus came into “direct control” of the collection (gamble 1995, 159). jerome (on illustrious men 113.1; tanner 1979, 318) jointly labeled the library as the bibliotheca origenis et pamphili, “the library of origen and pamphilus.” staikos (2007, 150 n. 54; cf. isidore of p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • p a m p h i l u s t h e l i b r a r i a n     2 4 seville, etymologies 6.6.1) reasons that pamphilus “undertook the task of reconstituting the library, a task to which he devoted so much energy that he was later thought to be its founder.” vleeschauwer (1963, 146) concurs—although origen formally started the collection, “the real founder” was pamphilus. tanner (1979, 418) similarly argues that pamphilus “deserves the real credit for making the caesarean library the greatest academic library of the ancient christian world.” eusebius preserved pamphilus’s memory in his life of pamphilus (now lost except for a few fragments) which included a catalog of his library, and by inclusion within his martyrs of palestine 26–7; 38–48 (tanner 1979, 418). according to jerome, pamphilus and eusebius exhibited such a harmony it was as if they shared a single soul (jerome, epistle 84.10). eusebius even called himself eusebius pamphili (“pamphilus’s eusebius”) after his venerated mentor, whom he called “a man threefold dear to me,” “my dearest friend,” “a most eloquent man of truly philosophical living,” and “the great glory of the caesarean church” (jerome, on illustrious men 81.3; eusebius, martyrs of palestine 7.4, 11.1–2; eusebius, church history 7.32.25; 8.13.6; cf. scheck 2010, 5). moreover, argues mcguckin (2004, 89), pamphilus probably trained eusebius in “transcribing, cataloguing, and editing texts, introducing him to issues of literary criticism and historiography.” although pamphilus was martyred during the reign of maximinus daia around 310 (jerome, on illustrious men 75.4), the caesarean library was not destroyed or confiscated during the “great persecution” of 303–313 (bruce 1980, 127–37).11 laing (2017, 180; cf. 174, 179) maintains that eusebius’ access to “the document-rich library at caesarea” set his historical work apart, providing an advantage over his predecessors. although the library may have existed as late as the sixth century (röwekamp 2005, 51), nothing is known with certainty concerning its ultimate demise (gamble 1995, 160). “one can only assume,” reasons tanner (1979, 419), “that it probably suffered the same fate as the jerusalem library likely did in the persian invasion of 614.”12 the caesarean library may have already been steadily waning, due to gradual neglect. frenschkowski (2006, 64, 103–104) points to a progressive loss of the original writings of origen in the fourth and fifth centuries. the nature of the caesarean library it is difficult to apply modern library terminology to ancient libraries without inadvertently importing anachronistic connotations (vleeschauwer 1963, 142; grafton and williams 2006, 12). nevertheless, in the broader categories of modern “library and information science” nomenclature, pamphilus was the director of what some consider to be an ancient prototype of an “academic” or “research” library (lapin 1996, 496–512). for example, tanner (1979, 408–9, 415–19) classified the caesarean library as an “academic or school” library functioning as a “reference and research library”; and gamble (1995, 159; cf. mcguckin 2003, 126) has described it as “an actual research library.” frenschkowski (2006, 102–3), however, wisely cautions against overstating any modern parallel: “under no circumstances should the caesarean library be presented according to the model of today’s larger organized libraries,” since the “holdings were manageable and primarily shaped by the owners’ personal research interests.” the impetus of the original collection arose from origen’s catechetical school and his personal scholarship.13 according to gregory thaumaturgus (panegyric to origen 13.150–3; cf. levine 1975, 116–17), who was a student of origen, “we were allowed to make ourselves familiar with all kinds of doctrine, from greek and eastern sources, or spiritual or secular subjects, ranging freely over the whole field of learning.”14 using gregory’s panegyric, one can reconstruct a curriculum beginning t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 4 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 1 2 5 with grammar and rhetoric, progressing to math and sciences (physics, mathematics, geometry, and astronomy), moving on to philosophy and ethics, and culminating in theology and biblical studies (levine 1975, 123–4). as a corollary, origen’s library collection was “large and varied,” although not necessarily comprehensive (grafton and williams 2006, 56, 63). the caesarean library continued to house religious and philosophical works, and it may have been the home of a new testament critical text (cadiou 1936; carriker 2003, 15; grafton and williams 2006, 179–80). the growing collection rivaled not only christian but also pagan libraries of the era (leclerq 1910, 857). jerome (epistle 34.1) even described pamphilus as “a man who in zeal for the acquisition of a library wished to take rank with demetrius phalereus and peisistratus.”15 gamble (1995, 160) concludes, “the importance of the caesarean library is difficult to overestimate.” he adds, “many early christian works now lost are known only through notices of their presence there, and many others probably owe their perseverance to having been disseminated from it. it played an especially prominent role in the transmission of scriptural literature” (160; cf. grafton and williams 2006, 7). seven roles as librarian with this general understanding of pamphilus and his library in place, we now turn to pamphilus’s fulfillment of seven roles that parallel important responsibilities within academic librarianship. first, pamphilus acted as an acquisitions and cataloging librarian. pamphilus committed himself to hunting down and gathering books (grafton and williams 2006, 21). jerome (epistle 34.1) claimed that pamphilus “searched the whole world for images of the true intellects, and their eternal monuments.”16 pamphilus even dedicated his personal funds to the acquisition of materials (grafton and williams 2006, 231; gamble 1995, 155). beyond amassing the resources, pamphilus arranged and cataloged them (gamble 1995, 156; tanner 1979, 427 n. 12). this catalog was later shared in eusebius’s life of pamphilus and was mentioned by jerome (epistle 34; grafton and williams 2006, 68, 182; cadiou 1936, 478). pamphilus also developed lending policies, requiring patrons to leave a lending form when borrowing books for copying (tanner 1979, 409). second, pamphilus collected and stored “rare” (exceptional and valuable) books and manuscripts. in a general sense, all books were “rare” in late antiquity, but the caesarean library included some truly remarkable treasures. as casson (2001, 139; cf. jerome, on illustrious men 3.2 and preface to chronicles; wendel 1954, 247–8; tanner 1979, 418–19) explains, “jerome mentions a copy of the supposed hebrew original of the gospel of matthew as well as the manuscripts from which origen made up his hexapla, his edition of the old testament with six versions of the text in parallel columns.”17 in fact, claims williams (2014, 146), the treasure of the library was “undoubtedly the original copy of the hexapla.” through its valuable collection of manuscripts, “a veritable gold mine of information,” the caesarean library played an important role in the textual history of both the old and new testaments (tanner 1979, 419; cf. murphy 1959, 119–31; hernández 2015, 26–8). as an example, a colophon of the extant, fourth-century euthaliana manuscript of the book of acts and paul’s epistles claims that the manuscript was compared with a copy in pamphilus’s caesarean library (parker 2008, 268–70). third, pamphilus became involved in the production and publication of works (and thus facets of “scholarly communication”), as a scriptorium was associated with his library (casson 2001, 139; gamble 1995, 158; röwekamp 2005, 51; jacob 2003).18 therefore, according to wilken (2009, 314), p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • p a m p h i l u s t h e l i b r a r i a n     2 6 “the library was more than a repository of books; it was also a scholarly center for the copying of books”. in origen’s day, female scribes were commonly employed for the task (haines-fitzen 2000, 42–3). when the emperor constantine desired fifty copies of the bible in the early fourth century, he contacted the caesarean library (tanner 1979, 418; levine 1975, 125). “that constantine’s order was promptly met, and with magnificently produced volumes, bespeaks the efficiency and technical capacity of the caesarean library’s scriptorium in the early fourth century” (gamble 1995, 428 n. 18). fourth, pamphilus engaged in the preservation and conservation of library materials. casson (2001) surmises that pamphilus “transferred texts from codices of papyrus that had suffered severe damage over the years to codices of parchment, which would be more durable” (131; cf. staikos 2007, 186). eventually, by the end of the fourth century, all of the works kept in the caesarean library were transcribed onto parchment codices (in membranis instauere), largely through the dedicated work of akakios and euzoïos (jerome, on illustrious men 113.1; cf. jerome, epistle 34; humphreys 1994, 138; gamble 1995, 159). the exact processes, however, remain somewhat unclear. carriker explains, “one scholar envisions the replacement of papyrus rolls with parchment codices, another, thinking the codex to have already supplanted the roll, envisions the replacement of papyrus codices with parchment codices” (carriker 2003, 23; cf. vleeschauwer 1963, 165–73). more specifically, to pamphilus we owe the preservation of origenian materials, which would have been lost without pamphilus’s bibliographical care (jerome, on illustrious men 75; photius, library 118; cf. mcguckin 2004, 90). eusebius (church history 6.32.3) provided a catalog list of the caesarean library in his life of pamphilus, and he declared that “from this [caesarean] collection anyone who pleased could gather the fullest knowledge of the works of origen that have reached us.”19 according to jerome (on illustrious men 75.1), “the presbyter pamphilus burned with so great a love for the divine library [bibliotheca divina] that he copied out in his own hand the greatest part of origen’s works, which to this day are contained in the library at caesarea.”20 jerome took personal pride in owning twenty-five volumes of origen’s commentary on the twelve minor prophets that had been hand-copied by pamphilus himself (scheck 2010, 4). jerome (on illustrious men 75.2-3) proclaimed, “i believe i am in possession of the riches of croesus,” and he rejoiced that he had thousands of lines of text written down by the martyr, as if “signed by the traces of his blood.”21 photius’s study of origen’s writings, encapsulated in the one-hundred-eighteenth chapter of his library stands in this same tradition of preservation as well (mcguckin 2004, 2). fifth, pamphilus developed an ancient equivalent of a library research fellows program. pamphilus provided not only personal support for researchers but also a pre-technological parallel to modern photocopies. according to jerome (apology against rufinus 1.9; cf. schott 2013, 329–62), “pamphilus was a friend to all who studied. if he saw that some lacked the basic necessities of life, he generously gave as much as he could. he also eagerly distributed copies of the sacred scriptures, not only to be read, but also to be kept, and not only to men but also to those women who had shown him that they were devoted to reading. accordingly, he prepared many codices, so that he could give them out to those who wanted them whenever the need arose.”22 as jerome built up his personal library’s holdings, he maintained a lively “barter trade” with caesarea, seeking to procure the opera omnia of origen in exchange for his own holdings (vleeschauwer 1963, 149; cf. grafton and williams 2006, 242). the interchange of books between caesarea and bethlehem has even been described as an early “loan service” (vleeschauwer 1963, 163).23 t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 4 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 1 2 7 sixth, pamphilus was an influential author and scholar in his own right. he addressed his apology for origen (likely composed between 308 and 310) to christians who had been condemned to the mines (photius, library 118), complete with an accompanying preface letter (amacker and junod, 2002, vol. 2, 82; junod 1987, 128–35). the apology for origen is no longer extant, except for a latin translation of book 1, probably translated by rufinus but of disputed accuracy, and two (perhaps reworked) fragments found in socrates scholasticus’s church history (beinert 1987, 123–7; reymond 1987, 136–45; williams 1993, 151–69; van nuffelen 2005, 103–114). amacker and junod (2002, vol. 1, 53–74) have gathered the few ancient testimonies to the work. even with the limited available evidence, “we can uncover with some confidence an original pamphilian theological agenda” (williams 1993, 151). pamphilus perceived himself to be “in a situation of serious crisis where the thought and texts of the alexandrian were the subject of virulent and numerous criticisms, a situation characterized by anti-origenism” (junod 1993, 296; cf. junod, 1999, 215–23). pamphilus addressed the issues of the trinity, the incarnation, the historicity of the scriptures, the resurrection of the dead, the punishment of the wicked, human souls, and metempsychosis (amacker and junod 2002, vol. 2, 88; ramelli 2011, 27, 42–3, 46). the apology for origen stands as a testimony to pamphilus’s “intense admiration” for his teacher, and one could even argue that the work was more of a “eulogy” than an “apology” (amacker and junod 2002, vol. 12, 99, 104). junod maintains, “the learned librarian pamphilus stood as a defender of an exegetical and theological heritage that he himself worked to reunify and to disseminate” (junod 1993, 286). pamphilian scholarship lived on through his protégé, eusebius of caesarea, the “research librarian, apologist, and bishop” (laing 2017, 164). eusebius caught his master’s enthusiasm for origen, and he seems to have added or completed the sixth book to the apology for origen (photius, library 118; cf. junod 1992, 519–27; junod 1992b, 165–79).24 because of the difficulties involved in reconstructing the manner of composition, eusebius’s collaboration and contribution to the final work are difficult to ascertain with exactitude (junod 1987, 128; amacker and junod 2002, vol. 2, 81; junod 2004, 184–6). according to louth (2004, 358), pamphilus’s work praising origen “was almost certainly” a source for the sixth book of eusebius’s church history, “which is mainly concerned with the life of the great alexandrian.” junod, however, has argued that an earlier edition of the sixth book of church history may have preceded the apology for origen and only later incorporated knowledge from the apology for origen (junod 2004). seventh, pamphilus exhibited effective administrative leadership, by managing his collection during one of the most transformative eras in the history of librarianship—an era associated with the revolutionary transition from scrolls to codices (gamble 1995, 42–81; roberts and skeat, 1983). between the first and fourth centuries, literary culture faced a bibliographic revolution. according to roberts and skeat (1983, 37; as summarized in carriker 2003, 24, n. 72), “the surviving evidence demonstrates that in the first and second centuries about 98% of works were in rolls, while by the time of the late third and early fourth century the distribution was 52% rolls, 48% codices, and in the fourth century the distribution was 26.5% rolls, 73.5% codices.” this general transition from scroll to codex changed the manner of both copying and storing library materials (o’donnell 1998, 50–7). by the time eusebius composed his influential church history in the second decade of the fourth century, “tables of contents are prefixed to each of the ten books, again showing with certainty the influence of the codex on the arrangement of materials in the work” (too 2010, 76). with the continuing rise of the codex, eusebius’ own genius was “to unite an innovative form of layout and p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • p a m p h i l u s t h e l i b r a r i a n     2 8 book production with an innovative way of describing the past,” including the use of documentary evidence (grafton and williams 2006, 6–7, 143). the codex reigned, and librarianship would never be the same (o’donnell 1998, 98). although we do not know the details of an assumed “scroll to papyrus codex to parchment codex” (or perhaps a more direct “scroll to parchment codex”) progression in caesarea, we do know that pamphilus led the caesarean library through the early portion of this revolutionary era of librarianship (cf. carriker 2003, 23; vleeschauwer 1963, 165–73). epilogue: origen’s institutional legacy in conclusion, as trigg (2007, 397) notes, caesarean scholarship “pushed the limits of the information technology of the time, the codex, to create research tools with an open-ended capacity to further future scholarship.” according to grafton and williams (2006, 15), origen, pamphilus, and eusebius, as “pioneering christian scholars,” creatively “devised new genres of learned literature.” at the same time, origen and pamphilus “created new settings for book production and consumption: scriptoria that could turn out complex and even unprecedented works of technical literature and libraries where the sources they drew upon were assembled.” origen passed the baton, and pamphilus finished the next leg of the race. caesarea had become “the most famous center of christian scholarship in antiquity” (grafton and williams 2006, 9). in fulfilling his responsibilities in caesarea in an era of great transition within classical culture, pamphilus served seven roles of a librarian that continue in developed and modified forms to this day. he therefore stands as an influential christian scholar and pioneer in the venerable profession of librarianship. moreover, as the early christians considered the life-transforming powers of their sacred and religious texts, the collection and preservation of these texts in the caesarean library were influential in the construction and continuation of christian identity (chin 2010, 645). yet the roots of the caesarean collection commenced with origen himself, thus reflecting his institutional legacy, as his library continued to influence succeeding generations of early christian authors and leaders. trigg (1983) highlighted the influential legacy of origen as a prolific writer, skilled teacher, preacher, debater, scholar, theologian, interpreter of the bible, contemplative ascetic, and spiritual guide (245–6). i would contend that the institutional legacy of origen’s caesarean library, as sustained and developed by pamphilus, should be highlighted as well. mcguckin (2004, 16) maintains that origen’s “important library” reflected “the first exemplar of how the church ought to be vested as a major center of learning,” an educational vision that flourished “for centuries following.” scholars have investigated how later authors borrowed from origen’s writings (literary legacy), how later translators interacted with his hexapla (philological legacy), how later interpreters appropriated his hermeneutics (exegetical legacy), and how later thinkers reacted to his theological ideas (theological legacy). scholarship, however, has generally neglected the long-term legacy of origen’s library (grafton and williams 2006, 17). like other ancient libraries, the caesarean library could be described as “a privileged locus for the accumulation and storage of influence” (grafton and williams 2006, 14). viewed through this institutional lens, one gains new insights into key figures of the patristic period. pamphilus becomes a collection caretaker as well as an origenian apologist. eusebius becomes a bibliographical researcher as well as an historian and biographer. the emperor constantine becomes a customer of the library’s scriptorium as well as a political restructurer of the relit h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 4 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 1 2 9 gious landscape. jerome becomes the recipient of “interlibrary loans” as well as an anti-origenist intellectual. and we are all reminded that the highly talented and multi-faceted origen was also a librarian, whose collection was delivered into the competent hands of pamphilus his successor. works cited amacker, rené, and eric juno, eds. 2002. pamphile et eusèbe de césarée, apologie pour origène, 2 vols. sources chrétiennes 464. paris: éditions du cerf. baghos, mario. 2015. “the conflicting portrayals of origen in the byzantine tradition.” phronema 30, no. 2: 69–104. barney, stephen a., w. j. lewis, j. a. beach, and oliver berghof, eds. 2006. the etymologies of isidore of seville. cambridge: cambridge university press. bienert, wolfgang a. 1987. “die älteste apologie für origenes?” in origeniana quarta, edited by lothar lies, 123–7. innsbrucker theologische studien 19. innsbruck: 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n     3 2 wilken, robert louis. 2009. review of christianity and the transformation of the book: origen, eusebius, and the library of caesarea, by anthony grafton and megan williams. christianity and literature 58, no. 2: 312–14. williams, megan h. 2014. the monk and the book: jerome and the making of christian scholarship. chicago: university of chicago press. williams, rowan. 1993. “damnosa haereditas: pamphilus’ apology and the reputation of origen.” in logos: festschrift für luise abramowski, edited by hanns christof brennecke, ernst ludwig grasmück, and christoph markschies, 151–69. berlin: de gruyter. young, frances m., and andrew teal. 2010. from nicaea to chalcedon: a guide to the literature and its background. 2nd ed. grand rapids: baker academic. t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 4 , n o . 1 : a p r i l 2 0 2 1 3 3 endnotes 1 jerome noted that the library still existed in his time and possessed pamphilian autographs (on illustrious men 75; cf. frenschkowski 2006, 53–104; cadiou 1936, 474–83). cf. hillary of poitiers’s use and imitation of origen in jerome, on illustrious men 100. 2 levine (1975) acknowledges, “in the latter part of the third century, pamphilus continued many of origen’s activities, while making several contributions of his own to christian intellectual life” (124). “pamphilus’ major achievement at caesarea was the organizing of a large library containing the works of origen and other christian writers” (125). nevertheless, levine definitely focuses upon origen and eusebius (126–7). 3 johannes trithemius praised pamphilus’ collecting of the caesarean library, “so that in all the world, there was no more celebrated library” (see grafton and williams 2006, 5). 4 four pages later grafton and williams (2006) reference “the model of christian scholarship that origen, pamphilus, and eusebius had created” (237). 5 english translation from schaff and wace (1979), 351–2. 6 frenschkowski (2006) maintains that the number does not possess “an intrinsic impossibility” (59; english translations throughout this article are mine unless otherwise noted). he actually considers the number to be fairly modest in comparison with ancient libraries of a similar nature (59). nevertheless, the chronological distance between isidore and pamphilus warrants caution. the number may be too small rather than too large, and in any case should be taken cum grano salis (62). 7 english translation from halton 1999, 107. 8 origen may have brought along a collection when he transferred residency from alexandria to palestine (tanner 1979, 417). 9 english translation from williams 2008, 133. 10 mcguckin (1993) also theorizes that the library at alexandria “dominated origen’s imagination,” and that he desired the caesarean library to be an imitation—“a clear mimesis of the great library of his hometown” (121; cf. 127 n.24, 134; cf. ellens 1993). chin (2010) maintains that rufinus carried on this project, “a grand attempt to displace classical literary culture with a body of christian literature built on alexandrian foundations” (618). in this manner, the literary and theological dimensions of the later origenist controversies were intertwined (619, 645). 11 frenschkowski (2006) argues that this is more likely if the library was privately owned, as he contends (74, 83). he uses the label bibliotheca origenis et pamphili as evidence of a primarily personal library collection (83). 12 vleeschauwer (1963, 145–7; cf. mcguckin 2004, 17) believes that the library of alexander in jerusalem was directly dependent upon the alexandrian model of the christian library. a late thirteenth-century arabic text reports that the caesarean library was destroyed in the arab invasion of 642 (mcguckin 2003, 124, n. 17). 13 a related issue is the nature of the christian schola of caesarea, which mcguckin (2004, 1) calls “the first christian university.” mcguckin (2003, 125) argues that origen wanted his caesarean schola to differ decidedly from the catechetical school in alexandria. see also cavallo 1989, 65–8. 14 english translation from tanner 1979, 418. 15 english translation from tanner 1979, 418. see also chin 2010, 620. 16 english translation from grafton and williams 2006, 208. 17 but compare the critical evaluation in frenschkowski (2006, 68–76). 18 frenschkowski (2006, 102) warns against reading too much into the relationship between the caesarean library and scriptorium. mugridge (2016, 15–17) maintains that the word scriptorium is misleading when applied to christian contexts in late antiquity, because the word suggests “copying centres” as found in medieval monasteries. 19 english translation from mcguckin 2004, 90. 20 english translation from carriker 2003, 13–14. jerome attributes more than eight hundred works to origen, although his extensive catalog is incomplete (see grafton and williams 2006, 68). p e e r r e v i e w e d a r t i c l e s • p a m p h i l u s t h e l i b r a r i a n     3 4 21 english translation from halton 1999, 107; cf. carriker 2003, 27. 22 english translation from grafton and williams 2006, 181. 23 frenschkowski (2006) reads the evidence differently (doubting that jerome did much direct borrowing from the caesarean collection) but agrees that he provides evidence of “private scribal networks” (72). according to frenschkowski, the caesarean library was not “freely accessible” or “generally usable” (73–4). frenschkowski further maintains that caesarean books were borrowed but not necessarily returned (79). 24 contrast nautin 1977, 134–53. junod (2004, 183–201) maintains that one cannot conclude with certainty whether eusebius was the sole author, a co-author, or an editor who completed pamphilus’s book. the testimonies of rufinus and jerome conflict with one another. chin discusses jerome’s purposeful removal of pamphilus from a stated authorial role of the apology for origen, due to his own personal agenda (chin 2010, 626, 643). cf. schaff and wace (1979, 36). 26 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org special forum: best professional development experiences, spring 2014 an excellent opportunity to “think bigger” about professional development came my way when i served for a few years on atla’s professional development committee, at the time of its formation. it was an exciting challenge to convene with other atla colleagues and ask the most wide-open questions imaginable, such as: • “what sort of professional development do our fellow theological librarians need?” • “what resources are in place to help them meet those needs?” • “what can our committee do to help?” there is much to be said for programs, events, strategies, and other more formally conceived plans for professional development, and our libraries do well to think creatively about this. at the same time, that’s only a small segment of where professional development happens. for those who are alive to them, opportunities for professional development are constant and limitless. there isn’t a single workday that doesn’t offer some room for growth. it was precisely with this in mind that i posted the invitation (“tell us about your best professional development experience…”) to atlantis earlier this year, with the hope of bringing to the surface some individual high points and reflections from our own varied experiences. what follows is an ensemble of reflections from within our community. as you’ll see right away, they represent vividly how varied our work situations and our experiences of professional development are. i am so glad i posted this question. the power of networks and associations (jim pakala) engagement with certain organizations of libraries constitutes my most valuable professional development experience in theological librarianship. the three most important of these organizations have been the american theological library association, its regional group septla (southeastern pennsylvania theological library association), and, since 1998, mobius (which formerly stood for “missouri bibliographic information user system”). mobius is the most dynamic of my organizational commitments, owing to the very close interlibrary activity. as of 2014, the colorado alliance of research libraries and mobius are partnering to share via a courier service the books of all the member libraries of both organizations. a key component of my professional development has been serving on the boards of these organizations as well as some others. additionally, involvement with various chaplaincies, local clergy, and the church has proved valuable. if time and funds permitted, i would prefer society of biblical literature (sbl) and evangelical theological society (ets) meetings, and i know that some atla colleagues are active members of those organizations. long-time atla member sharon taylor and i have over the years remarked, half-jokingly, that the atla conference was the highlight of our year. for professional development in theological librarianship, atla stands head and shoulders above everything else. (james c. pakala is library director at covenant theological seminary, st. louis, mo.) the atlantis listserv as a professional development resource (becca butler) as a new theological librarian, my best professional development has been through the kindness, generosity, and collegiality i have found on the atlantis listserv. my experience with the listserv began during my theological librarianship class at dominican university when my professor (melody layton mcmahon) encouraged me to seek out answers to my research question through the listserv members. the wealth of information and the responses i received made me feel welcome as a new librarian in the field and contributed in important ways to a successful paper that eventually found its way into theological librarianship. now 27 special forum: best professional development experiences theolib.org in this first year of my fellowship, i have returned to the listserv again and again to ask questions of my own, or to read answers that other librarians have posted. nearly every discussion has led to a deeper understanding of my vocation as a theological librarian, or, at the very least, has pointed me in the direction of new and better resources. (rebecca a. butler is visiting assistant professor of library services at the christopher center for library & information resources, valparaiso university.) discovering vocational clarity in a theological librarianship course (jim darlack) not long ago, in a conversation with a friend after church, i mentioned to him that i had decided to stick with being a librarian. i explained that it seemed to be a good fit for my personality and interests, and that while there was no shortage of folks in the world with doctoral degrees in biblical studies, there was an ongoing need for theological librarians. his rejoinder — “are you disappointed?” — might have been disheartening, had i had not already asked myself the same question. and to be honest, it wasn’t that long ago that it was easy for me to see my decision to pursue library science as a retreat from my original plan of pursuing a doctorate with the objective of teaching biblical studies. thankfully, taking this course (theological librarianship lis 590tl) has helped me see that my decision, while a change in direction, is no retreat. three aspects of our course material helped change my mind: (1) the rich heritage of theological librarianship, (2) the perception of theological librarianship as ministry, and (3) the contribution of librarians to theological education. there can be a certain pride in taking one’s place among the ranks of the theological librarians. we stand in line with the giants in our faith. jerome, cassiodorus, harnack, and others had a hand in shaping the theological education of their day, and in some cases they helped set the course of western civilization. while the legacy of those who have gone before us is affirming in its own right, the literature we care for holds a mystique as well. we are responsible for connecting the church in our time with the witnesses of the past. we help multiply experience in our seminaries, facilitating interaction with a diversity of views unhindered by geographical or temporal distance. in taking this course, it has been interesting to hear and read the perceptions that theological librarians have of the profession. some have viewed it simply as a job. others, however, have perceived their work as the answer to a call to ministry: a vocation in the original sense of that word. one author describes the theological library as “the memory of the body of christ.” another has stated that “theological librarianship is at its best a ministry,” since the theological librarian is not simply concerned with the collections and their care, but has a chance to minister to patrons as they come through the library. it is important to see ourselves as having an active role in theological education. our choices in collections, efficiency in circulation, exactness in technical services, and aid in reference all help shape the students’ educational experience. regardless of our specific duties, or our official status within the institution, we serve best when we see ourselves as serving an integral role in the educational process. we bear primary responsibility for selecting the resources that our students will engage. we help set the atmosphere in which learning takes place. we build the intellectual scaffolding of the seminary’s collection with our cataloging and extend the reach of the faculty into one-on-one reference consultations online or over the phone. my own theological education began in bible college, responding to god’s call on my life to help teach his word to his people. this calling led to further academic pursuits in seminary. never did i foresee that i would become a librarian. it has been encouraging during this course to learn how librarianship fits into a historical context as well as into the context of theological education. my perception of theological librarianship as a ministry has helped to shape the way i go about my day-to-day duties. and so i can answer the question, “are you disappointed?” with a resounding “no.” while my decision to become a librarian was a change in direction, it is not in any sense a retreat. (jim darlack is assistant librarian for reference & bibliographic instruction, gordon-conwell theological seminary, south hamilton, ma.) 28 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org student work experience and vocational formation (don day) on your question of “what has been my most valuable professional development experience for theological librarianship?” my first thought was the traditional workshop/seminar, but i admit i’d not been stretched theologically by those otherwise excellent events. but i then recalled where the rubber really hit the road. i’d been recently explaining to a new batch of international students something about my experience of calling, and formulated the following in hindsight. growing up, i attended a small, rural baptist church. i was baptized there, and just down the hill from where it stands, there is a small library, where i worked as a teenager. i knew god was speaking to me when i went to church; if god was speaking to me while i was working at the library, i did not understand, at the time. library work helped pay my bills from my undergraduate days through two additional master’s degrees. but it was not until i finished a master of library science that i found full-time paid professional employment. i started then to understand what i had only suspected before; that god had been saying something to me at the library when i was younger. he had been telling me, even when i was working as a teenager, that he could use the skills i had learned in the library. i believe god has made it his business’ consider my desires, but to satisfy the needs of others, for his own good purposes. (don day is director of library and information services, b. h. carroll theological institute, arlington tx.) the power of improvisation (anna lois kroll) i have found through the years that professional development is something that happens gradually, as one gains experience in one or another area, or something that happens over a shorter period of time, when one becomes involved in a project or goes to a workshop or conference. for me, the most visibly rewarding experience i had that resulted in my development professionally was setting up a library for irpine seminary, located right outside of kiev, ukraine, in 1999. i worked with one of our graduates who teaches there and taught him how to maintain the collection once i was gone. i had to figure out how to take what i use here and fit it into their situation. such factors as the inconsistency of their electrical power had to be taken into consideration. the students were so grateful to be able to finally have access to the books that they lined up one morning when my assistant and i came to work on the library and each of them shook our hands as we walked up to the door of the building. the library is still functional, and i developed a lasting friendship with our graduate with whom i worked. p.s. i almost deleted your e-mail but reconsidered when i read. “this could be fun” at the end of your message. so i thought about it, and this experience came to mind as one of the biggest highlights of my career that might be fun for others to hear about. i could list a number of other experiences, but this one was certainly very satisfying and was one of those few times in a cataloger’s career where the results could be seen so clearly and poignantly. thanks for giving me the opportunity to share. (anna lois kroll is cataloger at the master’s seminary, sun valley, ca.) the power of kindness and personal affirmation (tony amodeo) a long, long time ago, i was at an early point in my career in giving instruction sessions (a.k.a. bibliographic instruction). this was not something that library school had prepared me for (an unfortunate shortcoming of many lis programs at the time), and my first attempt was a disaster (i simply read my notes to the class). my second attempt was better (this time, i used notes without simply reading them verbatim), but eventually i found out about a group of librarians who met at ucla regularly to discuss instruction issues at the california conference on library instruction south (now scil, a section of the california academic & research libraries association). their meetings were a great help to me, as were their occasional programs. the spirit of cooperative learning, the sharing of experiences, and the problem solving were invaluable. i got to know, learn from, and befriend some of the pioneers and eventual national leaders in library instruction. gradually, my class sessions began to improve. i went as far as to take speech and beginning acting classes to help with voice projection and presentation. and yet i still felt that i wasn’t getting through as a teacher. 29 special forum: best professional development experiences theolib.org one day, i mentioned my misgivings to the late herbert ryan, s.j., an outstanding teacher, scholar, and noted peritus (theological advisor) at the second vatican council. he put his arm around my shoulders, looked at me, and said, “tony, you’re a natural-born teacher.” i certainly didn’t feel like one, and my response at first was that he was simply trying to shore up what was left of my diminishing confidence. and yet somehow that became a moment that stayed with me. it planted a seed of hope, and also set down a challenge that i have carried with me all these years: to live up to his confidence that i could, someday, be the teacher i wanted to be. (tony amodeo is associate librarian, reference & instruction, william h. hannon library, loyola marymount university, los angeles, ca.) being “over one’s head” as a professional development opportunity (leslie a. engelson) most librarians love to learn. they are drawn to opportunities to see a new perspective, gain some understanding, or attain knowledge in an area previously unknown or little known. very likely this is what draws us to librarianship, as there are few other professions that allow people to indulge in what delights them. but just because we like to learn doesn’t means it’s always easy to do so. as a cataloger, it is important for me to have at least some knowledge of the subjects engaged by the resources i catalog so that i can assign accurate subject headings and classification numbers. it follows that much of my professional development happens as a matter of course as part of my daily work. not only do i learn about the subjects of the resources i catalog, but over time i get better at applying the tools of my trade. this often includes developing proficiencies with a variety of technological tools. i must confess that when it comes to technology, i often struggle to learn it on my own. it is mentally exhausting, it is time consuming, and there is often no one around to ask for help. also, there are always plenty of other important tasks at hand, things i can usefully pursue instead of tackling some new technological challenge. a couple years ago, however, i knew it was time to stop putting it off and learn how to use marcedit. i had been hearing about what a time-saving tool it is when a cataloger is dealing with a high volume of records. since my “internal motivation” was somewhat lacking, i looked for an “external motivation” and found it when my proposal for teaching a marcedit workshop for the atla annual conference was accepted. i enjoy teaching, especially in a hands-on learning environment, and was looking forward to teaching this workshop. now all i needed to do was learn how to use marcedit. with that external motivation driving me, i downloaded the latest version of the software, gathered a small file of marc records, and started reading the help files and watching tutorials. i rolled my sleeves up and threw myself into the challenge. i clicked buttons, hit a number of frustrating deadends, and made something work without quite knowing how. eventually, the fog of confusion began to dissipate as the warm light of understanding and knowledge began to break through. by the time i taught the workshop, i felt reasonably confident in using a variety of tools available in the marcedit suite. it was exciting and satisfying to demonstrate its functionality, and to witness firsthand some of those “aha!” moments that every teacher longs to be part of. i’m quite proud of myself for accomplishing at least a minimal level of competency on my own, and have grown in confidence in my ability to take on whatever i need to in order to serve the constituents of my library. (leslie a. engelson is metadata librarian/assistant professor, waterfield library, murray state university, murray, ky.) conclusion such a lively and intriguing discussion helps us to clarify some useful principles: • that a truly memorable “best professional development experience” brings together the right scenario for the right person. what’s formative or even career defining for one person would not be for someone else. 30 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org • our need to be, as much as possible, in a perpetual state of growth and learning ourselves. the experiences described above represent many different career stages. and it’s difficult to think of a working environment that is as conducive to constant encounters with new ways of thinking as are ours. • the benefit of taking every available opportunity to hear what sources have nourished and sustained the vocations of trusted colleagues. resources for “formal” professional development programs vary so much from one institution to another. but in reading the accounts shared here, it’s striking how great a role is played by everyday work experience. this affirms that the way we engage new challenges — being honest enough with ourselves to accept that we must somehow acquire new capacities in order to rise to those challenges — is close to the heart of the vocational growth we all need. our thanks to all who participated. 38 peer-reviewed article 38 peer-reviewed article john b. weaver is head of public services and reference librarian, pitts theology library, candler school of theology, emory university, atlanta, georgia. theological libraries and “the next christendom:” connecting north american theological education to uses of the book in the global south by john b. weaver abstract: survey of the past thirty years of librarian literature on the documentation of world christianity indicates a number of trends in theological librarianship, including a relative inattention to the connection between the documentation of world christianity in atla libraries, and the needs of theological researchers in north america. a trilogy of recent books by philip jenkins on the globalization of christianity argues for the significance of the writings of the “global south” to reading habits in the “global north.” based on the work of jenkins and other scholars, this paper identifies ten specific connections between north american theological education and the documentation of world christianity—connections that are rooted in the uses of the book in the global south. these are reasons for increased promotion and support of the documentation of world christianity among atla libraries. r eaders of the summary of proceedings from past annual conferences of the american theological library association (atla) will observe a tradition of publicly stated concern and group deliberation over present and future efforts to document world christianity.� the depth of this tradition was poignantly evidenced four years ago in a paper by martha smalley and paul stuehrenberg (yale divinity school).� their paper lists twenty-three articles written by atla librarians that focused on the documentation of world christianity; and, as the authors acknowledge, there are more articles that might have been listed. review of this literature gives evidence of the principled care and effort of theological librarians who for over thirty years have argued for the importance of atla libraries to the study of the phenomenal growth of christianity in the global south – in latin america, in africa, and east asia. reading through these past atla presentations, one observes three trends among theological librarians in their efforts to identify and fulfill the responsibilities of north american libraries in the face of the increasing globalization of christianity. first, the focus of these past statements is the collection of theological materials from around the world through strategic acquisition of books, periodicals, pamphlets, papers, and recordings.� second, this thematic emphasis on collection development has followed a trend of increasing pragmatism regarding both the anticipated scope of the documentation of world christianity, and the realizable extent of collaboration � this article is a revised version of a paper read at the �008 atla annual conference in ottawa (june �6, �008). � martha lund smalley and paul stuehrenberg, “incorporating global perspectives into theological education: the role of the library.” theological education 40.� (�004): 59-7�. � the emphasis on collection is seen in the following articles: lewis day, “collecting asian sources: an overview,” atla summary of proceedings 47 (�99�): ��9-���; timothy paul erdel, “from the colonial christ and babylonian captivity to dread jesus: documenting world christianity on a shoestring budget,” atla summary of proceedings 54 (�000): 8�-95; thomas reid, “acquiring materials on world christianity in a small theological seminary library,” atla summary of proceedings 54 (�000): �0�-�06; robert l. phillips, “acquiring theological materials from korea,” atla summary of proceedings 5� (�997): �5�-�58; paul stuehrenberg, “collecting latin american theological literature,” atla summary of proceedings 47 (�99�): �09-��4; robert schreiter, “globalization and theological libraries,” atla summary of proceedings 44 (�990): �46-�59; curtis bochanyin, “latin american collecting and theological libraries,” atla summary of proceedings 44 (�990): �9�-96. 39 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 among atla libraries. the phenomenal growth of christian populations in the southern hemisphere, combined with too-limited institutional interest and funding in north america, have led librarians to scale back their expectations for libraries’ collections and cooperation. a poignant statement of this pragmatic attitude was provided in �99� by dr. channing jeschke, former director of the pitts theology library (emory university), and principal architect of the sub-saharan african collection at pitts library. after over a decade of effort, jeschke observed that he was “less optimistic that we can together devise one grand scheme whereby atla can address this need through a coordinated, cooperative project for the acquisition of third world materials.”4 similar sentiment is implicit in other more recent presentations that celebrate accomplishments, while wondering aloud whether atla collaborations have resulted in better practices, and acknowledging that many of the best recommendations for documenting world christianity have not been followed.5 perhaps due to this limited success, there has been work to encourage documentation by refocusing individual libraries’ efforts at the denominational level.6 it is a trend that expresses a growing realism that denominational ties, faculty interests, and existing collection strengths are primary drivers for the expenditure of resources to collect materials from the global south.7 “think globally, act locally” makes for a good bumper-sticker, but in library collection development, thinking locally first is, it seems, the best route to acting globally. if this is accurate, and there is a growing acknowledgement of the importance of local goals and interests to this endeavor, then this highlights the need for atla to continue to cultivate personal knowledge and institutional interest in the documentation of world christianity, and not only the process and workflow of building these collections. third, a reader of past atla presentations on world christianity will note that less attention has been given to two other library functions that are equally applicable to the literature of the global south: �) the curation of this literature (e.g., its cataloging, indexing, preservation, and digitization), and, �) its connection to our users (e.g., its interpretation and promotion for faculty, students, and other researchers). this difference in relative emphasis on “collection” over against “curation” and “connection” should not, however, be understood as a total disregard for these other components of library services. so, for example, with specific regard to connecting collections to users, smalley and stuehrenberg explicitly state that “libraries must be proactive in helping faculty become aware of world christianity resources relevant to their teaching, going beyond their traditional role of acquiring resources and having them available on the shelves.”8 this helpful statement echoes other comments made at atla conferences by theological faculty, like judith berling, who affirmed in �998 that “faculty may need assistance (and inspiration) [from librarians] in becoming aware of this literature and how to best incorporate it in their courses.”9 here, however, the connection is presumably to collections already present in the library, and not to materials that require additional funding and staffing for acquisition. in other words, the connection of faculty and students to the literature of world christianity has been primarily discussed as interpretation of existing collections, and not 4 channing jeschke, “non-european foreign acquisitions in the context of globalization,” atla summary of proceedings 47 (�99�): ��6. 5 smalley and stuehrenberg, “incorporating global perspectives,” 65. 6 paul stuehrenberg, “a (perhaps too) simple proposal for documenting world christianity,” atla summary of proceedings 5� (�998): �09-��7. 7 see especially the sage comments by david bundy, “paradigm for partnership: toward a method for documenting world christianity in the denominational theological seminary library,” atla summary of proceedings 5� (�997): �4�-�44; cf. kenneth sawyer, “observing multiculturalism,” journal of religious and theological information 6. no. �-4 (�004): �4-�5. 8 martha lund smalley and paul stuehrenberg, “incorporating global perspectives,” 68. 9 judith berling, “update on the ats globalization project,” atla summary of proceedings 54 (�000): �60. for similar statements, see david bundy, “documenting global christianity: churches that are not part of the world council of churches,” atla summary of proceedings 5� (�998): �0�. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 40 volume �, number � • december �008 promotion of ongoing or additional collection initiatives. to invoke david stewart’s recent listing of metaphors for the function of the library, our collections of world christianity run the risk of being understood as only “silos” that are “provisions for the season when they are needed.” instead, i think most librarians would view these global collections as “witnesses”—to borrow again from stewart’s list of metaphors—prophetic witnesses that not only point back to forebears in the christian tradition, but that also point forward to conversations that our faculty and students must engage now, and to books, periodicals, pamphlets, papers, and recordings that our libraries must acquire to sustain this conversation.�0 the present essay is an effort to advance the connection between our institutions and the documents of world christianity by addressing the question: why should atla institutions collect texts that document the growth and current status of christianity in the global south? paul stuehrenberg has answered that libraries should collect the literature of latin american “because it’s there” and is “often on the cutting edge of theological discourse.”�� a set of reasons for documenting world christianity was provided by anthropologist thomas correll at the �00� atla conference: “in my view,” correll states, “every theological library should have a strong collection of ethnographic resources to facilitate culture learning, the preparation for experience and ministry in unfamiliar social worlds, and to make available useful characterizations of the beliefs and values of non-western peoples.”�� these are certainly cogent and commendable reasons for documentation of world christianity. what they lack, i would argue, is a specificity and immediacy that enables and energizes librarians to connect current and future collections of world christianity to the research and curricular needs of our faculty and students. in making this connection, we will often have, of course, well-informed conversation partners among faculty and administrators who are aware of accreditation requirements and past publications (e.g., in the journal theological education) regarding the significance of globalization to theological education in the twenty-first century. as theological librarians, however, we have a responsibility to be proactive purveyors of access to theological information from around the world, and mentors in its virtuous reading and application. in this essay i will set out to identify and briefly describe ten specific connections between theological education and the documentation of world christianity that are rooted in the uses of the book in the global south. my hopeful thesis is that our documentation of world christianity has greater potential to grow and flourish if theological librarians know and proactively articulate the connections of these collections to the interests and activities of our faculty and students. my focus on the use of “the book”—especially the bible in the global south—will repeatedly appeal to a recently published trilogy of books on world christianity by philip jenkins. jenkins is widely regarded as an authoritative and accessible writer on the globalization of christianity, and especially its phenomenal growth in latin america, africa, and east asia. in this essay, the work of jenkins provides a focus for evaluation of the potential contribution of the literature of the global south to our atla institutions.�� �0 david r. stewart, “issues in publishing (research behaviors panel),” atla summary of proceedings 6� (�007): �84-85. �� paul stuehrenberg, “collecting latin american theological literature,” �09. �� thomas correll, “voices from the inside: what will we do with those literatures from non-western sources?” atla summary of proceedings 56 (�00�): 9�. �� jenkins’s focus on the uses of the book (not pamphlets, audio recordings, or other media) in the “global south” is reflected, with a few exceptions, in the present analysis, although the same set of collection rationale would apply to these other formats. my arguments for documenting world christianity also reflect jenkins’ focus on latin america, africa, and east asia, although, as we shall see, documentation of the growth of immigrant christian populations in europe and north america offers similar insights. 41 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 the basic claim of the first book in jenkins’s trilogy, the next christendom, is that that the center of gravity in the worldwide population of christianity is shifting south to africa, latin america, and east asia.�4 this thesis was not a novel one when jenkins’s book was first published in �00�. scholars like harold turner and andrew walls had previously documented the epochal growth of christian groups in the southern hemisphere, but it was jenkins who popularized awareness of this global phenomenon. the demographic trends highlighted by jenkins are staggering. according to the world christian encyclopedia, christians in the global south accounted for �6% of christianity worldwide in �900. a century later in �000, 58% of christians lived in the global south: �.� billion people. projections indicate that, in �0�5, 67% of christians will live in africa, east asia, and latin america. the percentage of the christian population in europe and north america, by contrast, will have gone from 8�% in �900 to ��% in �0�5.�5 some estimate that by �050 there will be approximately three billion christians in the world, of whom only around one-fifth will be non-hispanic whites.�6 it is important to acknowledge here that the extent and significance of this shift in the global number of christian adherents is debated by scholars.�7 but there is general assent to the accuracy of jenkins’s basic claim regarding the quantitative ascendancy of christians in the two-thirds world of the global south. adding to complex demographic shifts in world christianity are the global patterns of immigration. this topic is a focus of jenkins most recent book, god’s continent: christianity, islam, and europe’s religious crisis.�8 echoing other scholarship on the growth of immigrant churches from the global south in europe and north america, jenkins argues that the much-heralded demise of christianity in europe is mitigated by what he terms the growing “southernization” of christianity in the global north.�9 a couple of statistics are indicative of this shift in the north american context: in �960, 40% of immigrants into the united states were from the global south; in �990 it was 90%. in canada during the same thirty years, the proportion went from 8% to 70%.�0 given the quantity and concentration of christians in the global south, immigration from south to north arguably translates into a religious movement. further treatment of these immigration patterns is outside the ambit of this present paper, but it will be increasingly important to ask: how should these trends in global immigration affect the rationale and resources given for our documentation of world christianity, especially in light of the fact that an ever increasing number of our citizens and seminarians represent faith communities from the global south? �4 philip jenkins, the next christendom: the coming of global christianity (oxford and new york: oxford university press, �00�). �5 david b. barrett, george t. kurian, todd m. johnson. world christian encyclopedia: a comparative survey of churches and religions in the modern world (�nd edition; oxford and new york: oxford university press, �00�), �.��-�5. �6 philip jenkins, the new faces of christianity: believing the bible in the global south (oxford and new york: oxford university press, �006), 9. �7 critiques of jenkins’s account of “the next christendom” include: frans wijsen and robert schreiter, eds., global christianity: contested claims (amsterdam and new york: rodopi, �007); peter phan, “a new christianity: but what kind?” mission studies �� (�005): 59-8�; emmanuel m. katongole, “hauerwasian hooks and the christian social imagination: critical reflections from an african perspective,” in god, truth, and witness: engaging stanley hauerwas (ed., l. gregory jones, et. al.; grand rapids: brazos, �005), ���-�5�. in response to some critics, jenkins acknowledges the importance of demographics and population growth to the expansion of christianity in the global south, especially in africa: david fleer, et. al., “the new faces of christianity: reflection in four disciplines,” restoration quarterly 50.� (�008): ��8. �8 philip jenkins, god’s continent: christianity, islam, and europe’s religious crisis (oxford and new york: oxford university press, �007). �9 ibid., 9�. �0 jehu j. hanciles, “migration and mission: the religious significance of the north-south divide,” in mission in the 21st century: exploring the five marks of global mission (ed. andrew walls and cathy ross; london: darton, longman, and todd, �008), ��4. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 42 volume �, number � • december �008 of greatest interest to the present study is the thesis of jenkins’s book, the new faces of christianity, published in �006 as the second in his trilogy on world christianity.�� the work maintains focus on the worldwide population shifts in contemporary christianity, but more specifically addresses the implications of these global trends for the teachings and practices of the christian faith. as the subtitle of the book suggests, a most significant factor in world christianity is the approach to “believing the bible in the global south.” jenkins basic thesis is that the interpretation of the bible in africa, asia, and latin american is shaped by social conditions. the agrarian, tribal, animistic, and economically impoverished cultures of the majority of southern christians lead to a general identification with the ancient worldview of the bible. all this distances “southern” readings from the interpretation of scripture in the global north, particularly in north america and europe.�� a remarkable and controversial feature of jenkins’s book is his sustained argument that northern christians have much to learn from southern christianity, particularly in the use of the sacred book. jenkins’s conclusion is that most christians in the global south are in a better position to interpret “authentically” the biblical writings than are their spiritual brothers and sisters in the global north, where post-enlightenment modernization and secularization have alienated many contemporary christians from the biblical worldview. by contrast, christians in the global south valorize the authority and message of the christian scriptures because they immediately identify with the historical realities and social conditions depicted from the first century ce mediterranean world: “cultures that readily identify with the biblical worldview find it easier to read the bible not just as historical fact, but as relevant instruction for daily conduct.”�� we may wish to question this assertion, but for librarians attempting to connect their administration, faculty, and students to present and future documentation of world christianity, jenkins historical observation and conclusions provide provocative premises for making the case that atla schools should more actively pursue and peruse the documentation of world christianity. the first reason that atla libraries should document world christianity is its potential for enriching our understanding of the hebrew bible. based upon the cultural similarities between many southern christians and the social worlds of the ancient jews, jenkins argues that interpretations of the sacred text in the global south display greater valuation and understanding of the writings in the hebrew bible. this relative emphasis on books of the hebrew bible can help to “exorcize the stubborn ghost of marcion” among northern christians, opening windows of interpretation for new understandings of the hebrew bible. as jenkins observes: “reading from the south can help free biblical passages and even whole genres from the associations they have acquired from our own historical inheritance.” �4 in conditions of poverty, social injustice, political violence and corruption, “global south christians find abundant material in the scriptures, often in passages that resonate little with northern theologians.”�5 we might consider, for example, contrasting interpretations of lamentations in the north and south. the book of lamentations is read by walter brueggemann as a text to interpret through the lens of an “exiled” and “displaced” christianity in the united states, where the church’s cultural and economic influence has waned.�6 the interpretation and preaching of lamentations and other texts from the hebrew bible texts are, �� see note �6. �� the terminologies of global “north” and “south” are, of course, common signifiers of geospatial identity, and should only be understood as general markers of relative location. my use of the terms is heuristic and accommodative, and i acknowledge that they are problematic at the level of defining culture, and frequently misrepresent the facts (e.g., much of africa, latin america, and east asia are in the northern hemisphere). �� philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, 6. �4 ibid., �89. �5 ibid., 5. �6 walter brueggemann, cadences of home: preaching among exiles (louisville: westminster john knox, �997), 4. 43 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 therefore, addressed to “a cultural condition of post-christendom.”�7 by contrast, the interpretation of lamentations by chinese theologian archie chi chun lee emphasizes the relevance of lamentations to the very real oppression of christians in china, and the need for an expression of lament that occurs in the face of persecution, and not just the displacement seen by many in north american christianity.�8 this and other contrasting interpretations have the potential to foster greater recognition of the need for documentation of global perspectives in order to comprehend both the ancient biblical text and our contemporary contexts. a second reason for documenting world christianity is the new light that is cast on the new testament writings and their religious discourses. like the cultural affinity with the old testament, the cultural conditions of southern christians lead to distinctive emphases in interpretation of sacred books, especially with regard to the books of matthew, hebrews, james, and revelation. jenkins presents evidence that african, east asian, and latin american readings of these books shed new light on texts, which have long been mined and interpreted in the scholarly institutions of europe and north america. this potential illumination of the biblical text is, according to jenkins, attributable to a belief in spiritual beings and their active presence and influence today. the animism of many christians in the global south, it is argued, is more attuned to the supernatural worldview of the biblical authors than the post-enlightenment perspective of many “northern” christians. as a result, biblical accounts of spiritual forces, demons, and other supernatural beings are interpreted literally, and accepted as realities of the present world. in contrast to the demythologizing impulse of modern western theologians like rudolf bultmann, for whom the bible’s three-storied universe of heaven, earth, and hell is something that “we no longer believe,” believers in the global south exist in a world inhabited by demons, angels, and overt impulses of the divine spirit. �9 as jenkins acknowledges, animistic and charismatic beliefs are well-attested among “northern christians,” but the emphasis and predominance of their acceptance is much greater in africa, latin america, and east asia: “many african and asian readers appreciate [that] the new testament worldview was in fact based on the struggle against forces of evil, a cosmic vision that most americans can no longer accept with any degree of fidelity.”�0 the interpretive significance of this “southern” credulity is not simply a matter of assenting to the reality of the miraculous and spiritual influences in human life. most important is the social and political significance of belief in spiritual powers and miracles for biblical interpretation. one example from my own doctoral dissertation illustrates this point. at the conclusion of my dissertation on the literary and cultural functions of the narrations of escape from prison in the acts of the apostles, i come to a final conclusion regarding the significance of these miraculous stories in the contemporary world: for most [contemporary] readers, these miracles will prove foreign and perhaps even bizarre events. the transferal and appropriation of the prison-escapes’ theology and political ideology will likely prove problematic to those interested in such hermeneutical endeavors. a more apt ‘liberation theology’ might stem from paul’s imprisonment in acts ��-�8, where oppressive forces are manipulated and subverted through the gradual and invisible operations of divine providence.�� my conclusion was grounded in rationalistic presuppositions about miracles in the modern world, and my own experiences as a christian in the southeastern united states. the effect of my conclusion was to minimize the �7 ibid., 78. �8 archie chi chun lee, “engaging lamentations and the lament for the south: a cross-textual reading,” in marvin l. chaney, et al. distant voices drawing nearer: essays in honor of antoinette clark wire (collegeville, minn.: liturgical press, �004). �9 rudolf bultmann, “new testament and mythology,” in kerygma and myth (new york: harper and row, �96�), 4. �0 philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, �84. �� john b. weaver, plots of epiphany: prison escape in acts of the apostles. bznw ��� (berlin and new york: walter de gruyter, �004), �88. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 44 volume �, number � • december �008 relevance of new testament miracles for my imagined audience in north american academia. contrast this conclusion to the following observation by paul gifford in his �005 essay entitled, “a view of ghana’s new christianity.” gifford writes that, “when the new testament is used [in ghana], there are some miracles of jesus that are particularly apposite, but probably more important than the gospels are the acts of the apostles, with peter’s deliverance from prison (acts ��) and the freeing of paul and silas (acts �6) particularly significant.”�� the force and accuracy of gifford’s claim was driven home for me recently during work on a library exhibit from our sub-saharan periodicals collection on the topic of bible and missions in sub-saharan africa. one of the students working on the exhibit discovered a small methodist publication from mozambique, entitled inhambane tidings, which reports the events surrounding a christian school teacher’s reversion to his indigenous, tribal religion and his subsequent incarceration based on trumped-up charges.�� the man is suddenly and inexplicably released from prison and returns to his christian community as an evangelist and teacher. in the news article, the whole series of events is explicitly and elaborately retold according to the storyline of the narratives of imprisonment and miraculous release in acts chapters �� and �6. the man is presented as a modern day peter or paul, released from prison, and also released for a new life in christ. i will not here detail the article’s complex intertextuality and distinctively african theology, but this one example of biblical interpretation illustrates the potential of documentation of world christianity to enrich and even transform biblical interpretation in north america. if i had been attuned to these “southern” voices, my dissertation would have concluded quite differently, and i would have explored more fully the connections of physical and spiritual liberation that are latent, but present in the narratives of acts, and which were occluded for me by a largely secular and post-enlightenment approach to biblical interpretation. a third reason for documenting world christianity is the interpretive value of contemporary cultures in the global south for understanding the history and culture of past christian eras in the global north. this is a conclusion philip jenkins repeatedly arrives at in his analysis of christian culture and biblical hermeneutics in africa and east asia. jenkins observes that, “african and asian churches claim a primitive quality, a fidelity to the earliest traditions of the church, and sober scholars of these contemporary versions of the faith note the close resemblances to the christianity of the mediterranean world.�4 this correspondence between cultures of early christianity and the global south has long been noted in works by the missiologist and church historian andrew walls, who argues that “we can better understand the early church in light of the recent experience of the churches in africa and asia.”�5 more specifically, walls makes the case that the present situation of christianity in africa, latin america, and some parts of asia resembles the situation in the late second century, when engagement with hellenistic culture enlarged and refined the church’s understanding of who christ was.�6 other scholars have highlighted the possibilities for new understanding of ancient mediterranean beliefs, for example, ancient codes regarding honor and shame in social and religious interaction.�7 moving forward in history, the responses to christianity among the old religions of europe that are seen in patrick, or bede, or gregory of tours are worth comparing to the christian �� paul gifford, “a view of ghana’s new christianity,” in the changing face of christianity: africa, the west, and the world (ed. lamin sanneh and joel a. carpenter; oxford and new york: oxford university press, �005), 86. �� esther clemens, “deliverance! ‘and when they saw him they were astonished,’” inhambane tidings (july �956): 4. the magazine was published in south africa “in the interests of the portuguese east africa, transvaal, and rhodesia mission of the free methodist church” (�). �4 philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, �80. �5 andrew walls, “the expansion of christianity: an interview with andrew walls,” christian century ��7 (august �-9, �000): 79�99. �6 andrew walls, “christian scholarship in africa in the twenty-first century,” journal of african christian thought 4.� (�00�): 46. �7 timothy tennent, theology in the context of world christianity: how the global church is influencing the way we think about and discuss theology (grand rapids: zondervan, �007), 77-�0�. 45 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 encounter with indigenous religions in africa.�8 for librarians, the challenge is not only to make this comparative literature available, but to help forge its connections to the classic theological disciplines, like patristics, in order to better outfit our libraries as laboratories for understanding not only contemporary christianity in the global south, but western cultures in the ancient and medieval worlds. a fourth reason for documenting world christianity is the capacity for new types of christian groups in the global south to enhance previous theories about the sociology of religious groups. jenkins describes the rise of a largely “conservative” christianity and “literalist” approach to the scriptures within cultures not deeply impacted by the european enlightenment and the rise of western science. though we may question the extent of his claims, his basic thesis raises the possibility of new forms of conservative and neo-orthodox christianity not driven by the anti-enlightenment rhetoric that underlies many “fundamentalist” movements in north america and europe. as jenkins states it, “fresh southern readings help restore these traditions like apocalyptic discourse to their ancient centrality within christian thought, but without the ultraconservative implications that ‘fundamentalism’ has acquired in our own culture.”�9 fundamentalism is, of course, a difficult term to define, and scholars like paul gifford have persuasively demonstrated that many african churches are heavily dependent on brands of fundamentalism native to the united states.40 but the validity of jenkins basic claim is supported on a number of fronts, including a �985 report on the african independent (or instituted) churches (aics), written by the independent churches themselves. after writing on how seriously they take the bible, they continue: “some will say that we are therefore ‘fundamentalists.’ we do not know whether that word applies to us or not.... we do not have the same problems about the bible as white people with their western scientific mentality.”4� for scholars and students in our seminaries and universities, the value of this literature may, therefore, lie partly in its witness to new or renewed forms of christianity that hold firmly to a “high view” of the authority of the christian scriptures, but that either avoid, or provide alternative accounts of scripture in response to historical and scientific criticism of the bible. the documentation of these global voices in our libraries may, therefore, provide useful comparative data for study and assessment of enlightenment critiques and fundamentalist apologetics of the type that continue to have significance in the academic study of religion in north america. a fifth reason for actively collecting the literature of world christianity is its potential contribution to interreligious understanding and dialogue. southern christianities are most proximate to many forms of contemporary islam: “the christianity of africa and much of asia has a great deal in common with the islam of those regions.”4� as jenkins points out, this proximity is both geographical and ideological. unlike northern christianity’s focus on the objections of its “cultured despisers” and the critiques of modern day secularism, the primary opposition to many forms of southern christianity are competing forms of religiosity, especially islam. the documentation of world christianity is therefore an account of interreligious rhetoric and dialogue, from which our north american culture may have much to learn. this is especially the case because most forms of southern christianity share much in common with the worldview of classical islam, e.g., the widespread belief in spiritual forces, the appreciation of agrarian and nomadic lifestyles, and especially the “primary orality” of a culture in which written texts and their �8 lamin sanneh, “global christianity and the re-education of the west,” christian century ���.�� (july �9-�6, �995): 7�6. �9 philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, �7. 40 paul gifford, “christian fundamentalism, state and politics in black africa,” in questioning the secular state: the worldwide resurgence of religion in politics (ed. david westerlund; new york: st. martin’s press, �996), �98-��6. 4� african independent churches, speaking for ourselves: members of african independent churches report on their pilot study of the history and theology of their churches (braamfontein: institute for contextual theology, �985), �6. 4� philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, �7. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 46 volume �, number � • december �008 reading are the exception rather than the rule. in this way, the documentation of world christianity may be one of our best points of access for understanding the history and thought of islam worldwide. a sixth reason is that documenting world christianity promotes more holistic understanding and practices of healthcare. in his book, philip jenkins spotlights the potential contribution of non-western views of spiritual healing, observing the almost complete absence of this topic in contemporary academic circles: “how many seminaries, even those with conservative or evangelical leanings, offer courses on spiritual healing?”4� beyond such rhetorical questions, jenkins makes a normative claim that christians in north america and europe have a moral responsibility to reconsider and learn from the practices of healing in the global south: “the worst offense committed by global north christians is not that they use conventional medicine, but that so few recognize its spiritual dimensions.”44 such analysis suggests that our theological institutions have much to benefit from traditions of spiritual health and wholeness in the global south—traditions that must first be documented in order to be studied. a seventh reason for documenting world christianity is to record the distinctive practices of religious reading in the global south. much documentation from the global south reflects the importance of group identity and communal ritual in the engagement of the biblical text. reading is often a public and social event, with the biblical text and its interpretations passed through the echo-chamber of community memory and circumstances. the communal quality of african readings of scripture may provide new models for the kinds of ecclesial interpretation called for by contemporary theologians, like luke timothy johnson, who emphasize not only the church’s corporate body of interpreters, but the religious experience and discernment of the divine spirit in the act of reading and understanding.45 for his part, philip jenkins emphasizes the impact of this communal hermeneutic on the understanding of the community’s authority in the global south: “experiencing scripture communally promotes exalted concepts of the nature of the group that hears the sacred word; there is a sense that the religious community becomes the vehicle for the divine message.”46 such religious practices are full of possibilities for our professors and students of worship, liturgy, and congregational life. many of our faculty are already aware of the importance of these practices and will support librarian overtures to document these forms of reading in the global south.47 an eighth reason is closely related to the previous one: printed and multimedia accounts of christianity in the global south provide evidence of oral practices of reading seen in the new testament world, and represent a type of “primary orality” in reading and recitation that is alien to most christians in the northern hemisphere.48 as jenkins observes, reading in the global south has an “incantatory quality, with presenters making full use of body language and vocal tones.”49 this embodiment of the written word holds great promise, not only for historical study, but for practical theology and efforts to involve and enliven the whole person and community in practices of reading and listening. 4� ibid., �85. 44 ibid., �90. 45 luke timothy johnson, scripture & discernment: decision making in the church (nashville: abingdon press, �996). 46 philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, �6. 47 see, for example, the account of worship services among the “aaronistas” of guadalajara in david bundy, “documenting ‘oneness’ pentecostalism: a case study in the ethical dilemmas posed by the creation of documentation,” atla summary of proceedings 5� (�999): �6�-�6�. 48 the classic treatment of “primary orality” is that of walter ong, orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word, (new york: methuen, �98�). 49 philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, �6. 47 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number � • december �008 a ninth reason for documenting world christianity is the potential for concepts and practices of theological scholarship in the global south to reorient the global enterprise of theological scholarship and education. though relatively little attention is given to this topic in jenkins’s book, scholars like kwame bediako and andrew walls have observed the benefits that might accrue to north american schools through examination and discerning adoption of non-western understandings of theological scholars and scholarship.50 a poignant example of this re-conceptualization is seen in the work of the korean scholar, moonjang lee, who has made focused attempts to demonstrate the importance of east asian christianity to “western” notions of religious studies, particularly the conception of the scholar of religion as someone who is focused on a sharply delimited field of theological inquiry. in a �006 essay, lee argues for the reformatting of theological education away from western norms in which even a biblical scholar dare not specialize in the whole of scripture: “with respect to the study of christianity as a religion,” lee writes, “asian christians find this compartmentalization of theology with its departmental specializations alien to their cultural and religious experience. an asian traditional expert in religious learning and teaching is perceived to be someone who has attained a comprehensive and integrated understanding of that religion. we should find a way to overcome this compartmentalized theology.”5� lee proceeds to argue that “asian indigenous christian scholarship” does not reduce the study of religion to the methodology of the social sciences, as is often the case in the west, but seeks to study the religious dimension of the christian faith as something not reducible to secular categories. lee’s claims highlight the need for librarians to collect works representative of this perspective, and to connect them to our administrators and faculties as sources for professional reflection and development. a tenth reason for documentation of world christianity is greater accuracy in “northern” representations of what is read, heard, and written by christians in the global south. in his account of the literature on world christianity in the global north, jenkins is aligned with many atla librarians in their dissatisfaction with the present state of documentation of global christianity in the western academy. as jenkins repeatedly notes, there is often a broad gap between, on the one hand, the texts favored by western scholarship on the global south, and, on the other hand, the texts and interpretations that emerge from the vast majority of christians who occupy congregations and populate revival meetings in africa, asia, and latin america: “for this demotic thought world we must look to more commonplace sources, such as sermon texts, writings by local clergy and seminary educators, testimonies, best-selling memoirs and devotional works, or the kind of popular christian writing that appears so often in popular media.”5� such observations buttress arguments for the development of unique collections on world christianity that reflect indigenous voices, rather than market forces and ideologies of western scholars and publishers. jenkins himself relies heavily on these primary sources, especially african periodicals and scholarly accounts of african sermons in order to make general claims about the nature of christianity in the global south.5� so, for example, indigenously published periodicals and local church hymnbooks are essential to jenkins’s account of indigenous christian belief and practice.54 the value of these types of primary documents, which are often ephemeral 50 kwame bediako, “a new era in christian history – african christianity as representative christianity: some implications for theological education and scholarship,” journal of african christian thought 9.� (�006): �-7; andrew walls, “scholarship, mission, and globalization: some reflections on the christian scholarly vocation in africa,” journal of african christian thought 9.� (�006): �4-�7; evertt huffard, “when scholarship goes south: biblical scholarship and global trends,” restoration quarterly, 48.� (�006): 65-7�; andrew walls, “christian scholarship and the demographic transformation of the church,” in theological literacy for the twenty-first century (ed. rodney l. petersen; grand rapids: eerdmans, �00�), �66-�8�. 5� moojang lee, “the asianisation of theological education,” journal of african christian thought 9.� (�006): 4�. 5� philip jenkins, new faces of christianity, 8. 5� ibid., 5�, �0�n�8, ���n�9. 54 ibid., �4. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 48 volume �, number � • december �008 in nature, has long been championed by atla librarians, and jenkins’s books underscores the importance of their collection to historical analysis that is based in documentary evidence and not merely driven by the contemporary trends and fashions of academic guilds. this articulation of ten reasons for documenting world christianity provides multiple and varied points of connection between library collections and theological institutions. and, because they address the use of the book in the global south, these connections also have the potential to inspire librarians on a personal level, due to their traditional interest in practices of reading. these connections also advance beyond vague statements of the need for ethnographic study of world christianity and inter-cultural dialogue with believers in the global south. whether used as bullet-points in budget or grant proposals, or talking-points with administrators and faculty, i argue that these are provocative and potentially persuasive justifications for initiating and earnestly developing collections that document world christianity. librarians (and others) should debate the validity and value of these ten rationales—they might modify this list, add to it, or overhaul it completely—but this dialogue and dissent will itself contribute to a reorientation of a traditional conceptualization of these collections: they are not (only) crypts or time capsules for future exhumation, but are timely and engaging witnesses to the majority of christians in the world today, and to some of the most burning questions of scriptural interpretation and religious identity in global christianity. the avenues for making these connections between theological collections and clientele will vary according to context and circumstance. for some librarians, the avenue will be a two-way conversation. the discussion may center on financial resources, or on resources for syllabi and course assignments. for others the avenue will be a one-way announcement of possibilities, as in an online guide to research on theological topics, or the assignment of a subject heading in a catalog record, or the selection of materials for a library exhibition. for some others, conferences and publications will provide opportunities to forge connections to our collections upon a broader multi-lane highway of professional and academic discourse. the hope of this essay is that librarians might further map and travel these avenues, connecting readers’ uses of books to the uses of the book in the global south, and inspiring interest and investment in the documentation of world christianity. 7 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org web review: working virtually on the text and manuscripts behind the document: doing new testament textual criticism on the web by thomas e. phillips and mark glen bilby in a recent introduction to new testament textual criticism, david c. parker distinguishes between “documents,” “texts,” and “manuscripts.” “documents” are critical editions of the greek new testament as constructed by a group of modern scholars. “texts” are modern transcriptions of individual ancient manuscripts. “manuscripts” are the actual ancient codices and papyri on which the texts were written.1 new testament students and scholars are increasingly finding that the world wide web is an important venue for doing serious critical work on documents, texts, and manuscripts, using an array of freely available tools and resources. some sites, however, should be approached with care. parker reminds his readers that most new testament scholars work almost exclusively with the “document,” modern critical editions of the new testament — typically the society of biblical literature’s critical edition,2 the nestle-aland 28th edition,3 or a print version of the united bible society’s fifth edition.4 the main greek text in all three of these “documents” is nearly identical except for the critical notes and treatment of textual variants. (a reliable comparison of the nestle-aland and ubs editions is available online through the german bible society.5) copyright restrictions limit online access to the most up-to-date critical editions of the documents, but older editions are widely available — often accompanied by sophisticated parsing guides, english translations, and lexical aids. sites like new testament gateway6 and bible research7 maintain useful lists of the most important repositories for various versions of the new testament documents. the online greek bible8 has an interactive parsing guide for the nestle-aland 26th edition and scripture 4 all9 provides a complete parsing guide for the much older 1984 edition of the textus receptus, 1 an introduction to new testament manuscripts and their texts (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2008), 1-11. two other recent publications are also essential reading for those wishing to engage the current state of textual criticism: bart ehrman and michael holmes, the text of the new testament in contemporary research: essays on the status quaestionis (2nd ed.; boston: brill, 2014) and david c. parker, textual scholarship and the making of the new testament (new york: oxford, 2014). also see: h.a.g. houghton, “recent developments in new testament textual criticism,” early christianity 2.2 (2011): 245–68. an open access pre-print of this article is available at: http://eprints.bham.ac.uk/627/2/2011_earlychristianity-preprint.pdf. 2 http://sblgnt.com 3 http://www.nestle-aland.com/en/read-na28-online/ 4 the sbl’s online edition includes textual variants with critical notes; nestle-aland’s online edition does not contain textual variants. unfortunately, due to copyright concerns, the german bible society’s critical edition (the greek new testament [5th, revised ed.; ed. institute for new testament textual research; münster: german bible society, 2014]) is not available via open access. 5 http://www.academic-bible.com/en/home/scholarly-editions/greek-new-testament/vergleich-na28-ubs5/ 6 http://www.ntgateway.com/greek-ntgateway/greek-new-testament-texts/ 7 http://www.bible-researcher.com/links03.html 8 http://www.greekbible.com 9 http://www.scripture4all.org/onlineinterlinear/greek_index.htm thomas e. phillips is dean of the library, claremont school of theology and mark glen bilby is reference librarian, claremont school of theology, claremont, california. http://sblgnt.com/ http://www.nestle-aland.com/en/read-na28-online/ http://www.nestle-aland.com/en/read-na28-online/ http://www.academic-bible.com/en/home/scholarly-editions/greek-new-testament/vergleich-na28-ubs5/ http://www.ntgateway.com/greek-ntgateway/greek-new-testament-texts/ http://www.bible-researcher.com/links03.html http://www.greekbible.com/ http://www.scripture4all.org/onlineinterlinear/greek_index.htm http://eprints.bham.ac.uk/627/2/2011_earlychristianity-preprint.pdf http://sblgnt.com http://www.nestle-aland.com/en/read-na28-online/ https://www.dbg.de/en/meta/service/foreign-rights.html http://www.academic-bible.com/en/home/scholarly-editions/greek-new-testament/vergleich-na28-ubs5/ http://www.ntgateway.com/greek-ntgateway/greek-new-testament-texts/ http://www.bible-researcher.com/links03.html http://www.greekbible.com http://www.scripture4all.org/onlineinterlinear/greek_index.htm 8 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org while perseus10 provides a complete parsing guide for the 1885 edition of the westcott-hort greek new testament. even though none of these parsing guides includes textual variants, they are each beneficial to readers who struggle with greek parsing. open scriptures11 even allows users to compare five older and/or public domain versions of the greek new testament side-by-side. parsing guides and lexical aids are available for each document. when one moves behind the “documents” and seeks to examine the underlying “texts” and “manuscripts,” parker is certainly correct to assert that “[t]extual criticism and editing of the new testament have changed dramatically in the last quarter century” due especially to the use of the computer.12 there are a number of websites that introduce new testament textual criticism, but the most popular sites tend to rely upon scholarship that is seriously dated. almost all of these sites fail to interact with the significant conceptual advances in textual criticism that parker has observed over the last quarter century. for example, the popular site interpreting ancient manuscripts13 attempts to popularize the scholarly work on textual criticism from the 1960s to the 1980s. the similarly popular center for new testament restoration14 is committed to recovering the original text of the new testament, a dubious mission which most contemporary textual critics would greet with disinterest. in spite of the cntr’s “fool’s errand,” the site provides a modestly useful side-byside display of five ancient texts and four modern documents. in many cases, researchers who want to dig even more deeply can move beyond the “texts” (i.e., modern transcriptions of the manuscripts) to study high resolution digital images of the actual “manuscripts.” the institutions that own the most important manuscripts (e.g., oxford university,15 the university of chicago,16 the british library,17 the vatican18) have been quite aggressive about digitizing their collections and making them available on the open web. although google searches are effective for finding images of a particular manuscript when the researcher already knows the manuscript’s content and name, the h. milton haggard center for new testament textual studies19 at new orleans baptist seminary, bibletranslation.ws,20 and greek language and linguistics21 each keeps an extensive and well-maintained set of links to images of the major nt manuscripts.22 of course, many of these sites fall prey to a common problem — they are maintained by one individual or a very small staff, and the site maintenance quickly overwhelms human resources. many of the most popular sites contain dead links, significant gaps in coverage, out-of-date information, and other obvious maintenance issues. for researchers wanting to work on either the nt “texts” or “manuscripts,” one site clearly and undeniably leads all others. the institut für neutestamentliche textsforchung/institute for new testament textual research23 is not only conducting the most important work at the textual level of new testament scholarship, it is also leading the field by publishing its results on the open web via open access and strategic use of crowdsourcing. the researchers at the institute have become leaders in the development of the coherence based genealogical method24 of new testament textual criticism. this approach uses sophisticated computer models to suggest the origins and descent of variations within the respective new 10 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=perseus:text:1999.01.0155:book=matthew:chapter=1:verse=1&redirect=true 11 http://prototypes.openscriptures.org/manuscript-comparator/ 12 an introduction to new testament manuscripts, 7. 13 http://legacy.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/interp_mss.html 14 http://bunning.gweb.io/cntr/index_old.htm 15 http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk 16 http://goodspeed.lib.uchicago.edu 17 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/default.aspx 18 http://opac.vatlib.it/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=homemss&language=eng 19 http://www.nobts.edu/cntts/resources.html 20 http://www.bibletranslation.ws/manu.html 21 http://www.greek-language.com/manuscripts.html 22 those with french reading skills will also find pinakes <http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr> helpful. 23 http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/institut/profil_en.shtml 24 http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/service/downloads_en.shtml http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=perseus:text:1999.01.0155:book=matthew:chapter=1:verse=1&redirect=true http://prototypes.openscriptures.org/manuscript-comparator/ http://legacy.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/interp_mss.html http://bunning.gweb.io/cntr/index.htm http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk http://goodspeed.lib.uchicago.edu/ http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/default.aspx http://opac.vatlib.it/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=homemss&language=eng http://www.nobts.edu/cntts/resources.html http://www.bibletranslation.ws/manu.html http://www.greek-language.com/manuscripts.html http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/institut/profil_en.shtml http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/service/downloads_en.shtml http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=perseus:text:1999.01.0155:book=matthew:chapter=1:verse=1&redirect=true http://prototypes.openscriptures.org/manuscript-comparator/ http://legacy.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/interp_mss.html http://bunning.gweb.io/cntr/index_old.htm http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk http://goodspeed.lib.uchicago.edu http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/default.aspx http://opac.vatlib.it/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=homemss&language=eng http://www.nobts.edu/cntts/resources.html http://www.bibletranslation.ws/manu.html http://www.greek-language.com/manuscripts.html http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/ http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/institut/profil_en.shtml http://egora.uni-muenster.de/intf/service/downloads_en.shtml 9 columns: working virtually on the text and manuscripts behind the document theolib.org testament manuscript traditions. although the german site uses english throughout, navigation can be intimidating. fortunately, the site’s creators have produced a youtube video25 to explain the major features. in brief, the site allows users to view both transcriptions and images of all the available manuscripts. a list of available witnesses is available for every nt verse; the witnesses can be always viewed side-by-side in transcription and as images of the actual manuscripts (when available). researchers who create a user account can highlight text and add comments and tags. users can view the text and/or manuscripts with or without comments from others (the site encourages critical dialogue among its users). the site’s software even allows users to create a chart showing the evolution of the text from the earliest witnesses to the present, using the coherence based genealogical method. so, for example, a user searches for john 3:16 and immediately begins viewing transcriptions of that verse from all of the majors witnesses. then the user clicks through to images of the manuscripts from which the transcriptions are derived and highlights some portion of a manuscript to begin a scholarly conversation about that manuscript. the potential of crowdsourcing is tremendous. this process of scholarly dialogue has already exposed a host of transcription errors in the standard print reference sources (i.e., inconsistencies between the transcribed text and the original manuscript). the site is designed for scholars and offers no help with parsing, so the site is not ideal for beginners. however, for experienced researchers with strong greek skills, the institute for new testament textual research’s site offers an astronomical advance beyond any comparable site. finally, serious students of new testament textual scholarship should be aware of the important open access journal, tc: textual criticism.26 this journal, founded in 1996, is unrivaled in the field. 25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-b4ngkvey&feature=youtu.be 26 http://rosetta.reltech.org/tc/tc.html#page=about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-b4ngkvey&feature=youtu.be http://rosetta.reltech.org/tc/tc.html#page=about http://rosetta.reltech.org/tc/tc.html#page=about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-b4ngkvey&feature=youtu.be 81 critical review: faiths across time theolib.org faiths across time: 5,000 years of religious history j. gordon melton. faiths across time: 5,000 years of religious history. santa barbara, ca: abc-clio, 2014. 4 vols : 2054 pp. $415.00. hardcover. isbn: 9781610690256 (set). e-book isbn: 9781610690263. j. gordon melton’s new work, faiths across time, provides a chronology of the major persons, events, and activities related to religion from 3500 bce to 2009 ce. his goals are to follow the emergence of religions over the past five thousand years and to place key events related to them in chronological order. his work is comprehensive in nature, addressing all religions from all parts of the world for this large time period. melton states that no one has ever undertaken a project of this nature before, and a search through worldcat seems to confirm this. thus, he views this work as a significant contribution to the field and a helpful resource for scholars and others seeking to view religious groups and movements in their historical context. the author is the distinguished professor of american religious history at the institute for studies of religion at baylor university. he has also led the institute for the study of american religion for the past forty-five years. recent books he has written include the encyclopedia of american religions (8th edition), religious celebrations: an encyclopedia of holidays, festivals, solemn observances, and spiritual commemorations, and religions of the world: a comprehensive encyclopedia of belief and practice. with this academic background, melton appears well qualified to write faiths across time. this four-volume bound set, which is also available in e-book format, covers the following time periods: volume i covers the period from 3500 bce to 499 ce; volume ii addresses 500 to 1399 ce; volume iii covers 1400 to 1849 ce; and volume iv deals with 1850 to 2009 ce. the fact that the last volume covers just 150 years is an indication that a great number of significant events in the religious field occurred in that period. these volumes include several elements. first, general timeframes (e.g., 3500-3000 bce) are given, and a oneto threepage general article on each period is provided. then, specific chronology entries are provided for each time period, and these make up the largest part of the work. entries consist of the date (e.g., 3000 bce), the location and religion (e.g., europe, britain; traditional religions), and a description. entries are generally one or two paragraphs in length, but some have one or two pages of content. additional features include bolded entries, usually over half a page in length, which provide a broader understanding of a particular topic (e.g., gladiators), and many timelines, covering egyptian emperors, roman emperors, monarchs of england, etc. beyond this, melton includes a large number of black-and-white photographs, generally between a quarterand a half-page in size. the photographs, as well as the bolded entries, help make the work more visually interesting. each volume also includes a large index, fifty to sixty pages in length. the indices show the thoroughness melton brought to this resource. faiths across time is an ambitious work that attempts to make a significant contribution to the field of religion. it is very evident that melton has vast knowledge of the subject and is able to compile it in a consistent manner. the work is impressive, written with attention to detail and with clarity. the reader can easily search for a particular entry or time period and find helpful information or go to the index and find all the entries in that volume on a particular religion or religious event. the chronological entries can be very helpful in understanding the history behind a religious idea. for instance, an entry for 1450 bce discusses how the worship of aphrodite began at this early date in cyprus, in the city of pathos. while people generally think of this goddess in terms of ancient greece or rome (venus), the history goes back much further. 82 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org one problem melton faced in creating this resource was finding accurate dates of events in ancient history. it also was challenging in some cases to be certain of the sequence of events, in part because of the use of many different calendars by nations in different time periods and locations. the lack of archaeological evidence for some early events, particularly those related to biblical material, presented another challenge. he could not verify all information as factual and provide precise dates for all events. the issues mentioned above suggest that this work, in terms of its chronology, is probably not completely accurate. the author had to do guesswork in some areas, though he made decisions according to the best scholarship he had. someone simply reading through the volumes, however, might well not be aware of these limitations and assume every entry is exactly accurate in all ways. another problem is in the entries themselves. while melton certainly had to make decisions as to which entries to include and which to exclude, some of the entries lack necessary content. for example, the 81 ce entry on the roman emperor domitian discusses his rule, as well as his requirement that christians burn incense to the emperor, but makes no mention of the fact that most scholars view him as the historical evil ruler discussed in the book of revelation. this element should have been included in the entry. in spite of the issues mentioned above, faiths across time is an excellent work that would be a good acquisition for academic and theological libraries. students at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as scholars in the field, will find this set useful and insightful. it may be that the purchase of the set in e-book format, rather than in hardback, would be preferable. four large volumes are rather cumbersome to use, and they do not have the special searching tools that are available in e-books. also, students and faculty would have greater accessibility to the work, both on-campus and off-campus, in that format. john jaeger dallas baptist university, dallas, texas 4 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org diktuon: the library as publisher? is it possible for a small library? by melody layton mcmahon since the 2008 article by kevin guthrie, rebecca griffiths, and nancy maron on sustainability and revenue models for online academic resources, published by ithaka,1 and raym crow’s income models for open access projects (2009) published by sparc,2 others have been seeking ways to project better models that will work to propel the open access movement towards a more sustainable model. for example, alexis seeley, rebecca kennison, and lisa norberg have recently published a scalable and sustainable approach to open access for educause3 that pushes for a united front of academic libraries and scholarly associations. they propose a model that will eschew “article processing costs” and will provide for the gamut of scholarly output: article, monograph, data set, conference presentation, multimodal website, or formats not yet envisioned. martin paul eve defines the concept of rot (research-output team) that “moves publishing in-house to institutional libraries thereby safeguarding publishing jobs and expertise while defeating the problematic aspects of the existing setup.”4 the library publishing coalition has just published the second edition of the library publishing directory.5 most of its current sixty members are large universities with a few smaller liberal arts schools. in 2015 they will be accepting new members. in their publishing directory, they list 124 libraries that are involved in publishing, though not all publish journals.6 rebecca kennison has also been at the forefront advocating for the “library as publisher” concept, though the columbia university model (which she runs) is clearly a “large” university project. however, it seems scalable. her work can be adapted to help those getting started with journal and monograph publishing.7 match your library publishing services to local capacity and budget according to kennison, libraries might consider a continuum of services for journals — this is the approach taken at catholic theological union’s paul bechtold library, where the ojs platform is key. currently, three journals are in 1 kevin guthrie, rebecca griffiths, and nancy maron, sustainability and revenue models for online academic resources, ithaka, may 1, 2008. http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/sustainability-and-revenue-models-online-academicresources. 2 raym crow, income models for open access projects (2009), sparc, http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/incomemodels_ v1.pdf. 3 alexis seeley, rebecca kennison, and lisa norberg, a scalable and sustainable approach to open access, educause, september 15, 2014, http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/scalable-and-sustainable-approach-open-access. 4 martin paul eve, “tear it down, build it up: the research output team, or the library-as-publisher,” insights 25, no. 2 (july 2012): 158-62. 5 sarah k. lippincott, ed., library publishing directory (atlanta: library publishing coalition, 2015), http://www. librarypublishing.org/sites/librarypublishing.org/files/documents/lpc_dir_2015lpd.pdf. 6 this listing now includes the catholic theological union. 7 rebecca kennison, “libraries as publishers: current and best practices,” (presentation/discussion at the association of southeast research libraries spring 2012 membership meeting and annual meeting, charleston, south carolina, april 11 – 12, 2012), http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:162631. melody layton mcmahon is director of the paul bechtold library, catholic theological union, chicago, illinois. http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/sustainability-and-revenue-models-online-academic-resources http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/sustainability-and-revenue-models-online-academic-resources http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/incomemodels_v1.pdf http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/incomemodels_v1.pdf http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/scalable-and-sustainable-approach-open-access http://www.librarypublishing.org/sites/librarypublishing.org/files/documents/lpc_dir_2015lpd.pdf http://www.librarypublishing.org/sites/librarypublishing.org/files/documents/lpc_dir_2015lpd.pdf http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:162631 5 columns: the library as publisher? theolib.org various stages of publication at ctu. two in-house journals, new theology review (ntr)8 and the student journal theophilus,9 have issues published and can be accessed through the urls that go to the ojs platform hosted on a library server. one external journal is in startup and will publish its first issue in a few months. thought is given to what services a journal will need and what services can realistically be provided through the library. • barebones — ctu domain, software, maintenance, training, preservation through lockss, issn registration, dois, seek indexing • upgrade — add design work to the above • in addition, ojs sports a number of reader tools to enhance content discovery and use. these tools include multilingual support for both online interfaces and content for many languages, persistent urls, rss feeds, tools for bookmarking and sharing articles through social networking sites, full-text searching, compliance with the open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting (oai-pmh), and online usage statistics. the editorial staff of each journal determines the content of the journal and controls all editorial decisions. using the ojs platform, the editors are responsible for all editorial workflow management, including the work of soliciting submissions, conducting peer reviews, copyediting, layout, publication scheduling, and all correspondence with readers, authors, reviewers, and editorial staff. all fees (if necessary) around these functions are paid by the journal. (ntr hires a layout editor and copy editor/proofreader; the editorial board receives a small stipend, in lieu of course reduction.) as for financial considerations for the library budget, there is a $4,000 per year line item for publishing. this includes (and very little has been spent): • purchase of server (shared with the archives at the paul bechtold library) • doi service through crossref • domain fees • maintenance of server and installation of updates to software non-ctu journals will pay a small fee for upgrade to services (or they may do the design work themselves). another big consideration is personnel for library publishing — who will do what, and how much time can be dedicated to doing the “publishing” work. at ctu, this currently falls mostly to the library director. the director writes the documents (journal proposals, hosting agreements), receives the proposals and makes the decisions about acceptance, provides the training, consults about standards and services (for example, learning about dois, subscribing to the service, insisting journals begin to adhere to doi requirements, etc.). once all the policies and procedures are in place, a part-time project manager may be hired to do most of the work. some benefits of library publishing • build collaborations with faculty and other scholars and librarians • save journals from selling to for-profit publishers • gain prestige as a leader in the field of scholarly communication • provide access to scholarship that might otherwise be hidden a response to the increasing commercialization of theological journal publishing martin eve points out several problems with the current system of scholarly communication: • academic publisher profits seem extortionate 8 http://newtheologyreview.com/index.php/ntr 9 http://newtheologyreview.org/index.php/ctustud/ http://newtheologyreview.com/index.php/ntr http://newtheologyreview.org/index.php/ctustud/ 6 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org • the value added by academic publishers is not perspicuous • we are not ‘all in it together.’ the high overhead of for-profit journal publishers is creating havoc with library budgets. for example, taylor & francis (a division of informa) publishes 39 journals in religion and theology. heather morrison, an open access advocate, refers to informa’s 2013 annual report: “informa, the multinational conglomerate owner of publishing brands including taylor & francis and routledge, report that their academic publishing division earned an adjusted operating margin (profit) of 35.7% in 2013, or approximately 218 million usd in profits…of course, that’s after paying expenses — such as paying the basic salary of 770,000 gbp (1.3 million usd) to the executive director (p. 56) (not counting benefits, of course — like 25% of base salary towards pension and the 20,000 gbp car allowance.”10 every time taylor & francis purchases another religious studies or theology journal our libraries are forced to decide whether to continue the subscription at an extortionate price and decrease our ability to provide other resources, or to cancel what might otherwise be a useful journal. library-based open access journal publishing is a way to regain focus on the mission of this form of scholarly communication — dissemination of knowledge to people around the world. new theology review has reached over 40 countries since becoming open access in 2012. with a relatively minor investment of time and money, a library can make a big difference in the serials crisis facing us. a start can be made by publishing journals that already belong to your institution, publishing journals that a faculty member edits, or reaching out to a small journal whose niche is allied with your mission. become a library publisher. see also: brown, allison p., ed. the library publishing toolkit. (ids project press, 2013). http://www.publishingtoolkit.org/. eve, martin paul. open access and the humanities. cambridge: cambridge university press, 2014. cambridge books online. web. 30 november 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316161012. anali maughan perry, carol ann borchert, timothy s. deliyannides, andrea kosavic and rebecca kennison. “libraries as journal publishers,” serials review 37 (2011): 196-204. doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2011.06.006. 10 heather morrison, “informa/taylor & francis’ 35.7% / 218 million usd profits,” imaginary journal of poetic economics blog, june 5, 2015. http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2014/06/informa-taylor-francis-357-218-million.html. http://www.publishingtoolkit.org/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316161012 http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2014/06/informa-taylor-francis-357-218-million.html 85 critical review: the canterbury dictionary of hymnology theolib.org the canterbury dictionary of hymnology the canterbury dictionary of hymnology. canterbury press. (http://www.hymnology. co.uk/.) institutional pricing varies by size. the canterbury dictionary of hymnology (cdh) is billed as “an impossible task” made possible through the use of the internet. for years there has been a desire for an update to john julian’s dictionary of hymnology, published in 1892 and supplemented in 1907. as a steady user of julian, i was thrilled to see such an update. for ten years, several editors and over five hundred writers have been working on this project. the project is largely british, with additional editors from the united states, canada, and australia. the two general editors, j. r. watson and emma hornby, are renowned in the world of hymnology. since the death of erik routley, watson has been considered the leading hymnologist in england, and he has a lengthy bibliography of books and articles on the study of hymns. hornby, the second general editor, is a young scholar of early music. the u.s. editor is carlton young, a name i’ve known and respected from my teenage years as a young accompanist for church choirs. the website describes him as “among the foremost church musicians of his era in the united states. his accomplishments are evident as educator, composer (choral compositions, organ works, arrangements, and hymn tunes), practicing church musician, hymnal editor, and contributor to hymnological scholarship.” the homepage of the cdh claims that it has over four thousand individual entries of two million words. words are important because this is a full-text searchable database. over three hundred authors from over thirty countries wrote for it. one accolade, found in the “news” section of the website, is from i-to loh, a professor of church music in taiwan: “asia and many parts of the world have already produced many hymns with their respective contextual ethnic imageries, poetic forms, musical styles and accompaniment, but were mostly unknown to other parts of the world. the publication of the canterbury dictionary of hymnology has brought new insights into the understanding of christian faith and theological issues through these ‘third world hymns.’” in defining its scope, the cdh states, “the work covers a multitude of hymn traditions from all the world’s continents, regions, and denominations, it is ecumenical and international.” its coverage extends from the earliest hymns of the judeo-christian tradition to contemporary hymns, and it includes articles on hymns, authors, composers, hymnals, hymnal companies, and organizations, as well as longer overviews of types of hymns, eras, denominations, and other topics. as with most internet resources, the dictionary may be searched by full-text and can be browsed through an alphabetical list. (unfortunately, the alphabetical list does not exclude initial articles, so one must remember to browse by initial article.) looking into the dictionary combines the enjoyment of opening julian to read whatever is on the printed page with the ease of using the internet to follow a path that meanders away from the topic one planned to research. in a few minutes, i covered a lot of territory. one hymn i had recently been researching was “urbs sion aurea” (“jerusalem the golden”). browsing the “u”s brought me to “urbs sion aurea,” and i was then cross-linked to “hora novissima,” the opening line of bernard of cluny’s poem from which “urbs sion aurea” comes. it contained the information i remembered from julian, plus some other publishing and printing information. “related articles,” a list provided on the right side of the page, gave me eleven possibilities to follow up, including bernard of cluny and the latin and english hymns taken from other parts of bernard’s poem. i could follow up on neale, the translator of the work, and on the hymn tune writer of “hora novissima,” but not the hymn tune writer of “jerusalem the golden.” i was linked to another article on “jerusalem the golden.” here i found information about alexander ewing, writer of the hymn tune ewing, which is usually associated with the hymn. i also found a quotation from neale about the reception of the hymn that i had not seen before and that adds to my research. http://www.hymnology.co.uk/ http://www.hymnology.co.uk/ 86 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org while looking at the ewing article, i also discovered pop-ups for hymnals. when the cursor is hovering on the title’s abbreviation in the article, a pop-up appears with a short blurb about the hymnal. some of these pop-ups have links to the full article in the cdh. i discovered this by accident, and one wishes that the cdh would place information about its use on the homepage. i searched the faq and other parts of the website for a description of the unique features of the dictionary but to no avail. some topics in articles have an asterisk, for instance, and i have written to the contact to discover what that signifies. looking for another hymn i had recently researched, “come down, o love divine,” i did not at first find it because the alphabetization of the browse also depends on punctuation. once i noticed this i was able to find it, but this quirk of organization is an unnecessary distraction. one can also browse by “categories”: general, eras, traditions, hymns, people, places, and collections. the further subdivisions (tags) in the general category are so often poorly applied as to make them worthless. these categories also show up as tags for individual entries. “collections,” for example, seems to be the tag for hymnals. this list contains 140 items; checking it against my own small but broad collection of hymnals, i found fewer than half the hymnals i own. when one goes to the “collections” list, one finds a left-hand facet list (a very helpful tool), which includes anglican (5), baptist (6), charismatic/gospel (1), congregational (4), ecumenical (1), lutheran (1), methodist (10), monastic/ medieval (8), presbyterian (1), roman catholic (4), unitarian (2), and united reformed (1). one must assume that the rest are not related to any denomination; however, while some of these are indeed non-denominational, this list also includes some thematic articles such as cistercian hymns and hymnals, estonian methodist hymnody, and chartist hymnody. again, one wishes the tags were more consistent to enhance this kind of faceted use. the cdh is available only by subscription as an online resource for both individuals and institutions. at the institutional level it is accessible using three options: ip authentication, referring url, and guest user account (providing a username and password to the institution’s user base). the faq suggests that the editorial board is looking at the possibility of a print version, but the resource is also said to be “published online to allow for additions, amendments, and corrections.” i can find no more about possible additions, so one does not know if these might be regular or not. pricing for institutions is by size. small institutions (defined as those with fewer than approximately 15,000 full-time equivalent students) pay almost $200 per year for the resource, which is not a subscription model that most genuinely small institutions (e.g., most theological schools) can afford. for comparison’s sake, our subscription to the online oxford english dictionary costs $200 per year, and it is many times larger than the cdh. individual subscriptions in the united states are $88. comparison with hymnary.org, which is open access, suggests itself to the hymn lover immediately, and one wishes mightily that the two resources had pitched camp together. while hymnary.org is planned primarily as an index (see david mayo’s review in theological librarianship 5, no. 2 [2012]) and now includes over five thousand hymnals (more hymnal entries than total entries in canterbury), it nevertheless provides a great amount of dictionary information. in fact, for people (and for tunes and texts), articles from julian are provided, as well as articles from other hymnal handbooks. much of the biographical information in the cdh seems to be updated julian articles. i researched “jerusalem the golden” in hymnary.org and discovered that much of the material can be found in both. the cdh’s articles on hymnals would be a great enhancement to hymnary.org, as most hymnal entries only have publication information, and possibly a very brief historical summary. (on the day i submitted this, an article by tina m. schneider from the hymn 65, no. 3 (summer 2014) was posted on the website of the cdh. i highly recommend it as a supplement to my review, as schneider is involved in the work of hymnary.org.) summarizing: the content available is superb. the editors state, in schneider’s article, that no articles are just a reprint of julian; all have had at least some updating. the index materials (tags, mode of access) are mediocre at best, and experts (a cataloger or indexer and a computer geek) should be called in immediately to fix various problems. at the subscription price of $200 per year, i cannot recommend it for seminaries or theological schools that do not have a sacred music department. at $200 as a purchase price, it would be a bargain. melody layton mcmahon catholic theological union, chicago, illinois iii editorial: changes afoot changes afoot before i became a librarian, my perception of librarianship (when i thought about it at all) was that that line of work probably appealed most strongly to people who didn’t like change. the whole vibe of libraries seemed to me to exude constancy, stability, longevity. i don’t mean to say that this was a negative perception, only that this struck me (as a library “consumer” rather than “practitioner”) as a preeminent trait of the whole business. now, not so much: i cannot fathom how anyone who doesn’t like change, and to some degree thrive on it, could possibly abide the librarian’s life. in fact, on the rare occasions when undergraduates ask me about how one gets into this business, one of the things i emphasize is that formal education is important, but what one knows at a given point in time will turn out to be less valuable than what one is capable of learning, often on-the-fly. (this is where i could strike a cosmopolitan pose, and insert the french phrase “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” only i’m not completely certain of what it means.) with all this in mind, it’s hardly surprising that so much of our tl content (with the understandable exception of critical reviews) has to do with different aspects of change: collections, resources, services, what have you. i really love this about the journal. further on the same theme, we’ve got some more changes to report on the journal itself: 1. our semi-annual publication schedule has shifted slightly (to be more in step with the work flow of atla staff), and 2. with this issue we welcome our new bibliographic essays editor, suzanne estelle-holmer. we’re delighted to have her as a colleague, and know that you’ll enjoy working with her. (thank you once again to dan kolb, her predecessor, for his fine service over the past few years.) thanks for writing, and thanks for reading, drs 79 critical review: personenlexikon zum zweiten vatikanischen konzil theolib.org personenlexikon zum zweiten vatikanischen konzil michael quisinsky and peter walter, eds. personenlexikon zum zweiten vatikanischen konzil. freiburg: herder verlag, 2012. 304 pp. $44.00. isbn: 3451303302. personenlexikon zum zweiten vatikanischen konzil (pzvk), edited by michael quisinsky and peter walter, in cooperation with clemens carl, is a work of meticulous research. this german edition reflects comprehensive research into the essential participants of the second vatican council, which was convened by pope john xxiii on october 11, 1962, and closed by pope paul vi on december 8, 1965. the importance of the second vatican council is based primarily on its facilitation of a conversation between catholic theology and doctrine and modern understanding and interpretation. among the participants in the council’s ceremonies and deliberations were those chosen to be the next four pontiffs of the catholic church: cardinal giovanni battista montini, who on succeeding pope john xxiii took the name paul vi; bishop albino luciani, the future pope john paul i; bishop karol wojtyła, who became pope john paul ii; and father joseph ratzinger, present at the council as a theological consultant, who became pope benedict xvi. the introductory sections of the pzvk describe the declaration of the second vatican council by pope john xxiii, including the prerequisite preparations and scheduling. these sections are economical in their writing style, presenting brief but pertinent insights into the conversations that formed the discussion and creation of action plans. the german is quite technical and requires a strong background in the language to comprehend the contents. the processes, protocols, and procedures of the second vatican council are clearly delineated, with conversations about implementation and follow-up beyond the council’s actions, research into the history of scholarship generated by the council’s participants, and subsequent reflective materials. biographical comments about over four hundred participants, along with lists of published works and contributions to literature regarding the second vatican council, are provided. pictures accompany discussions of key personnel attending the conference. among the longest articles in the participants’ section are those for popes john xxiii and paul vi, the primary active papal influences at the council. the pzvk’s depth of exploration and investigation of those participating in the second vatican council is exhaustive, illustrating the wide breadth of scholars and church dignitaries engaged in its discussions and deliberations. presented alongside the catholic participants are contributors from the eastern orthodox traditions, including the ecumenical patriarch of constantinople and representatives of the coptic, russian, ukrainian, and armenian traditions. willem visser ‘t hooft, general secretary of the world council of churches, and theologians of both the lutheran and reformed ecclesiastical disciplines are included as well. the participants’ theological impact on the second vatican council is expressed in the comments included in the biographical entries and in the indexes of significant academic work for each of the participants. the biographical materials provide the historical context of the identified person’s work history, schooling, and significant points of service to the greater church. the indexes include literature and material dating from after the second vatican council, providing the scholar both preand post-conciliar reflections and information. the scholar may then retrieve bibliographies pertaining to the academic work (werke) of a particular participant, as well as literature (literatur) written by other scholars, relating and connecting with the cited person and his or her work. this provides an interactive and historical perspective on participants’ impact both before and after the council. as a research source, the pzvk is useful for providing insight into the demographics of key personnel influencing the second vatican council. although there is the expected preponderance of representation from western europe (germany, france, and italy are the largest country groups represented), there are also surprises (the belgian contingent, for instance, numbered thirty-five key participants). the low number of women participating (twelve) is indicative of the masculine predominance within the roman catholic church of the period. the thirty-nine representatives from 80 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org north america came primarily from the united states (twenty-six) and canada (twelve). considering the population of roman catholics in the regions, central and south america were significantly underrepresented with twelve participants. people of color from outside of western europe were also poorly represented at the second vatican council (thirteen, not counting turkishor arabic-speaking countries, which had fourteen). the fifty years of history after the second vatican council show significant changes in the representation of economically developing countries within present-day roman catholic leadership and membership, and the second vatican council appears to have contributed to this shift. the pzvk is an indispensable work for examining the participants of the council that changed the presentation of catholicism in the world for the remainder of the twentieth century. it provides sufficient source material for continued study and examination of the roman catholic church both before and after the second vatican council. i would highly recommend this work, even though access to its contents is limited to accomplished readers of german. david e. cox independent scholar 69 critical review: christian theology theolib.org christian theology: the classics shawn bawulski and stephen r. holmes. christian theology: the classics. new york: routledge, 2014. 282 pp. softcover. $30.95. isbn: 9780415501873. as the title indicates, christian theology: the classics is a collection of multiple writings deemed classics in the area of christian theology. anyone who tries to pull together a sort of “greatest hits” album or book can expect to be roundly criticized by anyone whose favorites were omitted. given the relative brevity of this book, there will no doubt be many such critics. but once readers hear the goal of the two editors, perhaps they will be more understanding of the choices. first, this book is aimed primarily at an undergraduate audience in introductory courses. the selections are meant to be very abbreviated versions of the original larger works. the hope of the editors is that “readers will use this book as a springboard into the wealth and treasures of the classics in christian theology” (x). most of the works are edited in such a way as to make them more readable. this seems fitting given the goal of the book as an introduction for those who have never read these works. note well, this is not a systematic introduction to christian theology. it is meant as an anthology of sorts that introduces christian theology. second, as the title also indicates, it is about christian theology. it includes writers from the time of the early church (irenaeus) all the way through the twentieth century (lindbeck). the writers represent most aspects of the roman catholic and protestant christian spectrum. the book does not touch on eastern orthodox writings so in that respect has a western flavor. the scope of the writings would be considered orthodox and trinitarian in terms of the core beliefs represented. those from other traditions will find this lacking, but again, this is the choice the editors made. their selection criteria are interesting. “we have not tried to choose the ‘best’ works of theology…or the most historically significant, but those which would lead to raised eyebrows or worse if, in the present state of the academy, one admitted to not having read them” (ix). the choices are by their admission somewhat tilted more toward more recent books than some will like, though they do not include much that is truly recent that has not yet stood the test of time. at least the editors admit their biases up front, even if readers disagree on the end result. there are thirty-one selections, in the range of seven to ten pages in length. only one title per author is presented in a conscious choice to prefer variety over depth. choosing only one work from augustine or aquinas or luther may seem impossible, but the choices at least initially seem to be well suited as appetizers for larger samplings of those authors. whether ten pages is enough to allow the true voice of those authors to come through is questionable. but then again, getting an undergrad to read even that much of these voices would be a feat these days. also included in the selections are some of the classic creedal statements from the early church as well as from both the protestant reformation (anglican and presbyterian) and roman catholic counter-reformation. to omit such creeds would have weakened the collection considerably, for they demonstrate the importance of the collective voice of the church and not merely individuals. where this collection diverges from typical anthologies is that it never presents true excerpts of the original works. each chapter contains three sections: introduction, synopsis, and criticisms. the introductions are helpful brief historical overviews to place the authors and the particular work selected in context. the synopsis is just that – a summation of the work (e.g., bonhoeffer’s cost of discipleship). the criticism section provides some of the main objections to the writings included. those turning to this book to actually read a snippet of schleiermacher or a chapter of calvin will be disappointed. including an introduction makes eminent sense. readers who are mostly alien to christian theology will need introductions to most of the writers. however, the decision to go with a synopsis rather than a true excerpt or abridgment 70 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org in the actual words of the original texts seems problematic. if the aim is to introduce students to important theological writings, why not let them get a taste of the actual documents? granted, it would be a small sampling. but choosing to take the original documents and re-serve them in highly edited form is more like overhearing a conversation about a third party who is not present. the presentation of criticisms to close each selection is even more curious. it seems to end each selection in an overly negative manner. while some aspects of the positive impact of each author are presented in the introduction, the criticisms seem to overbalance the positives. perhaps the criticisms could have instead been presented in terms of the legacy, pro and con, of each work. a brief glossary of theological terms is provided at the end of the book, which seems a good choice for such a work. it may, however, be so brief as to not really be helpful. the authors seem well qualified for selecting and editing this sort of collection. stephen r. holmes is a senior lecturer in theology, director of teaching, and deputy head of school at the school of divinity, university of st andrews. he has written on historical theology, treating patristic, reformation, early modern, and contemporary theology. shawn bawulski earned his ph.d. from the university of st. andrews. he is an assistant professor of theology at grand canyon university in phoenix, arizona, and formerly was an assistant professor of theology at lcc international university in klaipeda, lithuania. his research interests include various topics in eschatology and philosophical theology. the more one examines this book against its stated goal, the more it seems that it would be better suited to the format not of a print book but perhaps of an expanded e-book or website. this would allow for actual excerpts of documents and perhaps also links to the full versions elsewhere. a book that seems to do a better job of providing actual excerpts of documents while also covering a broader crosssection of the church (even some “heretics”) is c. douglas weaver, et al., exploring christian heritage: a reeader in history & theology (baylor, 2012). two other collections come to mind as well, though they are arranged more topically than chronologically: alister mcgrath, the christian theology reader, 4th edition (wiley-blackwell, 2011) and henry bettenson and chris maunder, documents of the christian church, 4th edition (oxford, 2011). it seems that the decision not to include actual excerpts was both curious and a fatal flaw for this work. it might serve a purpose somewhere as a text for an undergraduate class, but even that is questionable. a graduate theological library should avoid this as a purchase; weaver’s work does a far better job of providing an introductory overview of christian theology (for about the same cost). kenneth mcmullen reformed theological seminary, charlotte, nc 20 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org there is nothing new under the sun? reflections on “the new librarianship” and the theological library keegan osinski is circulation assistant in the divinity library, vanderbilt university, nashville, tennessee. abstract the entirety of r. david lankes’s model of “new librarianship” rests on his expression of its mission: “the mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.” the present essay defines and expands upon the facets of “facilitating,” “knowledge creation,” and “communities,” and explores the shapes these may take in theological libraries in particular. regarding “community,” the essay considers the challenge of serving both academics and ministers and how it might be possible to foster a less disjointed community. the question of what “knowledge creation” looks like in the fields of religious studies and pastoral training, and what this uniqueness means for the library are also considered. finally, the author offers some preliminary ideas of what facilitating this knowledge creation might look like in the context of a theological library. current shifts within academe and its libraries require a shift in the way librarians (particularly theological librarians) think about service, resources, and their role in the education process as a whole. introduction is there a thing of which it is said, “see, this is new”? it has already been, in the ages before us. --ecclesiastes 1:10 when you’re 25 years old (like i am), everything seems new, even (especially?) what’s old.1 it would be interesting to engage in a thorough semiotic grammatology of the “newness” of r. david lankes’s “new librarianship,” but such an exploration would miss the point entirely. higher education and its libraries are changing and requiring a shift in the way librarians think about service, resources, and their role in the education process as a whole. theological libraries — whether in seminaries, small liberal arts colleges, or large research universities — are not exempt, and it is incumbent on them to adapt with (or even blaze trails ahead of ) their institutions. lankes’s new librarianship2 offers a model to navigate this shift adroitly, shifting away from a focus on materials and artifacts to an engagement in knowledge and community. “the mission of librarians,” says lankes, “is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.”3 in the present essay, i’ll define and expand upon the facets of “facilitating,” “knowledge creation,” and “communities,” and explore the shapes these may take in theological libraries in particular. i’ll offer some ideas of what “facilitation” might look like in the context of a theological library; 1 speaking of which, i still need someone to teach me how to use a card catalog(!) 2 lankes is a professor at syracuse university’s school of information studies. his work on the new librarianship mainly comprises two books: the atlas of new librarianship and expect more. he taught a mooc on new librarianship in the summer of 2013 (http://ischool.syr.edu/future/grad/newlibopencourse.aspx), much material from which, including video lectures, can be found on the atlas’s companion site: http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/ 3 r. david lankes, the atlas of new librarianship (cambridge: mit press, 2011), 15. http://ischool.syr.edu/future/grad/newlibopencourse.aspx http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/ 21 essays: there is nothing new under the sun? theolib.org i’ll consider what “knowledge creation” looks like in the fields of religious studies and pastoral training, and what this uniqueness means for the library. all of these reflections will be framed within the challenge of serving both academics and ministers and how we might foster, and truly be a part of, a less disjointed community. facilitating lankes explains facilitating as “getting people to the conversation, making sure they know what is being discussed, making sure they feel safe to be part of the conversation, and finding the right encouragement for them to engage in the conversation.”4 more than simply making available books or databases, this “new” facilitation is a dynamic and relational function of librarianship that broadens ideas of what it means to provide access to information. it looks less like a lunch lady shoveling routine fare onto a plate and more like a hostess setting a table for a potluck. hospitality is the main concern. to be sure, this hospitality can prove to be tricky — you can never be sure what’s under the aluminum foil of those casserole dishes initially — but the risk is worth the potential reward of authentic engagement in the community. the hospitality of library facilitation allows for the distribution and sharing of skills, ideas, services, and resources. lankes says that “true facilitation means shared ownership,” and it’s up to “new” librarians to explore the possibilities of how to embody this sharing in (and around, and because of ) the library. the first example that comes to mind of new modes of facilitation and access is the move toward open access in scholarly communications. with the federal open access mandate in 2013,5 and similar institution-level mandates enacted by research universities over the last several years, librarians have had the opportunity to work with faculty in responding and making research more widely available to communities — both local and global — through development and use of, education concerning, and publishing in oa journals and institutional repositories. certainly great strides have been taken toward increased open access to information, and momentum is building. but the humanities — theology6 in particular — tend to lag behind. this is one way in which, given theological librarians’ dual position in the field of librarianship as well as that of theology, librarians can integrate emerging technologies and practices from the former into the latter. facilitation may also look like instruction — conventional bibliographic instruction, research methods sessions, or more integrated collaboration with faculty, like embedded classroom work. it may take the form of serving on committees with faculty, attending meetings, or simply showing up at school events. this work of translation and including faculty in the broader discussions of, for example, scholarly communications is the facilitating function of librarians. motivation and encouragement are also part of facilitation. members of the library community may not initially be forthcoming with their participation and sharing. anxiety, confusion, and even fear of libraries are real and common. this is where the quality of relationships can make a big difference. i’ll return to the importance of relationship, and ultimately i’d propose a more focused model, derivative of lankes’s new librarianship — an embedded model i call relational librarianship. it’s only in legitimate relationship that encouragement can be sincere and valuable, and it’s only in legitimate relationship that facilitation and knowledge-sharing can occur. a glib “searching the catalog is easy!” to a roomful of unengaged students is not relationship, and is not effective. but when we genuinely know the people in our communities, when we know their projects and their interests and their skills, we can equip them with the resources they truly require, as well as include them in relevant projects and solicit their input and exploit their expertise in various education initiatives. conversely, we may expect community members to ask librarians to be involved in their projects, even in ways that may be outside the “traditional” purview of the library. and here is the challenge: when presented with such an opportunity to be engaged in our community, do we refuse, or do we adapt and accept? new librarianship suggests — perhaps even demands — that we adopt the latter approach. 4 lankes, the atlas of new librarianship, 65. 5 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf 6 i should point out that “theology” here is used as poor and un-nuanced shorthand for the variety of subjects we deal with — religious and biblical studies, philosophy, etc. — many of which are decidedly not theology. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf 22 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org knowledge creation at the simplest level, whether via research or instruction, higher education is about creating knowledge. lankes couches his definition and explication of knowledge creation within conversation theory, wherein a conversation takes place when “two parties are actively going back and forth in an engaged manner and language is being exchanged.”7 this conversation is the context where knowledge is created. two things are worth bearing in mind here: first, that there are two engaged parties “going back and forth.” it’s not a one-way transaction. both sides have something to offer and something to receive. this conversation occurs within a relationship. second, this conversation hinges on language. and for the sake of effective conversation, it’s important to stress that this language is shared. in another book, expect more, lankes urges library users to “expect your librarian to speak your language, and the librarian should expect you to respect that doing so is valuable work.”8 this is another instance in which the theological librarian’s subject-specific knowledge and experience are invaluable. if we are truly members of the community we serve — ministers, religious scholars, both — we will be fluent in the language of that community. we will not appear as willing (though perhaps ignorant) outsiders, but as partners and co-members. therefore, when we’re speaking the same language as our community, and engaging with it in a fruitful dialog, what constitutes “knowledge creation”? and what are librarians’ roles in it? naturally, “knowledge artifacts” such as journal articles or monographs published by our faculty, and how we might support their research, writing, and publication, come to mind. this may involve typical modes of support like resource finding or purchasing, but it could also be things like copyright consultation, citation proofing, or simply providing a sounding board for ideas. the ministers we serve may also be publishing; they’re certainly writing sermons and liturgies. in what ways might librarians provide support and inspiration in these endeavors? the adaptability demanded by new librarianship requires that librarians be open to a panoply of possible needs, open to surprises, and open to learning the skills our communities might call for. we may also think of scholarly communications — the way we disseminate academic knowledge created within our institutions and bring knowledge created elsewhere into the fold of our own communities — both of them, as integral to the work of conversation. librarians should be advocates of getting our communities’ work out into the larger world, whether by aiding in the publication process, sharing our colleagues’ recent scholarship via social media, or simply sharing with other librarians what our communities are up to. simultaneously, we can contribute by keeping our ears to the ground on behalf of our communities, listening for things that would be of interest or benefit to their projects. finally, i’m interested in collaboration — the kind where the library plays an authentic part — in the knowledge creation in our institutions, not just a tangential source of aid (or worse, a completely ignored one). librarians can play a valuable role in all the aspects of knowledge creation, all the different kinds of conversations that occur in our communities — writing, instruction, and even informal (yet formative) interactions and discussions. because of our subject knowledge, i suggest that theological librarians are especially well positioned for genuine collaboration on projects and teaching initiatives. and this can only be enhanced further by our direct engagement in our communities, our forming of relationships with our users. communities the notion of community as the linchpin of the entire model has been evident throughout this essay, but it’s so important that it deserves to be directly addressed. librarians’ participation in our particular communities via authentic relationships with fellow members is the best strategy for knowing our users’ needs, and making a useful contribution to their work. “community” is not a monolith, but an interwoven web of discrete relationships comprised of real individuals. this is especially true in the theological libraries that serve both theoreticians and practitioners. to be a new librarian in such a setting is to build as many of these relationships with the individuals in our institutions as possible. lankes quotes librarian jessamyn west saying, “when people have an information need, they’ll always ask people they know before 7 lankes, the atlas of new librarianship, 221. 8 r. david lankes, expect more (jamesville, ny: riland publishing, 2012), 95. 23 essays: there is nothing new under the sun? theolib.org they ask a librarian. the trick is making sure that librarians are some of the people they know.”9 i often tell stories of when my friends, who are students and faculty at institutions other than my own, have e-mailed me asking for research help, or reading lists, or how to find resources on their library’s website. surely they have competent, friendly librarians of their own, but since they know me, i’m their first choice. additionally, since they know me, as a person, not just “as a librarian,” they know my interests, abilities, and skills. they know i can help them. they know they can trust me and that i speak their language. all these aspects coalesce to lessen the anxiety of asking for help, meaning people will actually do so. building real relationships is not easy, of course. like setting the table for the potluck, there is some real risk involved. what if no one comes? what if they don’t like us? but these are the real risks of a real life of encountering real people, and they can’t be programmed or professionalized away. new librarianship confronts and engages such challenges with a kind of tillichian courage. the alternative is something close to the despair of pending obsolescence, characteristic of trying to face new challenges with old methods. when we librarians know — truly know — our users, we can truly be present to them, truly listen to them, and truly understand their information and research needs. and conversely, when they know us, they can understand what we can do for them. in the lower-anxiety context of relationship, there is a freer flow of conversation (as discussed above) and therefore more effective facilitation of knowledge creation. lankes talks about understanding user needs in terms of mike eisenberg’s “anti-field of dreams model”: “rather than build it and they will come, it is invite them in and then scramble like hell to meet the needs they bring.”10 too often, librarians expect users to have certain needs that line up neatly with librarians’ skills, sometimes even shaping their needs into what’s expected. but what if, instead, we genuinely got to know our users, their projects, their assignments, and then shaped our skills to better serve our communities? perhaps we’d even be able to anticipate needs, because we are part of the community rather than simply peripheral. this involvement requires action. librarians, introverts though many may be, must go to where our communities are (which is not necessarily within the library spaces) and insert ourselves into their conversations. initially, that may mean showing up uninvited, but in the spirit of the potluck, we can be sure to bring an offering of our own. in my case, that has taken shape in initiatives such as presenting at theological conferences, engaging students and ministers on facebook, or attending department functions — showing up so as at least to be recognized as “that girl from the library.” simply being present may seem like a small thing, but it makes a difference. conclusions the theological library is a growing organism,11 and theological librarianship would do well to grow alongside it, as it ultimately cannot be contained or controlled. perhaps none of this (“new librarianship”) is altogether new, yet it may be time to focus anew on the importance of truly engaging our communities, considering our role in knowledge creation, and learning how to facilitate better learning among the scholars and clergy we serve. at the heart of this focus is an openness to the possibilities and particulars of our individual communities. to discover and explore these particulars we must get out into our communities and build and nurture relationships with people. perhaps we should start with a potluck. 9 lankes, the atlas of new librarianship, 83. 10 lankes, the atlas of new librarianship, 83. 11 s.r. ranganathan, the five laws of library science (london: edward goldston, 1931). iii editorial: in search of a “culture of writing” in search of a “culture of writing” at an atla conference presentation way back in 2003, i tried to make the case that our vocational community would be well served if more people wrote (and wrote well) about the work we do. whether that case was persuasive or not i’ll leave it for others to judge. but, going on twelve years later, there is a lot more writing about theological librarianship, due in no small part to the existence of “this here journal.” and i’m more convinced than ever that this is a good thing. example: when i want to remind an administrator what our seminary library does, and how it fits into the overall enterprise, it really does help to be able to remind her of the existence of a broader community of religion and theology librarians, engaging creatively many of the same issues and challenges elsewhere that we face here. beyond that, it’s very helpful now to be able to search back issues of tl and sleuth out worthwhile submissions that pertain to a question posed by a fellow faculty member (as i did again just the other day). apparently this phenomenon (which i would describe as “the gradual development of a body of literature stemming from a community of practice”) can be referred to as a “culture of writing.” and it’s also handy to know that there are (at last count) ten ways to create a culture of writing. (if only we’d known this a few years ago.) we’re still very much a work in progress, but there’s a lot to be said for momentum, and we continue to be encouraged by the variety and the caliber of submissions we receive, from librarians like you. as ever, your ideas, proposals, submissions, and input are always most welcome. thanks, david p.s. with this issue, we say our goodbyes (with heartiest thanks) to our bibliographic essays editor of the past several years, dan kolb. he has been a delight to work with, and we wish him well. we are sad to see him go, but at the same time delighted that suzanne estelle-holmer (yale divinity library) will be stepping into that role immediately, and will be responsible for our bibliographic essays, commencing with our fall issue (vol 8, #2). http://www.annhandley.com/2014/11/20/10-ways-create-culture-of-writing/ 57 critical review: research and writing in the seminary theolib.org research and writing in the seminary: practical strategies and tools diane n. capitani and melanie baffes. research and writing in the seminary: practical strategies and tools. jefferson, nc: mcfarland, 2014. 250 pp. $40.00. paperback. isbn 9780786478644. what happens when an english professor and an editor go to seminary? rhetorical anomie, that’s what. capitani says, “research and writing in and for the seminary was an entirely different thing altogether and required different skills, as well as a different vocabulary” (1). one finds that one has landed on another planet of discourse. i experienced it myself when i left the english professoriate and began working in a theological library. the categories and tools of research, the vocabulary, and the rhetorical forms in which the written work of theological education gets done are challenging even for experienced scholars who transition into theology from other disciplines. how much more challenging are they for seminary students, and especially for the increasing number of second-career seminary students? capitani and baffes have set out to provide a rhetorical orientation for mdiv-level students by analyzing model papers of seven types: book reviews, exegetical papers, essays/summaries, reflection papers, research papers, sermons, and journal articles. twenty-one sample papers by thirteen different students compose two-thirds of the text. ten of the thirteen student authors are women, and several explore social and cultural topics from feminist/womanist/latina perspectives. each genre chapter begins with procedures for developing the paper and for organizing its presentation. each sample paper has sidebar comments strategically placed to highlight how the student author is meeting the assignment. tip sheets on such things as academic voice, paraphrasing, and choosing verbs for footnotes are interspersed as appropriate. appendices of theological terms, research sources, style guides, and recommended reading round out the “tools” indicated in the title. notes, a bibliography, and an index are provided. no comparable set of sample theological papers is available in the competing guides to research and writing in theological disciplines. faculty at a seminary where this textbook was adopted could rely on consistent exposure to well-annotated models given in full rather than in snippets. the only way to more effectively demonstrate the quality of work locally expected would be to put sample papers on reserve in the library. showing a student a good example is a very effective pedagogy, especially if more than one sample is offered. annotating the example amplifies its value. every genre treated in this book has at least two annotated examples. one might wonder how capitani and baffes selected the set of assignments. since the book is based in their student experiences at garrett-evangelical theological seminary, and was developed for a course capitani now teaches there, the book probably reflects and serves that curriculum, as would be natural. at the same time, one would like to see a rhetoric based on a survey of assignments actually in use in a wider sample of theological schools. case studies, for example, are missing from this volume. this genre and several others rooted in social science methodologies are thoroughly treated in nancy jean vyhmeister and terry dwain robertson’s quality research papers for students of religion and theology (grand rapids, mi: zondervan, 2014), though without samples. it would perhaps be unfair to complain that longer forms such as theses, dissertations, and dmin projects are omitted by capitani and baffes, since clearly the book is aimed at the mdiv market. however, vyhmeister does address these forms, and, even more importantly, the kind of thinking and evaluation of resources that go into them. the model-paper method of the authors necessarily creates a product-oriented rhetoric rather than the process-oriented rhetoric found in deborah core’s the seminary student writes (st. louis, mo: chalice, 2000) or lucretia yaghjian’s masterful writing theology well (new york: continuum, 2006). in fact, capitani and baffes pointedly remark that “we do not want this to be a wordy book that bores students to death with theories about writing. we’ve learned from 58 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org experience in teaching writing that students simply don’t read those books. this is a how-to book, a practical handbook for seminary assignments” (3). the emphasis is on “practical” instruction, so it adopts a directive rather than exploratory or developmental stance. as theological professors and librarians know, adult learners are often inclined to seek practical solutions and to apply their life experiences to academic matters before them. they are often frustrated by theory and yearn for application. the directive nature of the capitani and baffes’s text will meet an urgent felt need to learn how to perform in a new setting. a student who uses this book well will perform efficiently in executing familiar types of seminary assignments. we should not expect in this work the detailed style guidance theological writers get from resources like turabian’s a manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations or from the sbl handbook of style. although these two works are aimed at a level of advanced research writing above the general seminary student, they will still be necessary if the student ventures into the thesis process or beyond. although the title of the book begins with research and writing, the book’s most significant weakness is its failure to understand and address the information literacy needs, i.e., the research literacy needs, of students. librarians are mentioned only in passing (1, 4). although a ten-page list of print and electronic resources is gathered in appendix b, the actual use of these resources is not demonstrated. a student using this book will read finished model papers, but there is no demonstration of the means by which any particular paper was actually conceived, discovered, developed from sources, composed, tested, and revised. there is no recognition of research on the cognitive and affective experience of readers during the information search process, such as has been described by carol kuhlthau. the authors’ prescriptions do not explain how to execute the information behaviors of defining search strategies, discovering, evaluating, and selecting appropriate sources for one’s project. by contrast, the third edition of vyhmeister’s quality research papers for students of religion and theology excels on these points, having brought librarian terry dwain robertson on as a co-author. william badke’s research strategies: finding your way through the information fog (bloomington, in: iuniverse.com, 2014), though not aimed at the theological student specifically, provides excellent help on research literacy. how will research and writing in the seminary be used in the seminary? seminary faculty will certainly welcome a compact handbook that gets their students started. it will be immediately useful to mdiv students as a standalone desk guide, especially if the student does not have an undergraduate background in the study of theology or religion. clearly, it can function as the textbook in a course taught at a writing center, though as a process-oriented writing teacher i would find it necessary to provide ample access to intermediate versions of sample papers. where research and writing instruction is taught by the librarian, the book can function as a good resource for examples but will need supplementation in research methods and resources. i would look to badke, kuhlthau, yaghjian, and vyhmeister and robertson for support in these areas. the book is a clear, accessible, and pleasantly designed book suitable for individual use. more expensive in paperback than its peers, it is not available in hardcover but is available as a kindle book at a very reasonable price. recommended for entry-level theology students, for theological faculty, for the theological reference desk, and for reference collections in theological libraries. carisse mickey berryhill abilene christian university, abilene, tx 61 critical review: apps for librarians theolib.org apps for librarians nicole hennig. apps for librarians: using the best mobile technology to educate, create, and engage. santa barbara, ca: libraries unlimited, 2014. 197 pp. $45.00. paperback. isbn: 9781610695305. nicole hennig’s book apps for librarians focuses on apps for mobile devices that are most useful for librarians in their day-to-day work. the book begins with a brief chapter on the usefulness of mobile technology generally, while chapter 2 through chapter 12 are organized around apps that perform a particular task or interact with a particular type of content. this categorization of apps includes apps librarians might use in the course of their professional work, as well as apps that librarians might recommend to patrons. the information about the apps is presented as reviews, though the author focuses almost exclusively on apps that she can recommend positively. the review format supports hennig’s purpose of providing apps that librarians can recommend to patrons, and she also intends the reviews to be helpful for librarians seeking to provide workshops on mobile devices and their uses. the outline for reviews that the author follows includes both descriptive and evaluative information, such as a technical description, usage examples, and the suggested audience for the app. this outline is explained in more detail in a checklist in chapter 13, and includes further evaluative criteria such as accessibility features, customization options, and how the app takes advantage of the mobile platform. the lists of apps in each chapter are by no means exhaustive, but they provide a sufficient number of apps to acquaint the reader with the possible utility of the apps within the different categories. highlighting a selective group of apps is helpful for categories that might have an overwhelming number of choices in the marketplace, such as the apps for reading included in chapter 2. this chapter includes apps for individual readers, as well as apps for library services; these choices support the author’s intention of encouraging librarians to advise patrons on the use of apps and to use apps themselves to support the library’s mission. besides highlighting a careful selection of apps to recommend in each chapter, the author also offers several other apps worth trying, which don’t receive a full review. for instance, in chapter 8, apps for communication, the author reviews skype, hangouts, imo, and whatsapp, while vsee, google voice, and groupme receive a mention, but no review. a list of apps at the end of the book specifies which apps receive full reviews and notes others that fall in the “worth trying” category. while hennig has divided apps into various categories according to task, some of the types of apps seem most relevant to librarians managing their own professional work, some could be more useful in providing services to patrons, and some would be most useful for patrons using their own mobile devices. some chapters, like chapter 3, apps for productivity, and chapter 12, apps for professional development, offer examples of apps related to working life that seem like particularly good candidates for a careers workshop. the author is good at identifying particular use cases, whether for end-users or librarians. hennig reminds librarians that apps can be particularly useful for roving reference, and she also points out apps that are useful for marketing library services. the chapter on apps for reading also includes a few books as apps that could be pre-loaded on a circulating ipad. a chapter on apps for special collections shows examples of apps libraries have created to share their unique materials in an electronic and interactive format. other useful apps fall into categories associated with topics covered by traditional library materials, like the apps for research and reference in chapter 4, which include ready-reference material like maps and dictionaries. some of the apps hennig recommends support content creation in ways that traditional library services cannot. apps for taking notes and writing in chapter 5, for instance, could incorporate library electronic resources, but only if these resources could be copied and used within an app. the apps for multimedia that are reviewed support creativity in visual and musical arts, as well as learning from and enjoying audio and video recordings online. even with apps that are primarily for end-users, hennig believes that librarians should take every opportunity to educate patrons about the possibilities for learning new 62 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org things using mobile technology, and that librarians can find new ways to advise patrons on how to do research by taking advantage of mobile apps. the author has a good eye for summarizing the salient features of well-known apps, while also introducing other useful apps in that particular category. in all of the reviews, hennig is attentive to accessibility for all users, and in the first chapter she focuses particularly on equitable access to technology and information. each chapter features a good balance of familiar and new apps; a total of 112 apps are reviewed, and some additional apps are provided as alternatives. the book includes a bibliography of sources for app reviews as well as books and articles for further reading. hennig reviews apps that follow the themes of her subtitle well; that is, librarians can engage more fully with their community by educating patrons about creative ways to use apps as they seek to learn, perform research, and manage their work and home life more effectively. this book would be useful for librarians who want an overview of specific apps they could use in the course of advising patrons about apps and teaching workshops about apps and mobile devices. there is a wide enough variety of apps that both academic librarians and public librarians who work with school-age children through adults would find individual apps to recommend to patrons or to use themselves. school librarians who work with older children could find relevant apps in this book, but since only a couple of the apps reviewed specifically mention children under the age of twelve, school librarians might be looking for apps that were geared toward a younger audience. while information on specific apps will become dated in a short time, i would recommend this book for purchase because it focuses on particular categories of apps that librarians should be comfortable using and recommending, presents a helpful rubric for evaluating apps, and serves as a good source of ideas for library programming opportunities that incorporate apps for mobile devices. lisa gonzalez catholic theological union, chicago, il 16 essay running with perseverance: the theological library’s challenge of keeping pacewith changing students by nancy k. falciani-white abstract: in the last thirty years, the study habits and learning styles of students have changed, influenced by factors as diverse as how they were parented, pop culture, and the influx of technology into their lives. students studying theology in seminaries and universities across the united states have likewise changed dramatically. their ages, ethnicity, gender, technological ability, and goals are all different from those of previous generations, and so are their expectations for their education and their library. this paper will examine the characteristics of those students considered to be part of the “millennial” generation, examine how these characteristics apply to students of theology, and explore the impact that these characteristics are having, and will continue to have, on theological libraries. introduction a significant amount of research has been done in recent years on the characteristics of the current generation of college and graduate school students, known as “millennials.” these students make up the majority of students attending colleges and universities today, either completing their undergraduate degrees or in their first years of graduate school. much of this research has been carried out on undergraduate students, since millennials have only recently begun entering graduate schools and seminaries. additionally, little research has been done that examines the theological education of this population, again largely because of millennials’ having only recently entered seminaries and graduate schools. because of these issues, the present essay will examine the characteristics of millennial students broadly�, and will then move on to examine those characteristics as they apply to graduate students, seminarians, and theological libraries specifically. the millennial generation millennials, also called the “next gens,” “generation y,” or the “net generation,” are those individuals who were born between �982 and 2002. these students have lived through the first gulf war, the expansive growth of technologies in the lives of individuals (almost everyone now has a personal computer, internet access, a cell phone, and many have ipods and other “non-essential” technologies), the rise and subsequent failure of many dot-com companies, the september �� attacks, the war on terrorism, and so on. millennial students share experiences, high levels of dependence on technology, and extensive connectedness. these characteristics, combined with a culture that has been accused of encouraging narcissistic indulgence and high levels of parental involvement (known as “helicopter parents”—parents who “hover” over their children and are more involved in their lives than parents of other generations2), have created a generation of learners significantly different from the generations that have gone before. millennials are approaching higher education with more � for example, although too recent (oct. 2008) to be incorporated into this essay, don tapscott’s grown up digital: how the net generation is changing your world. (new york: mcgraw-hill, 2008) examines this population as they become adults and take their place in the workforce and society at large. 2 reynal junco, jeanna mastrodicasa, and national association of student personnel administrators (u.s.), connecting to the net. generation : what higher education professionals need to know about today’s students (washington, dc: naspa, student affairs administrators in higher education, 2007), 94. nancy k. falciani-white is reference/instruction librarian at the buswell memorial library, wheaton college, wheaton, illinois. 17 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number 2 • december 2008 advanced technological skills than any previous generation, and they have higher technological expectations for their colleges and universities, their professors, and their advisors. they likewise expect their learning to take place as it has throughout their education to date—collaboratively, and with some reliance on technology. many of the things that these students care about and have taught themselves have been learned online, often independent of a traditional teacher figure. millennials are accustomed to entertainment, to speed, and to having things their own way. this population has developed a unique series of learning characteristics, ten of which have been identified by jason frand in his article “the information-age mindset.”� although these characteristics were identified eight years ago, the findings of more recent research (such as that done by junco and mastrodicasa) are similar. computers do not equal technology. “technology” has been described as “anything that wasn’t around when you were born.” for anyone born after the �9�0s, automobiles are not technology. similarly, millennials simply cannot conceive of a world that operates without computers. the internet is better than tv. the internet has become more engaging for students as it has become more interactive and more social. social applications such as facebook, myspace, del.icio.us and twitter have been adopted by millennials as convenient ways to keep in touch, network, and develop new relationships and friendships, and 62% of millennial students use instant messaging to chat with their friends.4 “reality” is no longer real. what you see is no longer what you get. photographs and video can be manipulated to the point where they bear no resemblance to real life, and users can create email addresses under any name. authentication (logging in to a system with a personal username and password that “proves” a user’s identity) is becoming increasingly important for online security and safety. doing is more important than knowing. the half-life of information is shortening as prevalent technologies increase the rate at which things change. being able to accomplish goals and efficiently do what needs to be done is more important than knowing an accumulation of procedures and facts. learning more closely resembles nintendo. in the world of nintendo (video games), learning how to play the game, progressing through levels, and ultimately winning the game, are accomplished through trial and error, failing, and starting over. each mistake teaches the user a little more about the system and how the game should be played. this heuristic learning style suggests that students will not read manuals or menus before beginning a project or trying a new program, but rather will jump in and do what they need to do, seeking help only if they cannot figure it out on their own. multitasking is a way of life. a survey by junco and mastrodicasa found that 9�.9% of individuals who use instant messaging (im) software will do something else on the computer simultaneously, while 75% of im users will chat with friends while they are doing homework.5 these individuals are comfortable doing many things at once, though multitasking may be a way of dealing with the overload of information and expectations that many students today face. typing is preferred to handwriting. students prefer typing a note or comment to writing one by hand, due to the features of word processing (such as spell check) and the ease with which electronic text can be manipulated. � jason l. frand, “the information-age mindset: changes in students and implications for higher education,” educause review �5 (2000): �5-24. 4 junco, mastrodicasa and administrators, �8. 5 ibid., 74. • • • • • • • theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 18 volume �, number 2 • december 2008 staying connected is essential. students expect to be connected all the time, and no longer expect to have to study, do homework, or contact professors within the traditional bounds of time or location. the success of sites like twitter.com suggests that the more details students have about one another (and their professors!) the happier they are. there is zero tolerance for delays. millennial students have been raised to expect instant gratification. atms, email, �-800 numbers, have all trained them that it is reasonable to expect a result or answer immediately. distinctions between consumer and creator are blurring. the abilities to cut and paste, hyperlink documents to other sources, and share editing and documentation are causing the lines separating owner, creator, and user to become more and more indistinct. abram and luther add a few more characteristics: students are nomadic, expecting “information and entertainment to be available to them whenever they need it and wherever they are,” and direct, demanding respect and seeing no reason to beg for good service.6 in addition, fidel, et al., found that millennial high school students make extensive use of graphics and visual clues when they evaluate web pages.7 beyond these characteristics, however, are the social and personality tendencies that these students demonstrate. junco and mastrodicasa provide a helpful table that facilitates an understanding of the distinct personality characteristics that collectively impact how millennials interact with each other and their environment [see table �]. table 1� silent generation born between 1925-1942 boomers born between 1943-1960 generation x born between 1961-1981 net generation born between 1982-now p ee r p er so n al it y loyal collaborative personal sacrifice patriotic conformity respect for authority civic pride optimistic competitive individualistic reject authority return to religious values independent skeptical latchkey kids shun traditional values nihilism special sheltered confident conventional team-oriented achieving pressured d efi n in g e ve n ts wwi & ii great depression new deal vietnam war watergate women’s rights reagan recession civil rights movement television challenger accident mtv computers video games persian gulf war columbine shootings september �� attacks oklahoma city bombing a tt en de d c ol le ge �94�-�960 �96�-�978 �979-�999 2000-now 6 stephen abram and judy luther, “born with the chip: the next generation will profoundly impact both library service and the culture within the profession,” library journal �29 (2004): �4-7. 7 raya fidel, et al., “a visit to the information mall: web searching behavior of high school students,” journal of the american society of information science 50, no. � (january �999): 24–�7. 8 junco, mastrodicasa and administrators, 4. • • • 19 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number 2 • december 2008 this table also provides a snapshot of earlier generations. there are some notable similarities between the “silent generation,” born �925-�942, and millennials, for example their team-oriented, collaborative natures and their more traditional, conventional values. these characteristics are in stark contrast to baby boomer and generation x individuals who value individualism, independence, competition, and a move away from traditionalism. in addition to these similarities among personalities and experiences, another factor that defines millennials is that more and more of them are attending college as nontraditional students. a nontraditional student is defined by the national center for education statistics (nces) as a student who meets one or more of the following criteria: delays enrollment (does not enter post-secondary education in the same calendar year that he or she finished high school) attends part time for at least part of the academic year works full time (�5 hours or more per week) while enrolled is considered financially independent for purposes of determining financial aid has dependents other than a spouse (usually children, but sometimes others) is a single parent (either not married or married but separated and has dependents) does not have a high school diploma (completed high school with a ged or other high school completion certificate or did not finish high school)9 the condition of education 2002 report found that in the �999-2000 academic year, only 27 percent of undergraduate students were considered traditional, while a substantial 7� percent of undergraduates met at least one of the criteria above. based on the number of the above characteristics that could be applied to them, students are considered minimally (� characteristic), moderately (2-� characteristics), or highly (4+ characteristics) nontraditional. in �999-2000, �7 percent were considered minimally nontraditional, 28 percent were considered moderately nontraditional, and another 28 percent were considered highly nontraditional. many of these criteria, such as working full time or being a single parent, suggest that for students categorized as nontraditional, education is likely not the primary demand on their attention, time, and resources. unfortunately, the only nontraditional student characteristic that is measured annually is student age: according to the 2007 digest of education statistics, nontraditional students are those who are 25 years of age or older. these statistics show that the percentage of students aged 25-�4 years of age who are enrolled in school has been increasing steadily, in 2006 accounting for �8.9% of the population.�0 although it is difficult to predict with certainty, based on the existing data a continued increase in the number of nontraditional students seems likely. both the nces data and the peer personality characteristics proposed by junco and mastrodicasa support frand’s suggestion that millennial students have little patience for delays, consider multi-tasking to be a way of life, and believe that successfully completing a task or reaching a goal is more important than knowing a collection of facts. students today are under a great deal of pressure, both from themselves and from their generation x/baby boomer parents. there is pressure for them to succeed, and pressure to change the world, or at the very least have a positive impact on the world. 9 national center for education statistics and barbara kridl, the condition of education 2002 (lanham, md; washington, d.c: bernan; u.s. dept. of education, office of educational research and improvement, national center for education statistics, 2002), 26. �0 sally dillow, charlene hoffman, and thomas d snyder, 2008. digest of education statistics 2007. washington, dc: national center for education statistics, institute of education sciences, table 7. • • • • • • • theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 20 volume �, number 2 • december 2008 these students are different from earlier generations in how they communicate, how they process information, how they spend their time, how they value their time, and how much they want to accomplish with their lives. many, if not all of these characteristics can be attributed to the role that various technologies have had in their lives, but regardless of what caused the shifts, there can be little doubt that these differences must impact the way that millennials learn. confronted with such distinct learning characteristics, it becomes obvious that instruction methods and other services tailored to previous generations will likely not meet the needs of millennials. millennials and library use how have these developments in students’ learning and social behaviors affected libraries? in 2005, oclc conducted a survey that examined college students’ perceptions of libraries and information resources. six countries participated in the survey, and the �96 students surveyed comprised both undergraduate and graduate students. this report serves as confirmation of the above student characteristics, finding that similar characteristics revealed themselves in current students’ use of libraries: “[t]hree major trends were identified…[s]elf-service, satisfaction, and seamlessness.”�� students like to do things for themselves (nintendo-style learning), they want what they want when (and where) they want it (nomadic), and they want it quickly and easily, with relatively little inconvenience (zero tolerance for delays). the inconvenience factor is a significant one: the tools that students use fit their lives and their expectations, and resources that do not fit simply will not be used. oclc found that 94 percent of college students consider search engines (e.g. google, ask.com) to be a good or perfect fit for their lifestyle, while only 6� percent consider online or physical libraries to be a good or perfect fit [see table 2]. table 212 �� oclc. college students’ perceptions of libraries and information resources: a report to the oclc membership (dublin, ohio: oclc online computer library center, 2006), vii. �2 oclc, �-20. 21 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number 2 • december 2008 what makes “lifestyle fit” so important? the most significant reason is the increase in the number of nontraditional students entering higher education. as time becomes more valuable due to a partor full-time job, children, or other stressors, the importance of convenience increases. if students can access sufficient information without having to leave their places of residence and without needing to call the library, it is logical that they would do so. in addition to being a good lifestyle fit, oclc found that 89 percent of students begin their search for information with a search engine such as google.�� students in this category simply do not have very much time to devote to the accumulation of research materials or an analysis of the research process. they sincerely feel that they do not have the time to travel to a physical location to pick up a book or photocopy a journal article, and that they do not have the time to learn how to use research databases or the online library catalog. a few factors contribute to this ease-of-use mentality. first is the comfort level that students have with google. they use it to get driving directions, to find out what movies are playing, and to research job prospects. having had success in finding general information via google, it is only logical that the next time they have an information need that is more academic, they will return to this familiar interface. many students are not as successful at locating information using the research databases to which libraries subscribe. this does not mean that these students are poor researchers or poor students – this phenomenon is simply human nature, and is well-known among librarians, psychologists, educators and others as the “principle of least effort.” interestingly, however, this dependence on the internet and millennials’ high comfort level with technology can foster a false sense of ability. in reality, most students routinely overestimate their skills at finding and evaluating online information.�4 research has become messier. access to information used to be significantly more limited, in that someone interested in performing research had to travel to where the sources were located. there was an expectation that research involved sustained attention and effort, not just in constructing an argument and writing a paper, but also in accumulating resources. the internet and web search engines have accustomed students to finding information quickly, and they now have the assumption that research (the process of meeting an information need) should be easy, just like getting driving directions. in addition, the advent of the internet and hypertext has combined to make the search process, never a precise or particularly linear procedure, even more meandering and interactive than it was before.�5 this means that students are confronted by a tremendous amount of information in which they can easily become lost, as they link from a website to an article to another website to a blog. unless they are taught how to evaluate the materials they find, they are no better off than they would be just searching google. to a student who has had no formal evaluative training, there is no obvious distinction between a jstor article that they found through google scholar and a general website, and many would consider a popular blog to be a credible source of information. although the oclc report referred to earlier shows that students rely heavily on search engines for their information needs, the report also indicates that many students have a positive opinion of libraries and librarians, and use both when the opportunity presents itself. the report shows that 85 percent of college students rate their perceptions �� oclc, �-7. �4 kate manuel, “teaching information literacy to generation y,” in information literacy programs: successes and challenges, ed. patricia durisin (new york: haworth information press. 2002),�98. �5 sonia bodi, “how do we bridge the gap between what we teach and what they do? some thoughts on the place of questions in the process of research,” journal of academic librarianship 28 (2002): �09-��4. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 22 volume �, number 2 • december 2008 of a physical library as “very favorable,” while 66 percent say they have a “somewhat favorable” perception of online libraries.�6 in addition, 46 percent of college students have sought help when using the library’s electronic resources, and of this 46 percent, 76 percent say that a live, in-person librarian is their first choice for help in the library, compared to �8 percent who prefer a computer in the library, � percent who prefer to look to the library’s collection for help, � percent who ask another person in the library, and just 2 percent who use online librarian question services.�7 the implications of these numbers for libraries will be discussed in more detail later, but a cursory comparison of this data with the characteristics mentioned earlier in this paper suggests an interesting trend. it seems that while students are adept at online communication, they are not averse to interpersonal (faceto-face) interactions. the percentage of students who have asked for assistance with a library’s electronic resources suggests that millennial students are not as resistant to asking for help as the independent, individualistic, antiauthority baby boomer and generation x students traditionally were. this knowledge, supported by information suggesting the prevalence of “helicopter parents” in the lives of these students and their team-oriented, social tendencies, suggests that perhaps students are more interested in interpersonal interactions than the many hours they spend online would suggest—especially those interactions involving an authority figure, which a librarian would be in the library context. in addition to seeking help, significant numbers of students are taking advantage of the library’s online resources as well. of students surveyed by oclc, 56 percent were found to use the library website on at least a monthly basis, while 47 percent use the online library catalog and 42 percent use online databases within that same timeframe.�8 millennial students use the library to find information, at least some of the time, but they are encountering a barrier in that the library (either physical or online) simply is not fitting their lifestyle. they either do not know how to use the resources and do not ask for help, or they rely on their familiarity with search engines. but this is not an anti-library attitude per se, a fact that will be discussed in more detail later. students of theology an examination of current trends in the enrollment characteristics of students of theology shows that millennial students are entering seminaries in ever-increasing numbers. thirty or fifty years ago, the average seminarian was a white male coming directly from an undergraduate degree program.�9 the demographics of the theology student population have since undergone a shift that has seen an increase in the age, ethnic diversity, and percentage of women in seminaries around the country. the average age of seminary students has crept up steadily, peaking at slightly over thirty-six, and is now decreasing slowly due to active recruitment of younger students by theological schools over the last decade [see table �]. �6 oclc, �-�0. �7 oclc, 2-6, 2-7. �8 oclc, 2-5. �9 barbara g. wheeler, “is there a problem? theological students and religious leadership for the future,” auburn studies 8 (july 200�): �-28. 23 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number 2 • december 2008 table 320 average age of m.div. students by gender, 1995-2005 younger students have an advantage over their older peers in that they are more likely to have taken undergraduate classes or programs that prepare them for graduate work in theology.2� this is significant because these students may have greater familiarity with many of the research techniques, databases, and technologies that they will need for their graduate work, as well as basic writing skills that will be needed. in addition, many of these students will be approaching their graduate education with a foundational knowledge of biblical greek and hebrew, which may make them less dependent on outside resources. younger students (those under �0) have also been found to bring more academic strengths to their graduate work than do their older counterparts. they have better performance records, both academically and non-academically, have higher grade point averages, and have received more academic and non-academic honors.22 older students, by contrast, often have more life experience, are more settled, and are often more disciplined. these students have been out of college for an average of ten years, are not as familiar with the ways in which research has changed in the last decade, consider computers to be technology that must be adopted, learned, or dealt with (rather than seeing them as ubiquitous, as most millennials do), are less adept at using computers and other technologies, and have often forgotten many of the research and writing skills that they learned as undergraduate students. in general, the older students entering theological studies are not prepared for the fact that higher education and libraries today bear little or no resemblance to the higher education and libraries that they used during their undergraduate education. the sharp contrast between older and younger theology students will likely balance out as more and more millennials enter graduate school, because the increased number of nontraditional undergraduate students as defined by the nces will result in graduate students who, though younger, will have already had to juggle the responsibilities of jobs and dependents in addition to their academic pursuits. this means that students’ expectations that their education will “fit into” their lifestyle will likely carry through to graduate school. 20 barbara g. wheeler, sharon l. miller, and daniel o. aleshire, “how are we doing?: the effectiveness of theological schools as measured by the vocations and views of graduates,” auburn studies �� (2007): �4. 2� chris meinzer and nancy merrill, eds., fact book on theological education, 2002-2003 (pittsburgh: ats, 200�): �7. 22 wheeler, �6. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 24 volume �, number 2 • december 2008 the amalgamation of age and experience that occurs in theological schools makes interactions with these students challenging, because as a population their needs can vary widely. a 2005 study of the information-seeking behaviors of graduate students in the humanities found that although many of their research behaviors are similar to those of faculty and undergraduates, they exhibit some characteristics that are unique to the graduate school environment. graduate students’ research behaviors are similar to those of faculty in that they: rely on subject experts and colleagues for feedback and suggestions; are predominantly interested in primary sources and will travel to obtain them; are comfortable with a “detective”-like approach to information seeking; and often initiate research in haphazard, serendipitous ways. they are similar to undergraduates because they: regularly use electronic information technology and often utilize generic internet search engines to find general information on a topic; rely heavily on the advice and guidance of instructors and on course materials; and lack personal collections and substantial subject experience. graduate students are distinctive in their research habits in that they: rely heavily on research supervisors; and deal with time pressures related to the progress of their program of study.2� these behaviors correspond to those exhibited by millennials: these graduate students are working collaboratively to give and receive feedback and ideas and they depend on technology in the form of search engines and other tools to find information on their topics. these habits, combined with their expectations that their education must fit their lifestyle, suggests some clear steps that can be taken to ensure that their needs will be met. implications for theological libraries the millennial generation will have an impact on theological libraries, as it will likely have an impact on any environment with which it interacts. one of the easiest trends to analyze is simply the raw numbers: the millennial generation is the largest generation in united states history. if the average age of theology students continues to decrease, theological schools and their libraries will be facing a large population of millennial students in the next several years. if seminary libraries want to remain relevant to millennial students, while continuing to meet the needs of their older populations, it becomes necessary for them to realize the demands that are being placed on these students, and to begin to pay attention to things like off-campus access to research databases and online journals, point-ofneed instructions and help features, and efficient assistance from librarians and other library staff. this is not to suggest that physical libraries will cease to exist because all the services and resources that they provide have gone online, but that the challenge is one of maintaining relevance in a fast-paced, interactive, and dynamic world. students’ demographics are changing, and every year the ranks will swell with more and more millennials whose 2� andy barrett, “the information-seeking habits of graduate student researchers in the humanities,” the journal of academic librarianship ��, no. 4 (2005): �29-��0. • • • • • • • • • 25 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number 2 • december 2008 learning styles and educational expectations will place demands on libraries and institutions. to delay action in the hope that by the time millennial students reach graduate school they will develop different learning styles is not a hopeful strategy. the oclc report on college students’ library use compared students’ perceptions of online and/or physical libraries to their perceptions of search engines, finding that while the library’s resources are considered more accurate and trustworthy than search engines, they fall far short of students’ expectations of speed, convenience, ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and reliability [see table 4]. table 424 in the midst of unpredictable economic times, both the size of libraries’ budgets and staff face constant challenges. nevertheless it is possible to adopt technologies, tools, and habits that will maximize the experiences that millennial students have in their libraries, without alienating or ignoring the needs of the older members of the student population. some small changes that can have a tremendous impact on millennial student-librarian interactions are: communicating with students via email, promptly, whenever the opportunity or need arises. remember that millennial students want feedback. all the time. be available to answer questions when they have questions, not just during office hours or during your reference desk shift. this does not necessarily mean catering to students’ late-night routines, or moving to 24/7 library hours or chat 24 oclc, 2-�0. • theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 26 volume �, number 2 • december 2008 services, but instead means setting realistic expectations: “emails received between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. will be answered the same day. emails received after 5 p.m. will be answered the following day.” they need to know that you will take their research paper or thesis due date as seriously as they do. encouraging students to learn through exploration and discovery. where possible, permit hands-on, exploratory, trial-and-error learning. obviously, some situations lend themselves to this option more easily than do others, but any attempts to facilitate this approach can greatly contribute to millennial students’ learning. at the reference desk, allow students to handle the keyboard and mouse while you talk them through the process of finding subject headings or locating the appropriate databases. in information literacy classes, give students the chance to actively work with the databases or the catalog, exploring different combinations of terms in different databases. keep the focus on their learning, rather than on simply covering a set amount of material. facilitating group work that supports and encourages millennial students’ social tendencies. millennials are used to working collaboratively, a process that can help them construct knowledge and also allow them to practice negotiation skills that they will need in the workplace. the oclc report shows that students ask a librarian in-person more frequently than they use an online chat service. this does not necessarily mean that chat reference services should be discontinued, but rather suggests that reference desks should not be abandoned just yet. these students appreciate connections with others, and want to build relationships. give them the opportunities to do so. making assignments and suggestions relevant. to an even greater extent than their predecessors, these students understand the pressures of having many responsibilities. an irrelevant assignment will be given less attention and less care, and a careless or a time-consuming, impractical suggestion will negatively impact their willingness to approach the reference desk for future assignments. if possible, take the time to explain to students why one particular tool is more likely to help them than another. remember, these students are constantly connected and constantly communicating, and they expect their professors and their librarians to communicate as well. moving toward point-of-need instruction. instead of having racks upon racks of guides to ebscohost or oclc databases, put links to online help next to the link for the database itself. remember, these students do not read manuals, and are likely to spend hours trying to figure things out for themselves before they will even think of asking for help. do not just scan your guides into pdf format and post them online, however. instead, adapt your content to the online environment so that it is to the point and effective for students. including graphics, images, or visual representations wherever possible. students are drawn to visual information. they respond to it and remember it, and utilizing this fact can impact promotion for library events and any web design or instruction that is done. respecting students’ time, their responsibilities, and their passions. often these students simply do not have the time to sit at the reference desk and have the librarian show them all the various structures a subject heading can take, or explain advanced search strategies that are beyond the scope of a student’s current project. respect their needs and know that efficient help is more likely to bring a student back to the reference desk than will a recitation of the many broader and narrower terms of a library of congress subject heading. • • • • • • 27 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume �, number 2 • december 2008 improving, where possible, the interlibrary loan services provided by your library. a library that can get almost everything does not need to own almost everything. where possible (and affordable) take advantage of state consortia or lending agreements among theological schools. librarians will do well to keep in mind the culture and environment in which these students live, and to ensure that reference and instruction services provided are appropriate to this culture and environment. bodi suggests that “librarians tend to teach a step-by-step, linear search strategy, but research, especially in an electronic environment, is interactive and circular.”25 learn this, use this, and teach this, because this is how a growing number of our users live and what they experience. frand noted that doing is more important than knowing. in the time that it takes for students to complete their education, especially as nontraditional students balancing a plethora of other responsibilities, the specific databases, websites, or urls will likely have changed. technology changes too quickly for educators to be concerned with students’ ability to identify specific sites or databases. rather the focus needs to be on their ability to find information via whatever tools are available (many of which probably have not even been conceptualized yet), and evaluate that information to determine its usefulness. it is not the goal of a theological librarian to prepare students to be students for the rest of their lives. most students do not care about subject headings – they just need to find articles and books on their topic. the goal instead is to prepare them to be ministers, professors, missionaries, professionals, or whatever they are called to be. these students will need to find information for the rest of their lives, within these various capacities, and it is the job of the librarians to adapt to millennials’ changing needs and assist them. conclusion theological libraries are facing an influx of millennial students whose learning styles, behaviors, and expectations will challenge librarians’ and faculty members’ habits of instruction and presentation of information. there is no quick and easy way to optimize learning for these students, but realizing that interactions with them can be challenging and different reminds those who are charged with teaching them to think creatively and broadly about how the process should be approached. changes must be made to improve outreach and service to these students, but these changes do not necessarily have to be large either in budget, staff time, or institutional investment. instead, small changes in service, attitude, and outreach can go a long way toward maintaining the relevance of the library and improving learning for millennial students. 25 bodi, ���. • 67 critical review: fortress commentary on the bible theolib.org fortress commentary on the bible gale a. yee, hugh r. page jr., and matthew j. m. coomber, eds. fortress commentary on the bible: the old testament and apocrypha. minneapolis: fortress press, 2014. 1118 pp. $39.00. isbn: 9780800699161 (vol. 1). margaret aymer, cynthia briggs kittredge, and david a. sánchez, eds. fortress commentary on the bible: the new testament. minneapolis: fortress press, 2014. 771 pp. $36.00. isbn: 9780800699178 (vol. 2). the fortress commentary on the bible is a two-volume set that covers the texts of the old testament, apocrypha, and new testament. the first volume covers the old testament and apocrypha, and also includes a few introductory articles for reading ancient near eastern texts in modern times. the second volume covers the new testament. this volume also includes introductory articles on issues pertaining to new testament studies. multiple authors contributed to this volume in various styles and with varying degrees of mastery. the primary audience for this commentary set is the college or graduate student, or, perhaps, anyone wanting to acquire a basic introduction to issues and interpretation of the bible. the information provided in these volumes is intended to give the reader access to the context of these ancient documents, the history of interpretation, and the current scholastic climate. these three layers of commentary accompany every section of the ancient texts that are analyzed. the goal of the commentary is not to be exhaustive, but rather, with its focus on students, it is meant to summarize and be a bridge to other documents that will offer a more extended discussion of particular passages or issues related to the bible. outside of the introductory articles already mentioned, the commentary divides each passage of the bible into three main sections. the first is the “text in its ancient context,” which addresses the linguistic and historical context of the biblical text. the second is the “text in the interpretive tradition,” which discusses the way other interpretive traditions have understood the passage throughout history. this section focuses mainly on jewish and christian interpretations, but, when appropriate, it will give attention to islamic interpretation. the final section is the “text in contemporary discussion,” which focuses on the recent history of interpretation, including discussions of recent interpretive trends (e.g., feminist interpretation). the style of this commentary varies from author to author and therefore has a wide range of styles. for example, matthew j. m. coomber writes his article, “reading the old testament in ancient and contemporary contexts,” in an engaging, personal style. he includes personal anecdotes like his thought-provoking interaction with his students on the first day of his old testament survey class. included in this article is a vignette noting that most of his students’ only experience from the bible comes from veggie tales — something that usually does not make an appearance in scholarly works. yet this does not compromise the high level of scholarship that coomber provides in his article. the reader will encounter a different style when reading lawrence m. wills, who offers a more formal style in his article “negotiating the jewish heritage of early christianity.” here the style is a little more distant, but it does not detract from the information provided. there are two primary strengths of this commentary series. first, despite the weakness that will be mentioned in this review, the volumes are largely objective concerning their respective topics. since the volumes are intended to cover current trends in interpretation, the reader will find that most approaches to interpretation are given some coverage. biblical literalism and feminist, lgbt, jewish, and islamic interpretations are all covered when relevant to the discussion of the text. a good example of this is coomber’s essay cited above. coomber presents the various interpretations proffered by biblical literalists and historical critics alongside feminist criticism and lgbt interpretation. the interaction with these methods of interpretation is largely descriptive, especially in the case of coomber, and is beneficial to the student who 68 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org needs to be introduced to the contemporary debates. this provides the reader with a good foundation for understanding these differing schools of interpretation, which are present in the wide spectrum of interpretive schools today. if the first goal of interaction is to understand a particular viewpoint, then this commentary will provide the student a decent starting point for gaining an understanding of that perspective. finally, i would be remiss not to comment on an area of the commentary in which i specialize, genesis 22. in this section of the commentary (vol. 1., 113–114; 116; 118–119), rodney s. sadler jr. gives a good deal of attention to the wordplay in hebrew between genesis 12 and 22, while not belaboring the point with details about the hebrew language. he shows how the wordplay is important for the overall interpretation of the passage and makes it palatable to the reader. this allows students who do not know the biblical languages a glimpse into the rhetorical world of the original reader. he also takes time to address most modern readers’ concern about a god who demanded that abraham sacrifice his son by pointing out that in the end, isaac was not sacrificed. he places the focus of the text on abraham’s faithfulness — as the original author did — without distracting his readers with too much influence from immanuel kant. overall, the treatment of genesis 22 is concise, yet thorough, informative, and engaging. i would point students to this section of the commentary as a fair summary of the meaning of genesis 22. this sampling of the commentary serves as a good example of what the rest attempts to accomplish. there is one primary weakness of this commentary series. first, though it would be hard to call this set largely subjective, as stated previously, the bibliographic references in some sections leave much to be desired. generally this would be considered a weak critique. however, since the stated goal of this commentary is to connect students with diverse documents to show how these texts have been interpreted through history, the inclusion of foundational documents in the bibliography would help the student connect with these documents. for example, in the article “jesus and the christian gospels,” only the “two-source hypothesis” is mentioned (117–119). no other approaches are mentioned, such as the “multi-source theory” or the “two gospel hypothesis” put forward by johann jacob griesbach. additionally, b. h. streeter, who was the proponent of the “two source hypothesis,” is missing from the bibliography — thus not connecting the student with primary documents for this view. nor are the works of those who followed him mentioned. since the stated goal of the commentary is to introduce the reader to diverse documents, we should first also introduce the student to foundational documents. if lady gaga can make the bibliography of one essay (vol. 2, 27), certainly streeter could make it, too, since his view is summarized. however, this weakness is not present in all sections of the commentary. neil elliott’s essay “situating the apostle paul in his day and engaging his legacy in our own” consults authors from a variety of spectrums and backgrounds. rudolf bultmann, heikki räisänen, and scott mcknight all make an appearance in the discussion. for an essay that focuses on paul’s historical context, authors james d. g. dunn, e. p. sanders, and n. t. wright are appropriately mentioned. i would recommend this purchase. first, i would recommend it because the primary target audience is college and masters’ students. second, i think the information contained within these volumes provides students with an overview of particular topics related to scripture in a way that could provide students with help in the first stages of their research. dougald w. mclaurin iii southeastern baptist theological seminary, wake forest, nc � column diktuon: digital repositories and theological libraries by andrew keck l ibraries and institutional archives have a significant role in collecting the intellectual output of our institutions. collecting faculty output often involves purchasing faculty books and subscriptions to particular journals. some libraries create vertical files or other kinds of dedicated space to collect the published and unpublished works of a faculty member. theses and dissertations as well as some honors papers are the only types of student work that are systematically collected by the library. a digital repository seeks to collect both faculty and student intellectual output in digital form. faculty using a digital repository could have more than a simple curriculum vitae but a digital collection of published and unpublished material that other researchers could actually search, browse, and read. as repositories are normally set up using an open-access model, the audience for faculty scholarship could extend to every person with a connection to the internet. this provides an extraordinary opportunity for various significant scholarly exchanges with scholars that teach in international contexts or have limited library resources. likewise, a digital repository provides a greater exposure to student work. obtaining a dissertation or thesis submitted to another institution can be both difficult and expensive. by having student theses and dissertations in an open digital repository, the bibliographical, research, and intellectual work is then easily available for use by students and researchers at other institutions. technical infrastructure there are several choices for software supporting a digital repository. among the most popular are dspace, http:// www.dspace.org/, fedora, http://www.fedora-commons.org/, and eprints, http://www.eprints.org/. each of these is free open-source software that requires a minimal web server and relational database. while each of these will run “out of the box,” most institutions will want to make various configurations and customizations based on their particular needs. special attention will need to be given to how digital items are to be submitted, organized, and displayed. format and metadata digital repositories normally accept work in pdf format and can also directly accept a wide range of multimedia files. as different programs and schools require certain formatting conventions (a cover sheet, citation styles, paper margins), there may be substantial variation among the documents in a digital repository. those who submit material to a digital repository will also typically need to prepare metadata such as name, titles, abstract, keywords, or key phrases. depending on the standards for a digital repository and/or the inclusion of certain items (such as dissertations) in the library catalog, the metadata may need to be enhanced by library staff or others. copyright generally, papers in digital repository are web accessible under a creative commons license. students and others must sign a license that allows an institution to distribute these documents on the website and to certify that any previously copyrighted material used is either within “fair use” or with the written permission of the copyright andrew keck, section editor for columns, is associate director of duke divinity school library, duke university, durham, north carolina. � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 1 • june 2008 owner. the digital repository prominently posts the creative commons license accompanied by a copyright statement indicating the author’s continuing rights. in cases where submission to a digital repository is required (typically for student work), policies may allow for a delay in “publishing” a work in the digital repository if there are copyright or patent issues that need to be resolved. approvals and workflow especially in the case of student work submitted to fulfill a degree requirement, approvals may be significant to the workflow. most institutions do not want dissertations not yet approved to be publicly posted in a way that makes them appear approved or finished. one possible workflow might involve the student submitting the paper electronically to the digital repository but the paper not appearing publicly until approved by one or more advisors. workflows can also include an opportunity for library staff or others to correct or enhance metadata. success and challenges while the concept of digital repositories has been widely championed, the reality has been underwhelming at most institutions. the slow growth of digital repositories is largely attributed to a lack of incentives for participation, especially for faculty. the majority of items in most institutional repositories are student work. this can be explained by the heightened incentive of students to deposit their work as part of the degree completion requirements. schools with more successful digital repositories have made significant efforts to solicit content, build incentives for faculty to participate, and position the digital repository within already existing workflows for scholarly production. libraries will need to work with campus decision makers to investigate, establish, and create policies and incentives around digital repositories. librarians will need to play an active role in discovering, soliciting, and fully describing content. the promise of digital repositories includes the capturing, organizing, preserving, and exposing of the intellectual output of an institution in a way that may heighten both visibility and access to that content. a sustained effort led by the library will be needed in order to make that promise a reality. 56 april 2016: volume 9, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org t&t clark handbook to social identity in the new testament j. brian tucker and coleman a. baker, eds. t & t clark handbook to social identity in the new testament. london: bloomsbury t&t clark, 2014. 657 pp. $142.99. hardcover. isbn: 9780567379542. in general, the intention of a handbook as a reference work is to review the current state of scholarship in a particular field of study. as a handbook, the t & t clark handbook to social identity in the new testament falls within the field of social-scientific criticism. the volume provides an overview of the current state of new testament scholarship that employs social identity theory by providing examples of how this approach to biblical studies can provide new insight into the social world of these ancient texts. in the preface, the editors of the handbook state that the purpose is “to explore the various ways the new testament constructs social identity” (xv). this includes exploring the new testament authors’ theological work to shape the social identity formation of their original audiences, as well as illuminating how social identity formation occurred within the social contexts of the early christ-movement. social identity theory developed from within the discipline of social psychology through the work of henri tajfel, who developed the theory while focusing on investigating contemporary societies in the 1970s. subsequently, the application of social identity theory to biblical studies was introduced by philip esler. the editors note that since the presentation of a seminal paper by esler at the british new testament conference in 1994, scholars have begun to employ social identity theory to open up new avenues for understanding the texts of the new testament. though the editors do not reflect specifically on the genesis of this particular handbook, the significance of this particular approach to new testament studies is evident by the volume of material employing social identity theory that has been generated since esler’s paper. while andrew d. clarke and j. brian tucker note in their essay in part 1 of the handbook, “social history and social theory in the study of social identity,” that the use of social-scientific criticism is still “a debated issue” (47), the fact that this is a burgeoning field of study is evident in the publication of other recent works on the topic, such as the social world of the new testament, edited by jerome h. neyrey and eric c. stewart, and understanding the social world of the new testament, edited by dietmar neufeld and richard e. demaris. according to the editors, the contributing authors for parts 1 and 2 of the handbook have been selected because of their previous work in new testament studies using this particular approach. the editors aimed for an international representation of authors, including authors from the united states, canada, the united kingdom, europe, asia, and africa. part 1 of the volume focuses on methodological studies, discussing particular theoretical approaches that are fruitful for exploring social identity formation in the new testament world, such as the narrative-identity model or ritual studies. these particular topic choices demonstrate the handbook’s concern with current conversations within the field of biblical studies that are generating considerable interest. philip esler is identified as a key expert in the handbook’s introduction and contributes both a chapter in the methodological section and a textual study on the matthaean beatitudes. esler’s standing as a seminal scholar in the field of social identity theory in new testament studies is evident in the bibliography, which cites twenty of his books, articles, and presentations. the essays in both part 1 and part 2 have not been previously published. esler’s initial essay, “an outline of social identity theory,” reviews the development of social identity theory succinctly and serves to lead the reader to explore additional questions and pursue further research. esler presents an overview of how social identity theory relates to biblical scholarship and interpretation. the focus of tajfel’s work was intergroup interactions and the interplay between individuals’ identity as group members and intergroup interactions. tajfel saw the application of his work to have particular relevance in illuminating social identity with regard to ethnicity (21). john c. turner expanded on tajfel’s work by applying its principles to intragroup interactions, not only intergroup interactions. subsequently, turner’s theory was called self-categorization theory. social identity theory can refer to tajfel’s 57 critical review: t&t clark handbook theolib.org theory alone, or to both tajfel and turner’s theories together (23). the essay addresses the key factors that hold a group together and shape the social identity of the group members. esler explains key concepts within social identity theory such as group norms, prototypes, and stereotyping. this essay serves as an introduction to social identity theory, which is helpful, since there is no extensive review of the history of the theory outside of the context of biblical studies in the handbook’s introduction. the textual studies in part 2 serve as a series of case studies demonstrating the application and usefulness of social identity theory. the essays draw from each author’s particular expertise, yet cover a significant portion of the new testament; twenty-one of the twenty-seven new testament books are represented. part 2 of the volume begins with esler’s revised 1994 essay, published here for the first time. given esler’s extensive work with social identity theory, his two essays are some of the strongest in the volume. in esler’s essay focusing on the matthaean beatitudes, the author argues that social identity theory offers a framework for understanding intergroup relationships, particularly regarding group conflict and the social phenomena of group norms and stereotyping. these social phenomena affect the social identity formation of the individual in relation to group membership, which in turn affects intergroup relationships (149). esler’s essay makes good use of john turner’s contribution of self-categorization theory, an important addition to tajfel’s work that is noted by other contributors. his main argument is that interpreting the beatitudes in light of norms of group behavior offers a deeper understanding of the meaning of these teachings than traditional eschatological or ethical interpretations of the beatitudes. the remaining essays in part 2 incorporate key concepts like norms, stereotyping, and self-categorization, offering insights into the complexities of group dynamics related to leadership, kinship, ethnicity, and social class. the sixty-seven-page bibliography draws almost exclusively on english language scholarship, which reflects the origins of social identity theory with tajfel’s and turner’s work, as well as philip esler’s work with their theory and biblical interpretation. in addition to the index to biblical and ancient sources, there is also an index of modern authors, which provides an overview of which authors’ work the contributing authors used most frequently. this index can serve to help the reader focus on new testament scholars who make particular use of social identity theory in their work. while the bibliography provides a helpful survey of scholarship related to social identity theory, the volume would have benefited from an introduction offering a clearer outline of the place of social identity theory within the field of social-scientific criticism. by way of comparison, a helpful general introduction to social-scientific criticism is provided in social-scientific approaches to new testament interpretation, edited by david g. horrell. the primary audience of this handbook is readers seeking further insights into how theoretical models like social identity theory can illuminate new testament texts. since the purpose of the handbook is to present further studies on the new testament in its social context, the essays focus on scholarly applications of social-scientific criticism and do not offer particular examples of how the textual studies relate to homiletical concerns. the average reading level of the essays is for advanced students, since some familiarity with social-scientific, historical-critical, and literary-critical methods of interpretation is assumed. recommended for libraries collecting comprehensively on social-scientific approaches to biblical studies. lisa gonzalez catholic theological union, chicago, il 24 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org the center for adventist research at andrews university merlin d. burt is director, center for adventist research and ellen g. white estate branch office, and professor of church history, seventh-day adventist theological seminary, andrews university, berrien springs, michigan. jim ford is associate director, center for adventist research, andrews university, berrien springs, michigan. terry dwain robertson is seminary librarian, andrews university, berrien springs, michigan. abstract the center for adventist research (car), an andrews university and general conference of seventh-day adventist organization, seeks to promote an understanding and appreciation of the heritage and mission of the seventh-day adventist church (sda). it combines the resources of the james white library’s adventist heritage center and the ellen g. white estate branch office to provide the most extensive collection of adventist-related resources in the world, both physically and digitally. an introduction to the background, collections, and activities of car is presented. of particular interest are the digitization projects. introduction the center for adventist research (car), an andrews university and general conference of seventh-day adventist organization, seeks to promote an understanding and appreciation of the heritage and mission of the seventh-day adventist church (sda). it combines the resources of the james white library’s adventist heritage center and the ellen g. white estate branch office to provide the most extensive collection of adventist-related resources in the world, both physically and digitally. located on the lower level of the james white library at andrews university and on the internet at www.centerforadventistresearch.org, it is positioned to not only facilitate the education of future sda church leaders but to also develop academic and professional links with other adventist heritage rooms and research centers throughout the world. beyond the mentioned resources, car hosts the seventh-day adventist periodical index (sdapi) for the association of seventh-day adventist librarians (asdal), houses the andrews university archives and record center, serves as rare materials repository for the james white library, and actively cooperates in the educational program of the seventh-day adventist theological seminary and the collection activities of the seminary library. recently car became the home for the developing adventist digital library which plans to open to the public around january 2016. history of the seventh-day adventist church the seventh-day adventist denomination began in the aftermath of the american second great awakening and the millerite movement. william miller, following charles finney’s methods, though not his eschatological framework, taught a pre-millennial second coming of jesus that would bring destruction of the earth and a new remade and perfect world. his teaching became sensational in new england because he believed, based on the prophecies of daniel and revelation, that jesus would come about the year 1843 or 1844. after the disappointment of october 22, 1844, many millerites returned to their prior denominations. but a small, scattered, yet committed group of believers determined to understand their experience, abandoned any form of date setting, and reaffirmed their belief in a literal second coming of jesus. the core leaders who founded the movement were joseph bates and james and ellen white. over the next fifteen years, these founders with other leaders met in a number of study conferences, and worked out the core beliefs that are currently held by the seventh-day adventist church. in large part, this community building was accomplished through the medium of print publishing, and the early leaders maximized the communication potential of the press to forge this identity. one of the most influential and prolific authors among the early leaders was ellen g. white. the ellen g. white estate continues to preserve and promote her writings for their timely and timeless wisdom. 25 essays: the center for adventist research at andrews university theolib.org as that early publishing ministry continued to expand and new technologies became viable and desirable (e.g., paper manufacture from wood pulp, the steam press), the need for a legal organization that could own and manage property became a practical necessity. the series of actions that achieved this need began with adopting a name and the incorporation of the publishing association in 1860, and culminated in the establishment of the general conference of seventh-day adventists in 1863. the publishing ministry as a channel of communication expanded rapidly throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, including the launch of regional church magazines, as well as formal book publishing concerns, most notably in the american south and west. the original office in battle creek, michigan, the review and herald publishing association, developed into a major state-of-the-art printing facility. as the church expanded outside the united states, one of the first institutions the denomination established in any new area was a publishing house. many of these continue to serve their constituents today. car endeavors to collect and preserve this publishing history, both as a complete historic archive of the earliest endeavors and also in the present. included in the holdings are adventist denominational materials from every part of the world and in many languages. history of the center for adventist research during the 1960s the white estate branch office and the adventist heritage center were set up on the andrews university campus. the following is a brief outline of the respective histories and the current arrangements. the adventist heritage center the collecting of historical resources began at the college library of emmanuel missionary college (forerunner of andrews university) during the early part of the twentieth century. through the years diligent librarians added many resources and carefully preserved them, thus building the collection. in 1959-1960, the seventh-day adventist theological seminary and its library relocated from washington, d.c., to berrien springs, michigan, and with emmanuel missionary college became andrews university. the seminary library with its strong collection of sda-related materials greatly augmented the heritage room collection. in 1966 louise dederen became the first full-time curator of the james white library heritage room. by 1991, when dederen retired, the heritage room had grown from 1,000 to over 5,000 square feet in size, and was one of the leading repositories for adventist resources in the world. from 1991 onward, under the curatorship of jim ford, the adventist heritage center continued to add resources and organize the collections. the white estate branch office established in 1961, the white estate branch office at andrews university was the first branch office of the ellen g. white estate. the ellen g. white estate, inc., is an organization that was formed by ellen g. white through her will. she named trustees who were responsible for publishing her writings. the organization has grown to include broad responsibility for promoting an appreciation for the historical heritage of the seventh-day adventist church. when the white estate branch office at andrews university was first established, it was intended to be a backup location for vital historical materials. by 1965, due to demand for access to the ellen white writings by the seminary students, it served as a functioning office and organized collection to support the training program of the seventh-day adventist theological seminary. a complete set of ellen g. white letters and manuscripts, rich in original copies, and many other important materials were transferred to the andrews university office and became the core of the collection. in 1982 the white estate branch office was relocated from the seminary building, where it had resided since 1961, to a much larger location on the lower level of the james white library, near the adventist heritage center. the holdings grew to include additional primary and secondary sources related to the work and writings of ellen g. white. of particular importance was the greatly expanded document file which contains extensive resources. 26 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org the center for adventist research today in 2000 the white estate branch office and the adventist heritage center were physically integrated in the south end of the first floor of the james white library. this allowed for a more efficient use of space and centralized access to adventist-related materials. in november 2003, car was officially organized through an administrative integration of the two entities under the leadership of merlin burt and jim ford, as director and associate director, respectively. with an integrated mission the new center is positioned to be of greater service to scholars, students, and the church than were the individual entities. the car manuscript collections currently exceed some 325 individual collections of varying size and nearly 60,000 books (antiquarian and contemporary) plus thousands of smaller publications, periodicals, microforms, and audio-visuals. online resources and services since the 1990s car has engaged – to one degree or another – in digitization of its collections. first, it was photographs. then in the middle of first decade of the 21st century, the floodgates seemed to open with audio, adventist web, periodicals, and paper digitization all starting in fairly close time proximity to each other. each of these initiatives is continuing, some more quickly than others, but they are still important elements in car’s digitization program. more information is available at the car website, www.centerforadventistresearch.org. digitization at the center for adventist research in the 21st century with so many people using smartphones and laptop computers, and as more and more places become “connected,” it is “in character” with the denominational founders that the adventist church be proactive in this move to a digital environment. one way for the libraries of the church to do this is to take the existing print, photograph, and analog audio collections and digitize them for online access. car is arguably one of the most active facilities of its kind within the denomination in terms of doing retrospective digitization in different formats, and this has become a significant part of what is done at car. with the beginning of a planned adventist digital library (adl), two full-time and one half-time staff members and up to five student workers engage exclusively in digitization. the following statistics indicate what has been digitized and currently made available for public use. however, considerably more is digitized than this since many items still await final processing. print in any form, titles .......... 2,192 photographs .......................... 10,220 audio recordings .................... 2,480 total .................................... 14,892 what follows summarizes the accomplishments of each of the digitization component areas. print collection (2009-) the digitization manager has a well conceived and working system to schedule and track progress in the digitization work flow. most of the activity in 2013/2014 were in the area of print or paper digitization. the following are the major components of our print or paper digitization efforts. • special collection monographs: digitization of all antiquarian special collection publications stored in the car vault is largely done. • periodicals: all titles from the millerite period (1830s-1850s), all sda titles in english pre-1900, and all of the pre-1946 titles in non-english languages (about 15% complete at the time of the writing). • any other books and manuscripts requested by the ellen g. white estate. one example is the official correspondence of w. c. white, ellen g. white’s son and first director of the estate. it is in preparation for publication in 2015. 27 essays: the center for adventist research at andrews university theolib.org manuscript collections and small documents (2012-) the digitization of small documents began in 2009 and continues upon request. these include pamphlets, tracts, organizational reports, curriculum materials, term papers — anything less than 100 pages in length. most of these small documents are considered unpublished and account for much of the print collections. car has also begun digitizing a few of their manuscript collections in 2012. these are a challenge for digitization in that they require much effort to prepare. they usually have a large number of small items which require considerably more time and effort to digitize compared to a book. despite the challenge, this year we digitized nine manuscript collections. photograph collection (1998-) a good share of car’s photographs are now available via a separate photograph database, www.centerforadventistresearch. org/photos. all together car has over 14,000 photographs scanned though not all are yet available online. work continues on editing the metadata for the photographs that were scanned earliest. the standard of description has matured since these early efforts, so many are not up to current expectations. this updating is essential. there are about 3,000 photographs left in this incomplete metadata group. current work consists largely of processing photographs from manuscript collections and newly acquired historic images. sound archives (2007-) two thousand audio recordings are available. these include sermons, radio talks, etc. as with the photographs, some of the earliest attempts at sound digitization do not measure up to current practice, so some re-digitizing is underway. periodicals (2011-) car continues to download as many digital issues of sda periodicals as possible, saving them to an archival server. current holdings include nearly 400 titles and 24,000 issues or articles. this work is, in part, done in conjunction with the sdapi. some of the titles are linked in the index to the digital copy of the magazine on the server. this year sixteen full periodical titles from the pre-1900 era were digitized, so they will make a strong contribution to the corpus of historical sda resources. the adventist digital library concurrent with car’s growing digitization efforts were the beginnings of the presence of historic sda materials on the internet. asdal, in 2008, set in motion a working committee to develop a central database of adventist digital materials. it eventually came to be known as adventistresources.org. for the next two and one-half years it made some progress toward establishing an online presence. this effort floundered in the fall of 2010 over finances and software issues. in 2011 the directors of the ellen g. white estate, the general conference of seventh-day adventists office of archives, statistics, and research, and car began talking among themselves about setting up a central database to begin providing access to historical adventist resources for the world church. over the span of two years they -along with the general conference department of education director -were successful in securing funds to begin developing an online sda library of digitized historical materials. these funds were used for software development, some personnel costs, and to purchase the digitizing machines which are currently located at car. this has enabled much of the car vault to be digitized as content for the adventist digital library (adl). since then, sustainable funding initiatives have been achieved that include additional denominational entities including asdal. though car serves as the home of the adl, the adl has separate funding and its own board with representation from all the partners. 28 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org research at the center for adventist research research at andrews university is taken seriously. faculty engage in research and publish the results. students do research as part of the learning process. car is an important resource in the universe of sda related research. as the largest repository of sda materials it means that on-campus as well as off-campus scholars utilize car regularly for their research needs on a wide variety of topics. in 2014 scholars from across the country, and the world, came to car to do research. in september, for example, brian strayer’s new book1 on john loughborough, an early sda denominational leader, arrived from the press. much of the research for that work was done at car. in october, renato stencel from brazil did research for a book on the 100th anniversary of the sda college there. as a result of our internet presence, many requests for access to resources are received from around the world. in 2014 car served nearly 2,500 researchers and provided over 4,000 items for their use. over 8,000 scans and photocopies were made by researchers and other patrons. car also provided about 3,000 pages of digitized documents to meet the research needs of off-campus researchers. unique collections as noted above, car includes many unique collections. two notable examples are john n. andrews and grace amadon. j. n. andrews is the namesake for our university and an early pioneer of our denomination. the collection contains twenty-nine original letters written by andrews. the collection also documents the connection between the andrews and the spicer family, both of them leaders in the church. there is also an extensive collection of letters sent home from dorothy spicer-andrews recounting her life and adventures in the mission field of southwestern china in the 1920s. the family members were pioneer missionaries and their letters are quite insightful about the life they lived. grace amadon was interested in calendars and things related. she collected and wrote widely on the topic of the biblical calendar and the dating of certain events including the october 22, 1844, great disappointment, ancient jewish calendars (including the kararite), calendar reform, and turkey and the trumpets of revelation. she was a member of the 1939 general conference of seventh-day adventist committee looking at the various calendars used by william miller and his followers to determine the date of christ’s assumed second coming in 1843/1844. this collection is additionally interesting because it is the center’s first attempt at digitizing a larger collection. there is ongoing interest in certain aspects of calendation within the church and some groups outside the church. digitizing the collection was an effort to provide in-demand resources. the center for adventist research holds well over 300 manuscript or personal collections. not all of them are processed and ready for research use. those that are available may be located via the library catalog, http://www.andrews.edu/ library/index.cgi, and car’s web page [http://www.centerforadventistresearch.org/]. exhibits the year 2014 was an unusual year for exhibits at car. in early january the unthinkable happened. water flooded one of the exhibit cases that contained important original materials. over the christmas holidays, some renovation work was done upstairs in the library. in the course of jostling the plumbing, a tiny crack developed in a corroded water supply pipe. the insidious results of several weeks of water leaking became obvious when the bible exhibit was found to have water dripping across the inside of the twenty-foot display case. all affected items were processed immediately to a deep freezer for preservation. over the course of the next weeks, five of the most significant bibles were sent to the conservation center in chicago, one of the top restoration facilities in the country, for professional restoration work. the bibles impacted are a 10th century greek codex on vellum; a 1553 1 strayer, brian eugene. j. n. loughborough: the last of the adventist pioneers (hagerstown, md: review and herald publishing association, 2014). http://www.andrews.edu/library/index.cgi http://www.andrews.edu/library/index.cgi http://www.centerforadventistresearch.org/ 29 essays: the center for adventist research at andrews university theolib.org tyndale n.t.; a 1617 3rd edition of the king james version; an 1840 douay version; and a fine-art facsimile of the codex vaticanus. as of this writing, it will likely be some months before the conservation work is completed. ellen g. white issues symposium the ellen g. white issues symposium, held annually in the spring, is held to present formal papers on topics that provide new understanding of ellen g. white, her ministry, and writings from a faith perspective. car publishes an annual journal containing the presented papers. attendees include students, pastors, scholars, and community members. the presentations from the 2014 symposium will be printed in volume ten of the journal. also planned is an anthology of selected articles from the ten years of symposium journals. selected services of the center for adventist research seventh-day adventist periodical index car serves as the editorial office for the sdapi. jim ford is the managing editor with dan drazen as editor. the index contains over 350,000 citations to articles appearing in about sixty different adventist magazines from 1974 to the present. this is a service that benefits adventist researchers around the world. the index is supported by contributions from the asdal member institutions in north america plus the general conference of seventh-day adventists and the north american division office of education. dan drazen indexes the current issues and also retrospectively indexes the review and herald, the general church paper for the seventh-day adventist church. sdapi includes links to about twenty magazines, enabling users to click to see the full text of the articles. many of the titles indexed do not have a digital presence so a link is not possible for them. obituary index project car coordinates an ongoing obituary index project run in conjunction with asdal. metadata from a select list of adventist periodicals is added. the index is complete through fall 2013. it is a particularly useful tool for historians and genealogists. a link to the full text of the obituaries is not yet available. conclusion the center for adventist research, through its collections, is an integral resource in understanding the history of the seventh-day adventist church, adventist-related denominations and organizations, and historical theological publications related to seventh-day adventist doctrines. these collections of books, periodicals, audiovisual items, manuscripts, and photographs serve the andrews university community and beyond. through the active and growing digitization projects, car will increasingly serve the global community. 9 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org a case for slow reading matthew ostercamp is access services librarian at the brandel library, north park university, chicago, il. our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model. we are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: fast life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat fast foods. to be worthy of the name, homo sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction. a firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of the fast life. may suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency. …1 thus begins the slow food manifesto, which was approved at the founding conference of the international slow food movement in paris in 1989.2 founder carlo petrini would later write that his movement “is not just a question of opposing slow to fast, but rather of highlighting more important dichotomies, like carefulness and carelessness or attentiveness and haste.”3 the insidious “fast life virus” is not only a concern of foodies reflecting on how we too often consume calories. it also correlates to the way many people today receive and process information. or so it seems to me as i reflect upon the way those around me treat the 21st century’s information smorgasbord. recently clay johnson made a similar connection in his new book the information diet: a case for conscious consumption.4 johnson suggests that the small nuggets of information served up most (in)famously by our online social networks are the mental equivalent of trans fats. they often provide short-term satisfaction, yet leave us craving more and more. and ultimately they result in an epidemic of mental unfitness; one that johnson maintains is every bit as threatening to our future as physical obesity. to extend this metaphor even further, there are increasing discussions about the biological impact of the way we consume information. much of this research was popularized by nicholas carr in his book: the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains. he claims we are physically adapting to the constant barrage of information bits and bytes that endanger our capacity for sustained attention. carr argues, “the net’s cacophony of stimuli short-circuits both conscious and unconscious thought, preventing our minds from thinking either deeply or creatively. our brains turn into simple signal-processing units, quickly shepherding information into consciousness and then back out again.”5 or, as the slow food people said, “we first invented the machine and then took it as our life model.”6 1 carl petrini, slow food: the case for taste (new york: columbia univ. press, 2001), xxiii. 2 petrini, xxiii. 3 petini, 33. 4 clay a. johnson, the information diet: a case for conscious consumption (sebastopol, ca.: o’reilly media, 2012). 5 nicholas carr, the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains (new york: w.w. norton, 2010), 119. 6 petrini, xxiii. 10 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org the present essay will make a case for “slow reading”. what i’m calling slow reading (and others call “deep reading”) requires us to pay attention to a text and read and re-read with care. slow reading starts on page one and carries through to the end of the book. it requires us both to seek out quiet places and to engage in conversation. slow reading takes a keen interest in structure and allusion. it can follow lengthy arguments and narratives. it is not characterized by skimming or browsing. slow reading does not necessarily require lengthy reading sessions but it does require focus and attention. it is not primarily pragmatic; its objective is not merely to harvest quotes or data. in these respects it deliberately challenges some of the common assumptions of our age. david ulin writes of this practice in the lost art of reading: reading, after all, is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction, a matter of engagement in a society that seems to want nothing more than for us to disengage. it connects us at the deepest levels; it is slow, rather than fast. that is its beauty and its challenge…7 taking my cue from the slow food movement (in its resistance to the ascendancy of speed by celebrating the taste, the pleasure, the beauty of “slow”), i will try to apply such principles to reading. first, i will explore how information, like food, came to be thought of as a commodity, and argue that we need a new narrative that connects careful reading to human flourishing. second, i will argue that just as the slow food movement needed to educate people on the taste and flavors of non-industrial food, we need to help inculcate skills that will open up to those we serve the pleasure of reading. third, i will conclude by arguing that we need to cultivate a “reading culture” to counter the myth that reading is dead, and to welcome young people who are tired of merely using books and want to slow down and read them.8 what is information? the case for slow food starts with exploring the meaning of food. it refuses to reduce eating to simply acquiring the necessary calories and nutrients. food is also about time and place; it is about friends and family; it is about pleasure. likewise the case for slow reading must start by looking at the meaning of information. is it just about acquiring new facts? why do we read and why might it matter how we read? information as a mathematical concept james gleick recently wrote a large book called the information: a history, a theory, a flood.9 it traces the evolution of human communication, from african drums to the alphabet, printing press, and ultimately wikipedia. according to gleick the word “information” as we use it today is of relatively recent coinage. it was first used in the modern sense by ralph hartly in 1927.10 engineer hartly and his bell labs colleague harry nyquist were working on “the speed of transmission of intelligence” on telegraph and telephone wires during the 1920s and they wanted some quantifiable item that would be inclusive enough to cover the dots and dashes of the telegraph and spoken words of the telephone. they chose the term information. hartley defined the amount of information mathematically as the number of symbols transmitted as a log of the possible symbols. thus a morse code dot carries less information than an english letter, which in turn is less information than a chinese character because of the expanding number of possible symbols.11 7 david l. ulin, the lost art of reading: why books matter in a distracted time (seattle, wa.: sasquatch books, 2010), 150. 8 i do need to make one caveat before going further. when i first presented some of these ideas, ironically in a catla “lightning talk”, i spoke of “promoting traditional reading”. i want to repent of this sin. there is no “traditional” way to read. people have read and do read in a lot of different ways, and that is as it should be. by advocating slow reading i do not wish to claim that all other forms of reading should be banished. there is a time for skimming and a time for key word searching. i’m also chastened by petrini’s warning against nostalgia. although we can learn from and draw inspiration from the past, i’m not here to romanticize a pre-digital utopia. the goal is not to defend a tradition but to serve our students by giving them the richest, most redemptive and ennobling experience possible. 9 james gleick, the information: a history, a theory, a flood (new york: pantheon books, 2011). 10 gleick, 200. 11 gleick, 199ff. 11 essays: a case for slow reading theolib.org but the bell labs engineer who is the hero of james gleick’s history of information is not ralph hartly. it is claude shannon (1916-2001). shannon’s genius at applied mathematics allowed him to make a number of significant contributions to twentieth century thought. as an mit student in the 1930s, shannon worked on combining electrical engineering with boolean logic, demonstrating that “any operation that can be completely described in a finite number of steps using the words if, or, and, etc. can be done automatically with relays.”12 this was a key breakthrough in the development of modern computers. he followed that with his doctoral dissertation, “an algebra for theoretical genetics.” written before the discovery of dna, when genes were theoretical constructs, this dissertation would foreshadow the eventual breadth of shannon’s influence.13 for our purposes, shannon’s most significant writing is his 1948 article, “a mathematical theory of communication.”14 shannon came to this topic fresh from his war work on mechanically targeting anti-aircraft guns, and especially in cryptography. these projects impressed upon shannon the need to process data rapidly, and the presence of patterns in communication. in a “mathematical theory of communication”, shannon alters hartley’s definition of information. shannon defined information as “uncertainty, surprise, difficulty, and entropy[.]”15 shannon was very interested in the redundancy of language. this can be illustrated in different ways. for example you can remove the vowels from many english sentences and a literate reader will still be able to instantly understand the message: a fact that is borne out regularly on facebook. according to shannon, the vowels that can be implied are not information: only the letters that surprise or that we find uncertain really add information. shannon analyzed the frequency of letters, and their combinations. he would perform experiments while reading detective fiction with his wife to observe how, given a certain amount of context, how often she could guess the next letter or word in the book.16 ultimately, he concluded that the english language has a built in redundancy of about 50 percent.17 not only did this have implications for detecting and deciphering codes, but shannon’s work demonstrated that it was possible to create algorithms that could effectively compress messages. this would not only create space for more messages, but messages that could be sent further without being obscured by noise, and messages that could contain more content, such as photographs and television broadcasts.18 having defined information as surprise — the unknown and unpredictable — shannon coined a new term to measure unpredictability and thus information. the term was “bit.” shannon understood one bit to represent the level of uncertainty in flipping a coin.19 the bit allowed for information to be quantified, and gave us a way to compare the amount of information in the encyclopedia britannica with the information in an hour of television, and in turn compare these numbers to the information in a human chromosome.20 the establishment of a consistent way to measure information makes it possible to exploit the redundancy in human communication, which in turn makes it possible to save a significant number of bits, and thus greatly increase the efficiency of sending and receiving messages. 12 gleick, 175. 13 gleick, 175. 14 claude shannon, “a mathematical theory of communication,” the bell system technical journal 27 (july-oct. 1948) 379423, 623-656. http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf (accessed june 2, 2012). 15 gleick, 219. 16 gleick, 230. 17 gleick, 229. shannon thought english becomes even more redundant when you look at the statistical models for sentences and paragraphs. 18 gleick, 230. 19 gleick, 229. shannon would later cite matthew 5:37 (but let your communication be, yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.) when explaining bits on the lecture circuit. 20 gleick, 231-2. discusses shannon’s estimates for the number of bits for the three items listed. he thought the human genetic code had the least number of bits, and then the encyclopedia, and finally an hour of tv contained the most. http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf 12 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org information as commodity this idea that we can become increasingly efficient in our use of information has reverberated powerfully throughout our culture. nicholas carr describes increasingly efficient access to information as the “religion” of google. he writes, in google’s view, information is a kind of commodity, a utilitarian resource that can, and should, be mined and processed with industrial efficiency. the more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can distill their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers. anything that stands in the way of the speedy collection, dissection, and transmission of data is a threat not only to google’s business, but to the new utopia of cognitive efficiency it aims to construct on the internet.21 carr describes google’s obsession with collecting data about how people use the internet. these data are used to build its impressive search algorithms that we all routinely use to find quickly all sorts of information. and that google uses to sell advertisements. irene au, user experience director at google, in a businessweek interview claimed that, “google cares about being fast, so we want our user experience to be fast.” later in the interview au is quoted as saying, “our goal is to get users in and out really quickly. all our design decisions are based on that strategy.”22 the quest to save users time is not simply altruistic. the more clicks people make, the more opportunity there is for google to make money. carr writes, “the last thing [google] wants is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. google is, quite literally, in the business of distraction.”23 the commoditization of information is the current that the slow reading advocate strives to resist. like the current of a broad river, its pull is not always apparent on the surface, and yet i suspect that many of us sense it disrupting our habits, pervading our libraries, and forcing us to ingest fast information. step number one in the defense of slow reading is to understand the factors in our world that make it such an alien concept to so many. however, we must go beyond naming the obstacles. we must provide a counter narrative about information, one that maintains that merely counting and compressing bits, in pursuit of cognitive efficiency, is not the only way (or the wisest) to think about appropriating information. information and reality shannon’s “mathematical theory of communication” brackets at the outset one important aspect of communication: meaning. he writes, “frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. these semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem.”24 this observation did not stop intellectuals in many fields from appropriating shannon’s ideas and applying them to their work. this “bandwagon” both excited and troubled shannon.25 however, slow readers will here part ways with the engineers. the correlation of information to physical and/or conceptual entities is relevant to us. however, in an information age, drawing connections between the messages that threaten to engulf us and objective reality is an increasingly arduous task. philosopher albert borgmann discusses this task in his book holding on to reality: the nature of information at the turn of the millennium.26 borgmann argues that information is related to reality in one of three possible ways. there is information about reality, information for reality, and information as reality.27 to illustrate these relationships he asks us to imagine a concert. the account of the concert written by the local music critic is information about reality: the critic is describing an event that 21 carr, 152. 22 “google’s irene au: on design challenges.” businessweek online (march 19, 2009): 7, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=bth&an=37032438&site=bsi-live (accessed june 6, 2012). 23 carr, 157. 24 shannon, 1. 25 gleick, 263. 26 albert borgmann, holding on to reality: the nature of information at the turn of the millennium (chicago: university of chicago press, 1999). 27 borgmann, 1-2. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&an=37032438&site=bsi-live http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&an=37032438&site=bsi-live 13 essays: a case for slow reading theolib.org took place, and offering her observations on its success. the score that the musicians performed would be an example of information for reality: the score is a “cultural text” that allows the musicians to create, to perform the music. in 1999 borgmann wrote that the compact disc represents the third, and distinctly contemporary, use of information: information as reality. the cd could be understood as a compressed stream of digital bits — thousands of ones and zeroes; however, that is not the way we typically encounter it. rather than thinking of the cd as information about a performance, or as a means for us to create something, we equate the cd with the music. we listen to a beethoven symphony, or a bieber pop song on our ipods, rather than listening to information about those compositions. the cd is an example of information as reality. borgmann’s definition of information reads “intelligence provided, a person, is informed by a sign about some thing within a certain context.”28 the important flow here is intelligence, person, sign, thing, and context. information is a sign that connects us to some reality. for borgmann our experience of information is rooted in the natural world and the experiences of our earliest ancestors. it begins in the tracks that indicate the presence of game, or the altar jacob builds to signify the presence of god. here the signs are intimately connected to the reality they inform us of. they demand our attention and engage our senses. this, to borgmann, is the paradigm of information about reality. closely related to this is cultural information: information that allows us to create. cultural information includes scripts, songs, and stories; recipes, sewing patterns, and blueprints. these are all examples of signs that point us to a potential reality that we must act upon with skill in order to realize. borgmann writes, nothing so engages the fullness of human capabilities as a coherent and focused world of natural information. … analogously, nothing so concentrates human creativity and discipline as the austerity of cultural information, provided the latter again is of the highest order, consisting of the great literature of fiction, poetry, and music.29 here information is measured not by the congruency of the message from point a to point b, or by the speed by which a user can conjure up the necessary fact. rather, information is discussed in terms of its ability to engage our capacities to the fullest, and to call forth discipline and creativity from us. in borgmann’s view, technology is often appropriated to unburden us from the struggle of realizing cultural information, and often obscures the presence and contingency of natural information. when we adopt self-realizing technology, such as a cd player, information is allowed to take the place of reality, resulting in world of people and signs, where intelligence, things, and context are all removed.30 he writes, as long as we remain in a cocoon of virtual reality or behold and control actual reality chiefly through information technology, the world out there seems light and immaterial. but once we take up the challenge of a natural area or the invitation of a truly urban space, material reality reappears in its commanding presence and engages bodily exertion and spiritual pleasure to the limits of our capacities.31 this brief survey of borgmann’s thought is offered as a counter narrative to the forces that treat information as a commodity, abstracted from any correlation to physical and/or conceptual entities. it provides an alternative to thinking about information solely as the transmission of a message, by introducing words like skill, creativity, discipline, and pleasure to use when evaluating how information is appropriated. establishing the vocabulary is an essential step. to return to our food metaphor, so long as we are discussing food in terms of convenience and monetary cost, the fast food case is strong. it is everywhere, fast and cheap. however, once we broaden the conversation to include not simply the effects of food on our health but also the cultural and social meaning of food (and most significantly how pleasurable food can taste), the case for slow food case becomes much more compelling. by way of illustration, let’s revisit the issue of redundancy. 28 borgmann, 22. emphasis in the original. 29 borgmann, 220. 30 borgmann, 183. 31 borgmann, 221. 14 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org redundancy and slow reading as mentioned above, one of claude shannon’s contributions to information theory was devising mathematical ways to exploit the redundancy of human language to compress messages, thus economizing in the use of bits. while few of us may be able to express this redundancy mathematically, its presence is commonly acknowledged in the way our students often handle the texts they find in our library. i first started to think about how we read when i read these haunting lines in the 2008 british study “information behaviour of the researcher of the future”: the average times that users spend on e-book and e-journal sites are very short: typically four and eight minutes respectively. it is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense, indeed there are signs that new forms of `reading’ are emerging as users `power browse’ horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. it almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.32 the study makes it clear that the “power browse” is increasingly popular with both students and faculty33 and is corroborated by many other studies on the use of academic information.34 i believe this behavior has a direct connection to the availability of an abundance of sources and limited time, but it also betrays an implicit belief that much of what is being viewed is redundant, at least from the perspective of the searcher. to advocate for slow reading is to challenge this belief, and to embrace actively what may wrongly appear to be redundant. the slow reader will invite us to view reading as more than merely discovering a fact, key point, or “money quote.” adopting borgmann’s perspective instead, we can view reading as a skill requiring creative engagement and discipline. it is a skill mastered through practice, and one that brings about deep satisfaction and pleasure. a musician doesn’t attempt a challenging piece only once and then move on, nor would a golfer feel adequately prepared after making a lone putt. athletes, musicians, artists, chefs, and pastors all understand that excellence is a result of practice. that repetition is neither an annoyance nor an obstacle to avoid, but a necessary part of their craft. if we only read moby dick with no purpose beyond discovering what happens to ahab and the crew of the pequod, we could skip many, many pages. but of course we read the melville masterpiece not just to discover the fate of the white whale (who doesn’t appear until page 600 in my version); we read it to enter into the world of the nineteenth-century whaler. as we perform the work in our imagination we build upon and expand our previous experiences. borgmann writes: “to read is to gather our past and illuminate our present. … intelligent reading of fiction and poetry, far from being an escape, is a tacit conversation with actual reality.”35 and i believe that borgmann’s argument can be taken further. to read theology or history intelligently is likewise an opportunity to engage another’s view of the world that will require us to call upon our prior experiences, and to engage critically our current beliefs. but to realize fully this benefit we must be interested in more than simply how it satisfies our immediate need. if we open ourselves to how another describes the terrain, and are willing to follow the trail that they blaze, our world can expand in unexpected and exciting ways. thus far we have suggested that the case for slow reading starts with questioning the nature of information. we’ve seen that the popular definition of information as a quantifiable piece of communication has resulted in an ongoing quest to increase the speed, and lower the cost, of communicating. information has become a commodity to be consumed in pursuit of some separate goal. the assumption that faster, more efficient information is better information has been largely unquestioned. however, this assumption can be challenged as we explore the ways in which information connects us to a world outside of ourselves, and contributes to (or detracts from) our flourishing. 32 “information behaviour of the researcher of the future.” university college london. (january 11, 2008): 10, http://www.jisc. ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf (accessed april 7, 2012). 33 “information behaviour of the researcher of the future,” 8. 34 for an especially pessimistic summary of many studies see mark bauerlein, the dumbest generation: how the digital age stupefies young americans and jeopardizes our future (new york: jeremy p. tarcher/penguin, 2008). 35 borgmann, 92. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf 15 essays: a case for slow reading theolib.org as librarians, we possess opportunities to strengthen the popular view, and encourage our patrons to see efficiency as an important goal. alternately, we are in a position to challenge views that would “commodify” information. we can encourage library patrons to embrace opportunities to absorb cultural information skillfully, and approach reading as a practice that can enrich one’s understanding of reality. slow food gained traction when its members started asking questions about how the consumption of food was influencing the quality of life. however, this was only a start. pleasure the education of taste is the slow way to resist mcdonaldization. it is not so much a question of fighting a fundamentalist war against the spread of the hamburger as it is of informing, stimulating curiosity, giving everyone the opportunity to choose. to train the senses, refine perception, restore atrophied dimensions of sensory experience — these are the objectives of slow food.36 the slow food movement does not want to be known primarily as the opponent of fast-food franchises. instead they have chosen to direct their energies at educating people about the taste of different types of food, and at championing the idea that food should be pleasurable. one of the early italian initiatives was the creation of taste workshops, where visitors could experience local food. the popularity of these events refuted the claims of skeptics who believed that young people were “wedded to fast food,” and thus helped propel the slow food movement into the international spotlight.37 reading can be many things, but we need to remember that one of the most important things about reading is that it can be pleasurable. professor alan jacobs begins his recent book the pleasures of reading in an age of distraction by asking, “why should [books] be read?” to which he answers, “the first reason … is that reading books can be intensely pleasurable. reading is one of the great human delights.”38 jacobs uses the classic how to read a book by adler and van doren as his foil, and suggests that their prescriptive tact can backfire and discourage would-be readers. jacobs argues that they propagate “the idea that reading is so good for you, so loaded with vitamin-rich, high-fiber information and understanding, that it can’t possibly be pleasurable — that to read for the joy of it is fundamentally inappropriate.”39 the mistake here is not the affirmation that reading is metaphorically rich in vitamins and nutrients; rather it is in not seeing pleasure as an essential good that reading delivers. failing to make that connection may not inhibit people from reading, but their reading will be done with all the enthusiasm of the five-year-old eating just enough peas to be excused from dinner. not expecting to delight in the experience, they will have little inclination to linger with the text, to unlock or savor what it has to offer. the objective is simply to get through the experience, capturing what nutrients they can. jacobs adds: i believe that most people read quickly because they want not to read but to have read. but why do they want to have read? because, i think, they conceive of reading simply as a means of uploading information to their brains. … [t]hough few people realize it, many books become more boring the faster you read them.40 a crucial task for librarians is to celebrate the pleasure of reading. like jacobs, i am fully aware that reading in an academic setting cannot always be either slow or pleasurable.41 furthermore, like the pleasures of eating, the pursuit of intellectual pleasures ought to be embraced with gratitude for god’s bounty that allows time and ability to read, as well as the wisdom to avoid gluttonous excess. yet, i think that we must encourage our students to seek the joy that can be found in reading. by both modeling and teaching we can encourage them to view reading as an important part of living well and not simply preparation for a well-lived life. 36 petrini, 69. 37 petrini, 60. 38 alan jacobs, the pleasure of reading in an age of distraction (oxford: oxford university press, 2011) 10. 39 jacobs, 17. 40 jacobs, 72, 74. 41 jacobs, 114. jacobs suggests that the educational reading should be primarily about “skimming well” and that slow reading ought to be left for leisure hours. 16 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org one practical step to assist our students down this path is to give them permission to read slowly by freeing them from the burden of keeping up with all the new literature. as librarians, we are naturally excited about the many new volumes we acquire, but to the student (if i may generalize from my experience) it quickly becomes discouraging to think of how many “essential” works one should master. it seems to me that often the goal of life-long reading is better served by allowing a student to take time to master and ideally to enjoy one work, rather than demanding of them to rush through four or five.42 but it is not enough to insist that “people should enjoy reading.” a palate accustomed to salty french fries and fatty cheeseburgers may struggle to find pleasure in more diverse and subtle flavors, or may remain satisfied with the pleasures of fast food, limited though they may be. the slow food taste workshops don’t simply assert the superiority of their fare. they bring into play the wisdom of farmers and chefs to teach people about differences in how food is produced and prepared, and to explain what they can expect to taste and why — all leading up to the sampling of a variety of sausages, wines etc.43 a similar educational effort is necessary if we are going to help students migrate from reading on the scale of twitter and text messages to engaging with substantive theological texts. this is especially true, if like me you work with a significant number of undergraduates. university of chicago sociologist andrew abbott writes of his smart, motivated undergraduate students, “they have no real reading skills at all. moreover, they don’t know that they have no reading skills, but think quite the contrary that they are pretty good with texts. but their model of reading and indeed of knowing comes from the internet, and is worthless when applied to complex texts.”44 he describes how his students approach texts by searching for key statements to extract, often because their high school assignments expected this of them. abbott continues, “they simply don’t understand that books have arguments and that arguments have logic and direction. the internet has taught them that you can enter a text anywhere for any reason.”45 although he reports that his graduate students are somewhat further along, he still finds significant gaps in their preparation for serious research. the good news in abbott’s address is that he found his students, like the young consumers of italy, eager to escape “the commodity approach to knowledge” when given an alternative.46 in my view, this captures our next great information literacy challenge — teaching students to follow complex arguments in texts. the ability to read a 200-page non-fiction book is not something we should take for granted, but is something that needs to be acquired through instruction and practice. borgmann writes, “reading of whatever sort is a manystoried skill, both in the sense that you must read many stories to acquire it and in the sense that it is composed of many layers.”47 helping others acquire this skill calls for wisdom and care. jacobs cautions, “first lessons must be in humility. if you haven’t read a novel in the past five years, it might not be best to start with anna karenina.”48 he suggests that many people may want to start with poetry, not only because poems are often short, but because they require us to stop, concentrate, and read multiple times. they slow us down.49 sermons may also be a starting place for a theological librarian introducing students to the nuances of argument. wherever we start, we need to be prepared for it to take time for patrons to acquire the skills and taste for slow reading. we should be prepared to celebrate victories, no matter how small, whenever possible. rethinking the tasks we assign students and how we evaluate them is also in order. for example, i think we should be cautious about handing out grades based on the number of sources a student can marshal. abbott provides some 42 again, to be clear, there may be other goals that trump this one and necessitate taking in various works in a relatively short time. 43 petrini, 76-81. 44 andrew abbott, “the future of knowing” (lecture, university of chicago alumni association and the university of chicago library, june 6, 2009) 12, http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/papers/futurek.pdf (accessed on june 6, 2012). 45 abbott, 11. 46 abbott, 13. 47 borgmann, 86. 48 jacobs, 97. 49 jacobs, 94-96. http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/papers/futurek.pdf 17 essays: a case for slow reading theolib.org helpful pedagogical techniques that he employs to intentionally slow students down, such as asking them to memorize and meditate on portions of their course books. his students are also asked to outline the arguments of primary sources, and keep a journal of their interaction with the ideas they read about.50 i’m sure other ideas will emerge as we move information literacy from being solely about finding information to include being a skilled and attentive user of information. let’s not deny that there is a certain pleasure in reading a facebook stream. however, reading even at this level can be a gateway to many more profound pleasures. our students need experienced, enthusiastic mentors who can patiently explain ways to read that unlock the treasures of literature, and then offer some well-chosen and suitable samples. i can’t think of anyone who is better positioned for this opportunity than we are, as librarians. community the first lesson libraries can learn from the slow food movement is to establish a vocabulary about information that counters the narrative that information is a commodity. a second lesson is to emphasize the pleasure of reading and to give people the training and encouragement to discover that pleasure for themselves. and a third is that cultivating a community of slow readers will be crucial to our long-term success. community and food intersect at many points. the production of food is often a community event that connects the members in an annual agricultural rhythm, and results in unique regional flavors and dishes that help identify a place. consuming food is often a community activity as well. we gather around the table to share food and conversation or did until television, microwave, and drive-through restaurants made meal time a more solitary and faster experience for many us. the slow food movement has worked with both farmers and the proprietors of local family-owned restaurants to preserve traditional produce, livestock, and dining experiences. this is not an exercise in nostalgia. petrini writes, “we are not museum curators, and it is not our intention to bring a dying breed of business tied to rural society of the past (or the urban one, before consumerism) back to life.”51 instead, slow food advocates work to create space in the contemporary world, using modern media and science to continue and increase the practice of slow, life-enriching culinary practices.52 at first blush, reading has little of the communal associations that surround food. reading is something we mostly do alone in quiet, solitary places. yet i would contend, as i suspect librarians well know, that books have a lot to do with community. they are produced and distributed by communities, just as prized italian cheeses are. many find that books, like food, are also more enjoyable in community. from pottermore.com, to book clubs, to the shelves of commentaries and criticism in our libraries, book communities are plentiful if you know where to look. but many people don’t know where to look. in 2008, steve jobs was quoted in the new york times as saying, “the fact is that people don’t read anymore.”53 this is not true. book reading and the kindle he was dismissing are both quite alive. however, the belief that no one reads, especially not young people, is oddly persistent. there is real danger in this becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, if educators decide they can no longer expect young people to read, and if young readers come to believe that they are alone. i believe there are a handful of things libraries can do to constructively counter this claim. first, we need to identify and celebrate the readers in our midst. local bibliophiles, be they student, staff, or faculty members who can testify to the pleasure and satisfaction of slow reading, can become important role models, especially for students who may have had little previous exposure to literary joys. we also need to recognize and encourage those students who frequent our libraries most actively. while it is understandable to direct some of our outreach at people who are not using the library or struggle to navigate our sources, i would contend that we also need to reach out to 50 abbott, 8-16. 51 petrini, 52. 52 petrini, 90-98 describes several creative slow food initiatives. 53 john markoff, “the passion of steve jobs,” new york times jan. 15, 2008, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/thepassion-of-steve-jobs/?ex=1358226000&en=dc35254b0fcd5490&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/the-passion-of-steve-jobs/?ex=1358226000&en=dc35254b0fcd5490&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/the-passion-of-steve-jobs/?ex=1358226000&en=dc35254b0fcd5490&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss 18 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org the advanced users, tapping into what one of my colleagues calls “the library cult.” these are the students who can help market the library’s services on campus, and provide a critical mass for library programming. they also provide a valuable feedback channel to think about how to advocate most effectively for engaged, more reflective reading on our campuses. second, librarians need to expose people on our campus to the broader scholarly book community. the book review can be a powerful tool to initiate people into the breadth and depth of book publishing, and model ways of engaging with texts. making both print and online sources of quality reviews highly visible can help others discover and connect to reading communities. this past year my library bought a number of local literary journals and ‘zines that we left laying around the library for people to pick up and read a poem or short story, getting a glimpse of the creative writing scene in chicago. library programming can also be used to expose people to campus authors. at north park this year we hosted the release party for the campus literary magazine, and several of the students read their poetry in the library. third, we need to design physical library spaces that lend themselves to slow reading. winston churchill reportedly said, “we shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”54 i think this aphorism can be applied in at least two ways. distraction is commonly cited as the number-one enemy of slow reading and we will do well to consider how to create spaces that limit the amount of distractions our readers will face. i also think that it is helpful if our buildings communicate that reading is an important activity. it should be clear to people who enter our buildings that among the expected and privileged uses is careful, attentive, reading. this final section grew out of my reflection on my own reading habits. my aspirations as a reader often outpace my practice. as i reflected on this, i realized that when i subscribed to scholarly journals and socialized with friends and colleagues who were actively reading, i tended to read much more. yet when i invested more in relationships and life with peers off campus my reading suffered. ultimately mark baulerlein saddles the under-30 crowd with the label “the dumbest generation” not because their individual intelligence is lower but because he believes they lack the social structures that allow for serious debate and ongoing scholarly conversations amongst people from different backgrounds. he writes: however serious their ambition and disciplined their reading, the would-be young intellectuals of today lack a vital component that earlier intellectuals enjoyed from their teens through college and that they credited for their later successes. it is a youthworld of ideas and arguments, an intellectual forensic in the social settings of the young.55 the presence of a vibrant intellectual community can be a powerful catalyst. the challenge is to cultivate just such a community in our libraries. conclusion when i was discussing this topic and the opportunity to present it to you with my father, he asked with his own unmistakable candor, “what do you hope to accomplish by writing a paper for a library conference?” i hope i have accomplished the following: first, i want to encourage you to think about what information is and why that question is important. second, if you agree that information is not just a commodity to be consumed but “one of the great human delights,” i hope that you will think about what is necessary to educate others to experience that delight. finally, i invite you to join me in trying to figure out how librarians can not only facilitate access to information, but help build a community that embraces the beauty and challenge of a way of reading that resists distraction, that connects us at the deepest levels, that is slow. 54 the churchill centre and museum at the churchill war rooms, london, “famous quotations and stories,” http://www. winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations (accessed june 9, 2012). 55 baulerlein, 224. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations 19 essays: a case for slow reading theolib.org select bibliography abbott, andrew. “future of knowing.” presented at brunch with books sponsored by the university of chicago alumni association and the university of chicago library, june 6, 2009. http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/ papers/futurek.pdf [accessed june 26, 2012]. bauerlein, mark. the dumbest generation: how the digital age stupefies young americans and jeopardizes our future (or, don’t trust anyone under 30). new york: jeremy p. tarcher/penguin, 2008. borgmann, albert. holding on to reality: the nature of information at the turn of the millennium. chicago: university of chicago press, 1999. carr, nicholas g. the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains. 1st ed. new york: w.w. norton, 2010. darnton, robert. the case for books: past, present, and future. new york: publicaffairs, 2009. gleick, james. the information: a history, a theory, a flood. new york: pantheon books, 2011. jacobs, alan. a theology of reading: the hermeneutics of love. boulder, co: westview press, 2001. ———. the pleasures of reading in an age of distraction. new york: oxford university press, 2011. johnson, clay a. the information diet: a case for conscious consumption. 1st ed. beijing: o’reilly media, 2012. petrini, carlo. slow food: the case for taste. new york: columbia university press, 2003. shannon, claude. “a mathematical theory of communication.” the bell system technical journal 27 (july/october 1948). http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf [accessed june 26, 2012]. ulin, david l. the lost art of reading: why books matter in a distracted time. seattle: sasquatch books, 2010. university college london. “information behaviour of the researcher of the future.” ucl, january 11, 2008. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf [accessed june 26, 2011]. http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/papers/futurek.pdf http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/papers/futurek.pdf http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf t h e o l o g i c a l l i b r a r i a n s h i p • v o l . 1 3 , n o . 2 : o c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 i i i a word from the editor could we have ever forecasted something like covid-19 taking place? the changes and the challenges it has brought about and continues to bring about are immense. as i write this editorial, corban university (the university for which i work) is in the midst of getting prepared for a semester of social distancing and contact tracing (two phrases which were unknown twelve months ago), not to mention the other challenges brought about due to covid-19, such as lay-offs, terminations, and other dynamics impacting our work. as editor-in-chief of theological librarianship, my empathy and prayers go out to you. as librarians, how can we respond to covid-19? the editorial team discussed the implementation of this forum on distance learning before we were fully aware of the challenges that would come about due to covid-19. like some of you, towards the latter part of the spring semester of 2020, i had to learn how to flip a class from face to face to online in a matter of weeks. alongside the classroom flipping, we all had to flip library services to service the new norm of distance learning. there were others of you who already had strong distance learning dynamics in your library and, subsequently, the changes were like flipping a switch. we need to learn from you. while many theological traditions are represented in atla, some of the traditions represented believe in some higher power. subsequently, many of us look for purpose in events like covid-19— purpose that goes beyond simply finding a cure to covid-19 and getting back to the norm. what are we supposed to be learning through this “new normal” that may have been difficult to learn in other contexts? how can we manifest the mission of our respective colleges, universities, and seminaries with these changes? how can libraries change to meet the needs of both students and faculty in this new context? the forum in this issue intends to let libraries share how they have served their distance learning community. when discussing this topic as a forum, little did we know that distance learning would become a key dynamic of higher education in the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 (and beyond). as many of us adjust to the “new normal,” we cannot help but strive to strengthen our library services through these changes. as the editorial team had the privilege of reviewing all of the contributions, we learned much about how, in the midst of challenges like covid-19, we can learn to better serve our communities. we trust that you also will learn from this forum not just ideas on how we can serve our patrons and our institutions better, but how we can learn through incidences like covid-19 and sharpen our skills as librarians, enabling others to see the critical role librarians play in the educational adventures of students and faculty. soli deo gloria garrett b. trott 1 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org profiles: a giant in the land: h. lucille hager, 1924-2004 by susan ebertz john trotti in his retirement remarks at the american theological library association (atla) annual conference in 2003 mentioned the “giants in the land” who greeted him when he attended his first atla conference in 1968. h. lucille hager was the host for the 1968 conference and one of the giants on trotti’s list.1 as i reflected on his phrase, i wondered what makes a person a giant. it is not only the gifts and abilities for the ministry of theological librarianship that the person possesses. giants are also ones whose faith has helped them in their vocation and journey. we are theological librarians, and the faith of our particular seminaries and schools of theology inspires us to see from a theological perspective. the obituary in the southeast missourian newspaper2 tells us that h. lucille hager “was born on april 26, 1924, at cape girardeau, the daughter of walter f. and christine a. keller hager.” lucille hager had two brothers. “she graduated from cape girardeau central high school in 1941. she was a graduate of southeast missouri state university. she received a graduate degree in library science from the university of illinois.” hager began her library career at her college alma mater. her theological librarian ministry started in 1952 when she was hired as a cataloger at concordia seminary in st. louis, missouri. in 1962, hager became the director of the library. because of events precipitated in the lutheran church missouri synod and concordia seminary in st. louis, on february 20, 1974, most of the faculty and students processed off the campus after morning chapel. as they walked, they were singing “our church is one foundation.” this was the beginning of concordia seminary in exile (seminex), which was later called christ seminary. lucille hager was one of the faculty members who left. she became the librarian at seminex. in 1983, when seminex disbanded, hager moved with the seminex library to austin, texas, to serve the lutheran seminary program in the southwest. though she formally retired in 1989, she continued working until 2002. hager then returned to cape girardeau and died two years later, on july 5, 2004.3 lucille hager’s theology can be seen in her personal statement of faith. in 1972, statements of faith were requested by the council of presidents of the lutheran church missouri synod of all faculty at concordia seminary in st. louis. hager ends her personal statement of faith with these words: “with the continued presence of the holy spirit in my life, as i study god’s holy word, as i listen to his holy word, and as i regularly partake of his holy sacrament, i continue to receive forgiveness of my sins and strengthening of my faith.”4 hager shows her dependence on god for god’s grace in forgiveness and for her strength in faith. the community of the church in preaching and the eucharist is important 1 john trotti, “retirement remarks,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 57 (2003): 250. 2 “obituaries: h. lucille hager,” southeast missourian, july 6, 2004, accessed december 10, 2014, http://www.semissourian. com/story/141098.html. 3 an excellent memorial tribute to hager may be found in mikail m. mcintosh-doty, “h. lucille hager (1924-2004),” american theological library association summary of proceedings 59 (2005): 285. i have also written about hager in susan ebertz, “christ seminary—seminex library: from concordia seminary in exile library to seminex legacy collection,” currents in theology and mission 38, no. 2 (april 2011): 120. 4 h. lucille hager, “h. lucille hager, archivist, director of the library,” in faithful to our calling, faithful to our lord: an affirmation in two parts, by faculty of concordia seminary (saint louis, mo) ([st. louis]: [concordia seminary], 1972), 69. susan ebertz is director of the reu memorial library and  assistant professor of bibliography and academic research, wartburg theological seminary, dubuque, iowa. http://www.semissourian.com/story/141098.html http://www.semissourian.com/story/141098.html 2 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org to hager. she also believes that god “defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.”5 hager believes in a god who keeps her safe and she need not be afraid. lucille hager was not afraid to be the first woman on the faculty at concordia seminary in st. louis when she was appointed the director of the library. as i wrote of her in an earlier article: there were very few women library directors and even fewer women seminary library directors [at the time]. not only was hager the only female faculty member at concordia, but she was also tenured. she participated fully in the life of the seminary as a faculty member and had an equal vote in faculty meetings. her competency can be seen by her successful tenure evaluation and her appointment as the library director despite her gender in a denomination that does not ordain women.6 hager broke new ground by being the first woman faculty member but she did not fear the consequences. her god was with her. hager was not afraid to walk out with the other faculty members. as edgar krentz, a faculty colleague, said of her: “lucille could have stayed at concordia seminary. no problem. they would have been delighted to have her stay. but she was … extremely loyal. so she left concordia seminary with the faculty for seminex not knowing whether it would ever survive.”7 hager’s theology can also be seen in her statement of faith when she acknowledges that the response to god’s love is to “daily … thank and praise him, serve and obey him.”8 she also says, “by his death on the cross, he redeemed me that i might be his own and willingly serve him by being a true follower of his.”9 we can see hager’s service to god in her ministry of theological librarianship. she used her wonderful organizational abilities to coordinate library moves. in 1955, edgar krentz became the library director at concordia seminary. he said that the library collection at that time numbered about 40,000. in 1962, when the new library was built, the collection had grown enormously. krentz estimated it was close to 200,000 volumes. hager organized the move of that large collection from the old library to the new library. krentz said that she “had it worked out so that we knew where every shelf of books was going into the new library.”10 this was probably the largest moving project for which hager was responsible, though it was not the last moving project she was to organize. hager moved the seminex library five times! mikail mcintosh-doty in her memorial tribute to hager at the 2005 atla conference mentions the story of the move to austin, saying that the books arrived “on a thursday, by the following monday, seminex library was open for business.”11 hager used her organizational gifts in service to god. hager not only served god through the theological libraries where she worked. hager was a giant at atla. she attended her first conference in 1957 and joined the association in 1960. she served on a number of committees and boards including the committee on cataloging and classification, nominating committee, reader services committee, resolutions committee, library materials exchange committee, index board, joint executive committee of the program boards, and the board of directors. her interests were varied and her expertise was invaluable. hager hosted the annual conference twice. the first was in 1968 while at concordia seminary, and the second was in 1981 while at seminex. the 1981 participants were housed at washington university while the sessions were at christ seminary (seminex). hager was also very involved in swatla (southwest area theological library association). her service to these organizations was another way she served god. 5 ibid., 68–69. 6 ebertz, “christ seminary--seminex library: from concordia seminary in exile library to seminex legacy collection,” 120. 7 edgar krentz, interview by author, phone call, november 26, 2014. 8 hager, “h. lucille hager, archivist, director of the library,” 69. 9 ibid. 10 edgar krentz interview. 11 mikail m. mcintosh-doty, “h. lucille hager (1924-2004),” american theological library association summary of proceedings 59 (2005): 285. 3 columns: a giant in the land theolib.org in her statement of faith, hager also says that she believes that jesus christ “daily and richly forgives me all my sins and also the sins of all believers.”12 forgiveness is important for hager. krentz remembers her as a gracious person.13 she was not possessive but would seek the greater good. when hager moved back to cape girardeau, she again attended the church of her childhood, a congregation in the lutheran church missouri synod. the walkout in 1974 and the many years as a part of evangelical lutheran church in america seminaries (and their precursor denominations) did not keep hager from returning to the lcms. her spirit of forgiveness transcended any feelings of reticence. the 2009 atla summary of proceedings lists lucille hager as a lifetime member. one wonders whether the spirit of lucille lives on. perhaps it does in theological librarians who take their faith seriously and see their vocation as ministry and service to god.14 these are, after all, the true giants in the land. 12 hager, “h. lucille hager, archivist, director of the library,” 69. 13 edgar krentz interview. 14 my special thanks to edgar krentz for sharing with me many wonderful stories, susan rehwaldt for the many leads for information, and christopher sesvold for transcribing the krentz interview. 8 october 2018: volume 11, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org theological librarians and collection management: collaborative policy development by robert j. mayer five years ago, our theological library system confronted a hard reality. we had been so busy with library functions and services that we had had little time to reflect on key library policies, especially our collection management policy. our accreditation renewal was two years away, and our current collection management policy, adopted in 1994, was twenty years old! on top of that gordon-conwell seminary leadership wanted a new policy by the end of the academic year. the ten-year period from 2005-2015 was difficult for seminaries, and gordon-conwell was no exception. for almost all institutions of higher education, the great recession of 2008-2009 dealt severe blows to enrollments, endowments, revenue, and staffing. in addition, developments in technology accelerated the pace of change facing colleges and universities. libraries were now confronted with demands for distributed resources available online that would serve students at multiple locations. a collection development policy forged in the early 1990s would no longer cut it in this new environment. assumptions as senior librarian, i began by establishing assumptions for development of our completely new collection management policy. first, the policy would focus not simply on acquisitions (collection development) but on the depth and usability of the library collections for the seminary community (collection management). second, the process would be collaborative and involve librarians from all four of our campus libraries. since we instituted our policy in 1994, gordon-conwell had added two campuses in the southeastern united states and had expanded degree programs on its other campuses. third, librarians would interact with faculty and others at each of our campuses and seek their informal feedback. finally, we assumed that because gordon-conwell is not a research institution that offers the phd, our libraries would focus on resources that supported the courses and degree programs we offer. we would match library resources and services to our educational mission and not attempt to be something that our school did not need. a collaborative process each month our combined library professional staff holds a conference where librarians from our four campuses meet via phone conference (and now by zoom visual conferencing) to discuss how we can better collaborate in strengthening our library services and serving our campuses. each member of the professional staff received a copy of the 1994 policy and asked to read it. we asked them to write down areas that needed to be addressed in the new policy and to list things in the old policy that needed to be eliminated, changed, or updated. from there we discussed these issues as a group and concluded that our new policy must take into consideration resource sharing between our four campus libraries, priorities for electronic resource development, changes in print acquisition priorities, and the addition of a section addressing archival management. in addition, we reviewed the library standards for the two bodies that provide gordon-conwell with accreditation — the association of theological schools (ats) and the new england association of colleges and schools (neasc). we decided that our policy would be framed in a way that addressed those standards and that we would include the standards as part of the policy. robert j. mayer is senior librarian and associate professor of theological bibliography at gordon-conwell theological seminary in charlotte, north carolina. 9 essays: theological librarians and collection management theolib.org after several discussions in our meetings, it was time to write the draft. as senior librarian, i prepared the introduction and listed the sections that the policy should include: 1. accreditation standards 2. purpose and principles 3. levels of collecting 4. types of materials: reference, print volumes, journals and databases, e-books, microforms and audiovisual. 5. collection management procedures: standing orders, receipt and cataloging of gift books, de-accession and weeding 6. archival and special collections (including rare books held within the library) core principles and collecting levels sections two and three were especially critical. we began by articulating our agreement as a professional staff regarding our library purpose: the primary purpose of the collections at the gordon-conwell libraries is to support degree programs and courses offered at each gordon-conwell campus. the gordon-conwell curriculum is oriented toward graduate professional degrees designed to prepare its students for vocational christian ministry in church, world missions, and para-church contexts, as well as professional practice in fields related to counseling and mental health. library collections also support students enrolled in academic ma and thm programs and provide support for faculty research and writing. we then listed the five core principles that we agreed upon as a staff: 1. a commitment to equal access for all gordon-conwell students no matter their campus, degree program, or whether they are residential, distance, or commuter. 2. a pursuit of a coordinated approach to collection development among our four libraries in order to maximize cost effectiveness (but not maximizing it at the expense of good access to resources for our students, faculty, and seminary community). 3. a regular review of library policies by the library directors, the assistant librarian for acquisitions, the library professional staff, and the academic vice-president. library collection management policies should be flexible in that they can be adjusted as educational circumstances and technologies change and develop. 4. an understanding that our collections primarily support the curriculum and degree programs of the institution, and secondarily the research needs of the faculty. 5. a commitment to transmission of the evangelical christian heritage in which gordon-conwell theological seminary was established, especially through our archival and special collections, while keeping in mind the seminary’s commitment to global christianity. then, we established a framework regarding collecting levels designed to help us assess the depth of our current collections and the level of acquisition in each subject area that we needed to pursue. our collecting levels should reflect the specific academic programs offered by the seminary, the nature of gordon-conwell as a seminary in the evangelical protestant tradition, and the nature of resources in the different fields of study offered in the curriculum. for purposes of this policy, we assessed collecting levels in five categories: 1. comprehensive: collect all significant recorded works in applicable forms and languages for a defined field. 2. research: collect major source materials required for theses and independent research, all important reference works, and a wide selection of specialized monographs and journals. 3. curriculum: collect materials adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject area: primary source collections 10 october 2018: volume 11, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org of major writers and selections of secondary writers, major reference and bibliographic tools, a wide range of monographs, and representative journals. 4. basic: collect materials which introduce and define a subject: major reference works and historical surveys, important bibliographies, and a few major periodicals. 5. minimal: collect principal reference tools. the library professional staff agreed that given our curriculum, our library budgets, and our institutional context, the gordon-conwell libraries should collect at the curricular level for the courses and various degree programs offered on each campus. we should collect at the basic level in subject areas that impact the theological and counseling disciplines. we should also collect principal reference works in marginally related fields. given that we are not a research institution, we also agreed that we do not need to collect at the research or comprehensive levels for the subject areas in which we offer courses and degree programs. the only place where we would attempt to collect at the research/comprehensive levels was in the study of american evangelicalism, especially in new england and the southeast (where our campuses are located). one of the challenges of collection management is the ever-changing balance between print and electronic resources. with book and journal costs escalating at an average of six percent per year, theological librarians face the challenge of adding electronic database and e-book acquisitions to already stretched budgets. in 2007, we spent almost all of our acquisitions monies on print resources. by 2012, we spent over a third of our budget were spent on electronic databases, and by now well over half of our budget goes toward electronic resource purchases including e-books. hence, we realized that our collection management policy would have to allow for flexibility and provide strong justification — especially for our seminary administration and faculty — regarding this changing dynamic. acquisitions, management, and evaluation now it was time to figure out the nuts and bolts of our acquisitions. here we relied on our goddard library acquisitions librarian pamela gore, our library technologist matthew wasielewski, and our library directors in south hamilton and boston, jim darlack and mark thomas to lead us through the decision-making process. our print acquisitions would vary in each of our libraries — with goddard library, our main library located at our south hamilton, ma campus, needing to support our three smaller campus libraries with their existing collection depth. our policy would call for a more robust interlibrary loan (ill) policy serving all four campuses and managed by a library staff member at goddard. this would allow our libraries to move closer to our goal of equal access to library resources for all of our students no matter their location. at the same time, we desired to significantly increase electronic holdings that all of our students could access through our library webpage. electronic resource purchases would offer them ample access to electronic databases and e-books that would serve their research needs, no matter where they lived. the library professional staff agreed that we needed a policy that would allow for us to shift the print/electronic balance as needed. that is exactly what has happened since we approved the policy. in 2014, we were still heavily invested in print, both for books and journals. four years later, that balance has shifted. our journal purchases are now mostly in the form of electronic databases. we are also implementing a book purchase policy where print purchases will be mostly for reference and for specific subject areas where the library professional staff agrees that print purchases are necessary. with the new policy, we ceased acquisitions of materials in outdated formats such as microfiche, cassette, and videotape. in the future, we will decide whether we need to keep materials in those formats that we already own (especially as much of it becomes available electronically). in addition, development of the new policy demonstrated the need for a major renovation of goddard library, and the library professional staff followed up with development of a first draft of a comprehensive renovation proposal. 11 essays: theological librarians and collection management theolib.org perhaps the most important realization is that our collection management policy is a “living” document subject to regular review and revision. during the 2018-19 academic year, we will conduct a detailed review and make necessary changes and updates. this review of policies will be all the more important given our investment in the digital theological library and its advantages to developing our electronic collections.1 we will once again invite feedback from faculty and students through a qualitative evaluation process. we will also continue to align our staffing and our budgeting with our mission of research support. conclusion this was a challenging yet rewarding process for our library staff. our work was well-received by our administration and provided a framework for us to talk with the accreditation team that visited each of our campuses in 2015. the accreditors asked us to address several things, but our policy provides the flexibility to deal with their recommendations. for readers who are looking at revising their collection management policy, there are five essential points. first, you need a clear understanding of your seminary, its mission and purpose, its degree programs and course offerings, and its students and faculty. second, you must collaborate with your staff. good leaders lead, but good leaders listen as well. good leaders also know how to engage their staff so that they make meaningful contributions. third, librarians must engage stakeholders — students, faculty, administration. check with whoever is responsible for assessments research, and ask to review their recent data. discuss with your academic dean and faculty the research expectations that they have for students. talk with students about their use of print and electronic resources. fourth, do not be afraid to change longstanding practices if evidence demonstrates that you need to do so. finally, recognize that good policies need regular review and updating. you can begin now simply by asking your library staff to read your current collection development policy and discuss where it needs to be updated and changed. policies exist to channel how we serve our academic and theological communities. writing them also gives us opportunity to engage our library professionals in ways that build teamwork and grasp their vital role in theological education. 1the open access digital theological library, at https://oadtl.org/, is open to everyone. the larger digital theological library co-owned collection is found at: http://libguides.thedtl.org/home, and is available only to members who participate in the dtls co-ownership model. https://oadtl.org/ http://libguides.thedtl.org/home 91 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 critical review the westminster dictionary of theologians justo l. gonzalez, ed. the westminster dictionary of theologians. (translated by suzanne e. hoeferkamp segovia). louisville, ky: westminster john knox press, 2006. 362 pp. $ 44.95. cloth. isbn: 0664229891, isbn13: 9780664229894 f irst published in spanish in 2004 and translated by suzanne e. hoeferkamp segovia, the westminster dictionary of theologians was conceived as a project of the hispanic association for theological education (aeth), an organization founded in 1991 to foster theological education of hispanics in the united states, canada, and puerto rico. although aeth was established as an ecumenical organization, its membership is primarily protestant and it functions as a complementary counterpart to the academy of catholic hispanic theologians of the united states (achthus). the work includes almost 1300 entries by sixty contributors. the publication information for the original work in spanish is given as diccionario de teologos y teologas (terrassa: clie, 2004). however, this title is not listed with the publisher, and a search for libraries holding this title has been unsuccessful. instead, clie offers what appears to be a slightly larger version of the same work (almost 2000 entries by sixty contributors, issued by the same editorial team in 2004) under the title diccionario ilustrado de intérpretes de la fe. the aim of the dictionary was to provide both a reference work of theologians from a variety of traditions throughout the history of christianity, as well as a bibliographical resource that “paid particular attention to latino and latina theologians working within the united states, as well as to other minorities in the same context” ([v]). for obvious reasons, a one-volume work such as this cannot strive to be comprehensive in its scope. thus, the combination of general breadth and specific depth poses a serious challenge for this project, as it would for any reference tool. furthermore, the goal of inclusivity and the expressed aim to focus especially on demographic minorities makes the task of producing such a dictionary more complex. the success of this work must therefore be measured by how effectively these two guidelines of breadth and inclusivity on the one hand and depth and specialization on the other are balanced. assuming that the intended audience of the dictionary appears to be hispanic students of theology seeking a concise reference that is both general and culturally specific, the wdt is largely successful in meeting this challenge. there is a fairly good balance and proportional representation of catholic and protestant theologians. it includes the major theological thinkers, such as augustine, barth, calvin, and other theologians who have made a contribution to the history of the church, and whom one can expect to find in most theological reference works. philosophers and other thinkers outside the field of theology, who have had an impact on the development of christian thought are also covered, for example marx, darwin or freud, as are church councils and organizations like the world council of churches or the iglesia y sociedad en america latina. not included are theological movements (e.g. pietism, liberation theology, etc.) or christian denominations, keeping the focus of the dictionary biographical rather than thematic. the greatest contribution of the dictionary is its representation of spanish-speaking theologians. despite its declared focus on “latino and latina theologians working within the united states” this representation goes beyond the geographic context of north america to include latin american theologians. this expansion of the discourse of theology beyond the traditional european and anglotheological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 92 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 american scope is most welcome, if not overdue, in a time in which the demographic center of christianity is increasingly shifting away from europe and north america. regarding the inclusion of other non-western thinkers in the north american context or elsewhere, the wdt falls short of providing adequate coverage of asian theologians. it is surprising, for example, that minjung theology and its proponents are not represented in this work. the welcome attention to spanish speaking theologians is also somewhat tempered by the unequal length of entries. naturally, an entry on “luther, martin (1483-1546)” (almost three and a half pages) should be longer than an entry on “mesters, carlos (1931-)” (seven lines), but it is the latter rather than the former in regard to whom users of the dictionary are in greater need of information. the major theological thinkers and philosophers receive more attention because their contributions are proportionally more significant (otherwise they would hardly be major theological thinkers), but the wdt contributes too little coverage of these lesser known figures that cannot already be found elsewhere. perhaps a somewhat more expansive description about lesser known, socio-culturally marginalized theologians might have been appropriate as this a focus of the wdt that sets it apart not only from other reference works, but also from an increasing number of readily accessible online sources, such as the catholic encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/) or even wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/). generally speaking, the wdt achieves a fairly good balance of proportional representation and deliberate diversity, but it could have done more to develop its most notable contribution to the field of theology the entries in the dictionary are predominantly biographical. the inclusion of some organizations and meetings distracts from this focus, but is nevertheless justifiable, especially since these discussions provide good cross references to and from biographical entries. however, given the declared focus of the wdt, one may wonder why neither aeth nor achthus received an entry. even more surprising is the inclusion of some literary collections, such as “sibylline oracles” or “gospels, apocryphal.” it is not clear what purpose the inclusion of texts should serve in this particular reference work, especially if the authors of these texts are anonymous. in biographical entries, major theories and contributions are identified or summarized, but it is information about the theologian’s life that forms the central focus of the work. the dictionary does not include bibliographic information, either about writings by a theologian, although major works are sometimes named in an entry, or about secondary sources about the person in question. this lack limits the usability of the wdt as a resource for scholarly research. a more comprehensive treatment of twentieth century theologians from a spanish perspective can be found in juan bosch, diccionario de teologos/as contemporaneos (burgos: monte carmello, 2004), published the same year as the original spanish version of this work. those seeking biographical essays on modern theologians and theologies may want to consider donald w. musser & joseph l. price (eds.) a new handbook of christian theologians (nashville: abingdon, 1996) or david ford & rachel muers (eds.) the modern theologians: an introduction to christian theology since 1918 (3rd ed.; malden, ma: blackwell, 2005). instead, the wdt is best suited as a quick reference work for concise biographical information. as such the wdt is successful in providing a very readable and informative resource that is remarkably broad and diverse for a single-volume publication. the westminster dictionary of theologians is to be recommended as a reference work for theological libraries. armin siedlecki pitts theology library, emory university ii theological librarianship an online journal of the american �eological library association journal information the purposes of theological librarianship are: to foster the professional development of theological librarians and to contribute to and enrich the profession of theological librarianship. tl publishes essays, columns, critical reviews, bibliographic essays, and peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of professional librarianship, within the context of a religious/theological library colle ction encompassing interactions with faculty and administrators engaged in religious/theological education. the primary intended audience includes: professional librarians in colleges, universities, and theological seminaries and others with an interest in theological librarianship further information, including author guidelines and instructions on how to submit manuscripts, is available at the journal web site www.theolib.org. © 2015 american theological library association volume 8, number 2 • october 2015 issn 1937-8904editorial board david r. stewart, managing editor, section editor for essays, bethel university, st. paul, minnesota ronald w. crown, section editor for peer-review articles, pius xii memorial library, saint louis university, st. louis, missouri gary f. daught, section editor for columns, p.h. welshimer memorial library, milligan college, tennessee suzanne estelle-holmer, section editor for bibliographic essays, yale divinity library, yale university, new haven, ct miranda h. bennett, section editor for critical reviews, university of houston, houston, tx advisory board christopher j. anderson, drew university jennifer bartholomew, luther seminary odile dupont, beth teresa c. ellis, hardin-simmons university alvaro perez guzman, universidad bíblica latinoamericana, costa rica theodore patrick milas, college of information florida state university mary linden sepulveda, seattle university jennifer lynn woodruff tait, independent scholar mariel deluca voth, independent scholar https://journal.atla.com/ojs/index.php/theolib 83 critical review: the oxford handbook of christianity and economics theolib.org the oxford handbook of christianity and economics paul oslington, ed. the oxford handbook of christianity and economics. new york: oxford university press, 2014. 656 pp. $142.00. hardcover. isbn: 9780199729715. this multi-author handbook is divided into five major sections, each consisting of several essays. each essay concludes with a reference list, and authorship is evenly distributed between theologians and economists. part i, “historical relationships between economics and christian theology,” provides historical background. the reader should know, however, that this section is “historical” primarily in the chronological, rather than the methodological, sense. the essays provide an overview of seminal thinkers and ideas, but do not do as much as one might wish to situate those thinkers in their larger social milieus. part ii, “contemporary theological economics,” explores economic concerns primarily through denominational lenses. the first five essays exemplify systemic, top-down responses to the project of theological-economic integration, while the essays on anabaptism and pentecostalism remind the reader of an alternative strategy: seeking change from the margins through the agency of individual and ecclesial witness. part iii, “christianity, capitalism, and development,” explores the history and possible future contributions of christian theology to global economic development — particularly in the context of historically impoverished countries. the section opens with a qualified endorsement of the weberian protestantism-capitalism connection, and a consequent challenge to the assertion that economics can truly be an autonomous discipline. picking up this theme, paul s. williams, in the essay “christianity and the global economic order,” contends that the economy has an essential religious nature (utilitarianism) and that failure to acknowledge this has led to the uncritical acceptance of a set of utilitarian value judgments (e.g., the ultimate purpose of an economic system is to promote economic growth; hence, the economic system is whichever one maximizes that growth by whatever means necessary). while the first three sections tend to analyze economic phenomena through theological lenses, part iv, “economic analysis of religion,” reverses that flow as religious phenomena are examined using economic methodologies. this leads to essays that paradoxically are dry reading, but intellectually refreshing. particularly noteworthy in this regard is the study by t. randolph beard, robert b. ekelund, jr., george s. ford, and robert d. tollison of the processes by which believers move among existing churches and/or form new ones. the final section, “interdisciplinary exchanges,” explicates areas of interdisciplinary conversation and suggests avenues for future work. particularly engaging essays in part v include ian harper and lachlan smirl’s survey of definitions and doctrines regarding usury or interest among the three great monotheistic faiths; gordon menzies and donald hay’s answer to the call for more robust anthropologies in economic analysis (they propose one rooted in the new testament notion of “natural” and “spiritual” persons); and carrie a. miles’s thought-provoking argument that gender (defined as “the social and psychological difference associated with physical attributes”) was not part of god’s original creation, but rather a consequence of the economic scarcity introduced by the fall. this book will likely prove most useful for upper-level undergraduates in history, theology, economics, or political science. while the essays vary in quality, as a whole the handbook performs admirably in giving the reader an introduction to both the historic relationship between christian theology and economics and the current state of the interdisciplinary conversation. as with any work, this volume has shortcomings. some essays (e.g., “spiritual capital”) seem to do little more than introduce alternative nomenclature without making a precise case for either what the proffered jargon means or even why the quest for an alternative model is worthwhile. additionally, at barely over three pages, the index struck this 84 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org reviewer as woefully insufficient for a work of this type. finally, the most frustratingly weak point was the diffusion of grammatical errors, many quite basic, throughout the book. one hopes this will be corrected in future editions, as their continuing presence only blunts the impact of an important introduction to an exciting field. it is a bit difficult to pin down the editor’s intended audience, but perhaps that is simply in the nature of early interdisciplinary works. theologians will easily digest the early sections of the book, but are likely to struggle through the jargon of economic formulae in part iv. naturally, the reverse would be expected for economists. in the end, the usefulness of this book will largely be determined on an essay-by-essay level. certain chapters could be read with profit by general readers. others will require some basic introduction to theological and/or economic thought. a few may be useful only to specialists. in summation, the oxford handbook of christianity and economics is a commendable entry point to an interdisciplinary field that is sure to grow in importance in the coming years. it would be a wise acquisition for any seminary or faith-based academic library. justin lillard brackett library, harding university, searcy, arkansas 27 bibliographic essay jon rainey is a mslis student at long island university, new york, new york. the cinematic savior: jesus films and related literature by jon rainey i n 1897, a mere two years after the advent of the motion picture, the life of jesus was first chronicled on the silver screen. no longer extant, la passion was a brief passion play, consisting of twelve scenes and lasting only five minutes. in 1903, french directors ferdinand zecca and lucien nonguet produced vie et passion du christ, the first feature-length film about jesus. since then, over a hundred additional films depicting the life and ministry of jesus have been made, each providing unique interpretations and perspectives on jesus and the gospels. jesus films have come to be understood as much more than simple adaptations of the gospel story, but as bearers of meaning and theology in their own right. these films also capture the social and cultural concerns of their time, so that the various incarnations of the celluloid christ stand as artifacts of our pluralistic and diverse society. as a pedagogical tool, jesus-film clips are increasingly used in religion courses to illustrate either specific gospel incidents or the various possible interpretations of the new testament in film. furthermore, jesus films have now become a full-fledged subject of scholarly inquiry, with classes centered entirely on jesus films becoming regular course offerings at many colleges and universities. entire sessions on “jesus in film” are often held at the annual meeting of the society of biblical literature, and a burgeoning number of scholars in both biblical studies and film are responding to the significant role that the cinematic savior has played in our cultural and religious history. this essay seeks to help the reader navigate the scores of jesus films that have been produced over the last century by providing a list of works that should be a part of any jesus-film library. the films discussed here are grouped into five categories based on genre: hollywood epics, musicals, “alternative” jesus films, films based on only one gospel, and historical or realistic depictions. with only two exceptions, this categorical arrangement of jesus films also happens to coincide with their chronological order. many jesus films have necessarily been left out, and many of those that have been omitted represent other genres not mentioned here (the silent jesus films, for example), but the eleven films discussed below are those that are most commonly cited and discussed in the scholarly literature, most easily accessible on dvd, and most often shown in the classroom. the hollywood epics the biblical epics of the 1950s are easily identifiable. films such as the robe and ben-hur are well known for their elaborate sets and costumes, thousands of extras, grand musical scores, and widescreen technicolor. king of kings (nicholas ray, 1961) was the first jesus film to take advantage of this genre, using over 400 sets and 7,000 extras in the sermon on the mount scene alone! in contrast to the jesus films of the silent era that consisted of a rough pastiche of unconnected scenes, king of kings constructs a continuous narrative out of the gospel material and aims for historical accuracy. the film begins with a long exposition that borrows heavily from josephus, establishing the political and historical setting of first-century judea. the oppression of rome and the expectation of a messiah provide the backdrop. ultimately, the focus is less on jesus and more on barabbas and lucius, a fictional roman soldier, who act as the major players to drive the plot. another departure from earlier silent films is the depiction of a very human jesus. miracles are downplayed and greater emphasis is placed on jesus’ teachings. however, the teachings have been universalized, with most of the antagonistic, apocalyptic, or distinctly jewish teachings omitted in favor of a more universal and simple message of love, peace, and the brotherhood of man. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 28 volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 the greatest story ever told (george stevens, 1965) followed in the wake of king of kings by placing jesus once again in a large-scale historical epic. in an attempt to familiarize the gospel stories for his audience, stevens shot it in the western landscape of southern utah and employed a familiar a-list star for almost every character (even the centurion at the cross is played by no less than john wayne). unlike the historical perspective of king of kings, this film focuses on spiritual matters. the opening and closing shots are both of the dome of a church, framing the film and placing it in the context of faith and the church. long pans, slow zooms, and dissolves add to the restrained and reverent tone of the film. max von sydow’s portrayal of jesus is strikingly different from jeffrey hunter’s in king of kings. von sydow’s jesus is icy, distant, and otherworldly. he never smiles or laughs. like ray, stevens also invents a new character, the dark hermit, a satan-figure who plays a major role in furthering the plot. he is one of the accusers at the jewish trial and incites the jerusalem crowd before pilate. the film also focuses more on jesus’ teachings than his miracles (only healings, no nature miracles, are depicted), though the first act ends with a dramatic depiction of the resurrection of lazarus, set against the music of handel’s messiah (used again for jesus’ resurrection). in both films the judaism of jesus is noticeably absent, although in stevens’ film, scriptural texts from the old testament are routinely applied to him. the musicals while the musical may seem like an unlikely setting for the gospel stories, not one, but two jesus films came out in 1973 set to music. jesus christ superstar (norman jewison, 1973) and godspell (david greene, 1973) both feature an anti-establishment, youthful, singing jesus and reflect the youth culture of the 1960s and 1970s. shot in israel, superstar is a play-within-a-play, told by a troupe of actors who arrive in the negev desert of israel by bus. it is a rock opera, full of energy and motion, as evidenced not only by the choreography of the dance numbers but by the frenetic camera work. musical numbers, which make up most of the film as there is no dialogue, are full of quick cuts, stop-action freeze frames, and frequent changes in camera angle. the film is also distinctive in its use of anachronistic costumes and props. roman soldiers are dressed in construction helmets, purple tank-tops, and camouflage pants. instead of tables, jesus overturns stands of postcards, cigarettes, and military weapons, and army tanks and fighter jets are frequently seen in the background. perhaps the most striking aspect of this film is that it is told through the perspective of judas, the film’s main character, who has become concerned with jesus’ increasing celebrity status, and wants to strip the man jesus of the mythos that surrounds him. jesus himself is portrayed very differently from previous jesus films. for the first time we see a jesus who is self-absorbed, full of doubt, and lacking in understanding about his mission. this film is also innovative as being the first to suggest a relationship between jesus and mary magdalene, who sings the popular song, “i don’t know how to love him.” strikingly, the resurrection is not depicted (but judas’ is!), an oddity shared with godspell. greene’s version of the jesus musical shares much in common with jewison’s. godspell is also a play-within-a-play and similarly represents the counter-cultural youth movement. but where jewison’s film was a rock opera set in israel, greene’s was a folk musical set in new york city. jesus is now a hippie, dressed like a clown in striped pants, a superman shirt, and face paint. his disciples are a troupe of vaudevillian performers who take part in the telling of jesus’ parables by physically acting them out. the overarching message of this jesus is forgiveness and mercy. greene’s selection and adaptation of the parables underscores this: both sons are redeemed in the parable of the prodigal son, and sheep and goats are saved in the eschatological judgment. the jesus of godspell speaks and acts with authority as opposed to the constantly doubting and confused jesus of jewison’s musical. no miracles 29 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 are depicted, however, and the resurrection is again missing. overall the film has a much more lighthearted and comedic tone, in stark contrast to the emotional angst of jesus christ superstar. alternative jesus films by the late 1970s and 1980s, filmmakers began to explore new and unconventional ways of interpreting the story of jesus. the first to depart dramatically from the typical jesus film was the comedic film life of brian (terry jones, 1979), created by the team responsible for the bbc show monty python’s flying circus. often labeled as an irreverent parody of the life of jesus, it is more accurately described as a parody of jesus films themselves. this production has the look and feel of a biblical epic; the scenery, sets, and costuming are all typical of jesus films. jesus himself, however, is only ever seen in a few distant shots during the scene of the sermon on the mount. the film revolves instead around the life of a jewish peasant named brian, who, from his birth to his own crucifixion, is repeatedly mistaken for the messiah. the motion picture is also a satire of the various ways different christians have interpreted and appropriated the teachings of jesus. for example, a misunderstanding of one of the beatitudes as “blessed are the cheese makers” leads to a discussion among some listeners as to the proper interpretation and application of this enigmatic saying, resulting in a proliferation of various sects of believers. life of brian ends with the title character’s crucifixion, with the crucified thieves around him singing “always look on the bright side of life.” as the disclaimer at the beginning of the film points out, the last temptation of christ (martin scorsese, 1988) is technically based on the 1955 nikos kazantzakis novel of the same name, and not on the gospels themselves per se. this picture is probably best known for its innovative and challenging depiction of the savior: this is by far the most human jesus ever put on film. it is the first time a voice-over is used for jesus’ inner thoughts. much of the dialogue consists of interior monologues in which we hear jesus struggle with his identity and express doubt concerning his mission. scorsese’s depiction of jesus’ soul-searching, his conflict between the flesh and spirit, and his developing awareness of his mission creates a fully rounded characterization of jesus, something rare for the genre. unconventional camera angles and rapid camera movements and editing add to the sense of unease and anxiety that jesus experiences. the other major departure from the canon of traditional jesus films comes during the crucifixion scene, when an angel (satan in disguise) tempts jesus to descend from the cross and live the life of a normal person, including marriage and children. an extended vision scene depicts jesus enjoying all aspects of a full, domestic life, until he is wracked with such guilt on his deathbed that he decides to reject the temptation of an easy life and finds himself back on the cross to complete his mission. like the musicals, jesus of montreal (denys arcand, 1989) is a play-within-a-play. here, it is a passion play put on by a group of actors in montreal. the actors entrusted with the production reinvent the play by introducing commentary from the latest historical and archaeological research, often challenging the traditional interpretation of the gospels, demythologizing jesus, and putting greater emphasis on his teachings of love, morality, and ethics. the distinction between the passion play and the real world begins to blur, however, until aspects of jesus’ life begin to be echoed in the personal life of daniel, the actor portraying jesus. the call of the disciples, the temptation scene, the cleansing of the temple, and the trial are all echoed in daniel’s life. when an accident during a performance gives daniel a mortal head injury, he soon succumbs to his wounds (after an apocalyptic rant in the subway) and his organs are donated to others in a “resurrection” scene. jesus of montreal acts largely as a social commentary and critique of capitalist society, consumerism, the commercialization of religion, and the traditions of the institutional church. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 30 volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 films based on one gospel most of the films surveyed thus far represent a gospel harmony, with the directors and screenwriters drawing on most or all of the gospels. occasionally, a filmmaker chooses to create a film based strictly on the version of a particular evangelist. the gospel of john (philip saville, 2003) and the gospel according to st. matthew (pier paolo pasolini, 1964) both fall within this category but represent two very different approaches to this type of jesus film. pasolini’s film derives its source material from matthew, but it is actually a creative adaptation of matthew’s text. pasolini was an atheist and a marxist, and the jesus that he portrays is consequently the most revolutionary and political jesus ever put on screen. he is angry and confrontational, a man of the people who opposes the oppressive, established powers. the text of matthew is heavily reworked. although all of the dialogue comes from matthew, much is omitted or rearranged (matthew 23 on the “woes” being a clear exception), leaving only the most confrontational or revolutionary of jesus’ teachings in the film. pasolini drew upon the local peasants of southern italy for his extras. they are often shot against the stark, rocky landscape of the italian countryside, with russian choral pieces and agrarian folk songs playing in the background. their harsh, weathered faces represent the oppressed and downtrodden of society. in order to give the film a documentary feel, pasolini shot the production in grainy, black-and-white film stock, and several scenes are shot in cinéma vérité, using a handheld camera that gives the perspective of actually being part of the crowd. the camera work adds to the violent, revolutionary theme of the film. it is very rough, with many discontinuous edits (often people and things simply show up and disappear in the frame). despite the title, pasolini’s art house film often represents a very different vision than matthew’s gospel. the gospel of john (saville, 2003), on the other hand, is a faithful and literal word-for-word rendition of the fourth book of the canon, using the today’s english version bible text as the basis for all dialogue. it begins with a sunrise on the seashore while a voice-over for john’s prologue is delivered by christopher plummer, who continues as narrator for the rest of the film. bound by such a strict script (neither the dialogue nor narrative structure deviate from the gospel of john), saville’s artistic license finds expression in the visuals. for example, mary is seen early on in the film, despite the fact she does not show up in the text until chapter 19. much of the dialogue of various anonymous opponents in john’s gospel is assigned to the same pharisee throughout the film, allowing for a development of character that is lacking in the flat characters of the gospel text. long monologues are often broken up either by scene changes or through the insertion of black-and-white flashbacks. in contrast to the very human jesus of the last several films discussed, saville’s jesus is fully divine and always in control. he is also consistently cheerful and positive, smiling even when he is doling out condemnation and judgment. realistic/historical portrayals the films that fall into the last genre seek to depict a realistic or historical portrayal of the life of jesus. first is jesus of nazareth (franco zeffirelli, 1977), which was actually a four-part tv miniseries that aired on palm sunday and easter sunday of holy week. zeffirelli’s version contains the best depiction of jewish rituals, traditions, and customs of any jesus film; the costumes, props, and narrative asides and explanations are all historically accurate. zeffirelli’s medium significantly impacted both the stylistic and thematic elements of the production. aware of the mass audience that television provides, zeffirelli chose to depict a moderate jesus drawn mostly from matthew and luke, a jesus who was neither too human nor too divine, but one who would be comfortable and familiar for his viewers. teachings that are either challenging or timeand culture-specific are left out. limited by the smaller 31 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 scale of the television screen, the film lacks the panoramic landscape shots and enormous numbers of extras of earlier jesus films. instead, most scenes contain only a few people who are placed in more intimate settings, and the close-up is used extensively. the film also has an episodic feel; brief, self-contained scenes end with a fade to black, originally designed to accommodate the commercial breaks that a television broadcast requires. the additional length of the mini-series format allowed zeffirelli to spend more time on character development. characters such as peter, who often receive short shrift in jesus films, are rounded out and fully developed here. it is best to watch the passion of the christ (mel gibson, 2004) after viewing the other jesus films on this list, as gibson’s film draws heavily from each of the jesus films treated thus far. several of the visual shots, scriptural allusions, narrative devices, and even shooting locations are borrowed from his predecessors. gibson’s passion play opens with the suffering servant passage from isaiah 53, establishing the film’s overarching theme: the vicarious suffering of christ. this rendition depicts the final hours of the life of jesus in excruciating and graphic detail (the scene of jesus’ scourging lasts eight minutes), although the intense violence is occasionally broken up by flashbacks to jesus’ ministry. the production as a whole is heavily influenced by gibson’s catholicism. for instance, mary has a much larger role in the story as compared to most other jesus films. jesus’ journey to golgotha is structured around the traditional catholic stations of the cross, and, even though the dialogue is spoken using ancient languages for historical verisimilitude, many conversations are performed in the liturgical latin of the catholic church rather than in the more historically accurate greek (such as the conversation with pilate). jesus-film literature though film is a popular art form, many are unskilled when it comes to film theory or the proper methods of critical film analysis. so, before concluding, a few words about a select number of works that help to explicate this medium are in order. the standard introductory text for the novice who is unfamiliar with the most important aspects of filmic form and style is bordwell and thompson’s film art: an introduction (new york: mcgraw-hill, 2009). this textbook describes the tools at the filmmaker’s disposal: script/dialogue, mise-en-scène (the elements in front of the camera, i.e., the set, props, costume/makeup, lighting, and actors), cinematography, editing, and sound. it is a useful starting point for those who want to familiarize themselves with the artistic aspects unique to the medium of film and the ways in which they are used to establish narrative elements such as mood, characterization, and meaning. there is a growing body of scholarship that is devoted to the jesus-film genre itself, much of it written by biblical scholars. many of them dedicate whole essays to a particular jesus film, exploring such diverse issues as the manner in which jesus’ teachings and miracles are treated and depicted, the portrayal of jesus himself (human or divine?), the influence of traditional christian art (such as da vinci’s last supper) on the staging of certain scenes, and the anti-semitism, real or perceived, of the film. a fantastic place to start is the small guidebook by jeffrey l. staley and richard walsh, jesus, the gospels, and cinematic imagination: a handbook to jesus on dvd (louisville: westminster john knox, 2007). each chapter of this handbook includes a brief plot synopsis and discussion of the genre, cultural setting, and key scriptures used in the film. the most useful aspect of this guide may be the “gospels harmony of jesus films” located at the back of the book, a comprehensive list of gospel pericopes and the jesus film where they can be found, along with the hour, minute, and second where they can be located in the film. this harmony makes this book an indispensable tool for showing film clips in class. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 32 volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 another excellent survey of jesus films is w. barnes tatum’s jesus at the movies: a guide to the first hundred years (santa rosa, ca: polebridge, 2004). tatum takes a more historical-critical approach to jesus films, providing background information on the making of each film, the ways in which the film uses the new testament source material, the christology of the film, and the response to the film by the public, critics, and religious groups. savior on the silver screen by richard c. stern, clayton n. jefford, and guerric debona (new york: paulist press, 1999) also discusses the cultural and historical context of each film and how well each film aligns with the historical record of the gospels, but may be particularly useful for those interested in an analysis of the stylistic elements and cinematic tools employed in each film. a section of each chapter is devoted to technical aspects such as camera work, lighting, and editing. two other works, richard walsh’s reading the gospels in the dark (new york: trinity, 2003), which looks at jesus films as cultural products and ideological interpretations of jesus, as well as adele reinhartz’s jesus of hollywood (new york: oxford university press, 2007), which examines jesus films as biopics, are also indispensable and should be a part of any collection of jesus-film literature. conclusion the films surveyed here represent a variety of interpretations and perspectives on the person and ministry of jesus. their potential use in the classroom and in scholarship is unlimited. an instructor who wishes to illustrate the greco-roman or jewish milieu of the new testament, for instance, would find king of kings or jesus of nazareth to be an excellent didactic tool. a researcher who desires to explore the ways that jesus films work to demythologize the jesus of tradition would profit from a study of the gospel according to st. matthew, the last temptation of christ, or jesus of montreal. the student interested in religious films as reflective of a particular cultural movement would enjoy the counterculture jesus musicals of the 1970s. all of the films surveyed demonstrate the ways in which filmic vocabulary can be used to add meaning and message to the gospel stories, and they have firmly established the jesus-film genre as a permanent fixture in our cultural past and future. works cited bordwell, david, and kristin thompson. film art: an introduction. 9th ed. new york: mcgraw-hill, 2009. reinhartz, adele. jesus of hollywood. new york: oxford university press, 2007. staley, jeffrey l., and richard walsh. jesus, the gospels, and cinematic imagination: a handbook to jesus on dvd. louisville: westminster john knox, 2007. stern, richard c., clayton n. jefford, and guerric debona. savior on the silver screen. new york: paulist press, 1999. tatum, w. barnes. jesus at the movies: a guide to the first hundred years. rev. and enl. ed. santa rosa, ca: polebridge press, 2004. walsh, richard. reading the gospels in the dark: portrayals of jesus in film. harrisburg, pa: trinity press, 2003. alphabetical listing of films cited godspell. dvd. directed by david greene. 1973. culver city, ca: columbia tristar home video, 2000. the gospel according to st. matthew. dvd. directed by pier paolo pasolini. 1964. s.i.: waterbearer films, 2003. the gospel of john. dvd. directed by philip saville. 2003. burbank, ca: buena vista home entertainment, 2005. 33 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 3, number 2 • december 2010 the greatest story ever told. dvd. directed by george stevens. 1965. santa monica, ca: mgm home entertainment, 2007. jesus christ superstar. dvd. directed by norman jewison. 1973. universal city, ca: universal pictures, 2004. jesus of montreal. dvd. directed by denys arcand. 1989. port washington, ny: koch lorber films, 2004. jesus of nazareth. dvd. directed by franco zeffirelli. 1977. santa monica, ca: artisan home entertaiment, 2000. king of kings. dvd. directed by nicholas ray. 1961. burbank, ca: warner home video, 2003. the last temptation of christ. dvd. directed by martin scorsese. 1988. irvington, ny: criterion collection, 2000. life of brian. dvd. directed by terry jones. 1979. irvington, ny: criterion collection, 1999. the passion of the christ. dvd. directed by mel gibson. 2004. beverly hills, ca: 20th century fox home entertainment, 2004. 56 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org find it in the talmud mordechai judovits. find it in the talmud: an encyclopedia of jewish ethics and conduct: thousands of talmudic subjects, stories and expressions. jerusalem: urim publications, 2014. 525 pp. $31.50. hardcover. isbn: 9789655241464 r. tanhum said: “one should divide his time of study into three: one-third scripture, one-third mishna, and one-third in talmud” (avodah zarah 19b; kiddushin 30a) (376). mordechai judovits, retired businessman and longtime student of the talmud, shows his love for judaism and the rabbinic tradition with find it in the talmud. he has compiled an easy-to-use encyclopedia and concordance for englishspeaking scholars studying the babylonian talmud or “bavli.” judovits is the author of sages of the talmud, another urim publication, which lists biographical information for over 400 contributors to the talmud. in his dedication judovits remembers and honors members of the judovits and jakubovits families: one page to those who perished in june of 1944, a second to his wife, and a third to the next generations — children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. the following four pages show the holocaust memorial he built at the boca raton synagogue in florida. the thread of family (loss, remembrance, and hope for the future) and love of judaism was inspirational for judovits’s work on this “sefer” (book of education). judovits reminds us that the teachings and legacy of the talmud result in a way of life that values charity, decency, ethics, justice, and morality. talmud comes from a hebrew word that means to learn, study, and teach, and is made up of two distinct parts: the mishna and the gemara. the mishna was written in hebrew by rabbis in the second and third centuries and is spare and simple. the gemara was written in aramaic (and some hebrew) during the fourth and fifth centuries by another set of rabbis. it is much lengthier and explains the meaning and intent of the mishna. the main portion of find it in the talmud contains over 6,000 entries in 525 pages and is arranged in alphabetical order in english. if there is a corresponding hebrew word or phrase it appears on the right side of the column. most entries are brief, only a sentence or two. the longest average half a page. subjects that deal with charity, decency, ethics, justice, and morality are specially marked at the beginning of the entry with a star of david symbol. entries that include a story, or an anecdote with a message, are specially marked with a book icon. “see also” entries are listed in the footnotes. entries with more than one example are each listed separately. “intercalate,” for example, has eight entries: three with just “intercalate,” also “intercalate outside israel,” “intercalate place and time,” “intercalated year,” “intercalation,” and “intercalation of the year.” four of the entries have a book icon denoting a story or anecdote. these entries explain aspects of the rabbis’ practice of adding a day to the calendar. the appendices are in three sections. the first is an overview of the order of the talmud. the order of the talmud is a result of the decisions of the rabbis who created it. the first group, the tannaim, decided on the order of the mishna. centuries later, the second group, the amoraim, created the gemara. the second section is of abbreviations that are listed in hebrew only. the third section is various talmudic sayings, expressions, and axioms. these are arranged according to the order of the hebrew alphabet but from left to right within the book. the talmud covers myriad topics as interpreted by the rabbis. in its printed form the talmud is sixty-three volumes. as one endorsement states on the back cover, the bavli is “all mevulbal, mixed up.” it is not always easy to find your topic in the talmud’s many stories and sayings. i found this reference book to be easy to use and enjoyed browsing through it. although non-jewish users may find it of limited use, i recommend it for anyone studying the talmud. jennifer bartholomew luther seminary, saint paul, mn 65 critical review: the personal librarian theolib.org the personal librarian: enhancing the student experience richard moniz and jean moats, eds. the personal librarian: enhancing the student experience. chicago: american library association, 2014. 143 pp. $58.00. softcover. isbn: 97808838912393. the librarian. my librarian. a simple change from the definite article to a possessive pronoun produces a profound change in meaning. in academic libraries “the librarian” is often seen as an administrator or organizer rather than an approachable provider of essential resources and services. what if such a simple change could demystify the library and its wardens, granting to students and faculty the perspective that they have their very own personal librarian? flowing from the endeavors of editors and contributors with a wealth of academic library experience, this book presents the origin and results of personal librarian programs. arising from current trends and practices in librarianship and higher education, personal librarian programs assign incoming students with a specific librarian who maintains a relationship with each student throughout his or her course of studies. both of the editors and all but one of the contributors hail from johnson and wales university in charlotte, north carolina, where they implemented a personal librarian program in the fall semester of 2012. every contributor is a librarian, and together they possess expertise in a variety of subject areas. editor richard moniz, director of library services at johnson and wales, holds a doctorate in higher education administration. editor jean moats is library liaison for the college of culinary arts at johnson and wales, and holds a master of divinity in pastoral ministry from duke divinity school. these veterans of the profession assert that readers can adapt the personal librarian concept to their institutions with just a slight alteration in philosophy of service and a few tweaks and changes. a personal librarian program is by no means a replacement for current practice. rather, one might compare it to a library website’s discovery layer. it is an overlay for existing programs, marketing existing resources and services to students through personal relationships with librarians. the writers trace the development of the personal librarian concept from the rise of information literacy, embedded librarianship, and library liaisons. they also point to a growing emphasis on student retention in higher education as impacting the development of personal librarian programs. student retention refers to the rate at which freshmen successfully continue into their sophomore year. correlations between student retention and success on research projects suggested that cultivating personal relationships between new students and librarians might be the key to increasing student retention and producing a higher quality student. the book has ten chapters. an introductory chapter locates the origin of the personal librarian concept. another chapter details the implementation of personal librarian programs at several institutions, including johnson and wales. three chapters are devoted to explaining information literacy, embedded librarianship, and library liaisons, respectively, and how each relates to the concept of the personal librarian. two chapters are explorations of what personal librarians can learn from other businesses and other student services about marketing and relating to students. in these the authors mine for-profit businesses such as banks and airlines, as well as student health and career services, for ideas. another chapter takes a look at the faculty response to the personal librarian program at johnson and wales, providing both quantitative and qualitative data. the penultimate chapter serves as a guide to best practices for personal librarians. the last chapter takes a look at the future of the personal librarian concept, noting that the issues and concerns surrounding it were discussed at the first national personal librarian and first year experience library conference at case western reserve university in cleveland, ohio, in april 2014. the writers of this book help readers to understand how the concept of the personal librarian relates to current library practice. they do an excellent job of defining information literacy and distinguishing between embedded librarians and library liaisons. perhaps it is an unintended consequence, but librarians who are not as familiar with these terms will be 66 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org brought up to speed. perhaps they are new librarians or serve at smaller institutions with fewer programs. this book could be a jumping-on point for those who feel out of the loop for whatever reason. for all others, this book might serve as a refresher for these concepts. all readers may be surprised to find that the “personal librarian” is not really a new kind of librarian, but rather a new perspective for students and faculty. it is not a renovation, but a rearranging of the furniture; sometimes simply moving the chairs and tables around can make a space profoundly more inviting. the writers assert that personal librarian programs do not necessarily result in more work for librarians. they back this up with references to the literature. furthermore, the tasks they propose for implementing and maintaining such a program are not numerous. in fact, the reader may wonder while reading, “is that all it takes?” this book is a call for a kind of efficiency not measured in sharper tools or faster workflows but in transformed dispositions and raised affections brought about through the cultivation of relationships. a personal librarian program provides a handle for students and faculty to eagerly grab onto librarians and benefit from the work that they already do so well. if any library context is appropriate for a personal librarian program, it is the theological library, where librarians are called to be shepherds for those seeking to know and share truth. the personal librarian is well written and stylistically consistent despite its several contributors. that the book is mostly written by librarians at the same institution might be considered a weakness. this is not to say that any of the material should be replaced, but that one could wish for more voices to add to those already present. on the other hand, that would require a more exhaustive treatment, and the present book is tidy and very readable as it is. in any case, it is packed with notes, and each chapter has a bibliography for further reading, so the reader will not have to go far to find other voices. the best thing about this book is that the librarian will put it down knowing that he or she really can develop a personal librarian program at his or her institution; the writers even provide a checklist for doing just that in the book’s penultimate chapter. purchase this book. pass it around at your institution and get to work on that checklist for developing your very own personal librarian program. jacob w. gucker baptist missionary association theological seminary, jacksonville, tx 61 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org klostersturm and secularization in central europe: what happened to the libraries? by jeffrey garrett in this bibliographic essay, i look at central european monastic library confiscations — commonly called “secularizations” — at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, a topic that will require some re-orientation for angloamerican readers. in the english-speaking world as in the tradition of anglo-american historiography, when we think of “secularization” as an historical process we naturally think first of the actions of henry viii during the reformation, mainly between 1532 and 1540: his suppression of the roman catholic church in england, his confiscation of church property — including church archives, manuscripts, and the still relatively few numbers of printed books. similar secularizations occurred in other european regions during the 16th century, mostly in scandinavia and northern and eastern germany. beneficiaries of these secularizations were the royal treasuries along with the coffers, libraries, and archives of aristocratic courts, wealthy cities, universities, certain individuals, and of course, the new protestant-lutheran clerical order. however, 250 years after the reformation, a new wave of church property confiscation swept through predominantly catholic europe — a phenomenon of incomparably greater magnitude and arguably greater historical and cultural significance. the countries affected extended from spain and portugal in the southwest — with their respective new world and asian dominions — to silesia, poland, the then-powerful grand duchy of lithuania, and ukraine in the northeast and east of europe. the cultural importance of this second secularization wave was amplified by the vastly greater size of libraries and archives in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, reflecting 300 years during which the printing press had caused several magnitudes of increase in the quantity and geographic distribution of publications — and the resulting transformation of knowledge culture in europe. “after gutenberg,” writes albert manguel, “for the first time in history, hundreds of readers possessed identical copies of the same book, and . . . the book read by someone in madrid was the same book read by someone in montpellier.”1 this more modern reading culture had not been in place during the reformation of the mid-16th century, when libraries and archives had been secularized before. i will be discussing the literature that exists describing the end of monastic book culture in german-speaking europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. it was also the era that gave rise to the modern research library — no coincidence, since the organization of the large amounts of books flowing from the dissolved, “secularized” monasteries into the hands of the state could not be dealt with in traditional ways, which regularly involved the highly trained memory of librarians and the visual display of books. it is notable and symbolic that “bibliothek-wissenschaft,” or “library science,” was developed by a secularized benedictine monk named martin schrettinger (1772–1851). it is also a testimony to the significance of his contribution that his extra-mnemonic, theory-based approach to organizing vast amounts of information has served us well to this day. monastic library secularization and the invention of a “science” of librarianship were two halves of a single transformation in the european — and ultimately the world’s — library landscape. between march 22 and 24, 2012, scholars from across europe and north america convened in oxford for the conference “how the secularization of religious houses transformed the libraries of europe,” the first scholarly meeting in recent decades to treat the late 18th–early 19th century transformation of the libraries of europe as a single, albeit highly 1 alberto manguel, a history of reading (london: flamingo, 1997), 137–38. jeffrey garrett recently retired as associate university librarian for special libraries at northwestern university, evanston, illinois. 62 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org diversified, phenomenon. papers were presented in a host of languages, among them french and italian, polish and portuguese. editing these papers, which also entails the reconciliation of terminology from different languages and different historiographical traditions for similar but locally individuated historical phenomena, surely explains why the proceedings of this conference have not yet appeared in publication.2 my role at the oxford conference was to provide an overview of the expropriation of monastic libraries in catholic central europe, 1773–1814. this upheaval took place in three phases: the suppression of the jesuits and their worldwide institutions in and immediately after 1773; the josephine suppressions (or klostersturm) of the 1780s in austria, affecting the far-flung possessions of the habsburg empire; and, finally and most significantly, the often violent suppression of religious orders during the revolutionary and napoleonic periods, 1789 to 1814, emanating from france but affecting most of europe. before this period and even during it, the monasteries of central europe numbered in the many thousands. hundreds of them were wealthy, with fabulous libraries housed in spectacular baroque and rococo buildings built specifically for the purpose. the central european monasteries of the prelate orders — benedictines, cistercians, augustinian canons, and premonstratensians — and the colleges of the jesuits almost all had libraries of note, with holdings often numbering in the tens of thousands of volumes.3 perhaps the most prominent of these in germany, representing hundreds of others, was polling, an augustinian canon abbey in upper bavaria between munich and the alps, with close to 80,000 volumes, not far from the ancient benedictine abbeys of tegernsee and benediktbeuern, dating from the early middle ages and by the time under discussion already a thousand years old, with between 25,000 and 40,000 volumes each.4 württemberg’s abbeys also had significant libraries, among them the cistercian abbey of salem, with 40,000 to 60,000 volumes.5 along the rhine, from freiburg to cologne and in catholic westphalia, monastic collections were also notable, including those of corvey and klarholz.6 finally, in politically and confessionally complex switzerland we find several of europe’s oldest and richest monastery libraries, among them st. gallen and einsiedeln, both benedictine. but the institutions named here are only several of the most salient, and even smaller monasteries often had libraries of note. the single swiss canton of thurgau, for example, had had at least nineteen monasteries during the preceding thousand years, of which at least nine survived until well into the 19th century — and they all had libraries.7 or to focus on bavaria, probably the most heavily researched central european region, modern estimates have placed the total number of books in the libraries of the prelate orders alone at 1.2 million. even the property-shunning mendicant orders — again just considering bavaria — had an estimated 342,000 volumes by 1800.8 2 abstracts of all papers are available online at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/find-resources/projects/how-the-secularizationof-religious-houses-transformed-the-libraries-of-europe. 3 on the “foundational role” of the monasteries, their monks, and their libraries for the scholarly life of bavaria by 1800, see dieter kudorfer, “die säkularisation und das bibliothekswesen: traditionsbruch und neuanfang für die wissenschaft,” lebendiges büchererbe: säkularisation, mediatisierung und die bayerische staatsbibliothek, ed. dieter kudorfer, ausstellungskataloge (munich: bayerische staatsbibliothek, 2003). 4 ___ , “die säkularisation und das bibliothekswesen,” 10–11. 5 gerhard römer, bücher, stifter, bibliotheken: buchkultur zwischen neckar und bodensee (stuttgart: kohlhammer, 1997). 6 johannes meier, “spurensuche: die bibliothek des klosters clarholz im lichte ihrer individuellen provenienzen,”die bibliothek des prämonstratenserklosters clarholz: bestandskatalog von elke pophanken mit beiträgen von johannes meier und ursula olschewski, ed. reinhard feldmann, schriften der universitätsund landesbibliothek münster (münster: universitätsund landesbibliothek münster, 1996); johannes meier, “... wie die geistlichen herren in den meisten zweigen der wissenschaft und der literatur wohl bewandert und mit ihrer zeit fortgeschritten waren: zum geistigen und religiösen standort des adligen clarholzer prämonstratenserkonventes in den letzten jahrzehnten vor der säkularisation der alten reichskirche,” analecta praemonstratensia 73 (1997). 7 most swiss monasteries were secularized in 1848. see marianne luginbühl and heinz bothien, “auch bücher haben ihr schicksal” die geschichte der thurgauischen klosterbibliotheken seit dem 19. jahrhundert (frauenfeld: thurgauische kantonsbibliothek, 1999). 8 ladislaus buzás, german library history, 800–1945, trans. william d. boyd (jefferson, nc: mcfarland, 1986), 159–60. http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/find-resources/projects/how-the-secularization-of-religious-houses-transformed-the-libraries-of-europe http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/find-resources/projects/how-the-secularization-of-religious-houses-transformed-the-libraries-of-europe 63 bibliographic essay: klostersturm and secularization in central europe theolib.org in little more than forty years, between july 1773, when pope clement xiv, with his brief dominus ac redemptor, formally abolished the society of jesus, and the last monastery secularization mandated by the principal decree of the imperial deputation (reichsdeputations hauptschluss) of 1803, namely the dissolution of höglwörth near salzburg in 1817,9 most of the medieval book infrastructure of europe disappeared from the map. it would be replaced by a totally new “order of books,” as roger chartier has called knowledge cultures,10 one characterized by huge state-owned collections and smaller regional and university libraries with increasing relevance for science and teaching, a knowledge infrastructure that remained in place for the next 200 years — that is, until the digital revolution of the present day largely lifted the constraints of location and time from scholarly access to information. the literature describing this process in central europe does not exist to any significant degree in english, though there are exceptions. several works by derek beales in both monograph and article formats are essential introductory reading for understanding the austrian klostersturm, which had its roots in the reign of maria theresa (1717–1780) and then during the fifteen years of her joint regency with son joseph — later emperor joseph ii.11 jacob soll’s recent important work on the early modern information regimes of france and italy, especially his 2009 book the information master, discusses the movement of knowledge repositories from ecclesiastical-aristocratic centers to state control in the 17th and 18th centuries, but does not cover the mass secularizations elsewhere in europe during the period treated so extensively at the 2012 oxford conference.12 the earliest treatments in english center on bavaria. they are ernest oscar thedinga’s ph.d. dissertation from 193513 and then edwin heyse dummer’s research of the mid 1940s and 50s, focusing on the most famous secularizer of ecclesiastical libraries in germany, johann christoph von aretin (1773–1824).14 for the implications of monastic library secularization, sidney l. jackson recognized the great importance of martin schrettinger for the history of classification and library arrangement in two articles on this important library theorist from the early 1970s, but neglects to give proper credit to schrettinger for actually and physically organizing the hundreds of thousands of books that flowed to the state from the monasteries (including his own, weissenohe near regensburg15) in the early 19th century.16 the most recent articles in english — to my knowledge there are no monographs, not even translations of principal german-language works — are two of my own, one of them published in the proceedings of the conference 9 cornelia jahn, “mühsam erworbene schätze: der ablauf der büchersäkularisation,” lebendiges büchererbe: säkularisation, mediatisierung und die bayerische staatsbibliothek, ed. dieter kudorfer, ausstellungskataloge (munich: bayerische staatsbibliothek, 2003), 27. 10 roger chartier, the order of books: readers, authors, and libraries in europe between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, trans. lydia g. cochrane (stanford: stanford university press, 1994). 11 beales’s two-volume biography of joseph ii is foundational here: derek beales, joseph ii, vol. 1: in the shadow of maria theresa, 1741–1780 (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1987); ___ , joseph ii, vol. 2: against the world 1780–1790 (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2009). on the klostersturm, see esp. vol. 2, ch. 8, “josephism rampant i: monasteries, general seminaries and parishes,” p. 271–306. beales has also written on joseph’s critically important early education: ___, “christians and ‘philosophes’: the case of the austrian enlightenment,” history, society and the churches: essays in honour of owen chadwick, eds. derek beales and geoffrey best (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1985). 12 cf. jacob soll, “library of power, library of enlightenment: libraries as foundations to the modern state 1400–1800,” edward g. holley lecture sponsored by the ala library history roundtable, chicago, june 30, 2013. 13 ernest oscar thedinga, “secularization in bavaria during the napoleonic era,” ph.d. thesis, university of wisconsin– madison, 1935. 14 edwin heyse dummer, “johann christoph von aretin and the library scene in bavaria in the secularization period 1802– 1811,” m.a. thesis, university of chicago, 1944; ___ , “johann christoph von aretin: a re-evaluation,” library quarterly 16.2 (1946). 15 ilse haeckel, “schrettinger und die säkularisation des klosters weissenohe,” aus der arbeit des bibliothekars: aufsätze und abhandlungen fritz redenbacher zum 60. geburtstag dargebracht, ed. bernhard sinogowitz (erlangen: universitäts-bibliothek, 1960). 16 sidney l. jackson, “schrettinger on class and the subject heading: a note on early nineteenth-century thinking,” library resources & technical services 14.4 (fall) (1970); ___, “pioneer librarianship thinking in the early nineteenth century: schrettinger, ebert and molbech,” international library review 3 (1971). 64 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org “the contributions of monastic orders to the catholic enlightenment” in piliscsaba, hungary in the late 1990s17 and friedrich buchmayr’s overview of the josephine confiscations in austria published in the proceedings of the “lost libraries” conference in cambridge in 2000.18 michael buckland’s writings on the importance of library schools and library science also deserve mention since he specifically addresses the reconfiguration of the german library landscape in this period.19 so the balance of this literature survey will be focusing on scholarship available only in german. may it serve as a minor consolation that this body of research material is almost all available in or through north american research libraries. treatment will also not be (nor could it be) comprehensive, but will instead highlight certain types of research with notable examples. also, since this topic has been studied and written about now for at least 150 years and some of the most important work was done in the 19th century, many of the works referenced are quite old. research genres we will present below are 1.) anniversary publications, comprehensive studies, regional studies; 2.) studies of individual monastic libraries; 3.) biographies. anniversary publications, comprehensive studies, and regional studies in europe, anniversaries are usually the occasion for sweeping reviews of historical events and periods as well as massive, often government-funded retrospective exhibitions. for austria, 1980 marked the 200th anniversary of joseph ii’s ascendancy to sole regency of the empire — he had ruled until then (and since 1765) jointly with his mother, maria theresa. a major exhibit at melk abbey to honor this occasion was organized by the government of lower austria for which a massive collection of essays — the catalog was 718 pages long, with 45 color plates — was commissioned, under the general editorship of the premier austrian historian of that era, karl gutkas.20 one of the articles was entitled “josephine monastery closures, 1782–1789,”21 reflecting that an entire room of the exhibit had been dedicated to this subject.22 yet a detailed discussion of the migration of library resources was not included in this volume. an oversight perhaps, understandable since melk’s library has never been compromised by any government or invading army, with the possible exception of some of napoleon’s generals.23 also, in austria, research into the disappearance of medieval libraries has always been conducted at the regional (land) level — as we will see further below. in southern germany, the 200th anniversary of the säkularisation, which began in 1803, was an occasion for major statefunded exhibitions and research projects. by contrast to austria, these did look specifically — and often critically — at the fate of libraries and library books. the catalog of the major commemorative exhibition in the regensburg historical museum, which took place between may and august of 2003, included a chapter on the fate of regensburg libraries.24 the bayerische staatsbibliothek (bavarian state library), one of the principal beneficiaries of the secularization of monastery books (in fact becoming for a time the second greatest library in europe after the bibliothèque nationale in paris25) released a 17 jeffrey garrett, “redefining order in the german library, 1775–1825,” eighteenth-century studies 33.1 (fall) (1999); ___, “aufhebung im doppelten wortsinn: the fate of monastic libraries in central europe, 1780–1810,” verbum analecta neolatina 2 (1999). 18 friedrich buchmayr, “secularization and monastic libraries in austria,” lost libraries: the destruction of great book collections since antiquity, ed. james raven (basingstoke, hants.; new york: palgrave macmillan, 2004). 19 michael k. buckland, “information schools: a monk, library science, and the information age,” bibliothekswissenschaft quo vadis? / library science quo vadis?, ed. petra hauke (munich: k.g. sauer, 2005), 19-32. 20 karl gutkas, ed., österreich zur zeit kaiser josephs ii: mitregent kaiserin maria theresias, kaiser und landesfürst (wien: amt der niederösterreichischen landesregierung, abt. 3/2, kulturabteilung, 1980). 21 elisabeth kovács, “josephinische klosteraufhebungen 1782–1789,” österreich zur zeit kaiser josephs ii. 22 gutkas, ed., österreich zur zeit kaiser josephs ii, 533–538. 23 i have not investigated this period of melk’s history. 24 michael drucker, “regensburger bibliotheken: schicksale zwischen reichsstadtzeit und königreich,” 1803, wende in europas mitte: vom feudalen zum bürgerlichen zeitalter: begleitband zur ausstellung im historischen museum regensburg, 29. mai bis 24. august 2003, eds. peter schmid and klemens unger (regensburg: schnell & steiner, 2003). 25 hermann hauke, “die bedeutung der säkularisation für die bayerischen bibliotheken,” glanz und ende der alten klöster: säkularisation im bayerischen oberland 1803, eds. josef kirmeier and manfred treml, veröffentlichungen zur bayerischen geschichte und kultur; 21 (munich: süddeutscher verlag, 1991), 94–96. 65 bibliographic essay: klostersturm and secularization in central europe theolib.org wonderful collection of essays specifically on the fate of monastery books in a volume with the (translated) title “living book legacy: secularization, mediatization, and the bavarian state library.”26 two other publications tied to the bicentennial also deserve mention, namely the first comprehensive census of monasteries, abbeys, convents, and hermitages ever undertaken in bavaria, complete with a detailed folding map,27 and then engelbert plassmann’s harvest of all anniversary publications that were released having to do specifically with libraries in all parts of germany, delivered as a public lecture at berlin’s humboldt university in february 2004.28 this is by no means an exhaustive list — in fact, it is highly selective — but it does give a sense for the number and diversity of these publications. apart from anniversary publications, several works stand out as efforts to be comprehensive treatments of the fate of monastic libraries for specific states or regions. in austria, the approach is, as mentioned above, almost always regional, which is understandable given the vast size of the habsburg empire in the 18th century. the standard work on the dissolutions and dispositions of monasteries and their libraries during the reign of joseph ii in german-speaking austria is adam wolf ’s die aufhebung der klöster in innerösterreich (“the suppression of monasteries in austria proper”) of 1871.29 another older work worthy of mention that covers specifically upper austria — whose principal metropolis is linz on the danube — during the 1780s is rudolf hittmair’s densely detailed monograph of 1907, the translated title of which is “the josephine assault on monasteries in the territories upstream from the enns.”30 other habsburg regions have been covered in detail in works by strassmayr (“fates of upper austrian monastery libraries”) and karnthaler (“the fate of tirolean monastery libraries between 1773 and 1790”) in the middle of the last century.31 simon laschitzer wrote two important articles in the 1880s, one looking at libraries in the entire austrian empire (“the edicts on the libraries and archives of the suppressed monasteries of austria”), the other focusing specifically on the province of carinthia.32 christine tropper’s more recent study brings together much research and is indispensable for lower austria, i.e., the german-speaking region along the danube upstream from vienna.33 regional treatments are also plentiful in germany. the diocese of rottenburg-stuttgart, for example, published a thin (91 pages) but excellent (though not impartial!) collection of essays in 1988 on the confiscation and disposition of swabian monastery libraries, entitled (in english translation) “‘and now we must let be stolen . . .’: on the dissolution of swabian monastery libraries.”34 by far the most ambitious project, never completed, was paul ruf ’s research on the secularization of bavarian monastery libraries, published in 1962 as (engl.) “secularization and the bavarian state library.”35 although ruf only managed to publish the first volume of his work, covering the period ending in 1802, i.e., just before the major thrust 26 dieter kudorfer, ed., lebendiges büchererbe: säkularisation, mediatisierung und die bayerische staatsbibliothek (munich: bayerische staatsbibliothek, 2003). 27 rainer braun, klöster in bayern um 1800: eine bestandsaufnahme, forum heimatforschung: ziele, wege, ergebnisse (munich: bayerischer landesverein für heimatpflege e.v., 2005). 28 engelbert plassmann, büchervernichtung, bücherverschiebung, neuer aufbruch: eine nachlese zum säkularisationsjubiläum 2003, berliner arbeiten zur bibliothekswissenschaft (berlin: logos, 2005). 29 adam wolf, die aufhebung der klöster in innerösterreich 1782–1790: ein beitrag zur geschichte kaiser joseph‘s ii (vienna: braumüller, 1871). 30 rudolf hittmair, der josefinische klostersturm im land ob der enns (freiburg im breisgau: herder, 1907). 31 eduard straßmayr, “schicksale oberösterreichischer klosterbibliotheken,” oberösterreichische heimatblätter 1 (1947); franz karnthaler, “das schicksal der tiroler klosterbibliotheken in den jahren 1773–1790,” biblos 5 (1956). 32 simon laschitzer, “die verordnungen über die bibliotheken und archive der aufgehobenen klöster in österreich,” mittheilungen des instituts für österreichische geschichte 2 (1881); ___, “geschichte der klosterbibliotheken und archive kärntens zur zeit ihrer aufhebung unter kaiser josef ii,” carinthia: zeitschrift für vaterlandskunde, belehrung und unterhaltung 73.6–8 (1883). 33 christiane tropper, “schicksale der büchersammlungen niederösterreichischer klöster nach der aufhebung durch joseph ii. und franz (ii.) i.,” mitteilungen des instituts für österreichische geschichtsforschung 91 (1983). 34 theodor heuser, ed., “. . . und muß nun rauben lassen . . .”: zur auflösung schwäbischer klosterbibliotheken (stuttgart: akademie der diözese rottenburg-stuttgart, 1988). 35 paul ruf, säkularisation und bayerische staatsbibliothek, vol. i: die bibliotheken der mendikanten und theatiner (1799–1802) (wiesbaden: otto harrassowitz, 1962). 66 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org of secularizations began in 1803, he sets the stage very well, introducing all of the principal figures important for bavaria. his character sketch of johann christoph von aretin is especially noteworthy, indispensable for an understanding of this man’s character and many passions, which in turn go far to explain the singular and turbulent fate of monastic books in bavaria over the following half century, especially in the capital of munich36 but also all across the kingdom.37 a final work that is useful as an overview and introduction to the säkularisation in bavaria, though sometimes too popularly written to reconcile the many divergent versions of events and the complexities of the central characters, is dietmar stutzer’s work of 1990, whose title translates as “the secularization of 1803: the assault on bavaria’s churches and monasteries.”38 studies of individual monastic libraries the suppression and secularization of monasteries and the disposition of their libraries all come alive not so much in these overviews, but rather in the accounts and retrospectives depicting the fates of individual monastery collections. these publications are often tied to exhibits of grand or lesser scale. several dissolutions are very well documented, for example, those of the austrian monasteries gaming,39 mauerbach,40 mondsee,41 and st. paul,42 and then many in bavaria, among them benediktbeuern,43 ottobeuren,44 and the libraries of several notable monasteries — and the prince-bishop’s own library — in the bishopric of passau.45 for me, some of the most notable (and, often, most moving) documents describe the end of relatively small ecclesiastical libraries, and the removal, sale (often at auction), or destruction of their holdings. the very tiny library at ardagger in austria was sold at auction on august 20, 1787, a sale that has been carefully studied and documented by a benedictine researcher, bernhard wagner, o.s.b.46 another story that has been related in detail is that 36 eva schrepf, „die bayerische hofbibliothek (staatsbibliothek) 1803–1843. versuch einer skizze ihrer geschichte,“ m.a., ludwig-maximilians-universität, 1989; bettina wagner, „dublettenauktionen der münchener hofbibliothek in der ersten hälfte des 19. jahrhunderts,“ aus dem antiquariat (2006). 37 gerhard heyl, „der verkauf der klosterbibliothek benediktbeuern 1832–1841: vornehmlich nach akten des bayerischen kriegsarchivs,“ mitteilungen für die archivpflege in bayern 24 (1978). 38 dietmar stutzer, die säkularisation 1803: der sturm auf bayerns kirchen und klöster, rosenheimer raritäten, 3rd, expanded ed. (rosenheim: rosenheimer, 1990). 39 brunhilde hoffmann, die aufhebung der kartause gaming, analecta cartusiana, 58 (salzburg: institut für anglistik und amerikanistik, universität salzburg, 1981). 40 w. boguth, „die aufhebung der kartause mauerbach: ein beitrag zur geschichte der josefinischen klosteraufhebung,“ jahrbuch für landeskunde von niederösterreich (1902); helmuth feigl, „die wirtschaftlichen hintergründe der aufhebung der nierösterreichischen kartäuserklöster,“ die kartäuser in österreich, ed. james hogg, vol. 2 (salzburg: 1981). 41 hertha awecker, „die aufhebung der benediktinerabtei mondsee 1791: ein beitrag zur geschichte des josephinismus im lande ob der enns,“ diss., graz, 1948. 42 waltraud krassnig, „die aufhebung des stiftes 1782–1787,“ schatzhaus kärntens: landesausstellung st. paul 1991: 900 jahre benediktinerstift, eds. günther hödl and johannes grabmayer, vol. 2: beiträge (klagenfurt: universitätsverlag, 1991); laschitzer, „geschichte der klosterbibliotheken und archive kärntens zur zeit ihrer aufhebung unter kaiser josef ii.“ 43 heyl, „der verkauf der klosterbibliothek benediktbeuern 1832–1841:vornehmlich nach akten des bayerischen kriegsarchivs.“; wolfgang jahn, „die aufhebung des klosters benediktbeuern,“ glanz und ende der alten klöster. säkularisation im bayerischen oberland 1803, eds. josef kirmeier and manfred treml, veröffentlichungen zur bayerischen geschichte und kultur, 21 (munich: süddeutscher verlag, 1991). 44 j. rottenkolber, „die schicksale der ottobeurener klosterbibliothek in der säkularisation,“ memminger geschichtsblätter 18.2 (1932). 45 maria bernarda wagner, „die säkularisation der klöster im gebiet der heutigen stadt passau 1802–1836,“ diss., universität münchen, 1935; dietmar stutzer, „die bibliothek von st. nikola,“ bayerland 81.9 (1979). again, the referenced literature is only a representative sample of the published research on these monasteries. 46 benedikt wagner, o.s.b., „der religionsfonds versteigert eine alte stiftsbibliothek,“ translatio studii. manuscript and library studies honoring oliver l. kapsner, o.s.b., ed. julian g. plante (collegeville, mn: st. john’s university press, 1973). i discuss the ardagger auction in my (english-language) contribution to the oxford conference proceedings, “the expropriation of monastic libraries in central europe, 1773–1817,” forthcoming. suffice it to say here that the most valuable holdings were added to the hofbibliothek in vienna, while many other valuable items were acquired by representatives of seitenstetten abbey, 67 bibliographic essay: klostersturm and secularization in central europe theolib.org of kloster schäftlarn in bavaria, the very first monastery to be dissolved outside of munich, in april of 1803. that story was recounted by aretin in his diaries,47 but also, 188 years later, by the monks of schäftlarn — the abbey was restored to the benedictines in 1866 — in an exhibit and a handmade, stapled catalog from 1991.48 in the introductory essay to this catalog, the author, identified only by his initials “m.r.,” emphatically, though respectfully, takes issue with the official version of the secularization which proceeded from the bavarian government of those years, which was that shipping all the monastery books to munich saved them from perhaps a worse fate.49 amazing that after nearly two centuries, these wounds left by the destruction of monastery book culture remain open! biographies reference has already been made to derek beales’s recently completed magisterial biography of austrian emperor joseph ii.50 descending more to the level of the principal enactors of the process described here, austria and bavaria each have a signal klosterstürmer and secularizer whose deeds are well documented in the literature, and who even today excite passions in and outside the circles of historians both inside and outside the catholic church. in austria, that individual is the firebrand josephine partisan joseph valentin eybel (1741–1805), already known in vienna as an intensely anticlerical pamphleteer51 before being put in charge of numerous monastery closures, mostly in upper austria. his life is described in the standard biographical dictionaries of the era, for example the massive compendium of constantin von wurzbach,52 but above all in the detailed biography by manfred brandl, which despite being dispositionally negative about eybel’s activities still contains fascinating detail unavailable from any other source.53 eybel’s already-mentioned bavarian epigone of twenty years later, the equally fanatical johann christoph von aretin, was well portrayed in paul ruf ’s work mentioned above,54 but ultimately we must turn to additional sources to round out our impression of this dominant figure of the early years of the bavarian monastic library confiscations. this is the study compiled by distant relative erwein von aretin, serialized over three issues of gelbe hefte during the 1920s.55 i hope to have contributed some insights of my own to an understanding of aretin’s life, specifically what he learned from his captors — and then friends — in france, where he was sent to study the disposition of confiscated french monastic libraries, held in what were called the dépôts littéraires.56 france was to become the template for his activity in bavaria in and after 1803. the final figure of importance for an understanding of this period in central europe is martin schrettinger. it was german library historian uwe jochum who resurrected schrettinger from historical oubli in his 1991 book, in english, where they reside to this day. 47 johann christoph freiherr von aretin, briefe über meine literarische geschäftsreise in die baierischen abteyen: mit einer einführung herausgegeben von wolf bachmann, bibliotheca bavarica (munich: langen-müller, 1971), 17ff. 48 stiftsbibliothek schäftlarn, bücher-schicksal: die säkularisation der stiftsbibliothek schäftlarn 1803: ausstellung in zusammenarbeit mit der bayer. staatsbibliothek und der universitätsbibliothek münchen in der stiftsbibliothek schäftlarn, 10. nov.–8. dez. 1991, ausstellungskatalog[e], 4 (schäftlarn: stiftsbibliothek schäftlarn, 1991). 49 ___, bücher-schicksal, 18-20. 50 called “awesome” and “monumental” in the extensive june 24, 2010, review article of vol. 2 of joseph ii by r.j.w. evans, “the most dynamic ruler,” the new york review of books (2010). 51 joseph valentin eybel, sieben kapitel von klosterleuten (vienna: bei joseph edlen von kurzbeck, 1782); joseph valentin von eybel, was ist ein pfarrer? (wien: joseph edler von kurzbeck, 1782). 52 constant v. wurzbach, biographisches lexikon des kaiserthums oesterreich enthaltend die lebensskizzen der denkwürdigen personen, welche 1750 bis 1850 im kaiserstaate und in seinen kronländern gelebt haben, vol. 4 (egervári–füchs) (wien: typogr.literar.-artist. anstalt, 1858), 118–19. 53 manfred brandl, der kanonist joseph valentin eybel (1741–1805): sein beitrag zur aufklärung in österreich; eine studie in ideologie, forschungen zur geschichte der katholischen aufklärung, 2 (steyr: wilhelm ennsthaler, 1976). 54 ruf, säkularisation und bayerische staatsbibliothek, 6–46. 55 erwein von aretin, „christoph freiherr von aretin. ein lebensbild aus der zeit des ministers montgelas,“ gelbe hefte 3.1 (1926). 56 jeffrey garrett, “bibliophiles with an attitude: french influences on bavarian library secularization policy, 1800–1810,” rla romance languages annual 4 (1994). 68 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org “libraries and librarians, 1800 – 1900.”57 until jochum’s work, schrettinger’s contribution had been underappreciated by library historians — with certain exceptions 80 years prior, e.g., by the impeccable georg leyh in his famous attacks on the dogma of subject-based classification schemes as the basis for organizing libraries58 and by adolf hilsenbeck at about the same time.59 it was schrettinger who first asserted that the purpose of libraries is to rapidly fulfill the information needs of their patrons, not to subject them to quickly obsolescing shelving schemes or to give memorious librarians opportunities to be brilliant or leave their lasting mark on the research of the others who consult them — the image of the librarian immortalized in the figure of jorge of burgos in eco’s novel the name of the rose.60 schrettinger’s “handbook” was republished recently — though, of course, only in german.61 my own discussion of schrettinger’s work62 and that of michael buckland63 are to my knowledge the only treatments of schrettinger’s important work in english. it seems strange that there could be a monographic treatment of schrettinger in polish,64 but none in english. conclusions and recommendations for further research if a review of the literature presented here does nothing else, it should lead to a rejection of the simplistic, teleological explanation of the historical events that ended the dominant role of monastic libraries and led to the modern “order of books” (chartier) as we know it today. the notion that the end of monastic and other ecclesiastical libraries at the end of the 18th century proceeded evolutionarily, organically, peaceably — perhaps even under the benevolent administration of wise librarians — is still widespread in public opinion and even in some library historian circles.65 my belief is that further study of this crucial era of transition will show that the changes in knowledge infrastructures considered here were a byproduct of convulsive political change, the rise of the nation state, and — as michel foucault has insisted — an underlying philosophical revolution most commonly associated with the name of immanuel kant (1724–1804).66 57 uwe jochum, bibliotheken und bibliothekare 1800–1900 (würzburg: königshausen & neumann, 1991). 58 georg leyh, „das dogma von der systematischen aufstellung i,“ zentralblatt für bibliothekwesen 29.6 (june 1912); ___, „das dogma von der systematischen aufstellung ii,“ zentralblatt für bibliothekswesen 30.3 (march 1913). 59 adolf hilsenbeck, „martin schrettinger und die aufstellung in der kgl. hofund staatsbibliothek münchen,” zentralblatt für bibliothekswesen 31 (1914). 60 jeffrey garrett, “missing eco: on reading the name of the rose as library criticism,” library quarterly 61.4 (1991). 61 holger nitzscher, stefan seeger, and sandro uhlmann, eds., handbuch der bibliothek-wissenschaft: neudruck der ausgabe wien 1834 mit einem nachwort und einer bibliographie (hildesheim: weidmann, 2003). therein see specifically uhlmann’s article on schrettinger’s lasting legacy, “martin schrettinger: wegbereiter der modernen bibliothekswissenschaft.” 62 garrett, “redefining order in the german library, 1775–1825.” 63 buckland, “information schools: a monk, library science, and the information age.” 64 zbigniew żmigrodski, martina schrettingera życie i dzieło (1772–1851) (katowice: wydawnictwo uniwersytetu śląskiego, 2004). 65 here is a particularly extreme rendering of the traditional view of inevitable evolutionary change in libraries, by a.j. mukherjee: “the conventional modern period of history, beginning from the seventeenth century, saw a significant phase of library development, initiation of new ideas and practices in librarianship and recognition of the role of the librarian in the national planning. between the renaissance and the french revolution, the world made significant progress, which was reflected in the world of libraries too.” a. k. mukherjee, librarianship: its philosophy and history (london: asia publishing house, 1966), 113. 66 cf. michel foucault, the order of things, trans. alan sheridan (new york: vintage, 1994). contrast foucault’s characterization of the intellectual transformation that took place in these years with mukherjee’s: “not that reason made any progress: it was simply that the mode of being of things, and of the order that divided them up before presenting them to the understanding, was profoundly altered” (p. xxii). it should be noted that martin schrettinger, as revealed in his journals of the 1790s when he was a novice at weißenohe abbey near regensburg, was a particularly vociferous advocate of kantian philosophy, resulting in frequent conflict with his superiors, who in 1798 even insisted that he return kant’s and other “anstössige” (blasphemous) works to the bookseller — sub peccato gravi. source: martin schrettinger, tagebuch wilibald schrettingers benediktiners zu weissenohe i band. angefangen vom jahr 1793, bsb schrettingeriana 2, fasc. 1, bayerische staatsbibliothek, handschriftenabteilung, 137–38. of course, it was schrettinger rather than those superiors who would prevail in the end, reorganizing the hofund staatsbibliothek according to kantian principles and, during the 1810s, becoming the principal 69 bibliographic essay: klostersturm and secularization in central europe theolib.org my further hope is that this review of the literature will lead researchers to find lessons from this earlier revolution in resource ownership that are applicable to today’s equally revolutionary changes. as was the case 200 years ago, no new political economy of information is foreordained by history, but is rather the result of debate and struggle between conflicting interests. the results of this conflict can be either beneficial or repressive, depending on the relative strength and perseverance of those involved. regardless what implications for the present and future might proceed from this research, more study will surely reveal a host of facts and features making the years between 1770 and 1820 a particularly fascinating period of library history, foundationally important for the establishment of major research libraries at the national, state, and university level all across europe and, ultimately, the world, and for the establishment of methods of library organization based on an appreciation of patron needs as well as on the power of organizational principles, consistently applied, rather than the assumed powers of librarians’ memory. advisor in library matters to bavarian statesman and chief minister maximilian von montgelas (1759–1838). for more on the relationship between schrettinger and montgelas, see eva schrepf, “die bayerische hofbibliothek (staatsbibliothek) 1803– 1843: versuch einer skizze ihrer geschichte,” 113–30. but this, of course, is a whole other story. 31 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org thomas merton: american monk, artist and social critic by david joseph belcastro introduction from the outset, controversy has been characteristic of inquiries into the life and work of thomas merton. the title of an article in a 1953 edition of atlantic monthly by aelred graham, a fellow benedictine, reflects something of merton’s reception by the catholic community.1 “thomas merton: a modern man in reverse” was the first full-length appraisal of merton. graham’s opinion of merton as a young monk advocating medieval mysticism for laypersons turned out to be only partially correct. merton would eventually be recognized as a monk moving in multiple directions with multiple tasks occupying his time and attention. as his vocation in the monastery unfolded, merton’s personal life and voluminous publications revealed trajectories that would eventually raise in the minds of many an enduring question: if he is a monk, what kind of a monk is he?2 initial biographies indicate how this question engaged and shaped studies of merton. as scholars turned their attention to merton, it became apparent that no one perspective would be sufficient. in order to express the many dimensions of this monk, a braque or picasso would be needed to create an image of merton ascending the seven mountains. absent these cubists, we have come to rely on the convergence of various perspectives articulated in seemingly endless publications. for example, the authorized biography by michael mott, the seven mountains of thomas merton3 published in 1984, gathered and integrated all the available information into a monumental biography but was unable to reveal the heart and soul of a man. five years later david cooper’s thomas merton’s art of denial; the evolution of a radical humanist 4focused on an important aspect of merton but came to a conclusion that overemphasized merton’s humanism and failed to adequately represent the significance of merton’s commitment to religious life. by 1992 william shannon would publish silent lamp: the thomas merton story5 and in 1999 lawrence cunningham would publish thomas merton & monastic vision6 in an effort to correct and balance previous inquiries with in-depth considerations of merton’s life and writings. yet, even with these publications, the question of merton’s monastic vocation has remained on the table. because of the complex nature of his life, merton’s vocation unfolded in unexpected and, for some, unappreciated ways. merton was aware of this and eventually resolved the question not with a clear answer but rather with an unambiguous commitment. on the 31st of january 1964, he wrote in his journal: 1 aelred graham, o.s.b., “thomas merton: a modern man in reverse,” atlantic 191.1 (january 1953): 70-74. 2 at a meeting of italian monks in 1958, dom benedetto calalti raised serious questions regarding merton’s vocation as a monk. see survival or prophecy? the letters of thomas merton and jean leclercq, ed. brother patrick hart (new york: farrar, straus and giroux, 2002), 126 and 142-3. 3 michael mott, the seven mountains of thomas merton (boston: houghton mifflin, 1984). 4 david cooper, thomas merton’s art of denial; the evolution of a radical humanist (athens and georgia: university of georgia press, 1989). 5 william shannon, silent lamp; the thomas merton story (new york: crossroads, 1992). 6 lawrence cunningham, thomas merton & the monastic vision (grand rapids michigan and cambridge, uk: wm. b. eerdmans, 1999). david joseph belcastro is a professor of religious studies in the department of religion and philosophy at capital university, bexley, ohio. he is president of the international thomas merton society and co-editor of the merton annual. 32 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org the new monastic studies is out, only one copy in the house, in the chapter room. a long review takes in that italian collection of monastic conferences in which dom [benedetto] calati discusses me as — precisely what? as utterly out of his world. and, of course he is right. i do not belong to his monastic world at all, am no part of it — the world where the status quo is just all right. on the other hand i do not rebel against it either. i am just not concerned with it. and thus from many points of view i am not a monk. in general that is all right with me, since i need only to be concerned with loyalty to my own graces and my own task in life, and not with being recognized by them in their categories.7 what is beyond question is that merton became a monk who engaged the imagination of his and subsequent generations to think deeply about religion in a secular age. it is important to note that he did this in conversation, directly and indirectly, with dorothy day, abraham heschel, eric fromm, abdul aziz, ernesto cardenal, boris pasternak, albert camus, walker percy and countless others. his extensive correspondence8 and collection of literary essays9 are artifacts of conversations that were essential to his monastic formation.10 merton’s conversations underscore the multiple and often times contradictory dimensions of his monastic life. here was a monk cloistered within a community of silence and solitude, and yet also a public intellectual speaking out on current issues and events. he became, as noted by anne e. carr, the “most influential and widely read american religious thinker of our time.”11 the correspondence between merton and czeslaw milosz is a fine example of a friendship and conversation that flourished. their correspondence has been long recognized as one of the most significant in the merton corpus. after reading milosz’s captive mind, merton initiated an exchange of letters that addressed a common concern for the modern world and shared thoughts on one another’s books. eventually milosz became aware of what he believed to be at the heart of merton’s work. following his reading of merton’s second journal book, the sign of jonas, milosz writes: i waited for some answers to many theological questions but answers not abstract as in a theological treatise, just on the border between the intellect and our imagination, a border so rarely explored today in religious thinking: we lack an image of the world, ordered by religion, while middle ages had such an image. this was not the aim of your diary and i have no reason to demand from one book of yours what can be demanded from all your work. but a reader (i can judge by introspection only) is eager to learn (gradually) what is the image of the world in thomas merton. in a period when the image accepted by the majority is clear: empty sky, no pity, stone wasteland, life ended by death. i imagine a reader who says: he possessed a secret, he succeed in solving the puzzle, his world is harmonious, yet in his diary he tells already about sequences while we would be ready to follow him in 5 volumes through a very vision of the world redeemed by christ.12 7 robert daggy, ed., dancing in the water of life; the journals of thomas merton, volume five 1963-1965 (san francisco: harper collins, 1997), 68. 8 there are over 20,000 letters to over 2,100 correspondents in the archive at the thomas merton center of bellarmine university in louisville, kentucky. selected letters were published between 1985 and 1994 by farrar, straus and giroux in five volumes: the hidden ground of love, ed. william h. shannon; the road to joy, ed. robert daggy; the school of charity, ed. patrick hart; the courage for truth, ed. christine m. bochen; and witness to freedom, ed. william h. shannon. in 2008, harper collins published a one volume edition entitled thomas merton; a life in letters, ed. william h. shannon and christine m. bochen. these publications only include merton’s letters. throughout the years both sides of a correspondence have been and continue to be published, for example the letters between merton and milosz and those between merton and leclercq noted in this essay. 9 brother patrick hart, ed., literary essays of thomas merton (new york: new directions, 1981). 10 ross labrie’s the catholic imagination in american literature (missouri: university of missouri press, 1997), and paul elie’s the life you save may be your own: an american pilgrimage: thomas merton, flannery o’connor, dorothy day and walker percy (new york: farrar, straus and giroux, 2003), provide excellent studies of the importance of merton’s engagement with catholic writers in america. malgorzata poks’ thomas merton and latin america: a consonance of voices (germany: lambert academic publishing, 2011) examines his relations with latin american poets. 11 anne e. carr, a search for wisdom and spirit: thomas merton’s theology of self (notre dame: university of notre dame press, 1988), 146. 12 robert faggen, ed., striving towards being: the letters of thomas merton and czeslaw milosz (new york: farrar, straus and giroux, 1997), 61-62. 33 bibliographic essay: thomas merton theolib.org their correspondence reflects, albeit in a slanted way, an effort to clarify this vision of the world redeemed in christ. merton’s eagerness to join with milosz, albert camus, arthur koestler and others in a revolt against the nihilism of the twentieth century is apparent from the outset.13 for merton, however, that revolt was grounded in christ. in a letter dated the 28th of february 1959, merton writes: milosz — life is on our side. the silence and the cross of which we know are forces that cannot be defeated. in silence and suffering, in the heartbreaking effort to be honest in the midst of dishonesty (most of all our own dishonesty), in all these is victory. it is christ in us who drives us through darkness to a light of which we have no conception and which can only be found by passing through apparent despair. everything has to be tested. all relations have to be tried. all loyalties have to pass through fire. much has to be lost. much in us has to be killed, even much that is best in us. but victory is certain. the resurrection is the only light, and with that light there is no error.14 with the publications of roger lipsey’s angelic mistakes; the art of thomas merton,15 monica weis’ the environmental vision of thomas merton,16 and christopher pramuk’s sophia: the hidden christ of thomas merton,17 we are presented with seminal studies that address the question raised by aelred graham. each sheds new light on merton’s monastic vocation as a visionary of the modern world redeemed in christ. lipsey draws our attention to merton’s inquiry into the contemplative dimension of the human experience via his drawing and calligraphy. weis shows how merton’s contemplative vision of nature reveals god drawing humanity into a collaborative endeavor to restore a paradise that has become obscured and threatened by commercial pursuits of wealth and power. pramuk reveals the source of merton’s contemplative vision of the world rooted in a christology enriched by his inquiry into other traditions that expanded his inclusive vision for a fragmented and conflicted world. in examining these three works, this essay will place them in their bibliographic contexts. with this in mind, biographical background will be provided with reference to merton’s work as an artist, environmentalist, and monastic theologian. artist the opening paragraph of merton’s autobiography, the seven storey mountain, describes the world in which his pilgrimage would take place. on the last day of january 1915, under the sign of the water bearer, in a year of a great war, and down in the shadow of some french mountain on the borders of spain, i came into the world. free by nature, in the image of god, i was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which i was born. that world was the picture of hell, full of men like myself, loving god and yet hating him, born to love him, living instead in fear and hopeless self-contradictory hungers.18 it would be in this world, a world in which death, fear, and hatred are ever present, that merton would set out on a path that would eventually bring him to the abbey of gethsemani hidden away in the knobs of kentucky. within those walls, his journey would continue ever deeper into the world of the twentieth century. the despairing image of his age so aptly described here became the impetus of a lifelong search for something hidden within the human experience. 13 faggen, 4; letter to milosz dated the 6th of december 1958. 14 faggen, 19-20. 15 roger lipsey, angelic mistakes (boston, masschusetts: new seeds books, 2006). roger lipsey earned a ph.d. in the history of art at the institute of fine arts, new york university. he is director of the parent company that publishes the journal parabola. 16 monica weis, the environmental vision of thomas merton (lexington, kentucky: the university press of kentucky, 2011). monica weis, ph.d., is a sister of st. joseph and a professor of english and director of the master of arts in liberal studies program at nazareth college in rochester, new york. 17 christopher pramuk, sophia; the hidden christ of thomas merton (collegeville, minnesota: liturgical press, 2009). christopher pramuk, ph.d., is associate professor of theology at xavier university in cincinnati, ohio. 18 thomas merton, the seven storey mountain (new york: harcourt, brace and company, 1948), 3. 34 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org merton understood that both the awareness of his age and the longing for a hidden wholeness were a legacy left to him by his parents. my father and mother were captives in that world, knowing they did not belong with it or in it, and yet unable to get away from it. they were in the world and not of it — not because they were saints, but in a different way: because they were artists. the integrity of an artist lifts a man above the level of the world without delivering him from it….i inherited from my father his way of looking at things and some of his integrity and from my mother some of her dissatisfaction with the mess that the world is in, and some of her versatility. from both i got capacities for work and vision and enjoyment and expression…19 merton was indebted to his father for a vision of the world that “was sane, full of balance, full of veneration for structure …without decoration or superfluous comment.” he remembers his father as a “religious man (who) respect(ed) the power of god’s creation to bear witness for itself.”20 as we shall see, what merton remembers of his father and his father’s paintings would hold true for his own work as an artist-monk whose primary concern was to reveal the sublime grandeur of a hidden presence to an age that lacked and sorely needed a new vision of the world for the years that lie ahead. merton’s life and work can be understood as emerging out of the tension between these two visions of the world. throughout the years, merton’s literary works have attracted the attention of scholars who observed in his letters, journals, essays, poetry, and photography the mind of an artist exploring, discovering and expressing in those works a new vision of the world that emerges from the convergence of the two.21 a hidden wholeness / the visual world of thomas merton, published two years after his death, brought to the public’s attention the collaborative work of merton and his friend, john howard griffin. in the prologue, griffin explains: thomas merton’s art is grounded in this belief that at profound, often imperceived levels “everything connects” — even apparent opposites. he was affronted by what was popularly termed “religious art,” or at least by an art manacled to religious externals in such a manner that it cannot be free and true to itself. an art, on the contrary, that penetrated some of the mystery that is internal to reality elicited a deep response from him.22 the groundbreaking work of roger lipsey opens a deeper inquiry into merton’s search for a hidden wholeness where “everything connects — even apparent opposites.” lipsey’s earlier work, the spiritual in twentieth century art, prepared the way for angelic mistakes: the art of thomas merton. lipsey notes at the outset merton’s indebtedness to wassily kandinsky, father of abstract art. kandinsky’s book, concerning the spiritual in art, published in 1911, explored the possibilities of a new art that would give expression to “two universes in one — the visible universe of matter, space, and time, and an invisible universe of spiritual energies.” lipsey’s interest, like that of kandinsky’s, extends beyond the world of art to the loss of deeper dimensions of life in the modern world that had become “dominated by science and material progress, distorted by world wars and totalitarian regimes, and unsure of its metaphysics…”23 merton’s search for a hidden wholeness resonated with lipsey’s thoughts on art and spirituality. he recognizes in merton a person who shared his view of and concern for the world albeit from a different vantage point than that of an artist’s studio. there is a close affinity between lipsey’s artist in search for the deeper dimensions of life and merton’s vocation as 19 the seven storey mountain, 3-4. 20 the seven storey mountain, 3. 21 the following publications represent inquiries into merton as an artist: victor kramer, thomas merton: monk and artist (kalamazoo, michigan: cisterican publications, 1987); ross labrie, the art of thomas merton (texas: texas christian press, 1979); marie theresa coombs, mystery hidden yet revealed: a study of the interrelationship of transcendence, self-actualization and creative expression, with reference to the lives and the works of thomas merton and georgia o’keeffe (oregon: wipf and stock publishers, 2003); debra prasad patnak, ed., geography of holiness: the photography of thomas merton (new york: pilgrim press, 1980). 22 thomas merton and john howard griffin, a hidden wholeness / the visual world of thomas merton (georgia: norman s. berg, 1977), 3. 23 lipsey, the spiritual in twentieth-century art, 3. 35 bibliographic essay: thomas merton theolib.org a monk striving to look beyond and within, surrendering himself to god, and thereby allowing all preconceived notions to be undone in order to catch a glimpse of a deeper and more profound vision of life. note lipsey’s description of the artist-monk: traveling those paths with difficulty, the traveler, now a pilgrim, is changed. the spiritual is not an abstract knowledge of cosmos or human nature; it is a renewed discovery, a beginning again and again. the pilgrim gains new eyes, a new feeling for things, a new sense of life, and this newness within cannot help but brighten the world at large and reveal its exquisite order. then the new way of being fades or abruptly vanishes, together with all that it naturally reveals. the pilgrim is left wondering. however grand all that was, it lasted only a short while and cost a great deal. is there any reason to go on? who but a fool would collect moments of vision and coherent being, when one obviously needs permanence?24 for lipsey, merton was a pilgrim-monk, albeit with a vow of stability, whose entire life was a search for god. he was a fool-for-christ sustained in his holy quest by brief visions of the one he loved. angelic mistakes focuses on the thirty-four works from nine hundred of merton’s original drawings and calligraphies in the archive at the thomas merton center. lipsey realized that the collection offered another chapter on the spiritual dimension of twentieth-century art while also providing insight into merton’s lifelong journey.25 the book is exceptionally well organized, beginning with a foreword by paul pearson26 that provides the biographical background to merton’s interest in art. this brief historical overview focuses on three periods: pen and ink illustrations for novels written during his school days at the lycee ingres in montauban, in 1926; cartoons published in the columbia jester during his college days at columbia in the mid-to late-1930s; and the drawings from his hermitage in the 1960s. lipsey’s excellent essay entitled “the invisible art of a highly visible man” follows. he traces in greater detail the three periods of merton’s art. his account does not include the illustrations but rather focuses on the college cartoons, early monastic sketches of the virgin and st. john of the cross, and the drawing that merton began in the fall of 1960. most valuable is lipsey’s tracing out of influences reflected in the drawings that range from ulfert wilke in louisville to ad reinhardt in new york to kasimir malevich and vladimir tatlin in russia to tao calligraphers and the zen master d.t. suzuki. with regard to merton’s materials and methods, lipsey offers here and in the appendix an interesting investigation into merton’s hermitage-studio by three professors from the art department at the university of louisville who worked with him to uncover merton’s process of printmaking. while all of this information is interesting and helpful, it is when lipsey turns to the task of interpreting merton’s art that the reading becomes most intriguing. in a brief preface to the drawings, lipsey explains that the presentation of the drawings in this volume is similar to the layout developed by merton in monks pond, a magazine he published from gethsemani, wherein drawings were juxtaposed with short texts. on the one hand, we are told that the text that has been selected for each of the drawings reflects interior experiences and thoughts that characterized merton’s life in the 1960s. on the other hand, we are warned not to read the texts as “captions” or view the drawings as “illustrations.” the drawings are presented on one page and the texts on the opposite. for example, image number five on page 71 resembles an enso, that is to say, a prevalent image in zen art that represents a circle of enlightenment. the brush stroke is bold. the ink is dark. the circle is dynamic. on the facing page, page 70, lipsey provides a title, not a shadow but a sign, and two quotes, the first quote from conjectures of a guilty bystander and the second from “answers from art and freedom” in raid on the unspeakable: the nineteenth-century european and american realists were so realistic that their pictures were totally unlike what they were supposed to represent. and the first thing wrong with them was, of course, precisely that they were pictures. in any case, nothing resembles reality less than the photograph. nothing resembles substances less than its shadow. to convey the meaning of something substantial you have to use not a shadow but a sign, 24 lipsey, the spiritual in twentieth-century art, 9-10. 25 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 3. 26 dr. paul m. pearson is director and archivist of the thomas merton center at bellarmine university in louisville, kentucky. 36 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org not the imitation but the image. the image is a new and different reality, and of course it does not convey an impression of some object, but the mind of the subject: and that is something else again. true artistic freedom can never be a matter of sheer willfulness, or arbitrary posturing. it is the outcome of authentic possibilities, understood and accepted in their own terms, not the refusal of the concrete in favor of the purely “interior.” in the last analysis, the only valid witness to the artist’s creative freedom is his work itself. the artist builds his freedom and forms his own artistic conscience, by the work of his hands. only when the work is finished can he tell whether or not it was done “freely.” both the drawing and the two quotes offer “markings” of merton’s journey and formation.27 the references to “a new and different reality” and “the mind of the subject” direct us to what lies within merton and specifically to his “creative freedom” as an artist-monk. the “new and different reality” is not created by the artist but rather witnessed by the artist as “spontaneous forms from nowhere.” we now turn to “signatures: notes on the author’s drawings” that lipsey places in the book just before the thirtyfour drawings. it was originally published in raids on the unspeakable in 1966. previous to this publication, the essay was presented as gallery notes for the exhibition of selected drawings. merton begins by saying what the drawings are not. they are not works of art or polemics against art. the viewer is not to look for traces of irony. nor will s/he recognize familiar categories or be able to say this is a drawing of this or that. more importantly, he goes on to say what the drawings are. they are described as “signs without prearrangement, figures of reconciliation, notes of harmony, inventions perhaps, but not in the sense of ‘findings’ arrived at by the contrived agreement of idea and execution.” while he appears to be clarifying the nature and purpose of these “abstractions,” he eventually moves away from a specific definition and eventually decides “one might call them graffiti rather than calligraphies” that summon the viewer to “awareness, but not to ‘awareness of.’”28 why does merton choose to describe his drawings as graffiti? while he makes reference to other definitions, saying it may be like this or that, terms familiar to us from various artistic traditions, he chooses graffiti. it is a far more public genre than abstract paintings displayed in museums or calligraphies shelved in libraries and monasteries. graffiti are public statements spontaneously scribbled outside in the open on the sides of trains, bridges, and vacant buildings. it is important to point out that these drawings even exist outside the church. as lipsey points out, they were conceived and presented “at a certain inner distance from the church . . . and settled, instead, in an ecumenical, cross-cultural terrain where it awaited its audience.”29 as monk-artist, merton situates himself outside all institutions, on the border between those institutions and a larger and all-encompassing reality that he directly grasped as the source of life and creativity. for this reason, merton refers to the drawings as extending “beyond language.”30 furthermore, he wants us to see the drawings as “signatures of someone not around” who lives “in the desert”31 “collaborating with solitude,”32 contracting with the movement of life, and witnessing to the one who is hidden yet present.33 while angelic mistakes opens another and important perspective on merton’s vocation as a monk, does it provide any insight into his monastic vocation and vision of the world redeemed in christ? the simple answer is yes provided we 27 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 59. 28 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 61. 29 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 8-9. 30 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 50, 51. 31 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 39, 41. 32 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 3. 33 lipsey, angelic mistakes, 42. regarding merton’s relationship to his potential audience, lipsey writes, “merton surrounded his visual art with as many walls, trip wires, and rabbit traps as he could think of to keep interpreters away. the images are not ‘drawings of,’he said. they are ‘summonses to awareness’ but ‘not to awareness of.’ in case we still miss the point, he insisted that ‘their “meaning” is not to be sought on the level of convention or of concept’ and ‘there is no need to categorize these marks.’ they are ‘signatures of someone who is not around.’” in other words, no interpretation is appropriate and no artist is available for discussion. this is the situation as we approach the engaging task of interpreting his art. we are unwelcome.” angelic mistakes, 43. 37 bibliographic essay: thomas merton theolib.org clarify what we mean. he does not provide a vision but rather invokes the vision with seemingly “innocent” graffiti that sabotage our carefully constructed worldviews to catch a glimpse of a presence, hidden yet at work, creating, sustaining, and redeeming life. so, what kind of monk was merton? it is becoming increasingly clear that he was an artist-monk who, like many artists before him, was driven by a vision beyond his immediate grasp but nonetheless captive of his heart. social critic this “glimpsing” was not confined to the monastic enclosure. in conjectures of a guilty bystander, merton provides an account of an experience at the corner of fourth and walnut in louisville, kentucky. this is recognized as a turning point in his life that would significantly refocus his writings on prayer and contemplation to include war and peace, race and justice, and other social issues facing humankind in the coming decades. in louisville, at the corner of fourth and walnut, in the center of the shopping district, i was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that i loved all those people, that they were mine and i theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. it was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. the whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. not that i question the reality of my vocation, or of my monastic life: but the conception of “separate from the world” that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion: the illusion that by making vows we become a different species of being, pseudo-angels, “spiritual men,” men of interior life, what have you.34 no longer seeing himself separate from the world, merton not only entered the world but brought with him the unique vantage point of a monk with a prophetic outlook. it has often been noticed that merton anticipated in his writings many of the challenges presently facing the church and in the world with surprising insight.35 this is particularly true with regard to the present environmental crisis. from the distant vantage point of knobs of kentucky, he was able to observe the environmental problem that was looming over the horizon. in “rain and the rhinoceros” merton describes a rainy day in the hermitage. this account is important for it shows how his daily life and his experience of nature intersect to reveal an awareness of the natural world that he knew to be missing for his contemporaries. let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. by “they” i mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. the time will come when they will sell you even your rain. at the moment it is still free, and i am in it. i celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness. the rain i am in is not like the rain of cities. it fills the woods with an immense and confused sound. it covers the flat roof of the cabin and its porch with inconsistent and controlled rhythms. and i listen, because it reminds me again and again that the whole world runs by rhythms i have not yet learned to recognize, rhythms that are not those of the engineer. i came up here from the monastery last night, sloshing through the cornfield, said vespers, and put some oatmeal on the coleman stove for supper. it boiled over while i was listening to the rain and toasting a piece of bread at the log fire. the night became very dark. the rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor. think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling 34 thomas merton, conjectures of a guilty bystander (new york: doubleday, 1966), 140-1. 35 over the years there have been important works on merton as social critic: robert incausti’s thomas merton’s american prophecy (new york: suny press, 1998); james thomas baker’s thomas merton social critic (lexington: university press of kentucky, 2009); and robert nugent’s silence speaks: teilhard de chardin, yves congar, john courtney murray and thomas merton (new jersey: paulist press, 2011). 38 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside! what a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by the wonderful unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everyone in the hollows!36 by invoking in the title a reference to ionesco’s rhinoceros, merton compares the “they” in his essay with the characters in the theatrical production who lose their humanity by running blindly with the herd. for merton, blindness was not the only problem underlying the social issues of the twentieth century. without the interior silence to which merton witnesses here, the voice of nature goes unheard. blind and deaf, we strip hillsides, pollute streams, and destroy natural habitats. this spiritual disability presents another and equally devastating effect. we will no longer hear or catch glimpses of “a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor.” for merton the outer world and the interior life are not separate and unrelated. on the contrary, nature and humanity share an intimate relationship. this blending of inner and outer geography is reflected in his art, writings and, most importantly, his life. the integrating of geographies played a significant role in the unfolding transformation of merton’s consciousness, spirituality, and vision.37 weis’s study of merton’s concern for the environment first found expression in a 2005 publication entitled thomas merton’s gethsemani; landscape of paradise.38 in 2011, she would publish a more comprehensive study with the environmental vision of thomas merton. focusing on the connection between merton’s spirituality and his emerging ecological consciousness, this publication brings to our attention the necessity to “see” the world in a direct and immediate manner that is characteristic of contemplatives and poets. with regard to the connection between merton’s spirituality as a cistercian monk and his concern for the environment, fr. james conner in the foreword to this book writes: “caeli enarrant gloriam dei”: “the heavens proclaim the glory of god; and the firmament shows forth his handiwork” (psalm 19:1). thomas merton chanted these words from the psalms almost every week for the twenty-seven years of his monastic life. these, along with many other expressions found in the psalms, served to deepen merton’s awareness of creation as a manifestation of god in the world.39 conner draws to our attention the way in which technology is one of the main obstacles to contemplation and the ability to see the world clearly, beyond abstractions and illusions — abstractions and illusions that result in the degradation of the natural world: merton shows that it will be impossible to take part in this dance (of creation) so long as we view creation and other people simply as objects; doing so removes the seer from direct contact with the reality he or she sees. merton illustrates this by contrasting the way a child views a tree — a vision “which utterly simple, uncolored by prejudice, and ‘new’” — with the lumberman’s vision “entirely conditioned by profit motives and considerations of business.” he says that “this exaggeration of the subject-object relationship by material interest and technical speculation is one of the main obstacles to contemplation.”40 while both points made by conner clearly articulate the relationship between the way in which the contemplative life opens the eyes to a clear and direct vision of the world and nature in its own right, the second paragraph underscores the challenge presented by the technological age to seeing life in a deeper and more authentic way, and this is the problem that the environmental vision of thomas merton addresses. as a consequence, the book not only offers a major contribution to merton studies but to environmental studies that seek to understand and address a social problem that threatens the future of our planet. 36 thomas merton, “rain and the rhinoceros” in raids on the unspeakable (new york: new directions, 1964), 9. 37 weis, the environmental vision of thomas merton, 97-98. 38 harry l. hinkle, jonathan montaldo and monica weis, thomas merton’s gethsemani; landscape of paradise (lexington: the university press of kentucky, 2005). 39 weis, the environmental vision, ix. 40 weis, the environmental vision, ix. 39 bibliographic essay: thomas merton theolib.org weis focuses on “touchstone” moments in merton’s life. these brief moments in time are recognized as transformative “flashes of vision” and “spurts of spiritual growth” for merton.41 consequently, each moment contributed to merton’s formation as a monk and opened for him a vision of a hidden wholeness. we will only touch on two. the first chapter is entitled “encountering rachel carson; environmentalist and provocateur.” in 1963, merton read carson’s silent spring. soon afterwards he wrote carson a letter. weis sees this encounter as an “epiphanic event” in merton’s life. merton’s letter reveals his appreciation for carson’s timely book, his concern for “both birds and people,” and his belief that the environmental crisis was part of a much larger problem. merton writes: we dare to use our titanic power in a way that threatens not only civilization but life itself. the same mental processing, i almost said mental illness, seems to be at work in both cases, and your book makes it clear to me that there is a consistent pattern running through everything that we do, through every aspect of our culture, our thought, our economy, our whole way of life. what this pattern is i cannot say clearly, but i believe it is now the most vitally important thing for all of us … to try to arrive at a clear, cogent statement of our ills, so that we may begin to correct them…. it seems that our remedies are instinctively those which aggravate the sickness: the remedies are expressions of the sickness itself. i would almost dare to say that the sickness is perhaps a very real and very dreadful hatred of life.42 the tone and message here is reminiscent of the opening paragraph in seven storey mountain. once again, the vision of a world imprisoned in its own fear and hatred is set before us. this vision of the world, however, does not stand alone. merton continues to collect moments of a deeper vision of things. another touchstone moment considered by weis is the experience at fourth and walnut on the 19th of march 1958. the vision that emerged at that moment was, as already noted, significant for merton. after narrating an account of the event, merton explains its significance: again, that expression, le point vierge, (i cannot translate it) comes in here. at the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a spark which belongs entirely to god, which is never at our disposal, from which god disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. this little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of god in us. it is so to speak his name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. it is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. it is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely …. i have no program for this seeing. it is only given. but the gate of heaven is everywhere.43 the epiphany in louisville provided for merton insight into humanity’s relationship with god that in his words makes “all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish.” the hidden wholeness that he has sought from his earliest years is here revealed and eventually becomes for him an understanding of god as the hidden ground of love.44 this awareness of the point of nothingness underlying all things was essential to merton’s formation as a monk and central to the vision he wished to impart to the world. he found in the notion of le point vierge an insight that influenced his approach to social issues. weis’s skillful unfolding of merton’s environmental consciousness reveals a vision of “life itself, fully awake, fully alive, fully aware that it is alive.” she carefully clarifies the ways in which vision informed merton’s interior life. his interior 41 weis, the environmental vision, 3. 42 weis, the environmental vision, 12-14. 43 merton, conjectures of a guilty bystander, 142. 44 in a letter to amiya chakravarty dated the 13th of april 1967, merton writes: “the reality that is present to us and in us: call it being, call it atman, call it pneuma … or silence. and the simple fact that by being attentive, by listening to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen which cannot be learned any more than breathing), we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of love for which there can be no explanations.” see merton, hidden ground of love, 115. 40 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org landscape became one with the woods thereby creating within him a “spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being.”45 to illustrate, weis quotes merton’s reflections on the season of lent wherein nature and spiritual formation resonant with one another: the first sunday of lent, as i now know, is a great feast. christ has sanctified the desert and in the desert i discovered it. the woods have all become young in the discipline of spring, but it is the discipline of expectancy only. which one cut more keenly? the february sunlight or the air? there are no buds. buds are not guessed or even thought of this early in lent. but the wilderness shines with promise. the land is first in simplicity and strength. everything foretells the coming of the holy spring. i had never before spoken freely or so intimately with woods, hills, buds, water and sky. on this great day, however, they understood their position and they remained mute in the presence of the beloved. only his light was obvious and eloquent. my brother and sister, the light and the water. the stump and the stone. the tables of rock. the blue, naked sky. tractor tracks, a little waterfall. and mediterranean solitude. i thought of italy after my beloved had spoken and was gone.46 the environment is no longer seen as simply the context in which we live or a resource for commerce but rather a sacrament of god’s presence in nature sanctified by christ. it is through the witness of the woods becoming “young in the discipline of spring” that we enter into the “expectancy” of our interior wilderness that like february days “foretells the coming of the holy spring.” any distinction between humanity and nature is gone; we have become one with “the light and the water” whom merton addresses and encourages us to address as “brother and sister.” merton’s vision of the world is intimate, full of wonder and awe, graced with the presence of his beloved. the closing line recalls a moment described in the seven storey mountain when, as a college student visiting churches in rome, merton’s vision of christ was first formed.47 monk as noted at the outset of this essay, cunningham and shannon indicate that any inquiry into merton’s life and work must keep in mind that he was first and foremost a monk whose vision of the world was cultivated by monastic practices. monastic life in the trappist tradition was the most significant formative factor for merton. while an artist and social critic, his work was rooted in a life centered in christ. this is most evident from the talks he gave at gethsemani. from october of 1955 until april of 1965 merton gave weekly conferences to the young monks. patrick o’connell has been editing merton’s notes from those conferences. the sixth volume provides merton’s thoughts on the benedictine vows of obedience, stability, and conversion of life. it becomes clear from the notes that merton understood that the ultimate purpose of the vows is the “restoration of one’s authentic identity as made in the divine image and the unconditional gift of this true self to its creator.”48 christian monasticism was clearly the primary formative factor in his life. at the end of the prologue to the sign of jonas, his second journal book that narrates his initial years in the monastery, merton writes: the sign of jesus promised to the generation that did not understand him was the “sign of jonas the prophet” — that is, the sign of his own resurrection. the life of every monk, of every priest, of every christian is signed with the sign of jonas, because we all live by the power of christ’s resurrection. but i feel that my own life is especially sealed with this great sign, which baptism and monastic profession and priestly ordination have burned into the roots of my being, because like jonas himself i find myself traveling toward my destiny in the belly of a paradox.49 45 weis, the environmental vision, 5. 46 weis, the environmental vision, 105. 47 the seven storey mountain, 109. 48 patrick f. o’connell, ed. the life of the vows, volume six in initiation into the monastic tradition, (collegeville, mn: cistercian publications, 2012), liii. 49 merton, sign of jonas (new york: harcourt, brace and company, 1953), 11. 41 bibliographic essay: thomas merton theolib.org for merton, to be a monk meant living the question of what it meant to be a monk. recognizing that he did not satisfy the definition of monk as defined by others, he was nonetheless committed to being true to his own graces and tasks.50 and that would mean embracing those paradoxes that had become apparent to him. he was a silent monk whose voice was heard around the world. he was a solitary hermit who stood in solidarity with all humanity. he was a pilgrim lost in the world on his journey to god leaving along the way journal entries, letters, poetry, essays, and graffiti. those roadside notes reveal that he was never able to say exactly what kind of monk he was. this, however, turned out to be a grace that sustained him. the ambiguities and paradoxes of his vocation contributed to merton’s formation as a monk with a vow of poverty leaving him with only one precious pearl…desire for god.51 for merton, the underlying source of problems facing the modern world is the loss of wisdom. in order to fully appreciate merton’s focus on wisdom as the hidden ground of his life and work, we turn our attention to merton’s beautiful prose poems, hagia sophia. it begins with dawn. the hour of lauds: there is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. this mysterious unity and integrity is wisdom, the mother of all, natura naturans. there is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. it rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility. this is at once my own being, my own nature, and the gift of my creator’s thought and art within me, speaking hagia sophia, speaking as my sister, wisdom ….it is like the one christ awakening in all the separate selves that ever were separate and isolated and alone in all the lands of the earth. it is like all minds coming back together into awareness from all distractions, cross-purposed and confusions, into unity of love. it i like the first morning of the world (when adam, at the sweet voice of wisdom awoke from nonentity and knew her), and like the last morning of the world when all the fragments of adam will return from death at the voice of hagia sophia, and will know where they stand.52 as is readily evident from these few lines, here is the beginning of merton’s vision of christ in the world. it is the vision of a contemplative created from moments of insight woven together by a brilliant intellect and a highly imaginative artist. and, as is equally evident, it is a vision emerging from merton’s lifelong experience extending back to his earliest years as a child of bohemian artists. consequently, this vision is essential to understanding the depth of his vocation as a monk. any effort to define what kind of monk he was must begin here. hagia sophia is the focus of christopher pramuk’s recent inquiry into merton’s christology.53 in sophia: the hidden christ of thomas merton pramuk draws our attention to the christ that was the center of merton’s life and the focus of his work. here we are introduced to the unseen christ who was for merton “a love and a presence that breaks through into the world, a living symbol and name” through which the living god is encountered. it was this reality that merton “chose, at his poetic and prophetic best, to structure theological discourse.”54 pramuk weaves together theology, philosophy, and literature in order to discern and express the complex patterns of merton’s thought in this poem. his inquiry into the influence of russian sophia tradition on hagia sophia provides an exegetical commentary that reveals the maturing of merton’s theology. noting a journal entry from the 25th of april 1957, pramuk points to merton’s admiration for bulgakov and berdyaev’s courage to risk mistakes in an effort to “say something great and worthy of god.”55 for merton, their works revealed 50 merton, dancing in the water of life, 98. 51 thomas merton, thoughts in solitude (new york: farrar, straus & cudahy, 1958), 83. 52 pramuk, sophia, 301. 53 the merton annual, 23, eds. gray matthews and david belcastro, celebrated pramuk’s book with a review symposium. the book was reviewed by three merton scholars: daniel horan, edward kaplan, and lynn szabo. the symposium ends with pramuk’s response. an earlier study of his christology is george kilcourse, ace of freedoms; thomas merton’s christology (notre dame, in: university of notre dame press, 1993). 54 pramuk, sophia, xxiii. 55 pramuk, sophia, 11. 42 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org “profound insights into the real meaning of christianity — which we cannot simply ignore.”56 those profound insights contributed significantly to merton’s imagination and intellect in the creation of hagia sophia and his vision of christ in the world. the journal entry not only informs our appreciation of the poem but also reveals something of importance regarding merton. he too was willing to risk mistakes. he too sought to say something great and worthy of god. and, he too was aware that whatever was revealed regarding god would result in profound insights into christianity. the entry continues: most important of all — man’s creative vocation to prepare, consciously, the ultimate triumph of divine wisdom. man, the microcosm, the heart of the universe, is the one who is called to bring about the fusion of cosmic and historic process in the final invocation of god’s wisdom and love. in the name of christ and by his power, man has worked to accomplish.…our life is a powerful pentecost in which the holy spirit, ever active in us, seeks to reach through our inspired hands and tongues into the very heart of the material world created to be spiritualized through the work of the church, the mystical body of the incarnate word of god.57 merton’s words say much about his monastic vocation and vision of the world redeemed in christ. what kind of monk was he? he was a monk who turned his inspired hands as a writer and artist to the difficult task of awakening humanity to the spiritual dimensions of life. this becomes most apparent while reading hagia sophia. fortunately for the reader, the poem is included in its entirety at the end of the book.58 pramuk draws the reader’s attention time and again to the poem. consequently, the reader returns to the poem, less with an analytical mind than a contemplative one to catch a glimpse of the hidden christ to whom merton bears witnesses. this reading experience underscores what makes this book on merton’s christology uniquely important. it is not simply a book about merton’s understanding a theological doctrine but an invitation to an experiential approach to christology. this is what we have come to expect from a monk who was primarily concerned with the transformation of the human heart and mind enlightened by wisdom. the book is thus more than a theological study for scholars. it makes theology relevant and available to the lives of persons who seek, as milosz noted, a vision of the world redeemed in christ.59 as a personal rather than simply an intellectual inquiry, pramuk traces the emergence of sophia in merton’s life and writings. pramuk presents merton’s christology as a story-shaped theology of god retrieved from merton’s life as presented in his journals, letters, essays, and poetry. here we see merton as awakened time and again by the mysterious figure of sophia. pramuk explains: first, there was a dream (february 28, 1958) in which a young jewish girl named “proverb” came to embrace him, a dream merton later confessed to the russian poet and novelist boris pasternak (october 23, 1958). she then came to him in the crossroads of a great city (march 18, 1958), the much-celebrated epiphany at the crossroads of fourth and walnut in louisville, kentucky. she found him again in the burning woods near gethsemani (march 19, 1959), this time in the faces of local farm children, “poor little christs with holes in their pants and … sweet, sweet voices.” over a year later, (july 2, 1960), on the feast of visitation, she came in the guise of a nurse, whose gentle whispers awakened him early one morning as he lay in the hospital. the experience strangely prefigured merton’s encounter with “m.,” the nurse with whom he would fall in love in the spring of 1966: “at 5:30, as i was dreaming, in a very quiet hospital, the soft voice of the nurse awoke me gently from my dream — and it was like awakening for the first time from all the dreams of my life — as if 56 pramuk, sophia, 12. 57 pramuk, sophia, 12. 58 sophia: the hidden christ of thomas merton includes seven of merton’s drawings placed at the outset of the preface and following six chapters. they include images of a woman (mary/sophia), mother and child, and christ unveiling the old testament/sophia. the book also includes with the poem a line-cut of victor hammer’s triptych painting of “hagia sophia crowning the young christ.” merton saw the triptych while at the hammer’s home for lunch. 59 the importance of pramuk’s book for lay persons became evident when a local merton study group read the book over the course of a year. without exception, the consensus was that it was the most significant book that they had read in years. this is a tribute to both merton and pramuk whose respect and concern for the reader is most apparent. 43 bibliographic essay: thomas merton theolib.org the blessed virgin herself, as if wisdom had awakened me. we do not hear the soft voice, the gentle voice, the feminine voice, the voice of the mother: yet she speaks to everyone and in everything. wisdom cries out in the market place — “if anyone is little let him come to me.”60 the author identifies and clarifies the significance of these epiphanies during the last decade of merton’s life. in so doing, he stresses two important insights that are true not only with reference to merton’s christology but also to the intention of merton’s vocation as a monk committed to sharing with the world the redemption for which humanity longs. the vision of sophia, the hidden christ, is not an abstraction but rather a reality deeply integrated in the very fabric of every aspect of life: religion, politics, economics, and various social issues. furthermore, it is not limited to a moment of enlightenment but “an experience or event of being embraced by love and mercy, the warmth of her embrace and of her heart.”61 this personal experience of god was essential to merton’s life and work. as noted by pramuk, “if we keep in mind the social and intellectual fragmentation of the 1960’s, irruptions never far from merton’s view, it is enough to truly wonder, how did the center hold for merton? what kept him from falling apart?”62 the situation was particularly challenging for this was an “era in which a thousand voices proclaim, many quite credibly, that there really is no center.”63 the search for a center was at the heart of merton’s pilgrimage. the monastery was the desert in which the journey took place. and, it was there that he discovered christ, not as a theological idea but as a living reality of the hidden and unseen christ/ sophia at work in the world. it was because of his awareness of this inclusive presence that merton was free to embrace the world. merton’s expansive vision of god’s redemptive work in christ/sophia witnesses to a world in which humanity and nature are embraced as brother and sister.64 this christology, so skillfully retrieved from the merton corpus and beautifully represented by pramuk, was the heart of a monk whose vision opened possibilities for the world as it prepared to move into the 21st century. conclusion throughout this essay, we have observed the convergence of two questions. on the one hand, what kind of monk was merton? on the other hand, what was his vision of the world redeemed in christ? lipsey, weis, and pramuk have each provided valuable perspectives on merton’s monastic vocation and together provide an image of merton far more complicated than first presented by alred graham in 1953. simply stated, he was a monk who revealed in his life and work a vision of the world redeemed in christ. drawing on his multiple talents as writer and artist, he sought to share that vision with the world. his concern for and commitment to that world extended the vision to all aspects of modern society with prophetic insight that remains relevant to readers today. perhaps most importantly, we have seen that he was a christian monk within the cistercian tradition of the roman catholic church who labored long and hard to be a faithful servant to his lord. whatever may be added to our understanding of merton legacy in the future, this must not be forgotten or diminished. those who may have reservations regarding his faithfulness need only to read merton’s essay on clement of alexandria, a church father whom he greatly admired: the voice of clement is the voice of one who fully penetrates the mystery of pascha chrisiti, the christian exodus from this world in and with the risen christ. he was the full triumphant sense of victory that is authentically and perfectly christian: a victory over death, over sin, over the confusions and dissensions of this world, with its raging cruelty and its futile concerns. a victory which leads not to contempt of man and of the world, but on the contrary to a true, pure, serene love, filled with compassion, able to discover and to “save” for christ all that is good and noble in man, in society, in philosophy and in humanistic culture. this is the 60 pramuk, sophia, 13. 61 pramuk, sophia, 19. 62 pramuk, sophia, 2. 63 pramuk, sophia, 27. 64 pramuk, sophia, 285. 44 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org greatness and genius of clement, who was no desert father. he lived in the midst of alexandria, moved amid its crowds, knew its intellectual elite, and loved them all in christ.65 as was true for clement of alexandria, so was it for thomas merton. both men, devoted to christ, loved their fellow citizens without reservation or discrimination, seeking to realize with their generation a world redeemed by god in christ. 65 clement of alexandria, selections from the protreptikos (new york: new directions, 1962). � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 essay the curious case of a “mayflower bible” by carolyn k. coates abstract: a library at a small liberal arts university receives from a donor an old book, which has long been assumed to be a mayflower bible. a staff librarian who is not accustomed to dealing with rare books reflects on the process of determining the true identity of the volume, its provenance, and the story behind it, with particular interest in the value of this experience to a library whose special collections are limited. attention to the history of the book and of print culture demonstrate that even the most unlikely library gifts can serve the liberal arts institution through their value both as text and as artifact. in the early autumn of 2006, a local resident visited the j. eugene smith library of eastern connecticut state university, inquiring after an old bible that he had donated a few years before. the staff in the archives, embarrassed, did not recall the donation. the book was finally located in a file cabinet in the library’s administrative offices. sadly, it was in poor condition, lacking a title page and other identifying information (no doubt this was a factor in the book’s being ignored and set aside), but it was also outside of the realm of our usual collections, which focus on supporting our undergraduate liberal arts, education, and business programs. our donor’s particular query on this occasion had to do with two notes that had been tucked between the pages. one was a typewritten message on office letterhead from the late nineteenth century; the other was a penciled note on a small scrap of paper. both stated that this book was a copy of the original king james bible, printed in 1611 and brought to north america on the mayflower in 1620. two observations seemed to lend credence to this claim. one was the antiquity of the volume. this was indeed an old book, made to appear even older through damage and neglect. second was the fact that the text of the book followed the chapter order of the protestant bible so that it looked like a bible. (unfortunately, its damage was such that the extant pages only begin with leviticus.) could it in fact be a mayflower bible? if not, then what of these other notes claiming that it was? clearly the book, whatever its proper title, was a family heirloom of some importance. and what brought it, dilapidated and abandoned, to a small university in eastern connecticut? our donor, mr. jack connell, had no specific recollection of where he had obtained the book. some years before, he had had a business cleaning out attics and garages all over eastern connecticut and this was something that he had acquired along the way. he had kept it himself for a while and then tried to find it a permanent home. after being turned down by the connecticut state library and plimouth plantation, he brought it to eastern. someone in new haven (he could not remember who) had told mr. connell that the book dated from the early seventeenth century. when the book arrived in the library’s technical services department for cataloging a few days after mr. connell’s visit, i immediately volunteered to investigate. the search took me on a meandering path through puritan immigration and theological disputes, my first attempts at genealogical research, and into some reflections on print culture and american patriotic myth-making. what did i learn from these investigations? the first lesson learned: remember to focus on the book in hand, even if other evidence seems to point in the wrong direction. the several pieces of ephemera tucked between the pages of the book documented some of the history of the volume itself. on march 9, 1896, james l. gates, of milwaukee, wisconsin, wrote a letter, addressed to an carolyn k. coates is acquisitions librarian at the j. eugene smith library, eastern connecticut state university, willimantic, connecticut. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association � volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 unknown recipient, outlining the provenance of an old book that had come into his family’s possession through his second wife, katherine. he wrote: “this bible is the king james edition, published a.d. 1611. it came over in the mayflower in 1620 and was in the possession of the winthrops who married into the hilton family of newburyport, mass., who afterwards moved to newmarket, n. h. the hiltons married the meades and this book has been in the meade family for four or five generations, to-wit: “from father to son until john g. meade of northwood center, n. h. gave it to his youngest daughter, mrs. james l. gates, in the summer of 1893 for exhibition at the world’s fair in chicago. previous to 1893 this bible had been in the same house (still belonging to mr. meade) over 175 years, and the house is in a better state of preservation today than the book is. “this bible was also used by the john howland family. the howland family married into the john thompson family and the thompsons into the meade family….” “mr. gates is not in it.” james l. gates put down this summary as a man of accomplishments, well-known and regarded for his logging, banking, and other business enterprises in neillsville and, later, milwaukee, wisconsin. indeed, his written claims regarding the book seemed quite in keeping with his wife’s distinguished geneaology, even if he couldn’t quite explain how two families, who presumably lived in separate houses, had used the book at the same time. (the full extent to which the meade family’s story had eclipsed the identity of the book itself only became clear to me later.) in his letter the mayflower provenance is all but assumed. several other notes were tucked inside the book. one, which looks to be of more recent origin, outlines the history of the family of william hilton, a plymouth colony settler who immigrated on the fortune, the second ship to arrive at the colony. did our book arrive on the mayflower, or the fortune? was it an early king james bible? the book certainly had the patina of age, and the printing suggests a book of that era, though without a title page or colophon, it was hard to confirm. the first task was to determine exactly what book mr. connell had found. there were reasons to doubt the mayflower connection. though neither a specialist in english ecclesiastical history nor in the history of biblical translations, i had my doubts about both the king james and pilgrim connections. just a year earlier, i had had the chance to examine an authentic king james bible up close. unlike the volume in our library (which in its present damaged state measures approximately 29 cm by 22.5 cm by 7 cm) the early printings of the authorized version were larger books, intended more for public than for private reading. secondly, based on my (very) general knowledge of church history, i suspected that the pilgrims, as puritan separatists, were unlikely to have favored a translation authorized by the king and shaped by a religio-political establishment of which they were suspicious. a quick bit of research in eastern’s stacks confirmed that they favored the geneva bible, a translation produced by the english marian exile community in geneva, which went through numerous editions in the late sixteenth century. 1 i still needed a positive identification for the book, and if it wasn’t a king james translation, then what was it? i considered visiting other connecticut university libraries to compare this 1 evelyn b. tribble, margins and marginality: the printed page in early modern england (charlottesville and london: university press of virginia, 1993), 31-32; cf. john b. thomas iii, “tales from the vault: our mayflower bible,” common-place: the interactive journal of early american life 1, no. 3 (april 2001), http://www.historycooperative.org/ journals/cp/vol-01/no-03/tales/ (accessed april 29, 2007). � theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 book to other seventeenth or eighteenth century bibles in hopes of finding a match, and spent some time browsing bibliographic records for old bibles in local collections in search of likely matches. then i remembered early english books online (eebo), a well-indexed electronic database that includes page images of most books published in english from 1475-1700. at the time, our library did not have access to eebo (or its microfilm antecedent), but i was able to access it through another local library. i started by scanning bibles from the 1600s, looking up exodus and leviticus, the earliest surviving sections of the volume in hand. this quickly became tedious: i narrowed down the possibilities, but nothing matched the ruled pattern on the pages or the typography. the ruled pages were providing a clue that i should have taken more seriously from the start. something about the text of the book itself was puzzling me. i looked more closely—surely the first chapter of leviticus was longer than the few lines printed on the page? the text on the pages reproduced the books of the bible in their conventional order, but the chapters seemed too short. comparing the volume at hand with a modern bible confirmed immediately that this book did not reproduce the entire text of the bible. in the volume in question a heading runs through a ruled rectangle at the top of each page, centered between the page numbers at the margins and the chapter numbers at the gutter: “a paraphrase upon the / hard texts of ….” the next time i searched early english books online i immediately found a work entitled a plaine and familiar explication (by way of paraphrase) of all the hard texts of the whole divine scripture of the old and nevv testament. by ios. exon. london, printed my miles flesher, for nath: butter, at the signe of the pyde bull at s austins gate… mdcxxxiii. checking several page images in both the old and new testaments, i found a perfect match. this book was not a bible per se, but a biblical commentary published in 1633 to aid preachers in their preparations of sermons. i had taken “paraphrase” to mean simply translation, whereas the author of our book had meant it to be an explanatory interpretation, or “explication,” of scriptural difficulties. i find it interesting that all of us—a succession of previous owners, the donor, and several librarians—had taken the idea that this book was a bible for granted, even as we had our misgivings at the mayflower claim. we had a letter that said it was so, and without the usual chief sources of information, it seemed to be the likeliest scenario. the english language of 1633 may be comparatively “modern” but that 1896 letter was much closer in time, more familiar, and more easily readable than the seventeenth century typography and literary style of the book. now that both the author and title were known, it was reasonably easy to place both in their historical contexts. “ios. exon.”, better known as joseph hall (1574-1656), was a prominent anglican divine of the seventeenth century who rose from modest beginnings to extraordinary prominence. 2 he was well known in his day for his literary works and an influential literary style. his literary career began while he was a student at cambridge, when he published a collection of verse satires; a later satire is thought to have strongly influenced sections of jonathan swift’s gulliver’s travels (1726). after these early endeavors, hall’s writing focused on devotional works, and on debating the theological issues of the times. he was also devoted to preaching, and served as chaplain to several influential people, including henry, prince of wales (1594-1612), and served as bishop in exeter and later norwich. 2 this biographical sketch is based on t. f kinloch, the life and works of joseph hall, 1574-1656 (london, new york: staples press, 1951) and ronald corthell, “joseph hall, july 1, 1574-september 8, 1656” in the dictionary of literary biography, volume 151: british prose writers of the early seventeenth century, edited by clayton d. lein (the gale group, 1995, 174-187) as viewed in the gale literary databases, http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.csulib.ctstate.edu (accessed april, 23, 2007). theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 10 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 hall styled himself as one who sought a middle way through the religious controversies of the day. he had a strongly calvinist upbringing and education, but was no separatist, believing in the apostolic succession of the bishops and the divine right of kings. in the 1640s, he engaged in a pamphlet war with john milton (16081674), who disparaged both hall’s mannered style and his devotion to the monarchy. one biographer, ronald corthell, writes “hall had begun the controversy by appealing, once again, for both sides to show moderation and reasonableness; but as the attacks on him continued, his replies became clogged with erudition and hairsplitting logic. milton’s pamphlets may be vituperative and obscure, but hall’s are boring.”3 in 1641 he was sent to the tower of london with william laud and eleven other bishops. released after five months, he returned to norwich but was eventually removed from the bishopric by the act of sequestration (1643). the book that mr. connell brought to us, a plaine and familiar explication, is one of hall’s more obscure works but it does exemplify his work as clergy, in that it brings some practical help to others, like him, doing the work of ministry. the second lesson learned: the book is not merely a text, but also an artifact with its own complex history. the first mystery had been solved: this book was published a good while after the sailing of mayflower and of the fortune. yet in other ways, the mystery had only deepened. what of the letter linking this tome to the mayflower? was that a deliberate attempt to deceive, or did it perhaps describe another book, a real mayflower bible now lost? if the intrepid mr. gates was wrong about this fact, what could we make of the rest of his letter? and if the book was located in wisconsin in 1896, how did it end up in connecticut in 2007? the first step was to uncover the identity of mrs. james l. gates, to see if the genealogy in the letter was supported by other documents. through some web searching and genealogical sleuthing i learned that gates married his second wife, katherine g. meade, in 1885.4 the twelfth u.s. census of 1900 records the gates family of milwaukee, wisconsin, which included james l. gates, katherine m. gates, listed as having been born in new hampshire in 1859, and their two children, harrison, born 1889 and helen m., born 1891. two servants also lived with the family. following this genealogical trail (and feeling more and more like one of the history detectives) i was able to trace the family line back to new hampshire through katherine’s father. an ancestor is recorded as having signed the association test of 1776, signaling his assent to opposing british rule in the colony.5 thus a basic tenet of gates’s genealogical provenance for the book is sound: the meade family had been associated with southeastern new hampshire for a number of generations before katherine was born. another tenet of gates’s account lies with the hilton family. i was also able to trace this line back to early new england, with connections to edward hilton (1596-1670/1671), one of the first english settlers in new hampshire, and through marriage to other prominent early settlers and their families including john winthrop, the first governor of the massachusetts bay colony, and thomas dudley (1576-1653), john winthrop’s deputy governor, compatriot, and occasional adversary whose most famous offspring was anne bradstreet, the noted poet.6 it is tempting to theorize that our book passed through the hands of one of the winthrops or dudleys, 3 corthell, “joseph hall”, 181. 4 “james l. gates,” good old days column of the clark county press (neillsville, wisconsin), may 28, 1997, 32, as transcribed by sharon schulte; http://wvls.lib.wi.us/clarkcounty/clark/news/olddays/1997_5_28.htm (accessed march 27, 2007). in the following account i have relied on genealogical listings at http://www.rootsweb.com and http:// www.ancestry.com, (accessed march-april 2007). 5 jay mack holbrook, new hampshire 1776 census (oxford, ma: holbrook research associates, 1976), 99. 6 entry 403744, “edward hilton,” at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com, and robert c. anderson, “edward hilton,” 11 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 given that it would a most appropriate tome for the library of a young minister, perhaps a gift at his ordination, but this would be mere speculation. despite his views on monarchical absolutism, joseph hall’s theology and his training at emmanuel college (a calvinist stronghold at cambridge), would have made his theological writings appealing to many in puritan new england. this supposes, however, that it was passed along as a family heirloom via a daughter, perhaps ann dudley, who married into the hilton family in 1658. 7 it is noteworthy that in his notes james l. gates conflated the founding of the massachusetts bay colony with the founding of plymouth and the voyage of the mayflower. his wife’s descent through these prominent new england families made the history of the colonies a matter of personal importance to him, but perhaps already the details were fading and congealing into a romantically homogenous “pilgrim” past. more work on katherine gates’s family history could be useful, but given her many new england ancestors, it is not unlikely that her family did have plymouth connections. still, what we know of mrs. gates and her family tells us something about the romantic appeal of the past and the alluring prestige of a distinguished pedigree. clearly this history was a source of pride for the family. uncovering the basic lineage of a family seems relatively simple in the age of the internet, yet even these convenient sources tell us little of the daily lives of the people traced. that is, we can take a plausible guess at what sort of person might have owned a plaine and familiar explication, but are still left wondering who purchased it and where? were there ministers in the family, or simply diligent students of the bible? what sort of schooling was available to them, and what role did literacy play in their lives in early new england? further research into the history of congregationalist ministers and into education in new hampshire might reveal other connections to this family and to this book. third lesson learned: the interplay between the “folk history”of a given book and actual contemporary cultural and political events, can take surprising turns. an unsigned article in the wisconsin state journal (madison) on friday, november 26, 1926 is headlined “mayflower bible displayed in city.”8 the article mentions that a bible brought over on the mayflower in 1620 is on exhibit in the window of the electric refrigeration company at 401 state street, “together with an issue of the boston weekly messenger of 1812, two ancient deeds, and a few pasteboard bills representing 15 shillings in continental money.” the author tells us that the bible is the property of james l. gates of cambridge [wisconsin], recounts mrs. gates’ lineage, and describes some of the book’s marginalia (despite his being mentioned in the article, james died in 1911 and katherine in 1904). this was the second time that the book, in its guise as a mayflower bible, had been on public display, the first time being at the world’s columbian exposition in chicago in 1893, according to the gates letter. in both instances the book’s exhibition seemed to pass unquestioned—its display as a mayflower bible almost required that the great migration begins: immigrants to new england 1620-1633, volume ii (boston: new england historic genealogical society, 1995), 947-951. see also charles l. cohen, “winthrop, john,” in american national biography online, feb. 2000, http://0-www.anb.org.csulib.ctstateu.edu:80/articles/01/01-0095.html (accessed april 25, 2007) and francis j. bremer, “dudley, thomas,” american national biography online, feb. 2000, http://0-www.anb.org.csulib. ctstateu.edu:80/articles/01/01-00236.html (accessed april 29, 2007). 7 according to http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?pid=-1872895658&tid=1951465 (accessed march 27, 2007). i have not been able to confirm this in another source. 8 http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleview.asp?pg=1&id=15350&key=mayflower&cy= (accessed april 25, 2007). theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 12 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 it remain unread, as an artifact or relic for display only. interestingly, too, in both cases the book was displayed in an improbable context. in the display in madison, the attendant articles are of similar age—that is, they all predate the present era of progress, pre-date the civil war, and invoke the idealistic foundations of the nation. at the same time, they are displayed in the window of the electric refrigeration company, a modern and technologically progressive enterprise. similarly, the book may well have been exhibited at the world’s columbian exposition in chicago in close proximity to other artifacts from the american colonial era, but the overall aim of the world’s fair was to promote progress and technological change. the historic and the quaint provided a needed contrasting backdrop to the grandiose and the modern. the misty amalgamated past of plymouth and massachusetts bay colony contributed to this past: ancestors who were heroic and steadfast and who lived lives based solidly on godly principles. they tamed the wilderness, brought god to the savages, and founded a nation. our book seems to have been on display as something a “prop” for the telling of a story other than its own, one in which a politics of “progress” and national identity rests upon theological—or perhaps simply cultural—assumptions about beginnings and purity of purpose. in my research i have found reference to one other “mayflower bible,” a bible and prayer book bound together and displayed as such for many years at the harry ransom center at the university of texas, austin.9 descriptions of the volume are more forthright in describing its puritan past: “here was a bible that had not only come over on the mayflower in 1620, but had belonged to some of the most prominent early settlers, according to annotations on its pages. and there was nothing obscure about its claims: arrivals, marriages, births, and deaths were not only recorded, but were illustrated. there was a small full-length portrait of peregrine white, the first white child born in new england; indians with bows and arrows; the first houses; and even the mayflower itself—all in pen-and-ink drawings in margins and other blank spaces.” this bible, like our copy of a plaine and familiar explication, could not have traveled on the mayflower. interestingly, however, both supposed “mayflower” bibles came to more public attention during the 1890s. the provenance records at the ransom center bible note that their bible was “discovered” by a bookseller from connecticut in 1892 and donated to the library by one of its later buyers in the 1920s. why then? perhaps the enormous immigration of that era, along with the increasing importance of the western states in the cultural and economic life of the country, made the puritan past seem like a simpler time, harking back to a more unified and comprehensible utopia. as the country became more industrialized and moved towards urbanization, the symbolic allure of the colonial increased. the mayflower society was founded in 1897 and the daughters of the american revolution in 1890, “during a time that was marked by a revival in patriotism and intense interest in the beginnings of the united states of america.”10 fourth lesson learned: writing notes in books isn’t always such a bad thing. the story of the ransom center mayflower bible ends with this moral to the tale: “look at what’s in front of you.” the tale of the meade family “mayflower bible” might end with the same admonition, but what if we do look at 9 john b. thomas iii, “tales from the vault: our mayflower bible,” common-place: the interactive journal of early american life 1, no. 3 (april 2001), http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/cp/vol-01/no-03/tales/ (accessed april 29, 2007). 10 http://www.dar.org/natsociety/history.cfm (accessed april 29, 2007). 13 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 the book more closely? can it add to our hypothetical history? what can it tell us of the use of books in american history? in addition to its ephemera, our copy of joseph hall’s paraphrase has bits of marginalia scattered through the pages. most of the marginalia reflects the book’s use by its original intended audience, that is, by someone who studies and preaches the word. a word or two might be repeated from the text, not so much elucidating it as marking a spot to which the student might want to return. sometimes sermons are noted: “1754 october last sabath preched on carelessness in religion … last sabath on famley order apreal last sabath.” the source of the connection between this book and the mayflower may be a note written on page 384, just above jeremiah 10:2: “may flower landed 1620.” rather than recording the event as it happened however, i think it more likely that this may have tied into the writer’s reflections on the text of jeremiah: “and bee not dismaid at the signes of heaven for the heathen are dismaid at them…” perhaps a sermon was in the works on the providential nature of god vis-à-vis the heathen and the saints. one of the lengthier and more intriguing marginal notations recounts an unusual weather event that came to be known as the “dark day of 1780.” written in black ink with a very fine pen in a neat hand, near the start of ephesians, we found: “may 19. 1780 a darkness came on about 11 o’clock, and continued till 3, people were obliged to light candles in the house the darkness being so great. lights might be seen to shine in the houses at a distance as at night. all business out of doors was dropt.” this may have been written in what was simply a convenient break in the page layout, or it may have been intentionally placed over ephesians 1:3, which refers to blessing in heavenly places. “the dark day” is conventionally attributed to smoke from fires used to clear land that must have intersected with some unusual weather patterns. some felt that it portended doomsday or the last judgment, while other felt that work must go on. gradually the sky cleared and stars became visible later that night.11 ephemera tucked into the volume offers more fulsome records of eighteenth century events. a duplicate receipt is included, noting the payment of eighteen shilling 10 ½ in excise taxes in newberry port (or newburyport in modern terms), a sign of a significant business transaction, perhaps. another handwritten note, this one pasted into the book, outlines the raising of a committee, consisting of mr. wentworth cheswick, mr. ichabod hilton, and mr. james cram, to procure the men needed to fill the town’s quota in the continental army in 1781. this note has been pasted directly below ezekiel 48:19, “and they that serve the city, shall serve it out of all the tribes of israel,” a reference to the need for all groups to contribute. given its age, the book may have gone through several owners and readers before the first elements of the marginalia were added to the printed text. some time early on it served as study aid and guide for a preacher preparing sermons and otherwise studying scripture—just as the author intended—and came to a serve also as a repository for notes on his sermons and his congregation. later, more notes were added, as were family names. although it may have served several functions simultaneously, it seems to have undergone a long, gradual transformation, 11 the encyclopedia of new england: the culture and history of an american region, edited by burt feintuch and david h. watters; foreword by donald hall (new haven: yale university press, 2005), 548-549, suggests smoke as the reason for the darkness, as does sidney perley, historic storms of new england (beverly, ma: memoirs unlimited, 2001; reprinted from salem, ma: salem press publishing and printing company, 1891), 87-96. some ash fell with rain, corroborating the theory. perley reports that the connecticut state legislature called for candles to be lit so that deliberations could continue, though some thought that they might better adjourn and prepare themselves for the judgment. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 14 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 from theological study guide and biblical commentary to family heirloom and repository of pride in family history. further study of the relationships between these elements of the book—its text, its marginalia, its attending ephemera—holds possibilities for further study and insights into the american histories of the book and of biblical interpretation. one question remained: how did so obviously cherished a family heirloom come to be—essentially, if unintentionally—abandoned? a modest bit of ephemera included with the book is a small scrap of yellowing paper, with notes neatly written in pencil in a twentieth century hand. it had been clipped to the pages, and the rust from the paper clip has stained both the note and the pages of the book. on one side it reads “mr. gates— harry m. 3707 w. scott. mayflower bible—printed 1611 came to america 1620 in possession of the winthrops. family heirloom.” the other side reads “inez emmons, bay view bap. —mr. eads’ great grandfather’s bible.” this note contains a clue as to how the book traveled east, but it is also poignantly suggests how clues of family history easily become lost. in the moment represented by this note, “meade” has slipped back past a previous spelling of “mead” to “eads.” in this slippage, we see the potential for a loss of historical memory. even so, we do know that harry gates, of the note, is harrison meade gates (1889-1974). according to genealogical sources, harrison married, had four daughters, and divorced sometime prior to 1937.12 he later married alma louise nichols, and according to an obituary published in the willimantic chronicle september 16, 1974, moved to mansfield, connecticut, near her home town of windham, in the late 1950s, about a year after his retirement from a company in milwaukee.13 alma gates died a few years later.14 both harrison and alma gates are buried in the north windham cemetery, just a few miles from the the library where this book came to rest. it was probably at the gates home in mansfield, or somewhere in willimantic, where alma was living when she died, that mr. connell found the “mayflower bible” that he donated to eastern. conclusions what did we learn? that a broad view of print culture and the book as artifact holds many promises for a liberal arts institution. by accepting, researching, and cataloging this book for our collection, we have acquired a resource for a broad range of liberal arts disciplines. in most circumstances, joseph hall’s work would be considered too specialized for a library like eastern’s. our history and literature courses touch on church history but are unlikely to focus on the intricacies of seventeenth century hermeneutics. even so, my research into the history of this volume brought home the ways in which “print culture”—in the form of a single printed book—interacts with, or depends upon, other forms of literate communication. in this case, much of what we know about this book comes from typed and handwritten notes tucked into the volume, and from marginalia. it also reinforced, to a surprising degree, the ways in which interpretation really does reflect the context and ethos of its time. in the case of this particular book, the assumed historical provenance came, especially around the turn of the twentieth century, to overshadow the text completely. such a text has many uses in a liberal arts setting. our copy of a plaine and familiar explication rests comfortably 12 at rootsweb.com, http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=get&db=3mjb9151&id=i138 (accessed november 11, 2008). 13 the chronicle (willimantic, ct: chronicle printing co.), september 16, 1974, 8. he was survived by alma and three of his four daughters. 14 the chronicle (willimantic, ct: chronicle printing co.), june 4, 1979, 2. 15 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 now in our small special collections department, awaiting attention from other researchers. the book, with its marginalia and its ephemeral companions, holds promise for other inquiries into the history of american biblical interpretation, civil religion, and the history of the book and of reading—perfect for a liberal arts university library like ours. 30 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org expertise and service: a call to action rebecca butler is library fellow and visiting assistant professor of library services at valparaiso university, valparaiso, indiana. by rebecca butler abstract although theological librarianship is found most often at seminaries or graduate level theology programs, there are also librarians working with theology on an undergraduate level. in many cases, these librarians are responsible for additional subject areas and may or may not have any theological expertise or training. while the two groups do the same types of work, they are doing so in different ways. to explore these commonalities and differences, a study was conducted among undergraduate theology liaisons, and those results were compared with the literature and data regarding graduate level theological librarianship. one hundred ten undergraduate librarians responded to a survey regarding theological liaison activities, and the results indicate both the need for more research and the need for further emphasis on undergraduate subject-area liaison duties in theology and adjacent areas. introduction there is a vast body of extant literature on undergraduate subject-area and liaison librarianship. there is also a body of literature on theological librarianship. however, the literature on theological librarianship is usually concerned with graduate level education (usually seminaries). this is understandable since the notions of service orientation and working within a theological framework — identified by beth bidlack, current president of the american theological library association (atla), as characteristic of theological librarianship1 — fit naturally within a seminary or graduate theological school setting. furthermore, seminary and graduate school libraries often seek out librarians with theological subject expertise (usually demonstrated by the possession of a graduate degree in a theological subject in addition to a library school degree) to serve as theological librarians within these settings. the discussion of theological librarianship has almost entirely ignored the role of the theological librarian in the undergraduate setting. this raises the question of the nature of theological librarianship at this level. to what extent is being a theological librarian serving a primarily undergraduate population similar to being a theological librarian in a seminary or graduate institution? how is it different? how do theological librarians at undergraduate institutions perceive their role in comparison with the way theological librarians in seminaries perceive their role? what are the particular challenges faced by theological librarians in the undergraduate setting and how do those challenges compare to those faced by their seminary counterparts? finally, what might theological librarians at the graduate level, especially through the agency of atla, do to assist their college and university colleagues to fulfil their roles as theological librarians? these are the kinds of questions the present study wants to investigate. in the first part of this article, i will discuss the nature of liaison librarianship at the undergraduate level as that role has been portrayed in the literature. the second part of the article presents a discussion of the nature of theological librarianship as portrayed in the literature, much of which has been produced by members of atla. the goal of these discussions is to begin to answer some of the questions from the previous paragraph. the second part of the article presents the results of a survey of librarians at undergraduate institutions with some degree of theology/religious studies responsibility. 1 beth bidlack, “some oberservations on theological librarianship in seminary and university contexts,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 60 (2006): 38–48. 31 peer review: expertise and service theolib.org subject-area liaisonship undergraduate theological librarianship is best understood within the larger context of undergraduate subject-area librarianship. however, the definition of subject-area liaisonship has become so complex that few (if any) librarians can fulfil every aspect of the definition. the american library association defines a subject specialist (liaison) as a library staff member with superior knowledge of a subject or discipline, with responsibilities for the selection and evaluation of the library’s materials in the subject area and sometimes with the added responsibilities of information service in the subject area and the bibliographic organization of materials.2 while this definition has held for a number of years, the vast array of literature on subject-area librarianship has complicated matters. based on this literature, john east created this ideal subject librarian “composite”: a young, outgoing professional who is comfortable hanging out in campus cafes and student halls of residence and able to communicate easily with undergraduate students. at the same time, he or she will be a subject expert, with advanced knowledge of the literature of one or more disciplines and able to work closely with academic staff and postgraduate students. on top of this, our liaison librarian will be extremely proficient with technology and an expert with various software packages used for teaching and researching.3 east goes on to argue, “we cannot go on pretending that liaison librarians can provide such an impossibly wide range of services.”4 the recent recession and economic downturn has on occasion forced librarians to assume more roles and a greater diversity of roles in the library.5 it is this struggle to define roles and responsibilities of the liaison librarian that permeates much of the current literature. despite the increase in the variety of roles and the burden of additional responsibilities, subject knowledge and expertise remain the most valued aspects of subject-area liaison work. a united kingdom study determined that this specific aptitude is one of the most “highly prized attributes [of librarians]” within the academic community despite a lack of recognition and awareness regarding the services offered by a liaison.6 subject-specific knowledge is considered as an advantage possessed by subject-area liaisons in academic libraries, as “it ensures that a person who is knowledgeable in a subject handles most of the library operations relating to that subject.”7 this high level of competence is of critical importance to the library and to the liaison areas because high proficiency leads to greater acceptance of the librarian within the academic context. and yet, very few liaison librarians at the undergraduate level have liaison responsibilities strictly limited to those subject areas in which they have particular expertise. “whilst it has traditionally been seen as an advantage to employ subject librarians with first or second degrees in relevant subjects, most subject librarians will always have a wider subject remit than just the subject in which they have a qualification.”8 furthermore, according to rodwell, subject-specific expertise is not as valuable as a mixture of subject knowledge and broader knowledge that allows for better mediation 2 the ala glossary of library and information science (chicago: american library association, 1983), 220. 3 john w. east, “the future role of the academic liaison librarian: a literature review,” reprint, submitted october 7, 2007, http://eprints.rclis.org/10561/ (referenced in alice crawford, new directions for academic liaison librarians (oxford: chandos publishing, 2012). 4 ibid. 5 alice crawford, new directions for academic liaison librarians (oxford: chandos publishing, 2012), 124. 6 louise cooke et al., “evaluating the impact of academic liaison librarians on their user community: a review and case study,” new review of academic librarianship 17, no. 5 (2011): 5–30. 7 d.o. fadiran, “subject specialization in academic libraries,” international library review 14 (1982): 41. 8 stephen pinfield, “the changing role of subject librarians in academic libraries,” the journal of librarianship and information science 33, no. 1 (2001): 33. http://eprints.rclis.org/10561/ 32 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org between the librarian, the resources, and the patrons.9 pinfield views as more important than subject knowledge the skills of flexibility and the ability to learn quickly.10 universities are becoming more cross disciplinary, and because of this subject-area expertise becomes secondary to general information literacy skills.11 librarians faced with this view of liaison librarianship must find ways to fill the potential gap between their personal aptitudes and the subjects for which they liaise. while membership in non-library professional organizations can be of some benefit,12 librarians need a larger support system of training and resources.13 it becomes clear that the “sometimes added responsibilities” in the ala definition of subject-area liaisonship have instead become full expectations. along with information literacy instruction, collection development, reference responsibilities, and bibliographic work, all with respect to multiple subject areas, subject-area librarians are expected to be jacks/jills of all trades and work to fully integrate the library within the academic enterprise. the greatest asset of the subjectspecific librarian is the perceived expertise s/he offers. this high level of expertise, either in librarianship in general or in subject-specific areas, is valued by faculty. however, this expertise is often overshadowed or negated by the large variety of responsibilities and subject areas attended to by subject-area liaisons. theological librarianship according to the literature, the theological librarian must be theologically trained, professionally engaged, and academically published in order to retain authority within the academic environment. rashelle karp and andrew keck, in their 1996 “profile of the profession,” defined the theological librarian as a person who performs ministry and provides “linkages among theology, church, scholarship, education, diverse constituencies, and both scholarly and popular literature.”14 james dunkly, former president of atla, also identified major values for theological librarianship as respect and accountability that are drawn from the traditions of scholarship and theology.15 thus, a working definition of a theological librarian is one who ministers to students and faculty in the university or seminary context in a way that consciously links theology with scholarship and scholarship with ministry. again, the concepts of expertise and service remain central. in order to be taken seriously among academic peers, the theological librarian must learn to speak the language of theology and must become a member of the community of scholars,16 but establishing one’s authority within the field of theological librarianship itself is not enough. peterson’s project 2000 study concludes that theological librarians, at a minimum, should have graduate degrees in both library science and divinity.17 while the experience of completing a master of divinity program or having pastoral experience provide an additional level of authority to the theological librarian,18 “one needs ideally to be educated not simply to the level of ministerial ability but to the level of instructional 9 john rodwell, “dinosaur or dynamo? the future for the subject specialist reference librarian,” new library world 102, no. 1/2 (2001): 48–52. 10 pinfield, “the changing role of subject librarians in academic libraries,” 38. 11 michael cotta-schonberg, “the changing role of the subject specialist,” liber quarterly 17, no. 3/4 (2007). 12 miranda henry bennett, “the benefits of non-library professional organization membership for liaison librarians,” the journal of academic librarianship 37, no. 1 (january 2011): 46–54. 13 jo henry, “academic library liaison programs: four case studies,” library review 61, no. 7 (september 2012): 485–49. 14 rashelle s. karp and andrew j. keck, “theological librarianship: toward a profile of a profession,” college and research libraries 57 (january 1996): 35. 15 james dunkly, “some values in theological librarianship, 46th annual conference, dallas, tx, 1992,” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship (oxford: scarecrow press, 2006), 34. 16 helen b. uhrich, “the community of learning: presidential address, 11th annual conference, fort worth, tx, 1957,” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship (oxford: scarecrow press, 2006), 141. 17 stephen l. peterson, “theological libraries for the twenty-first century: project 2000 final report,” theological education 20, no. 3 (january 1, 1984): 60. 18 paul schrodt, “theological librarianship and theological education,” in the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years (evanston, il: american theological library association, 1996), 147. 33 peer review: expertise and service theolib.org capacity in the ministerial and theological sciences.”19 “librarians must be proactive contributors and partners in our schools of theology, communicating and demonstrating our importance in ways that are evident to faculty and administration.”20 the theological librarian’s expertise must be incorporated into the whole educational enterprise and experience.21 theological librarians in seminary/graduate school libraries are focused on specialized collections and on students conducting specific theological work in the religious context of the seminary or denominational group. this environment lends itself to greater emphasis on subject-area expertise. and yet, theological librarianship is rarely the end-goal when one sets out on a library career.22 project 2000 found that 50 percent of the librarians serving as theological librarians are trained exclusively on an mls track with 36 percent being trained in both mls and theological education tracks.23 furthermore, “[t]here are few library schools which offer specialization in theological librarianship. where theological bibliography and librarianship are taught, it is not in the same graduate departments as other theological and religion disciplines.”24 but these statistics were focused strictly on seminary/graduate level librarians. it is important to note, undergraduate theology subject-area librarians work with much less specialized collections than their seminary counterparts and have fewer opportunities to be focused on theology alone. greater value is placed on the ability of the theological librarian to perform a ministerial, even pastoral, role appropriate to the character of librarianship in an institution whose primary functions include the training of clergy and other ministry professionals. thus, theological librarians have a sense of vocation or calling that is not usually found among undergraduate liaison librarians. characteristics of theological librarians often identified have included being faithful stewards, having a notion of theological librarianship as ministry, pastoral counseling, and partnering in ministry with church offices and the whole people of god.25 the “profile of a profession” survey revealed that 67.8 percent of respondents believed their librarianship was a vocational calling,26 and for those respondents, “librarianship represented the vehicle through which they could pursue a higher calling.”27 thus, the roles of a theological librarian include that of an educator with additional responsibilities, including communication within a “theologically informed context,”28 and functioning as “theological educators and teachers in the broad sense.”29 this notion of librarianship as a form of ministry can also provide the librarian with unique perspective, and one who has been ordained may have an even deeper understanding of preparing students for the work of ministry.30 keck and 19 ibid., 144. 20 john weaver, “the library workshop: theology, pedagogy, and promotion. part one, raising the standard: library workshops and the requirements for ats accreditation,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 61 (2007): 22. 21 james dunkly, “theological libraries and theological librarians in theological education,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 45 (1991): 231. 22 andrew j keck, “information or divine access: theological librarianship within the context of ministry,” in the american theological library association: essays in celebration of the first fifty years (evanston, il: american theological library association, 1996), 177. 23 peterson, “theological libraries for the twenty-first century: project 2000 final report,” 60. 24 ibid. 25 anne richardson womack, “introduction to part one,” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship (oxford: scarecrow press, 2006), 3–6; dunkly, “theological libraries and theological librarians in theological education.” 26 karp and keck, “theological librarianship: toward a profile of a profession,” 40. 27 ibid. 28 schrodt, “theological librarianship and theological education,” 137. 29 peterson, “theological libraries for the twenty-first century: project 2000 final report,” 242. 30 myka kennedy stephens, “the ordained theological librarian: a cost benefit analysis,” american theological library association summary of proceedings 61 (2007): 142–52. 34 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org karp found that 34.6 percent of the librarians in their study were ordained.31 stephens also found that many theological libraries have at least one staff member with clergy status although that service may or may not be recognized as a form of ministry by denominational or congregational governing bodies.32 she also concluded, “their pastoral experiences and connection with the church help them better understand how to meet the needs of students preparing for ministry.”33 whether ordained or not, theological librarians often minister to the students and institutions they serve and this ministry, for some, has become a calling or a realization of following a greater purpose. according to raymond morris, a former president of the american theological library association, “[t]heological librarianship is at its best a ministry.”34 in addition to having a theological degree, librarians must continue to grow theologically (both in education and in spiritual development) in order to be able to maintain a high level of service to the library and the university.35 as part of this ministerial function of theological librarianship, theological librarians should see a duty and/or responsibility to assist their undergraduate liaison colleagues by making it easier for them to acquire the subject expertise necessary to carry out their roles successfully. expertise and service are the constant concepts that link both subject-area librarianship and theological librarianship. expertise for both of these librarian types is defined in terms of educational background, but also in terms of willingness to “bridge the gap” between subject knowledge and formal library education. where the areas differ, however, is in the understanding of service. for the subject-area librarian, service is most closely tied to the university. service is defined in terms of outreach to the greater campus, interaction with students, and being an interface between the library and the patrons. for the theology librarian, service can take on larger meanings. the largest difference lies within the concept of “calling,” which brings vocation and service to god and the church into the equation. however, the differences between these two distinct areas of librarianship are not as clear when it comes to the undergraduate theology librarian. who are the librarians bridging this gap between the undergraduate subject liaisonship and theological librarianship? do expertise and service hold the same value for these librarians, and to what extent do they view their service roles in terms similar to those emerging from these discussions of theological librarianship? these questions are the driving force behind this study of undergraduate theological librarianship. methodology this study was conducted to supply data on this understudied population. in particular, there was an attempt to determine how many librarians are serving as theology liaisons in undergraduate institutions and the way in which they came to these positions. additionally, the survey sought to determine the types of degrees held and how these librarians came to have subject responsibilities for theology in non-seminary and undergraduate settings. after receiving approval to conduct research from the institutional review board of valparaiso university,36 the survey was distributed through listservs in an attempt to garner wide participation. listservs were chosen based on the primary audience of librarians served, thus targeting both theological librarians and a more general academic library audience. the following listservs were identified for survey distribution: american library association-college libraries section 31 karp and keck, “theological librarianship: toward a profile of a profession,” 36. 32 myka kennedy stephens, “called to be a librarian: theological librarianship and ordained ministry,” atla summary of proceedings 60 (2006): 273–75. 33 stephens, “the ordained theological librarian: a cost benefit analysis,” 146. 34 raymond p. morris, “theological librarianship as a ministry, 8th annual conference, new york, 1953,” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship (oxford: scarecrow press, 2006), 8. 35 david faupel, “developing professionally on the job, 27th annual conference, bethlehem, pa,” in a broadening conversation: classic readings in theological librarianship (oxford: scarecrow press, 2006), 25–28. 36 “office of sponsored and undergraduate research valparaiso university,” http://www.valpo.edu/osur/facultyresources/irb. php. http://www.valpo.edu/osur/facultyresources/irb.php http://www.valpo.edu/osur/facultyresources/irb.php 35 peer review: expertise and service theolib.org (collib), american library association-reference and user services association (rusa), the association of christian librarians (acl), and the american theological library association (atlantis). the survey included ten multiple choice questions37 with options for open-ended follow-up. the first three questions were demographic in nature and were used to determine the carnegie class,38 type (public or private), and full-time equivalent (fte) population of the schools represented. additional questions focused on the size of library staffs with emphasis on theology liaisons and subjects for which respondents had liaison responsibility. ordination status, the path taken to employment in the position, and organizational membership were also surveyed. a total of 110 responses were received in the 60 days the survey was open (april 14-june 13, 2014). open-ended responses or “other” responses were analyzed for additional data and to discern trends and/or patterns. while this response rate was not exhaustive or allinclusive of the field, there were enough responses to point out some interesting trends and areas of concern or further research. survey data of the 110 respondents, 50 percent work at 4-year colleges/universities, 34 percent work at ma/phd granting colleges or universities, 10 percent work at research universities, and less than 2 percent are employed by community colleges. notable inclusions in the “other” category are two bible colleges and a comprehensive library that serves multiple universities. fte for the institutions surveyed are evenly distributed with 36 percent being small (fte 1000-2,999), 24 percent being medium (fte 3000-9,999), 24 percent being large (fte of at least 10,000), and 18 percent very small (fte below 1000). in the area of theology, most (82 percent) libraries employ only one liaison. ten percent of the libraries represented hire no liaison for theology (rather they have “religious studies,” other similarly religious-themed liaisons, or theology falls under the umbrella of philosophy) and 13 percent employ two theology liaisons. only two of the represented libraries hire more than three liaisons in the area of theology. the majority (77 percent) of universities served by these librarians are private, and 50 percent of these private institutions have a current religious affiliation. the denominations represented by those 42 schools are listed in table 1. the other 68 schools represented had no religious affiliation, whether they were private or public universities. table 1 religious affiliation (n=42) no. % of response catholic 7 17% non-denominational/loosely religious 4 10% baptist 3 7% evangelical lutheran church of america (elca) 3 7% united methodist 3 7% churches of christ 2 5% presbyterian 2 5% assemblies of god 1 2% christian churches/churches of christ (restoration movement) 1 2% christian reformed church 1 2% 37 all collected data from the surveys, as well as a list of questions asked, can be accessed at: http://scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_ pub/19/. 38 please see “carnegie classifications” at http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/ for complete definitions of carnegie classifications and how they have been used to classify academic institutions. http://scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_pub/19/ http://scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_pub/19/ http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/ 36 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org religious affiliation (n=42) no. % of response converge (formerly the baptist general conference) 1 2% free methodist 1 2% independent lutheran 1 2% nazarene 1 2% pentecostal assemblies of canada 1 2% not listed 10 24% most of the respondents are responsible for more than one subject area in addition to theology, as only 12.7 percent of the respondents have theology as their only liaison area. of the 96 respondents responsible for more than one subject area, 54 responded with a list of those subjects they represent. almost nine percent of these additional subjects are theology-adjacent, such as biblical counseling, bible, spirituality, religious studies, christian formation, mission and ministry, and religion. among those non-theology adjacent subjects, philosophy was the most common one, with other subjects such as women and gender studies, communication, history, psychology, education, languages, sociology, and english having higher representation as well. less frequently occurring subjects were anthropology, classics, political science, and social work. a variety of other subjects such as biology, criminology, kinesiology, dance, and broadcasting were also represented in the responses. table 2 details the non-theology adjacent subjects with the most representation. table 2 non theology/theology adjacent subjects n= 165 % of non-theology adjacent philosophy 28 17.0% women and gender studies (women, gender studies, women and gender, women's leadership) 9 5.5% communication 7 4.2% history 7 4.2% psychology 7 4.2% education 6 3.6% foreign languages (classical languages, modern languages, spanish, italian) 6 3.6% sociology 6 3.6% english 5 3.0% of the librarians who responded, 103 hold an mlis or mls degree; for 35 percent of them, this is their only advanced degree. of those with additional advanced degrees, 30 percent hold master of divinity or master of arts in theology degrees. other theology-related degrees held include master of arts degrees in biblical studies, christian ministry, divinity, near eastern languages and hebrew, religion and society, religion-early christianity, religious studies, and theological studies. six of these identified themselves as ordained ministers, priests, rabbis, or other clergy. non-theology-related ma degrees reported are american history, education, english, history, human service studies, and philosophy. three percent of those with additional advanced degrees hold phds in theology, while four hold phds in other subjects. other degrees or certifications reported include certificates of additional studies, graduate diplomas, and a variety of other degree programs unrelated to theology, as seen in table 3. 37 peer review: expertise and service theolib.org table 3 degree/certification other degrees held/subject area number held phd musicology 1 abd religious studies 1 cas archives and records management 1 cas library and information science 1 graduate diploma religious studies 1 m.ed. 1 mala 1 mals ceramics 1 mba 1 ms instructional design 1 mts 2 th.m. 1 the path to theological liaisonship for the librarians surveyed varied, but a slight majority (51 percent) was assigned their position based on interest or expertise. only 8 percent applied specifically to be the liaison for the area of theology, and 32 percent were assigned the position based on the needs of the department regardless of interest or expertise. of the nine respondents who replied as “other,” two were liaisons for all departments and two others had the duties as part of a larger job description. one respondent stated, “i assigned myself to philosophy as the chair of the liaisons program. it was a combination of my interests, my background, and the lack of anyone else being interested.” another noted that the assignment was “also based on willingness to gain some expertise.” overall, 49 percent of undergraduate theology liaisons who responded were assigned their role having no particular expertise or interest in theology. organization membership by respondents varied. eighty-nine percent of the respondents indicated membership in at least one organization. of these, 59 percent are members of the american library association, 38 percent are members of the american theological library association, and 23 percent are members of the association of christian librarians. very few are members of scholarly organizations related to theology among the spectrum of organizations represented (see table 4). table 4 membership in organizations: = 98 % of respondents american library association (ala) 58 59% american theological library association 37 38% association of christian librarians 23 23% association of college and research libraries (a division of ala) 12 12% society of biblical literature 6 6% catholic library association 3 3% music library association 2 2% academic library association of ohio 1 1% american academy of religion 1 1% american musicological society 1 1% 38 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org membership in organizations: = 98 % of respondents american philosophical association 1 1% arlis/na 1 1% association of educational and communication technology 1 1% association of jewish libraries 1 1% association of librarians and archivists at baptist institutions 1 1% canadian society for studies in religion 1 1% christian college librarians, inc. 1 1% college-universities librarians (culs) 1 1% kansas library association 1 1% mountain-plains library association 1 1% national church library association 1 1% north american patristics society 1 1% north american serials interest group 1 1% north dakota library association (ndla) 1 1% oklahoma library association 1 1% pennsylvania library association 1 1% society for american music 1 1% society for pentecostal studies 1 1% society of american archivists 1 1% special libraries association (sla) 1 1% sunyla 1 1% discussion and conclusions this study revealed a diversity of answers to the original question of who is doing theological librarianship and where said work is being done. the survey suggests that private, four-year colleges and universities do the most hiring of theology liaisons, and that most of those private institutions (62 percent) have a religious affiliation. in this regard, the findings of this survey parallel those findings of keck that the most graduate schools hiring theological librarians have religious affiliations.39 regardless of institution size, most libraries employ only one liaison in the area of theology. research universities, community colleges, and public institutions are less likely to have a librarian devoted to the area of theology, and in many cases theology will fall under a larger umbrella such as philosophy or religious studies at these types of institutions. schools aligned with a religious tradition are more likely to hire a theology librarian, as a particular tradition is being taught and thus tradition-specific collection development and classroom support are more necessary. the biggest issue highlighted by the survey was not where theological liaisonship is taking place, but rather how it is being done. librarians often have a wider area of subject responsibility than their area of specialty.40 this is borne out in the data. the strange, and at times seemingly haphazard, grouping of theology with other subjects belies a system of subject assignment based on need rather than expertise. combinations such as theology with spanish, italian, and broadcasting, or with english, film studies, and biology might appear somewhat arbitrary. the more common pairing of 39 karp and keck, “theological librarianship: toward a profile of a profession,” 36. 40 pinfield, “the changing role of subject librarians in academic libraries,” 33. 39 peer review: expertise and service theolib.org theology with philosophy does seem more natural. however, the second largest pairing was theology with gender and/ or women’s studies, which is not an obvious pairing. while there is great value in an interdisciplinary and integrated curriculum, the range of responsibilities arising from these pairings (see table 2 for more pairings) can inhibit the librarian from developing needed subject expertise. in the literature, expertise is touted again and again as one of the most critical components of quality subject librarianship. but if, as atterbury and finnell found,41 library schools are not preparing students for subject-specific liaison duties, it is not surprising that many liaisons feel that they lack professional credibility.42 in the microcosm of undergraduate theological liaisonship, librarians are responsible for so many subjects with such variety that full proficiency is all but impossible, not just in the area of theology but in all areas for which the librarians are responsible. although librarians are trained to be “jacks/jills of all trades,” expanded subject-area remits and large areas of responsibility place a heavy burden of professional development responsibility upon the libraries and the librarians. this is not to say that theological librarians in these settings are not good at their jobs, but the wide array of subjects represented does not make expertise easily attainable. while this study did not specifically seek to determine librarian’s perceptions of themselves as “theological librarians,” the question does remain. thirty-eight percent of respondents identified as members of atla, but that leaves at least 62 percent who may or may not perceive themselves as theological librarians. further, those librarians who serve theology as part of an assortment of liaison duties may feel more closely aligned with one or more of their other areas of responsibility and may not identify as theological librarians at all. librarians specifically trained in the area of theology or who specifically applied for or requested to be the theology liaison might be more likely to consider themselves theological librarians, but the survey did not address that question. this distinction may grow even muddier for librarians serving on campuses where theology falls under a larger umbrella such as philosophy or religious studies. further research would be required to answer the question of the degree to which liaison librarians in an undergraduate setting with subject responsibility for theology think of themselves as “theological librarians.” suggestions if librarians doing theological liaisonship on the undergraduate level are largely untrained in the area of theology and are responsible for such a wide array of subjects, what then is the role of an organization such as atla which is devoted to supporting theological librarianship? what can be done to better support theological liaisons without specific theological expertise? the situation of theological librarians at undergraduate institutions as described above perhaps presents atla with an opportunity to expand its influence to an underserved population of librarians. atla already has a college and university interest group43 and currently offers a graduate level course in theological librarianship in partnership with the university of illinois at urbana-champaign.44 in addition, atla could also create a track of workshops at the annual conference geared towards this type of liaisonship, specifically targeting those librarians who want to learn more about the area they are serving. these sessions could include: • theological librarianship basics 0 18-30 0 what is atla and what does it do? 0 what is theological librarianship? 0 best practices for theological librarianship • collection development for new theological librarians 41 ramirose ilene atterbury and joshua finnell, “what do lis students in the united states know about liaison duties?” new library world 110, no. 7/8 (2009): 325–40. 42 rodwell, “dinosaur or dynamo? the future for the subject specialist reference librarian,” 3. 43 “college and university interest group,” https://www.atla.com/members/divisions/interest/pages/college-and-university.aspx. 44 “theological librarianship course at university of illinois,” https://www.atla.com/members/development/pages/uiuc.aspx. https://www.atla.com/members/divisions/interest/pages/college-and-university.aspx https://www.atla.com/members/development/pages/uiuc.aspx 40 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org 0 best practices 0 recommended texts, authors, publishers 0 navigating the wealth of materials 0 selection criteria for theology this could increase membership in atla, increase attendance at the conference, and help expand the qualifications and expertise of those liaisons working with theology on an undergraduate level. at some institutions, the development and presentation of a “liaison toolkit” has increased the success of liaison librarians.45 the “library liaison toolkit” developed at suny new paltz was intended to increase expertise, and it was found that partnership efforts with classroom instructors increased and there was a deeper interest in collection development.46 one potential opportunity for atla would be to develop a theology liaison toolkit that could be downloaded from the atla website and used by liaison librarians. it could be specifically geared toward those librarians without theological expertise, but would likely be of use to any librarian serving in the liaison role. this downloadable tool kit could include: • essential collection development tools • a list of important reference works • links to guides, book lists, tutorials, and other valuable online resources • a list of potential mentors and contact information • information about the theological librarian course offered through the university of illinois at urbanachampaign • links to basic information in 0 biblical studies 0 church history 0 denominational websites 0 common definitions/theological jargon 0 biblical and liturgical terms 0 types of theologies, their definitions, and major scholars it is critical to understand that the obligation does not lie only with organizations such as atla. the libraries and librarians themselves bear responsibility in ensuring that those doing liaison work are adequately prepared to do so. because so few lis/ls programs are specifically educating librarians in liaison-specific areas, and many of these programs are informal or brief in nature, new librarians are rarely fully equipped for subject-specific liaison duties.47 thus it has been asserted that “all libraries should have a training manual covering the areas of acquiring subject knowledge, collection development, evaluation, and accreditation assistance.”48 further tools for assisting new liaisons have included seeking opportunities for mentorship,49 initiating formal study in a subject area,50 increasing collaboration with subject45 stephan macaluso and barbara whitney pegtruzzelli, “the library liaison toolkit: learning to bridge the communication gap,” the reference librarian 43, no. 89–90 (october 12, 2008): 163–77. 46 ibid. 47 atterbury and finnell, “what do lis students in the united states know about liaison duties?” 48 henry, “academic library liaison programs: four case studies,” 492. 49 henry, “academic library liaison programs: four case studies.” 50 rodwell, “dinosaur or dynamo? the future for the subject specialist reference librarian.” 41 peer review: expertise and service theolib.org area faculty,51 joining non-library professional organizations,52 and further developing personal initiative.53 since the literature emphasizes expertise as a hallmark of quality subject liaisonship, it is imperative that librarians augment their experience whenever possible so that they can best serve the departments for which they are responsible. more research is needed to determine the degree to which theological subject librarianship is being done at the undergraduate level; an updated survey of the profession as a whole (including both undergraduate and graduate program librarians) would be helpful. it would be interesting to see whether the profession has changed demographically, but also how opinions may have changed regarding vocation, ordination, and other similar issues. additionally, a larger, more concentrated study regarding undergraduate liaisons is needed for undergraduate subject liaisons as a whole and theology librarians specifically. in particular, studies focusing on the perceived education needs of subject-area liaisons would help highlight places where organizations such as atla could do more outreach and training. understanding the various roles of undergraduate liaison librarians, their levels of education and training, and the interdisciplinary challenges of a wide subject remit are all potential areas for future research. there is a considerable lack of data regarding liaison librarianship in general, and one or more studies on various niches such as theology could contribute to the greater conversation. although more research is warranted, there are a few key conclusions that can be drawn from the results of this survey and the related literature. theological librarianship, though a niche, has been confirmed as an important subset of the subject-liaison paradigm, specifically in colleges and universities with religious affiliations. while this particular niche is more common at graduate level institutions, the survey confirmed that there are librarians doing dedicated theological work at undergraduate schools. some of these librarians are dedicated to theology and theology-adjacent subjects; others are responsible for theology liaison duties within a much larger range of responsibility. these librarians, many of whom are also responsible for multiple/non-theology-adjacent subjects, need the support of an organization such as atla. this is especially important due to the emphasis placed on expertise within subject-specific liaisonship. with combined emphasis on service through deep connection with students and acquired expertise in theology, theology liaisons can become successful theological librarians regardless of the context of their librarianship. 51 janice m. jaguszewski and karen williams, new roles for new times: transforming liaison roles in research libraries (association of research libraries, august 2013), http://www.arl.org/nrnt. 52 bennett, “the benefits of non-library professional organization membership for liaison librarians.” 53 john meier, “solutions for the new subject specialist librarian,” endnotes: the journal of the new members round table 1, no. 1 (may 2010): 1–10. http://www.arl.org/nrnt 16 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org “raising an ebenezer”: archives as a means of religious remembering at wheaton college david b. malone is associate professor of library science at wheaton college, wheaton, illinois. abstract by definition it is the purpose of archives to collect and preserve materials that document the work and activity of persons, organizations, and cultures for the benefit of those who follow. such materials can prove to play an active and vital role in the process of remembering, through the telling of stories. this activity can support a library’s endeavors to connect with users in this dimension of its services, and to fulfill its mission. the present essay provides an overview of such initiatives at wheaton college. archives and remembrance the english dissenter robert robinson’s eighteenth-century hymn “come, thou fount of every blessing”1 contains a phrase that may sound a little strange to the ear of a contemporary listener. “here i raise my ebenezer, hither by thy help i’ve come …” appears in the hymn’s second stanza, and is intended to affirm the faithfulness of god over time. quite understandably, many hearers will think of “ebenezer” as a personal name — perhaps having in mind the primary character of dickens’s a christmas carol. but robertson’s “ebenezer” hearkens back instead to the hebrew prophet samuel, who “took a stone, and set it between mispeh and she, and called the name of it ebenezer, saying, hitherto hath the lord helped us.”2 thus an “ebenezer” is a memorial, facing backwards. and yet it encompasses an inherent future promise. i believe that wheaton college’s archives & special collections serve a similar purpose. the holdings of the archives and special collections of wheaton’s library provide significant insight into the story of american christianity, particularly evangelicalism. its holdings consume over 2.5 miles of shelving, and cover a wide range of formats and topics. a community of witnesses over the years i have had the privilege of attending dedication ceremonies for many of the collections of papers and documents in wheaton’s special collections. i consider it a privilege, because, while on such occasions the college is formally receiving a great resource for research and curriculum support, from my perspective as an archivist i receive a kind of “blessing” as i make the acquaintance of the friends and family of those whose artistic and/or scholarly legacies are being recognized. therein is a circle of grace displayed. in our role as archivists or curators we thus participate actively in a community of practice. as a manuscript repository with a faith-based mission, the wheaton college archives & special collections endeavors to collect and acquire the papers of individuals and organizations that have strived to put their faith to work. their faith has informed what they do and who they are. as with the biblical narrative earlier referenced from the book of samuel, these papers, letters, and diaries tell a story, and our patrons are enriched by the retelling of that story. 1 methodist episcopal church, and methodist episcopal church, south. the methodist hymnal: official hymnal of the methodist episcopal church and the methodist episcopal church, south (cincinnati: jennings & bryan, 1905), 19. 2 i samuel 7:12 in the king james version. 17 essays: “raising an ebenezer” theolib.org just as the donors have sought to “live a life worthy of their callings during their lifetimes,” their legacies — as found in their intellectual output — have lives of their own. as researchers leaf through the papers of any number of our donors — madeleine l’engle, frederick buechner, malcolm muggeridge, or kenneth and margaret landon to name a few — they are likely to recognize something of those authors’ experience of faith. these papers do not stand alone as a static corpus from an individual, but represent instead a dynamic testimony of someone who was a member of the body of christ. the papers or records thus approximate the “ebenezer” of i samuel (and of robert robinson’s hymn) that declares, “thus far the lord has helped us.” the faith of those whose legacies reside in our collections has been expressed in many ways and in many different settings: some as authors or poets, others as visual artists, etc. their stories speak of love and loss, of god’s grace amid hardships, and of the simple joys of life. in that respect, their stories are our stories, and they are part of his ongoing story, as well. our donors, through their collections of materials, testify to their experience of god’s never-ending faithfulness. history of the collections it is difficult to point with precision to the exact founding of the wheaton college archives & special collections, but there are way-markers along the path. in 1947, julia blanchard, retiring librarian and granddaughter of wheaton’s founding president, was appointed archivist. this appointment helped pave the way for the gathering of various resources into a college archives that would be important for wheaton’s centenary in 1960. in 1965 the beginnings of what is now the marion e. wade center, which houses the papers of seven british authors (including c. s. lewis and other “inklings”), were made in wheaton’s library. around this time, and certainly by the end of the 1960s, significant gifts of rare books came to wheaton’s library from william sanford akin. akin was a former publisher’s representative and librarian at chicago’s union league club, and was known as an inveterate book collector.3 it is said that when he traveled, his wife knew which bookstores she could telephone when she needed to get in contact with him. akin’s donation provided the seminal gift that firmly established wheaton’s special collections. these resources have been curated by a variety of people over the decades. what began as the work of volunteers and retirees was, over time, entrusted to paid staff with partial responsibilities for archives and rare books. in the mid-1980s wheaton’s library, now named in honor of wheaton’s third president, j. oliver buswell, hired a full-time staff member in its archives to supervise a cadre of student employees. this was augmented over the next decade with additional staff to oversee the growing collections, which since the mid-1970s had grown to several dozens of archival record groups and over one hundred special collections. noteworthy collections it presents a challenge to know what to include, yet it is worthwhile to highlight a few specific holdings of the wheaton college archives & special collections. as noted above, akin and his wife provided a generous donation of rare books to wheaton college in memory of wheaton’s fourth president, v. raymond edman.4 this collection includes two sets of samuel pepys’s diary, both first editions; a first edition of johnson’s dictionary; over one hundred editions of bunyan’s pilgrim’s progress, including a victorian edition with wood taken from john bunyan’s elstow church embellishing the cover; and an edition of j.w. cunningham’s sancho, or the proverbialist5 (1811), inscribed by charlotte brontë as a presentation copy to her husband, arthur nicholls, which also contains his marginalia written after her death. for readers of the present journal, other early collections of interest include the papers of madeleine l’engle, malcolm muggeridge, and frederick buechner, each of whom wrote (one way or another) for a living and, served as interpreters of the christian faith in very different ways. 3 akin’s donation contained thousands of volumes. of his pursuits akin remarked, “bibliomania…is not a hobby but an incurable disease, painless except financially.” asked the cure for the disease, he responded “death!” 4 http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu/college-presidents/v--raymond-edman 5 http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-whe/record/whe_235290/description http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu/college-presidents/v--raymond-edman http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu/college-presidents/v--raymond-edman 18 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org for l’engle it was her way of writing about good and evil that attracted readers young and old alike. following her success with a wrinkle in time, she served as writer-in-residence and librarian at the cathedral of st. john the divine in new york city for nearly thirty years. muggeridge worked as a journalist for many years and constantly sought to challenge the status quo in its varied manifestations. he achieved some notoriety early in his career, from journalistic pursuits as varied as disclosing to the western world the grim realities of stalin’s genocidal policies in ukraine during 1932 and 1933, or making light of the ongoing foibles of britain’s royal family. his later writings focused more closely on moral and ethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and the rights of the disabled. muggeridge’s pilgrimage from hedonist to evangelical christianity to being finally received into the roman catholic church makes him a figure of widespread interest. in the case of frederick buechner, conversion was quite sudden. while attempting to launch a career as a novelist in new york city, buechner stumbled upon the “extraordinary sermons” of george buttrick at madison avenue presbyterian church, which played a crucial part in buechner’s turning to christianity. this led him to enroll at union theological seminary, and become an ordained evangelist in the presbyterian church. his reflections on faith and life have appeared in numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including a long day’s dying (1950), the magnificent defeat (1966), the hungering dark (1968), wishful thinking (1973), and the pulitzer-nominated godric (1981). in addition, the wheaton college archives & special collections contain the works of other writers, poets, playwrights, and directors, including margaret landon (anna and the king of siam), susan howatch (starbridge series), calvin miller (the singer trilogy), luci shaw, jeanne murray walker (america’s best poetry), robert siegel (whalesong trilogy), alan thornhill (moral rearmament playwright), coleman luck (equalizer and gabriel’s fire), and norman stone (shadowlands bbc). other collections encompass the writings and activities of other noteworthy christians, including kenneth n. taylor (the living bible), francis and edith schaeffer (l’abri fellowship), louis evans, sr., c. everett koop, jacques ellul (french sociologist/theologian), david aikman (time journalist) and wesley pippert (united press international). political figures whose papers are housed in the collections include indiana senator daniel r. coats, house speaker dennis hastert, and former missionary and state department officer kenneth landon. contemporary social justice issues are documented well in the papers of urban pastor william leslie, or of sociologist david moberg, along with the records of sojourners, the other side, and of the national association of evangelicals. other collections • the e. beatrice batson shakespeare collection includes several early editions of shakespeare’s plays, a facsimile copy of the 1602 geneva bible, and important resources for the study of shakespeare’s era. • wheaton’s hymnal collection comprises over five thousand hymnals, and documents american protestant hymnody from the mid-eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. • with the closure in 2004 of the billy graham center library, archives and special collections assumed responsibility for that center’s sixty-thousand-volume specialized research collection of materials on evangelism and missions. included in this transfer of resources was a substantial rare book collection with histories of early missions work, bible translations, etc. such as the first hawaiian new testament, as well as works written by richard baxter and jonathan edwards. in the last few years the print holdings, and recently art holdings, of the billy graham center museum have been transferred to the wheaton college archives & special collections. conclusion with this wealth of resources, there are many stories that may be told. in 2009 the wheaton college archives & special collections undertook several initiatives to ensure that the stories we told were told well, and could help direct researchers and other interested individuals easily to our archival holdings. a primary initiative was the implementation of an 19 essays: “raising an ebenezer” theolib.org archival management system (http://archon.wheaton.edu) that is capable of providing clear, uniform, and authoritative information about our holdings. another significant effort was the addition of a blog (http://recollections.wheaton.edu) through which staff could tell and re-tell stories from the archives & special collections. as facts are sleuthed out for blog posts relating to wheaton college’s history, findings are edited and placed in an online history compendium, wheaton history a to z (http://a2z. my.wheaton.edu). a facebook site serves as one way to direct interested users to this content. as these initiatives have gained a foothold, the benefits to patrons is readily apparent, as illustrated (for example) in a sampling of recent scholarly publications emerging from the archives & special collections (see appendix, below). appendix: recent examples of scholarly use of wheaton’s collections worthen, molly. apostles of reason: the crisis of authority in american evangelicalism. oxford university press, 2014. habegger, alfred. masked: the life of anna leonowens, schoolmistress at the court of siam. university of wisconsin press, 2014. gasaway, brantley w. progressive evangelicals and the pursuit of social justice. university of north carolina press, 2014. herbel, oliver. turning to tradition: converts and the making of an american orthodox church. oxford university press, 2014. osborne, myles. ethnicity and empire in kenya: loyalty and martial race among the kamba, c. 1800 to the present. cambridge university press, 2014. marcus, leonard s. listening for madeleine: a portrait of madeleine l’engle in many voices. farrar, straus and giroux, 2012. schafer, axel r. piety and public funding: evangelicals and the state in modern america. university of pennsylvania press, 2012. swartz, david r. moral minority: the evangelical left in an age of conservatism. university of pennsylvania press, 2012. dochuk, darren. from bible belt to sunbelt: plain-folk religion, grassroots politics, and the rise of evangelical conservatism. norton, 2011. laats, adam. fundamentalism and education in the scopes era: god, darwin, and the roots of america’s culture wars. palgrave macmillan, 2010. williams, daniel k. god’s own party: the making of the christian right. oxford university press, 2010. heltzel, peter. jesus and justice: evangelicals, race, and american politics. yale university press, 2009. casey, shaun. the making of a catholic president: kennedy vs. nixon 1960. oxford university press, 2009. daly, lew. god’s economy: faith-based initiatives and the caring state. university of chicago press, 2009. http://archon.wheaton.edu http://recollections.wheaton.edu http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu 60 bibliographic essay william penn’s experiment in religious freedom: resources documenting the colonial religious experience at the state library of pennsylvania by iren light snavely n ot long after his arrival in pennsylvania in late november, 1742, it dawned on lutheran pastor henry muhlenberg that he was no longer in his native prussia. the ecclesiastical norms and expectations of the european continent, a state church with prebends and mandatory tithes, had no meaning here. when he arrived at new hanover, pennsylvania with an official letter of introduction from the religious authorities of the university of halle to take charge of the lutheran congregation there, some parishioners took “offense at the salary mentioned in . . . the letter.” others complained that “they would not allow themselves to be deceived again. . . . [w]ho knew whether i had not written the letters myself?” he found he could expect no help from the “deacons and elders . . , for in religious and church matters each has the right to do what he pleases. the government has nothing to do with it and will not concern itself with such matters.”1 muhlenberg’s story illustrates a surprising point made by author dietmar rothermund in his book the layman’s progress, namely, that william penn’s “holy experiment” actually lacked a “central religious concern.” “the holiness of this experiment rested on the principle of formal and guaranteed religious tolerance rather than . . . any positive and definite plan.” as a result, a diverse mixture of english quakers, german and scots-irish church groups, german sectarians and radical separatists settled freely throughout the province. the abundant “opportunities for work and material gain” without a religious focus seemed to sap the religious fervor of many groups, leading a number of the clergy to complain of “materialism and indifference.” the prevailing tolerance also made it difficult to enforce any discipline on those who strayed. since the colony’s various denominations lived in a “competitive coexistence,” the chief beneficiary was the layman, who enjoyed spiritual emancipation in exchange for his “voluntary support” of the church and ministry. 2 students or scholars new to the field of american colonial religion might find the terrain of pennsylvania’s eighteenth century religious landscape as strange and unfamiliar as did pastor muhlenberg during his first few weeks of ministry here in 1742. equally unfamiliar, no doubt, are some of the early pennsylvania authors and titles in the state library’s special collections documenting the colonial religious experience. an institution over 250 years old, the state library has special collections of seventeenth and eighteenth century religious books and pamphlets from pennsylvania publishers, as well as colonial pennsylvania newspapers and magazines. veteran scholars can probably navigate these collections with little difficulty, and will doubtless be aware of many of the authors and the issues they address. however, both veterans and novices may be unaware of some of the unique works on pennsylvania’s colonial religious experience in the special collections of the state library. consequently, in this essay i will highlight the library’s unique works on various aspects of pennsylvania’s colonial religious experience and endeavor to help researchers evaluate that literature.� 1 henry melchior muhlenberg, the notebook of a colonial clergyman, translated and edited by theodore c. tappert and john w. doberstein (philadelphia: muhlenberg press, 1959), 9. 2 rothermund, dietmar, the layman’s progress. religious and political experience in colonial pennsylvania, 1740-1770 ( philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1961), 11-15. � i wish to express my thanks to kurt bodling, rare books librarian at the state library of pennsylvania, for his assistance in reviewing many of the library’s rare books and pamphlets on colonial religion. iren light snavely is head of access services at the state library of pennsylvania, harrisburg, pennsylvania. 61 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 special collections at the state library of pennsylvania the state library of pennsylvania possesses unique print collections of original early modern pennsylvania imprints. these books, pamphlets, broadsides, magazines and newspapers tell the story of the colony’s religious experience through the lenses of contemporary issues and from a variety of perspectives.4 two published finding aids available to help scholars searching early pennsylvania imprints are charles r. hildeburn’s century of printing. the issues of the press in pennsylvania, 1685-1784 (philadelphia, 1885) and oswald seidensticker’s the first century of german printing in america, 1728-1830 (philadelphia, 189�) (for early german-american publications). the volume of rare seventeenthand eighteenth-century pennsylvania religious imprints in the collection makes an enumeration and description of each impossible in a short bibliographic essay. instead, i will highlight selected religious titles in the library’s collection by significant authors and works on critical issues of pennsylvania’s colonial religious practice. i will also list and describe the library’s holdings of colonial pennsylvania newspapers. since pennsylvania was a “proprietary”colony of great britain established by a religious dissident as a refuge for other religious dissidents, it makes sense, both chronologically and topically, to begin with the library’s holdings of publications by its quaker proprietor william penn. an author search of william penn in the state library’s online catalog yields no fewer than 44 records of original seventeenthand eighteenth-century publications— books, pamphlets and collected works—in english, french, dutch and german editions of penn’s writings. the state library owns a number of penn’s early books and pamphlets. one early tract in the collection that is key for understanding penn’s religious and legal views and activities on behalf of the freedoms of speech, assembly and worship is penn’s little book entitled peoples antient and just liberties asserted in the tryal of william penn and william mead ([london], 1670). this short work presents the author’s summary of his arrest and trial for unauthorized street preaching in violation of the conventicle act of 1670. the library has a seventeenth-century edition of penn’s most famous treatise on christian discipleship and religious toleration, no cross, no crown (london: benjamin clark, 1682), but also holds many later editions (1747, 1789, 1797) of this spiritual classic. although there is no copy of penn’s serious apology for friends (1672) in the collection, the library does own multiple editions of penn’s extended apologetic, a brief account of the rise and progress of the people called quakers : in which their fundamental principle, doctrines, worship, ministry and discipline are plainly declared, to prevent the mistakes and perversions that ignorance and prejudice may make to abuse the credulous (london: t. sowle, 1694). penn wrote the book after the death of his first wife in the wake of the keithean controversy. among the holdings most critical for understanding the colony’s origins and constitutional framework are an account of william penn’s travels in holland and germany : anno m.dc.lxxvii, for the service of the gospel of christ by way of journal (london: t. sowle, 1714) and the frame of the government of the province of pennsilvania in america: together with certain laws agreed upon in england by the governour and divers free-men of the aforesaid province. to be further explained and confirmed there by the first provincial council and general assembly that shall be held, if they see meet (n.p., 1682). the first work sheds light on the reasons for german immigration to penn’s 4 the rare book and pamphlet collections of the state library of pennsylvania are temporarily unavailable to scholars and the public following their move into the institution’s new rare books vault in 2008. they will become accessible to researchers once again after a several month “adjustment” period in the preservation environment. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 62 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 colony, while the second lays out its constitutional structures. the library owns two copies of the original frame of the government, with two twenty-first century reprints as well. the state library also owns several original publications by one of penn’s most prominent clerical opponents, the quaker apostate george keith, who later became an anglican priest. one work from keith’s quaker period is the presbyterian and independent visible church in new england and elsewhere, brought to the test and examined according to the doctrine of the holy scriptures (philadelphia: william bradford, 1689). this title is an ecclesiastical polemic directed against increase mather and other new england puritan divines. another publication, entitled a true copy of three judgments given forth by a party of men, called quakers at philadelphia, against george keith and his friends (philadelphia: william bradford, 1692 ), is keith’s response to leaders of the philadelphia annual meeting of friends, who disowned him for his views in 1692. the library also owns the pamphlet entitled an expostulation with thomas lloyd, samuell jenings, and the rest of the twenty eight unjust judges and signers of the paper of condemnation against george keith and the rest of his friends. and complaint for a publick hearing and tryal before all impartial people (philadelphia: william bradford, 1692) in which the philadelphia quakers told their side of the story. among the other seventeenth-century holdings in the state library’s special collections section are pamphlets by german lawyer and schoolmaster francis daniel pastorius, who served as one of penn’s land agents and founded germantown, north of philadelphia. two of the three pastorius pamphlets come from european presses. the earliest, ein send brieff offenhertziger liebsbezeugung an die so genannte pietisten in hoch teutschland (amsterdam: jacob claus, 1697), is an open letter by pastorius that showed his admiration for the pietist theologians of northern germany. an english pamphlet by pastorius is a personal reply to an earlier tract by henry bernhard koster, william davis: thomas rutter & thomas bowyer, four boasting disputers of this world briefly rebuked, and answered according to their folly (new york: william bradford, 1697). a third pastorius tract is an early geographical description of the province of pennsylvania based on the observations of pastorius’s father melchior adam pastorius. the brief pamphlet entitled umständige geographische beschreibung der zu allerletzt erfundenen provintz pensylvaniæ, in denen end-gräntzen americæ in der west-welt gelegen, durch franciscum danielem pastorium ... worbey angehencket sind einige notable begebenheiten, und bericht-schreiben an dessen herzn vattern melchiorem adamum pastorium, und andere gute freunde (franckfurt, leipzig: andreas otto, 1704) was published in germany probably to entice german settlers to penn’s colony. the state library’s holdings of eighteenth-century religious books and pamphlets are extensive, although few were published before the late 1720s. a glance at hildeburn’s century of printing . . . 1685-1784 reveals that most of the religious publications from the first two decades of the eighteenth century are quaker writings, often related to the keithean controversy.5 while the state library owns none of these original works, it does have the microfiche copies available in early american imprints. two of the library’s three rare religious titles dating from the late 1720s seem tailored to the german anabaptist and pietist immigrants who arrived in the colony during the first decades of the eighteenth century. in 1727, philadelphia printer andrew bradford reprinted an english translation of the christian confession of the faith of the harmless christians, in the netherlands, known by the name of mennonites. the work probably served to introduce the beliefs of german (and dutch) mennonites to other pennsylvania inhabitants. two years later in philadelphia 5 see charles r. hildeburn. a century of printing. the issues of the press in pennsylvania, 1685-1784. vol. 1, 1685-176� (new york: burt franklin, 1968, 1885), �4-56. 63 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 a german language devotional anthology was published by an unidentified press. the work includes the writings of the proto-pietist theologian johann arndt and the medieval mystic thomas a kempis. both devotional authors were favorites of german pietists, whether clerics or lay readers. in the late 1720s the pietist mystic conrad beissel, who founded the german seventh-day baptist religious community at ephrata, pennsylvania, first made his voice heard.6 although the library does not own either of beissel’s earliest publications das buchlein vom sabbath (1728) or the neun und neunzig mystische spruche (1728), it holds several of his early works of poetry and hymnody from the 17�0s. the earliest is the mystische und sehr geheyme sprueche: welche in der himlischen schule des heiligen geistes erlernet (philadelphia: b. franklin, 17�0), a collection of beissel’s mystical poems. another is the vorspiel der neuen-welt welches sich in der letzten abendroethe als ein paradisischer lichtes-glantz unter den kindern gottes hervor gethan (philadelphia: b. franklin, 17�2) a collection of beissel’s hymns without musical accompaniment for the celibate worshipers of the cloister. another devotional work from beissel’s pen with �8 additional hymns was entitled zionitischer weyrauchs hugel (17�9). it was published at the end of the decade by the new germantown press of christoph saur. the great awakening the pennsylvania presses of the 17�0s began printing a wider variety of ethnic publications that probably reflected the changing religious landscape of the colony due to the influx of new welsh, scottish and german immigrants. the state library’s special collections hold a number of these works that doubtless signaled the beginnings of the great awakening in pennsylvania. in addition to the radical pietist works of the ephrata community, more “mainstream” practical devotional and study aids appeared that appealed to lay people in major protestant denominations among the english and “church” germans. a 17�0 welsh bible concordance in the collection was prepared by delaware baptist minister enoch morgan, his son abel and john cadwalader and published in philadelphia by samuel keimer.7 a brief devotional broadside by benjamin padlin was translated into german for the saur press and published in 17�8.8 the author “earnestly” warns lay readers, “young and old,” to examine their hearts and spiritual states. an english work by moses west entitled a treatise concerning marriage: wherein the unlawfulness of mixt-marriages is laid open from the scriptures (philadelphia: reprinted by andrew bradford, [17�8]) was aimed at quakers, but also as the title stated intended for the “benefit of christian professors in general.” a published sermon by john tennent, son of william tennant the founder of the “log college” in neshaminy, pennsylvania, is the library’s earliest holding of a work from this famous family of presbyterian educators and ministers living in the delaware valley. the sermon, entitled the nature of regeneration opened, and its absolute necessity, in order to salvation, demonstrated . . .(boston, 17�5), stresses one of the major pietist themes that marked the great awakening and distinguished it from the sixteenth entury protestant reformation and the protestant scholasticism of the seventeenth century. 6 see oswald seidensticker, the first century of german printing in america, 1728-1830. new york: kraus reprint corporation, 1966), 7. 7 abel morgan, cyd-gordiad egwyddorawl o’r scrythuran: neu daflen lythyrennol o’r prif eiriau yn y bibl sanctaidd. yn arwain, dan y cyfryw eiriau, i fuan ganfod pob rhyw ddymunol ran o’r scrythurau. a gyfan-soddwyd drwy lafurus boen abel morgan, gwenidog yr efengyl er lle’s y cymru. philadelphia: s. keimer and d. harry, 17�0. 8 benjamin padlin, eine ernstliche ermahnung an junge und alte: zu einer ungehenlichelten profung ihres hertzens und zustandes. kurtzlich aus engeland nach amerika gesandt, und wegen seiner wichtigkeit ausdem englischen ins deutsche treulich ubersetet: von einem liebhaber der wahrheit. germantown, pa: christoph sauer, 17�8. benjamin padlin was actually a pseudonym for a female quaker writer benjamina padley. the [e]rnstliche ermahnung (earnest warning) was probably the first publication issued from the saur press. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 64 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 if the library’s holdings are an indication, the 1740s witnessed a torrent of religious publications issuing from pennsylvania presses. these works documented the height of the great awakening in pennsylvania and flowed mainly from four pennsylvania presses: andrew bradford, at the bible in front-street, philadelphia; benjamin franklin and david hall, in market street, philadelphia; christoph saur, germantown, pennsylvania and the brotherhood press in ephrata, pennsylvania. the state library of pennsylvania’s holdings from this period represent a wide variety of religious genres, including bibles, confessions and catechisms, devotional and liturgical aids, hymnals and psalters, periodicals, published sermons and polemical tracts and treatises. the collection contains works by most (but by no means all) of the prominent advocates and opponents of the awakening, as well as important sectarian writings from the ephrata religious community. one of the earliest american magazines, appearing regularly in the colonies of british north america, aimed to chronicle the great awakening. the short-lived periodical, owned by the state library, was entitled the christian history; containing accounts of the revival and propagation of religion in great-britain & america (boston: n.e. printed by s. kneeland and t. green, for t. prince, jr., 174�-1745). it was edited by the boston congregationalist preacher thomas prince, who proposed to print “authentick accounts from ministers and other creditable persons of the revival of religion.”9 the library also owns a published local account of the religious revival that broke out near philadelphia in 1744. a short and faithful narrative of the late remarkable revival of religion in the congregation of new-londonderry, and other parts of pennsylvania (philadelphia: william bradford, 1744) was a first-hand description written by presbyterian pastor samuel blair, another graduate of the log college. one of the most important pennsylvania awakeners, whose writings from this period feature prominently in the state library’s collection, is gilbert tennent, another son of william tennent and a graduate of the log college. from august 174�, he pastored philadelphia’s second presbyterian church. although the library does not own an original edition of his most famous treatise, the danger of an unconverted ministry (1740), many of gilbert tennent’s other published sermons are found among its special collections. tennent’s earliest printed work in the collection is a sermon series entitled the necessity of holding fast the truth represented in three sermons on rev. iii. 3. preached at new-york, april 1742. (boston: s. kneeland and t. green, 174�). this publication also includes an appendix, relating to errors lately vented by some moravians in those parts. this work signals his growing suspicion of the moravians, whose unconventional beliefs found sympathizers within his congregation. another work published by tennent the following year contained twenty three sermons upon the chief end of man. the divine authority of the sacred scriptures, the being and attributes of god, and the doctrine of the trinity… (philadelphia: william bradford, 1744). this text represented tennent’s shift away from the controversial topic of conversion to more traditional presbyterian and reformed themes. for example, four years later he published brotherly love recommended, by the argument of the love of christ (philadelphia: benjamin franklin and david hall, 1748) in which he counseled love and unity as prerequisites to the lord’s supper. another tennent sermon in the collection addresses an issue unique to the quaker commonwealth of pennsylvania, namely the legitimacy of a provincial militia to defend the inhabitants of the colony’s interior. this recurrent issue would loom larger every year with the growing imperial rivalry between england and france in north america, and the disaffection of some native american groups (i.e. delawares) and individuals.10 9 the christian history, march 5, 174�, 1. 10 gilbert tennent, the late association for defence, encourag’d, or, the lawfulness of a defensive war. represented in a sermon preach’d at philadelphia december 24, 1747. by gilbert tennent. published at the request of the hearers. 2nd ed.. philadelphia: william bradford, [1748]. 65 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 it seems strange that the state library possesses no original work by gilbert tennent’s spiritual mentor, the dutch reformed pietist theodorus j. frelinghuysen, who was likewise a major spokesman for the revival in new jersey. neither does the library own any contemporary copy of a work by new england congregationalist preacher jonathan edwards, whose name is almost synonymous with the movement. there is a late eighteenth century edition of edward’s classic treatise concerning religious affections: in three parts (boston, 1794), as well as an early nineteenth century anthology of twenty [edwards’] sermons on various subjects (carlisle, pa: george kline, 180�) in the collection, but contemporary editions of edward’s works at the state library are available only on microfiche as they are elsewhere. however, there are numerous early editions of books, tracts and published letters by tennent’s fellow evangelist, the famous methodist itinerant preacher george whitefield. the state library of pennsylvania’s rare book collection holds no less than eight original editions of whitefield’s works published by pennsylvania presses. half of these are published sermons, either individual homilies or collections. whitefield’s popularity as a preacher can be gauged by his homiletical output.11 in 1740, the year after whitefield’s first american preaching tour, three major pennsylvania presses: franklin and hall, andrew and william bradford, and christoph saur, all published sermons by the gloucester evangelist. the bradfords published his sermon on the heinous sin of drunkenness, while franklin published a two volume collection of whitefield’s sermons on various subjects. saur, the germantown publisher, printed another collection, von georg weitfields predigten. the library also holds several of whitefield’s most important polemical works from the period of the awakening. these include a [published] letter to the reverend dr. [charles] chauncy, on account of some passages relating to the revd. mr. whitefield, in his book intitled seasonable thoughts on the state of religion in new-england (philadelphia: william bradford, 1745),12 as well as a pamphlet that contains some remarks on a pamphlet, entituled the enthusiasm of methodists and papist compar’d; wherein several mistakes in some parts of his past writings and conduct are acknowledged, and his present sentiments concerning the methodists [are] explained. (london printed: philadelphia reprinted: w[illiam] bradford, 1749). autobiographical, rather than controversial, the work is a further account of god’s dealings with the revrend mr. george whitefield, from the time of his ordination to his embarking for georgia. to which is annexed a brief account of the rise, progress, and present situation of the orphan-house in georgia. in a letter to a friend. (philadelphia: william bradford, 1745). neither is whitefield the only methodist evangelist of the period represented in the collection. the library owns a german translation of john wesley’s famous nature and design of christianity, probably translated by melchior kriebel for the saur press.1� the state library also has a number of the published writings by count nicolaus ludwig, graf von zinzendorf, the aristocrat moravian bishop and evangelist who influenced the young john wesley and the methodist movement. 11 whitefield preached over 18,000 formal sermons in his lifetime. 12 the state library of pennsylvania also owns a copy of chauncy’s book that inspired whitefield’s defense of the revival, seasonable thoughts on the state of religion in new-england, a treatise in five parts... with a preface giving an account of the antinomians, familists and libertines, who infected these churches, above an hundred years ago: very needful for these days; the like spirit prevailing now as did then. the whole being intended, and calculated, to serve the interest of christ’s kingdom. by charles chauncy. boston, printed by rogers and fowle, for samuel eliot in cornhill, 174�. 1� [wesley, john]. die nichtigkeit der welt und des zeitlichen lebens. wie auch, die wichtig-und nothwendigkeit der wahren wiedergeburt zur unendlichen glückseeligkeit und ewigem leben. kürtzlich beschrieben von einem englischer autor, und ins teutsche übersetzt. germantown, pa: christoph saur, 1744. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 66 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 a book and two tracts in the collection date from 1742, during zinzendorf ’s 14-month residence in america. all were published by benjamin franklin. in both tracts, one english, the other latin, zinzendorf uses the name von thurnstein and refers to himself as the pastor and inspector of the lutheran congregation in philadelphia, who called him as its minister. he stresses an ecumenical theme, stating his strong desire for christian unity.14 a short book in german sounds a similar theme, although zinzendorf ’s aim in this work is to rebut a series of questions raised by the german separatist johann adam gruber, who opposed the count’s plan to unify the german churches of pennsylvania.15 these ecumenical proposals of zinzendorf, like gruber’s writings objecting to them were shaped by an ecumenical project known as the “pennsylvania congregation of god in the spirit,” a pennsylvania-based movement for protestant union that included lutherans, reformed, presbyterians, episcopalians, quakers, mennonites, dunkers, [ephrata] sabbatarians, inspired and individual separatists, who gathered at germantown, pennsylvania on new year’s day, 1742.16 this ecumenical body persisted through seven synods under moravian influence until 1748, but gradually lost delegates from other (non-moravian) denominations, and instead resulted in intensified denominational consciousness.17 the library owns a report of the second meeting of this body entitled avthentische nachricht von der verhandlung und dem verlass der am 14den und 15den januarii anno 1741/2 im sogenannten falckner-schwamm an georg hübners hause gehaltenen zweyten versammlung sowol einiger teutschen arbeiter der evangelischen religionen als verschiedener einzelen treuen gezeugen und gottsfürchtiger nachbarn. nebst einigen beylagen, published by benjamin franklin in 1742. the “beylagen,” or supplements are polemical tracts by participants, who included gruber and zinzendorf. the sympathy and antagonism engendered by zinzendorf are evident in the number of rare books in the state library’s collection either influenced by the moravian evangelist or opposing him. two german reformed works that reflect moravian influence are johannes bechteln’s kurzer catechismus vor etliche gemeinen jesu aus der reformirten religion in pennsylvania (philadelphia: b. franklin, 1742) and jacob lischys reformirten predigers zweyte declaration seines sinnes, an seine reformirte religions-genossen in pennsylvanien (germantown, pa: christoph saur, 1748). johannes bechteln was a germantown reformed lay pastor, who often invited zinzendorf to preach in his church. when the need arose for a reformed catechism for the german believers associated with the pennsylvania synod, zinzendorf and bechteln prepared this brief work based upon the twelve articles of the bern 14 see zinzendorf, nicolaus ludwig, graf von. the remarks,which the author of the compendious extract, &c. in the preface to his book, has friendly desired of the rev. of thurenstein, [pseud.] for the time pastor of the lutheran congregation of j.c. in philadelphia. philadelphia: b. franklin, 1742; and ludovici a thürenstein in antiqvissima fratrum ecclesia ad táxin kaì euschemosynen diaconi constituti, et h. t. ecclesiae, qvae christo philadelphiae inter lutheranos colligitur, pastoris, ad cogitatus ingenous pium desiderium, h. e. epistola ad bonos pensilvaniae cives christo non inimicos, ob conversationis difficultatem taliter qvaliter latino idiomate conscripta, et dexteritati cordati interpretis, duce providentia, pie concredita. phildelphia; ex officina frankliniana, [1742]. 15 zinzendorf, etliche zu dieser zeit nicht unnütze fragen über einige schrift-stellen, welche von den liebhabern der lautern wahrheit deutlich erörtert zu werden gewünschet hat ein wahrheitforschender in america, im jahr 1742: so deutlich und einfältig erörtert, als es ihm möglich gewesen ist; und in folgender klaren und bequemen form herausgegebern von einem knecht jesu christi. philadelphia: gedruckt . .. bey b. franklin, [1742]. 16 see john joseph stoudt, “count zinzendorf and the pennsylvania congregation of god in the spirit: the first american oecumenical movement,” church history 9, no. 4 (1940), �71. 17 ibid., �76. 67 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 synod of 15�2.18 the 1748 work of jacob lischy is a theological treatise by this swiss reformed preacher, who also had moravian sympathies. in addition to gilbert tennent’s published sermon the necessity of holding fast the truth (1742) mentioned earlier, there are several other anti-moravian works in the collection. one is a paper by separatist johann adam gruber, entitled gründliche anund aufforderung an die ehmahlig erweckte hier und dar zerstreuete seelen dieses landes, in oder ausser partheyen, zur neuen umfassung, gliedlicher vereinigung, und gebets-gemeinschaft; dargelegt aus dringendem herzen eines um heilung der brücke zions ängstlich bekümmerten gemüths, im jahr 1736. this work disputed zinzendorf ’s view of the church (philadelphia: b. franklin, 1742). another is a confession written by a prominent member of the ephrata brotherhood, brother johannes hildebrand, entitled wohlgegrundetes bedencken der christlichen gemeine in und bey ephrata von weg der heiligung (germantown, pa: christoph saur, 174�). hildebrand prepared the work by order of conrad beissel, who (evidently) also found zinzendorf ’s motives and beliefs suspect. neither was hildebrand the only member of the ephrata brotherhood to write against the moravaians. brother israel eckerlin, prior of the cloister (who had participated in the pennsylvania congregation of god in the spirit) also produced at least one anti-moravian tract according to the chronicon ephratense, the official history of the ephrata cloister.19 another four volume collection by johann philipp fresenius entitled bewährte nachrichten von herrnhutischen sachen (franckfurt am mayn: buchner, 1746-1751) carried warnings by individual german separatists about zinzendorf ’s “zealous greed.”20 in addition to polemical and expository writings of the great evangelists of the revival, the library’s rare books collection predictably has some of the practical devotional, worship and study aids for lay believers of the period. pennsylvania publishers like benjamin franklin and christoph saur, doubtless, found a ready market for such books among the english, scots-irish and german immigrants new to the province. judging from the library’s holdings, many more of these publications were available in the german language than in english. the luther bible was the fundamental resource for most german believers, both sectarian and “church” germans, who had emigrated to the colony. the library has two copies of the biblia, das ist: die heilige schrift altes und neues testaments, nach der deutschen uebersetzung d. martin luthers, ; mit jedes capitels kurtzen summarien, auch beygefugten vielen und richtigen parallelen: ; nebst dem gewohnlichen anhang des dritten und vierten buchs esra, und des dritten buchs der maccabaer (germantown, pa: christoph saur, 174�). strangely, it also possesses two copies of a slightly different saur edition of luther’s bible with “einen anhang des dritten und vierten buchs esra, und des dritten buchs der maccabaer.” the only difference between the bibles was the modifier “einen” [“a”] instead of “gewohnlich” [“usual”] in the title to describe the appendix containing the apocrypha. the decade of the 1740’s saw several new and traditional doctrinal standards issued from pennsylvania presses. aside from bechteln’s (and zinzendorf ’s) kurzer [german reformed] catechismus mentioned earlier, the library’s special collections hold a volume of the church of scotland’s confession of faith, the larger and shorter catechisms, 18 see john w. jordan, “john bechtel: his contributions to literature and his descendents,” the pennsylvania magazine of history and biography, 19/no. 2 (1895): 1�7-151. jordan says that they chose this reformed catechism, because it was one “in which a tendency towards lutheranism was manifest, and by some [it ] was claimed to be in harmony with the doctrines of the moravian church,” 142. 19 prior israel eckerlin authored a number of works, including die regul und richts-schur eines streiters jesu christi. von israel eckerlin (ephrata, pa:. drucks der bruderschafft, 1745) and der wandel eines einsamen. von israel eckerlin (ephrata, pa: drucks der bruderschafft, 1745). although these works were written by order of conrad beissel, the superior of the convent, after eckerlin’s departure his works, as well as others in which he had a hand, were burned. 20 stoudt, “count zinzendorf and the pennsylvania congregation of god in the spirit,” �78. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 68 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 with the scripture proofs at large published by franklin’s press in 1745 for english and scottish presbyterians. although franklin published a 174� edition of the baptist creed, the state library’s first pennsylvania edition of the baptist confession of faith of 1643 adopted by the [philadelphia baptist] association at philadelphia september 22, 1742; and now received by churches of the same denomination in most of the american colonies was published by the philadelphia press of anthony armbruster in 1765. there are also a number of german hymnals and psalters from pennsylvania publishers among the library’s rare books. two of the hymnals are mennonite collections from a young sixteenth century german anabaptist martyr, thomas vom imbroich. the first work, ausbund, da ist: etliche schöne christliche lieder, wie sie in dem gefängnüs zu bassau in dem schloss von den schweitzer-brüdern, und von andern rechtgläubigen christen hin und her gedichtet worden. allen und jeden christen welcher religion sie seyen, unpartheyisch fast nutzliche was published by the saur press in 1742. a second volume attributed to von imbroich entitled güldene aepffel in silbern schalen oder: schöne und nützliche worte und wahrheiten zur gottseligkeit was published in 1745 and was the first book printed by the brotherhood press at the ephrata cloister. the library also owns a copy of the german seventhday baptist hymnal entitled das gesäng der einsamen und verlassenen turtel-taube nemlich der christlichen kirche used for worship at the cloister. the brotherhood press published this collection of its own hymns in 1747. it was largely composed by beissel and set to music. isaac watts’s famous hymns and spiritual songs, in three parts, familiar to many english worshipers today, was first published in great britain in 1707 and reprinted in the 1760’s by presses in boston, new york and philadelphia. the hymnal by the english dissenter watts was first published in philadelphia by david hall and william sellers in 1767 and 1772. unfortunately, the state library has no eighteenth century edition of this hymnal. in 1744 christoph saur also published a german psalter, das kleine davidische psalterspiel der kinder zions, von alten und neuen auserlesenen geistes gesangen, allen wahren heils-begierigen sauglingen der weisheit, insonderheit aber denen gemeinden des herrn, zum dienst und gebrauch mit fleiss zusammen getragen...nebst einem...register ans licht gegeben. twenty-eight years later in 1772, his son christoph saur ii would republish a classic german psalter by ambrosius lobwasser, who based the work on his translation of theodore beza’s reformed french psalter. the library owns both works. by 1750, the revival known as the great awakening was largely spent. despite the millennial optimism of proponents like jonathan edwards, evangelical historian mark noll and catholic historian gary wills agree that “the awakening [seems to have] cooled as fast as it had arisen.”21 in fact, noll points out that “by the 1750s many churches that had benefited from the revivals were barely adding enough new members to replace those who died.”22 certainly this cooling off is evident in the smaller number of religious publications in the library’s special collection that issued from pennsylvania’s colonial presses in the decades that followed. elsewhere, noll describes the period from 1745 to the 1770’s as an era in which the evangelical movement spawned by the revivals internationally underwent “dramatic expansion and diversification.”2� this phenomenon is likewise manifest in the topics and issues addressed in the pennsylvania publications of the library’s special collection that date from the second half of the eighteenth century. 21 gary wills, head and heart. american christianities (new york: the penguin press, 2007), 101. 22 mark a. noll, america’s god: from jonathan edwards to abraham lincoln (oxford: oxford university press, 2002), 162. 2� mark a. noll, the rise of evangelicalism. the age of edwards, whitefield, and the wesleys (downers grove, il: intervarsity press, 200�), 155. 69 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 a number of voices from the awakening—gilbert tennent’s, count zinzendorf ’s and george whitefield’s— persisted into the 1750’s and 1760’s and can be heard in the words of a few of the library’s holdings. for example, a published funeral sermon by gilbert tennent, now pastor of philadelphia’s 2nd presbyterian church reflected on the good mans character and reward represented, and his loss deplor’d, together with reflections on the presages of approaching calamities. in a funeral discourse, with some enlargements occasioned by the death of captain william grant of this city, who departed this life, september 30, 1756 (phildelphia: william brdford, [1756]. the library also owns a series of sixteen discourses [i.e. sermons] on the redemption of man by the death of christ. preached at berlin, by the right reverend and most illustrious count zinzendorf ... translated from the high dutch. with a dedication to the archbishops, bishops and clergy, giving some account of the moravian brethren, published in london by james hutton in 1760, the year of the count’s death. a 176� published letter by george whitefield offers some observations on some fatal mistakes, in a book lately published and intitled, the doctrine of grace; or, the office and operations of the holy spirit vindicated from the insults of infidelity, and the abuses of fanaticism. by dr. william warburton, lord bishop of gloucester. the work, reprinted in philadelphia by william bradford, was a defense of methodism against the bishop of gloucester, whose attacks also drew fire from john wesley. many of the pennsylvania religious titles in the collection that date from the second half of the eighteenth century offer very different concerns. while some of the authors of these works hailed from older religious constituencies such as the quakers, they raised new (often radical) concerns of a social or political nature. among the clusters of issues that occupied the pennsylvania presses of the period were pacifism and the need for colonial defense, the evangelization of native americans and the protection of their rights, and (most radically) the alleged illegitimacy of enslaving africans. also, religious groups such as baptists and wesleyan methodists, though by no means new to pennsylvania, began to make their voices heard as an organizational presence. doubtless, many of these publications represent the kind of development and diversification mentioned by rothermund and noll. pacifism and defense christian pacifism and non-resistance based upon new testament teaching were intrinsic components of penn’s vision for his colony. these were beliefs shared by english quakers and german anabaptist settlers alike, and they shaped the policies adopted by the quaker dominated colonial assembly. even though every governor after 1688 was a non-quaker, who recommended the formation of a colonial militia and military appropriations, such measures were consistently defeated. penn, in fact, lost his colony between 1692 and 1694, in part, because of its defenselessness in the face of the threat from france. he regained control only after agreeing to accept the duty for military preparedness, but never prevailed upon the assembly to create a militia. although the assembly voted funds for the crown in 1696, 1709 and 1711 in response to specific government demands, these monies were never commensurate with the requested amounts, nor were they for “direct military expenses.” a quarter century of peace occasioned by the treaty of utrecht (171�) made pennsylvania’s pacifist policies a moot point within the british empire, but the situation changed in 17�9 with the beginning of the wars for empire. 24 pennsylvania’s policies of pacifism and non-resistance were hotly debated in the eighteenth century press. authors ranging from the presbyterian gilbert tennent [already mentioned], anglican william smith and deist benjamin franklin to the quaker samuel smith disputed the issues of christian non-resistance and the lawfulness of defensive war in a number of the library’s rare books and pamphlets. 24 j. william frost, a perfect freedom. religious liberty in pennsylvania (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1990), 29-�2. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 70 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 in the 1747 pamphlet plain truth: or, serious considerations on the present state of the city of philadelphia, and the province of pennsylvania, benjamin franklin drew upon scripture and reason to make a case for defending penn’s colony with armaments and a state militia. he declared, “there is no british colony excepting this, but has made some kind of provision for defence.” he mentioned most of the usual reasons advanced by quaker and other opponents of the defense, such as the “length and difficulty of our bay and river” alleged to provide natural security to the colony, but warned that “our wealth . . . is one strong temptation, our defenceless state another, to induce an enemy to attack us.”25 new jersey quaker samuel smith responded to franklin in a pamphlet the following year published by william bradford entitled necessary truth: or seasonable considerations for the inhabitants of the city of philadelphia, and province of pennsylvania. later that year presbyterian preacher gilbert tennent joined the fray with a published sermon called the late association for defence, encourag’d, or, the lawfulness of a defensive war. but the most spirited polemics were published in london by anglican clergyman and newly appointed provost of the college of philadelphia william smith. smith’s first pamphlet published in 1755 was entitled a brief state of the province of pennsylvania, in which the conduct of their assemblies for several years past is impartially examined, and the true cause of the continual encroachments of the french displayed (london: r. griffiths, 1755). in it smith charged that the quaker representatives in the colonial assembly, who enjoyed a reputation as “honest, sober, and thoughtful” individuals, instead sought to use religion as a “political scheme of power.”26 smith’s pamphlet prompted an answer to an invidious pamphlet, intitled, a brief state of the province of pennsylvania. wherein are exposed the many false assertions of the author or authors, or the said pamphlet, with a view to render the quakers of pennsylvania and their government obnoxious to the british parliament and ministry (london: s. blandon, 1755), by an obscure clerk named henry cross, who, smith charged, had been convicted of forgery and transported to america. smith’s final word on the matter appeared the following year in a book entitled a brief view of the conduct of pennsylvania, for the year 1755 (london: r. griffiths, 1756). in this book smith described the disastrous expedition of general braddock, the indian incursions and the frontier settlers’ demands for provincial defensive measures. he also suggested several methods for “ridding our assembly of quakers,” who impeded defensive legislation. the most humane of smith’s suggestions was simply to require that every assembly member swear an oath of loyalty.27 such an action, of course, would contradict quaker doctrine and practice. in fact, many quaker members of the colonial assembly worried that support for a war with the french, either by legislation or payment of the war tax passed in july 1755, would impugn their integrity and that of the philadelphia yearly meeting. for this reason, john woolman and twenty other quaker members of the assembly published an open letter, explaining their reasons for opposing the tax and the war. in the months that followed, ten quaker members of the assembly resigned rather than compromise their pacifist principles or their ability to carry out their legislative duties.28 25 benjamin franklin, plain truth: or, serious considerations on the present state of the city of philadelphia, and province of pennsylvania. by a tradesman of philadelphia, [2nd ed.] ([philadelphia], 1747. 26 william smith, a brief state of the province of pennsylvania . . . ( london: r. griffiths, 1755), 7-8. 27 william smith, a brief view of the conduct of pennsylvania, for the year 1755 (london: r. griffiths; . sold by mr. bradford in philadelphia. 1756), 70. 28 jack d. marietta, “conscience, the quaker community, and the french and indian war,” the pennsylvania magazine of history and biography vol. 94 (january, 1971): 18. 71 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 native american issues closely related to the problem of colonial defense was the issue of the native american rights and lands. this was a matter of particular concern to the quakers, but might appear likely to have concerned the moravians or anyone involved in missionary outreach to the indians. unfortunately, this was rarely the case. jane merritt’s description of moravian attitudes toward the delawares seems typical of white christian viewpoints outside of quaker circles. she argues, the moravians’ sincerity and concern for indian souls did not always mitigate the impact of their presence in the region. their methods and attitudes toward indians sometimes precipitated the displacement of native inhabitants. [moravian bishop] spangenberg believed that indians would remain true to christianity only if they lived together in a mission town, closely controlled by moravians. he agreed with governor george thomas that large-scale indian conversion might come only when “whites are so much increased that the indians are cooped up into a narrow compass and subdued.”29 despite such questionable attitudes and motives, the provincial government, the proprietors and many white settlers recognized the importance of negotiating with the native american inhabitants of the colony while many christian churches were keen to evangelize them. for these reasons, it is not surprising to find a number of rare publications in the state library’s special collections related to pennsylvania indians. in fact, the oldest such publication is a seventeenth century swedish lutheran catechism entitled lutheri catechismus: ofwersatt pa american-virginiske spraket published in stockholm in 1696. the work is an edition of luther’s small catechism translated by johan campanius holm into the delaware language in 164�, but left unprinted for fifty years. among the eighteenth century works in the collection related to native americans, there are a variety of publications, including travel journals, pamphlets, educational texts and books. several grew out of the aftermath of the french and indian war and pontiac’s war. several others were the products of missionary endeavors. two published pamphlets in the library’s special collection stem from the infamous paxton riots of december 176� in which a mob of scots-irish (mostly presbyterian) frontiersmen brutally murdered 14 conestoga indians— men, women and children—being held for their own protection in the lancaster, pennsylvania jail. the earliest tract is a defense of the quakers assisting to preserve the lives of the indians in the barracks, vindicated and proved to be consistent with reason, agreeable to our law, hath an inseperable connection with the law of god and exactly agreeable with the principles of the people called quakers... printed [in philadelphia] by anthony armbruster, 1764. the second work is a published letter by thomas barton also from 1764 that describes the conduct of the paxton-men, impartially represented; the distresses of the frontiers, and the complaints and sufferings of the people fully stated ... with some remarks upon the narrative, of the indian-massacre, lately publish’d. interspers’d with several interesting anecdotes, relating to the military genius, and warlike principles of the people call’d quakers: together-with proper reflection and advice upon the whole. in a letter from a gentleman in one of the back counties, to a friend in philadelphia. (philadelphia: printed by a. steuart, and sold by john creaig, shopkeeper in lancaster. 1764). a more extensive treatise is an account of colonel henry bouquet’s 1764 expedition against the ohio (delaware) indian tribes that brought an end to pontiac’s war. this book, written by anglican clergyman william smith, was first published in philadelphia, but reprinted in london in 1766.�0 29 jane t. merritt, at the crossroads. indians & empires on a mid-atlantic frontier, 1700-1763 (chapel hill, n.c.: university of north carolina press, 200�), 96. �0 william smith, an historical account of the expedition against the ohio indians, in the year mdcclxiv. under the command of henry theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 72 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 two final works on native americans in colonial pennsylvania each come from the pens of missionaries, the first by a presbyterian, the other by a moravian. the state library holds charles beatty’s the journal of a two months tour; with a view of promoting religion among the frontier inhabitants of pennsylvania, and of introducing christianity among the indians to the westward of the alegh-geny mountains. to which are added, remarks on the language and customs of some particular tribes among the indians, with a brief account of the various attempts that have been made to civilize and convert them, from the first settlement of new england to this day (london: printed for william davenhill and george pearch, 1768). the second work is an educational textbook by moravian missionary david zeisberger entitled, essay of a delaware-indian and english spelling-book, for the use of the schools of the christian indians on muskingum river. zeisberger had the bilingual spelling book published in philadelphia by henry miller in 1776. abolition although the friends’ peace stance and defense of indian rights could be attributed to traditional quaker doctrines and political interests, their demand for the abolition of the slave trade was nothing short of revolutionary for the eighteenth century. several important philadelphia friends were in the forefront of the british abolitionist movement. while they were not the first american quakers to oppose the african slave trade in print,�1 schoolmaster anthony benezet and pennsylvania assemblyman john woolman were the leading spokesmen for the abolitionist movement in the colony. one of their greatest accomplishments, according to historian gary wills, was to undermine the defense of slavery from scripture.�2 the state library owns a number of works by these two early abolitionist allies. benezet’s antislavery tracts, published at his own expense, influenced john wesley and would later persuade a young cambridge graduate named thomas clarkson to devote his life to the abolition of the slave trade.�� benezet’s earliest tract, a short account of that part of africa, inhabited by the negroes. with respect to the fertility of the country; the good disposition of many of the natives, and the manner by which the slave trade is carried on. extracted from divers authors, in order to shew the iniquity of that trade, and the falsity of the arguments usually advanced in its vindication. with quotations from the writings of several persons of note, viz. george wallis, francis hutcheson, and james foster, and a large extract from a pamphlet, lately published in london, on the subject of the slave trade. 2d ed. with large additions and amendments (philadelphia: printed by w. dunlap, 1762), presents ample evidence of the author’s wide reading and compilation of reports for use in the campaign against the slave trade. a shorter polemical tract from 1766 offers a caution and warning to great-britain and her colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved negroes in the british dominions. collected from various authors, and submitted to the serious consideration of all, more especially of those in power (philadelphia: printed by henry miller, 1766). but by far benezet’s most influential pamphlet on both sides of the atlantic was entitled some historical account of guinea, its situation, produce and the general disposition of its inhabitants. with an inquiry into the rise and progress of the slave-trade, its nature and lamentable effects (philadelphia: printed by joseph crukshank, 1771).�4 bouquet ... including his transactions with the indians, relative to the delivery of their prisoners, and the preliminaries of peace. with an introductory account of the preceding campaign, and battle at bushy-run. to which are annexed military papers, containing reflections on the war with the savages; a method of forming frontier settlements; some account of the indian country; with a list of nations, fighting men, towns, distances, and different routs. philadelphia, printed; london, reprinted for t. jefferies, 1766. �1 see the brief section on benjamin lay (1681-1759) in gary wills, heart and head. american christianities (new york: the penguin press, 2007), 1�8-40. �2 ibid., p. 140. �� see www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/benezet.htm. consulted 7/17/2008. �4 ibid. 73 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 the library also owns a rare print edition of the second part of john woolman’s short but powerful antislavery tract called considerations on keeping negroes: recommended to the professors of christianity, of every denomination, published by ben franklin in 1762. wollman had actually written this tract, together with the first part, a published epistle to the friends in virginia, in the 1740’s , but was unable to publish either part until his friend anthony benezet became a leading figure on the board of [friends] overseers of the press.�5 baptist and methodist expansion the two american denominations that expanded most dramatically in the latter part of the eighteenth century were the baptists and the methodists. baptists, whether english or german, were well represented in colonial pennsylvania by the end of the eighteenth century and were beginning to consolidate their denominational structures. this process was partly institutional, partly historical and, of course, partly confessional. as mentioned previously, in 1765 the philadelphia baptist association published a statement of faith it had adopted in 1742, popularly known as the philadelphia confession. five years later baptist historian morgan edwards published the first volume of his monumental history of baptists in the american colonies. the 1770 publication, included among the library’s special collections, is entitled materials towards a history of the baptists in pennsylvania: both british and german, distinguished into firstday baptists, keithian baptists, seventhday baptists, tuncker baptists, mennonist baptists (philadelphia: printed by joseph crukshank and isaac collins, 1770). in addition to this comprehensive baptist history produced by edwards, a member of the german seventh-day baptist community at ephrata known only as brother lamech authored the famous chronicon ephratense [ephrata chronicle], enthaltend den lebens-lauf des ehrwurdigen vaters in christo friedsam gottrecht, weyland stiffters und vorstehers des geistl. ordens der einsamen in ephrata in der grafschaft lancaster in pennsylvania. this more narrow institutional history was published by the brotherhood press at ephrata in 1786. the library holds not only these important historical and confessional documents of pennsylvania baptists, but also a published transcript of the minutes of the philadelphia baptist association held at philadelphia, october 2,3,4, &5, 1792 (philadelphia: n.p., 1792). the final decades of the eighteenth century also witnessed the consolidation of the methodist episcopal church as a distinct american denomination. george whitefield’s death in 1770 and the arrival of francis asbury the following year represented an important theological and institutional turning point for the movement.�6 the state library’s rare books collection contains several key works related to this development. the foundational work for american methodism is the doctrines and discipline of the methodist episcopal church in america. with explanatory notes by thomas coke and francis asbury, 10th edition. it is a 187 page document published in philadelphia [printed by henry tuckniss] in 1798. in addition the state library owns the first two volumes of the arminian magazine (philadelphia: prichard & hall, 1789-1790), the methodist periodical established by john wesley that provided testimonies of the faithful. the state library also holds several publications related to the ministry of german-american evangelist and methodist ally philip otterbein, who helped to found the united brethren church. this german pietist denomination eventually joined another small pennsylvania german religious group known as the evangelical association, later merging with the united methodist church in 1968. among the state library’s holdings of otterbein publications are german works by two of the evangelist’s brothers. the earliest is a pastoral reflection on counsel offered to a condemned criminal by philip’s brother johann daniel otterbein. the work entitled, jesus und �5 wills, head and heart, pp. 141-42. �6 noll, rise of evangelicalism, p. 191. theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 74 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 der kraft seines bluts ganz besonders verherrlichet an johann jost weygand einen armen sunder, der sinen mord begangen; und den 21ten, october, 1785, auf der richtstatte vor berlenburg, mit dem schwerd vom leben zum tod gebracht worden, was published in lancaster in 1790. the other work by philip’s brother georg gottfried is a reader for german school children published in philadelphia by carl cist in 1795 for use in the american charity schools.�7 eighteenth-century pennsylvania newspapers at the state library of pennsylvania although much of the religious information in eighteenth-century pennsylvania was disseminated in published books and pamphlets, a great deal (especially at the popular level) was communicated through newspapers. the state library of pennsylvania is the major repository for early pennsylvania newspapers with original rag and pulp, as well as microfilm collections. while original copies of newspapers are available only in special collections, service copies of newspapers on microfilm may be used in the main library reading room or circulated through interlibrary loan. in addition to the library’s print and microfilm collections, the library subscribes to early american newspapers, series 1, 1690-1876, an online newspaper database covering colonial pennsylvania newspapers.�8 the library also owns a recent monograph entitled, debating the issues in colonial newspapers. primary documents on events of the period (westport, ct, 2000), that may serve as a sort of finding aid. most early and colonial pennsylvania newspapers owned by the state library were published in philadelphia. some of these philadelphia newspapers are: american weekly mercury. 1719-1746. published by andrew bradford and cornelia bradford, this was the earliest pennsylvania newspaper. chestnuthiller wochenschrift. october 1790-august 179�. this german language newspaper based in chestnut hill, pa (near philadelphia) was published by samuel saur. freeman’s journal or the north american intelligencer. april 1781-may 1792. the newspaper that survived for over a decade was published by francis bailey, a lancaster printer and type manufacturer who moved to philadelphia. national gazette. january 1791-december 179� (superceded by the united states gazette. june 1, 1794-june �0, 1847). this short-lived newspaper was published by philip freneau. pennsylvania chronicle. january 1767-february 1774. william goddard, publisher. the subtitle indicates its varied subject matter: “containing the freshest advices, both foreign and domestic; with a variety of other matter, useful, instructive, and entertaining.” pennsylvania evening post and public advertiser. january 1775-october 1784. published by benjamin towne, it appeared irregularly, almost always on single sheets. pennsylvania gazette. december 1728-september 1828. published by benjamin franklin, it was a continuation of the universal instructor in all arts and sciences, and pennsylvania gazette. a subtitle for issues from 17�5-1777 described the newspaper as “containing the freshest advices, foreign and domestick.” it suspended publication at philadelphia with the issue of sept. 10, 1777, upon the �7 georg gottfried otterbein, lesebuch fur deutsche schulkinder herausgegeben von georg gottfried otterbein. mit veranderungen und zusatzen zum gebrauch nord-americanischer schulen. philadelphia: carl cist, 1795. �8 although the early american newspapers database produced by the readex corporation includes most of the colonial titles in the state library’s newspaper collection, it omits the christoph saur newspapers that are critical to understanding the pennsylvania german perspective in the pre-revolutionary era. • • • • • • • • 75 theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 arrival of the british troops, and was published in york, pa, between december 20, 1777-june 20, 1778. it was continued by the pennsylvania gazette and weekly advertiser published in philadelphia, starting with the issue of jan. 5, 1779. pennsylvania herald. january 1785-february 1788. this newspaper was published successively by matthew carey, christopher talbot and william spotswood and john m’culloch. its frequency varied from semi-weekly to tri-weekly. pennsylvania journal. december 1742-august 179�. published by william bradford, this weekly newspaper was published by philadelphia’s oldest publishing family. pennsylvania ledger. november 1775-july 1785. this weekly newspaper and advertiser served pennsylvania, new jersey, maryland and virginia. it was published by james humphreys, jr. philadelphische correspondenz. october 1790-1800. in its ten-year existence this german language newspaper was published by melchior steiner and heinrich kammerer; then by various members of the kammerer family and finally george helmbold, jr. its frequency varied from weekly to semiweekly. philadelphische zeitung. september 1755-december 1757. benjamin franklin and anthony armbruster, publishers. this short-lived franklin german language newspaper was designed to rival christopher saur’s pensylvanische berichte. wochentliche philadelphische staatsbote. january 1762-may 1779. henry miller, publisher. next to saur’s pensylvanische berichte, this was the most successful german language weekly, carrying political and religious news stories. the major german language newspapers in colonial pennsylvania were published by the christopher saurs of germantown, pennsylvania. although the newspaper titles changed, the saurs--father and son--published the most popular german language newspapers prior to the american revolution. the saur newspapers published between 17�9-1762 were: der hoch-deutsch pensylvanische geschicht-schreiber. 17�9-1745. this was the first german language newspaper in north america. the frequency varied from monthly to fortnightly. it carried news from “the natural and ecclesiastical realms”. hoch-deutsche pensylvanische berichte oder: sammlung wichtiger nachrichten aus dem naturund kirchen-reich. 1745-1746. this saur newspaper continued der hoch-deutsch pensylvanische geschicht-schreiber. pensylvanische berichte oder: sammlung wichtiger nachrichten aus dem naturund kirchen-reich. 1746-1762. this title continued the hoch-deutsche pensylvanische berichte. in addition to the earlier saur newspapers, a short-lived german language newspaper existed in lancaster, pennsylvania in the late 1780’s. it was entitled neuf unpartheyische lancaster zeitung & anzeigs-nachrichten. august 8, 1787-december 1789. this lancaster newspaper was published by anton steimer, johann albrecht and jacob lahn. it was continued by der deutsche porcupein. the same decade saw the publication of the first western pennsylvania newspaper in pittsburgh, entitled the gazette, published from august 1786-june 1881. the gazette was the first newspaper published west of the allegheny mountains. each of the authors, religious groups, issues and titles in the foregoing essay played some significant role in the religious drama that was penn’s “holy experiment.” in his journals the astute lutheran observer henry muhlenberg • • • • • • • • • theological librarianship an online journal of the american theological library association 76 volume 1, number 2 • december 2008 offers a glimpse of pennsylvania’s remarkable religious constellation through the lens of the militia controversy at the close of the war of the austrian succession in 1748. [t]here are two chief parties here among the english and they entered into a violent newspaper war before the spaniards and the french have come. the quakers, who are the foremost party in this province, have on their side the german book publisher christopher sauer, who controls the mennonites, separatists, anabaptists, and the like with his printed works and lines them up with the quakers. all of these speak and write against the war and reject even the slightest defense as ungodly . . . . the church party has the english book publishers on its side and they maintain in speech and printed word that defense is not contrary to god’s command, but right and necessary . . . .this party makes use of the preachers of the episcopal and presbyterian churches.�9 locally, this particular conflict only slightly impacted the security of pennsylvania, a british province thousands of miles away from the military action. however, its political reverberations heightened growing tensions among the colony’s co-existing religious communities. religious scholars, with some recent exceptions,40 have not always recognized the uniqueness of pennsylvania’s colonial religious experience, much less the importance of the rich and varied resources that document it. nevertheless, students in this era of theocratic revival and sectarian strife might learn some valuable lessons from the writings that document the origins of religious freedom and tolerance in colonial pennsylvania. �9 muhlenberg, notebook of a colonial clergyman, �0. 40 several important monographs on various aspects of religion in colonial pennsylvania have appeared in the last two decades. they include: j. william frost’s a perfect freedom. religious liberty in pennsylvania. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1990; a.g. roeber’s palatines, liberty, and property: german lutherans in colonial british america. baltimore: johns hopkins university press, 1998; nina reid-maroney’s philadelphia’s enlightenment, 1740-1800 : kingdom of christ, empire of reason. westport, ct: greenwood press, 2001; and craig d. atwood’s community of the cross: moravian piety in colonial bethlehem. university park, pa: penn state university press, 2004. 22 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org the best cataloger is a frustrated library user: cataloging failure and the underutilization of library resources john w. thompson is systems librarian and a cataloger at eberly library, waynesburg university, waynesburg, pa. abstract this essay points out that inconsistencies in the assignment of subject headings and call number can lead to failure to retrieve relevant materials from our libraries. today it is frequently asserted that bibliographic records cataloged by the library of congress or other approved libraries will not require review or editing in our local libraries. this paper provides clear but by no means unique examples of “cataloging failure” and explains the implications of a policy to add unedited bibliographic records (from vendors such as oclc) to our library catalogs. the result is the omission of otherwise relevant titles from fairly routine searches. introduction like many readers of theological librarianship, i have had the privilege of working with theological literature for several decades as a cataloger, a book selector, and a reader. i would like to present here a few thoughts for our profession. the problem identified as we are all aware, there are multiple routes that one can follow in pursuit of a particular topic or piece of information — many more now than when i began my career. the more the merrier, i say. i, too, have reaped the benefits of google, wikipedia, and the wonders that amazon’s “customers who bought this item also bought. . .” bring a patron. (is there anyone who wishes we were back in the days of searching the national union catalog?)1 i’m pretty good at searching ebscohost, and i can manipulate ebrary and, of course, our own library catalog, the contents of which i am partially responsible for. and as i catalog books, i will often identify another title or two for our collection from footnotes, bibliographies, and acknowledgements in books that i have a particular interest in. i am hardly unique in these abilities. and so i find myself with a clear idea of what we have in our collection, and what could be helpful to a student who might look for information on a particular topic, let us say, ministry to people with disabilities. from my unique vantage point as a cataloger, i am aware of particular titles, authors, and subject headings in our collection and — in the databases that we have access to — that might lead a student to resources on this topic. books by and about jean vanier come to mind, of course, and “church work with people with disabilities” seems like a good subject heading. a keyword search should lead to one or more titles on the subject, which should lead — through the linked subject headings or call numbers — to a browsable list of more titles, if the subject headings have been assigned with any consistency. to put it briefly, my task as a cataloger is to review the “copy,” that is, the bibliographic records that are associated with the titles that we purchase. i make sure that the information in the record matches the material itself, assign a call number for the title’s location (usually already supplied in the bibliographic record), and verify that the subject headings and consistent forms of names will enable the title to be retrieved reliably in our online catalog. 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/national_union_catalog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/national_union_catalog 23 essays: the best cataloger is a frustrated library user theolib.org the scope of the problem for illustration purposes, let us imagine a patron looking for information on such a topic in a library’s database, starting with a keyword search. i would like to look at this from the perspective of a cataloger or reference librarian who knows what this patron does not know: that there are dozens of books or articles (hereafter, “titles”) that are relevant to the patron’s query. here, then, is the first question i raise: what are the chances that a relatively uninformed keyword search will retrieve one or more of the titles that has subject headings and/or call numbers that will lead in turn to other useful titles? the second question is this: having identified one or more appropriate titles, what are the chances that other highly relevant titles in the collection have been assigned the same or similar subject headings and/or call numbers? in this essay i would like to address the second question especially. approaching this optimistically, i assume that with persistence, the patron will likely identify one or more relevant titles. the problem is that the subject headings and call numbers in lc/oclc/other vendor records often have not been assigned with any consistency.2 if we were to examine, let us say, the bibliographic records for the writings of jean vanier3 in these databases, we would find little consistency in the assignment of subject headings, even though the subjects covered in his books are quite similar. as a result, if a searcher were fortunate enough to identify the heading “church work with people with disabilities,” he or she would perhaps only see one or two titles by jean vanier on this subject. this, you might say, is the cataloger’s dirty little secret. because i am a cataloger, i happen to be aware not only of the titles on a particular subject that are in our collection, but i am also aware of the difficulty that our users will have in finding them because of inconsistency in the assignment of subject headings and call numbers. to put it another way, i am aware of the titles that no user is likely ever to find unless they are searching for it as a “known item.” this is a subject that has perplexed me ever since library school, and led me to adopt as my personal motto “the best librarian is a frustrated library user.”4 this is far more than an annoyance; it amounts to a serious problem. we invest our institutions’ good money in the purchase, cataloging, and processing of books — print or electronic — but a large percentage of them may never be found, even by a keyword search, because of the inadequacy of the headings and call numbers in the bibliographic records that we receive from our vendors. and in the name of economy more and more libraries are abandoning copy cataloging altogether: “the bibliographic records,” we are told, “are good enough.” in the name of cost-saving and efficiency the effort to integrate newly added titles with titles on similar topics already in the collection has been abandoned. by “integration” here i refer to the task — infinitely easier in the age of the online catalog — of identifying the call numbers and subject headings of titles already in the collection and assigning these, as appropriate, to newly added titles. how serious is this problem? i don’t have any quantifiable data, but as i have begun to save copies of titles with what i consider inadequate subject headings or dewey call numbers, i have been surprised at how numerous these are: titles issued by major publishers, titles cataloged by the library of congress, and so on. of course, it is this very lack of data that makes it so easy for administrators to conclude that conscientious copy cataloging is no longer necessary. after all, there’s no easy way to report on titles that aren’t found by a library user, is there? no one, except perhaps a subject specialist, or a bibliographer, will know. this phenomenon has troubled me for some time, so i have started keeping track of some egregious errors in the assignment of subject headings and dewey call numbers. some of these would be considered “errors of omission,” 2 i’m only commenting on book cataloging here; i am hopeful that the terms in atla’s own religion index are assigned with more consistency. 3 founder of the network of l’arche communities for the mentally and physically disabled. 4 i pursued this issue in my university of chicago graduate library school ma thesis, “the indexing of books on christian missions” (1982), where i examined the different sets of books that were identified, depending on whether one was searching in the books in print: subject guide (remember it?), the library of congress subject headings, or the annual subject bibliographies in the field of missions. the lack of overlap between these three sources was quite disappointing. https://books.google.com/books/about/the_indexing_of_books_on_christian_missi.html?id=6ne3caaacaaj&hl=en https://books.google.com/books/about/the_indexing_of_books_on_christian_missi.html?id=6ne3caaacaaj&hl=en 24 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org where the proper subject heading has been omitted. others are “errors of commission”, where technically correct subject headings have been assigned, but they are so broad as to be misleading or unhelpful. i would like to make it clear that in almost all cases, the records that i am examining here have been cataloged “correctly.” they have been formatted properly, and all of the subject headings and subdivisions are consistent with the library of congress subject authorities. i have not noted the cataloging sources, but in my experience no one source — whether library of congress or other libraries — is free of these flaws. some illustrative examples: what follows here are five examples, pasted in from our cataloging software. (i am omitting or abbreviating some fields.) i have indicated by strike-through or bold what i have deleted or added to the records. i understand that non-catalogers’ eyes tend to glaze over at the sight of marc format records, but try, please. remember, if the language in a subject heading isn’t intelligible to a non-cataloger librarian, who can we expect to understand it? please understand that these records are neither uniquely bad, nor are they typical of the cataloging copy that is available. and i do not suggest that my choice of headings is the best or only choice, only that it is distinctly better. but problems such as these occur often enough — say one in five or at least one in ten records — that it is a cause for concern. example 1: call no.: 263.0425695 m135p 2010 author:  macdonald, burton, 1939title: pilgrimage in early christian jordan: a literary and archaeological guide / burton macdonald. publication info:   oxford, uk: oxbow books ; oakville, ct : david brown, 2010. contents: introduction to the sites -early christian pilgrimage in jordan -casting out demons : gadara (umm qays) and gerasa (jerash) -elijah the tishbite : listib/al-istib, wadi cherith and tall mar elyas -the site of the baptism and elijah’s ascension : bethany beyond the jordan . . . subject: jordan--antiquities. subject: excavations (archaeology)--jordan. subject: bible--antiquities. subject: christian pilgrims and pilgrimages--jordan. subject: christian pilgrims and pilgrimages--palestine. subject: palestine--in christianity. subject: christian shrines--jordan. comment: the call number in this record is on target. the bolded subject headings provide access to the theologically oriented content of this book. since this title is not primarily about archaeological processes, i would omit the “excavations” subject heading, and perhaps the other two as well. example 2: call no.: 233.5 d283w 2014 author: deane-drummond, celia. title: the wisdom of the liminal : evolution and other animals in human becoming / celia deane-drummond. publication info: grand rapids, michigan : william b. eeerdmans publishing company, 2014. 25 essays: the best cataloger is a frustrated library user theolib.org contents: human becoming and being: theological starting points -human reason and animal cognition -human freedom and animal agency -human morality and animal virtue -human language and animal communication -evolving social worlds: theo-drama and niche construction -human justice and animal fairness -tracing common ground: the drama of kinship. subject: theological anthropology--christianity. subject: animals--religious aspects--christianity. subject: human-animal relationships--religious aspects--christianity. subject: human evolution--religious aspects. subject: human evolution--religious aspects--christianity. comment: having looked through the contents of this title, it is apparent that the bolded subject headings figure prominently. more and more titles on these topics are being published and they should be accessible. example 3: lc call no.: br1640 .s88 2014 call no.: 277.3082 s967a 2014 author: sutton, matthew avery, 1975title: american apocalypse: a history of modern evangelicalism / matthew avery sutton. publication info.: 264 1 cambridge, massachusetts: belknap press of harvard university press, 2014. contents: jesus is coming -global war and christian nationalism -the birth of fundamentalism -the culture wars begin -american education on trial -seeking salvation with the gop -the rise of the tyrants -christ’s deal versus the new deal -reviving american exceptionalism -becoming cold warriors for christ -apocalypse now. subject: evangelicalism--history. subject: united states--church history--20th century. subject: fundamentalism--history--20th century. subject: millennium (eschatology) subject: millennialism. the two subject headings assigned by the cataloger provide general access to the book, as might be suitable in a general collection. but as the contents note indicates, this work is about the role of eschatology in fundamentalist churches in the middle of the 20th century, not (as the title incorrectly suggests) about evangelicalism more broadly. example 4: call no.: 236.2 call no.: 234 m159l 2013 author: mcknight, scot title: a long faithfulness : the case for christian perseverance / by scot mcknight publication info.: colorado springs, co: patheos press , c2013. 26 october 2015: volume 8, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org subject: bible--evidences, authority, etc. subject: future life--christianity. subject: calvinism. subject: perseverance (theology) subject: free will and determinism. subject: reformed church--doctrines. this is a classic case of misidentification. this title is actually on the calvinist doctrine of “perseverance.” it is not primarily about the “future life,” and to assign “bible—evidences, authority, etc.” to it is seriously misleading. example 5: lc call no.: bv4529.2 .k5475 2015 call no.: 248.834 k618 2015 title: kissing in the chapel, praying in the frat house : wrestling with faith and college / edited by adam j. copeland. publication info.: lanham ; boulder ; new york ; london : rowman & littlefield, [2015] subject: young adults--religious life. subject: christian life. subject: conduct of life. subject: christianity and culture. subject: college students --religious life. here is one of the many cases where assignment of a too-general subject heading actually inhibits access. assigning “christianity and culture” to this title simply clogs up the list of titles that theologically address the relation between christianity and culture, something that this title does not do. and the same for “christian life” and “conduct of life.” far better simply to retain only the more specific heading, since it reflects adequately the contents of the book. conclusions to return to our imaginary patron, i would like to propose that a library administrator’s decision not to have the library’s bibliographic records examined for the accuracy and utility of their subject headings and call numbers — what is traditionally called “copy cataloging”— has a direct impact on what this imaginary patron is likely to retrieve. in other words, a substantial number of titles that the library has purchased and maintained may seldom be retrieved because the bibliographic records do not contain the same access points as other records on the same topic. in my opinion the notion of “shelf-ready copy,” that is, without cataloger review, represents a false economy. this is a quandary that every cataloger is probably aware of, but that few are willing to address. the emphasis today seems to be on quantity, not quality. the quality of metadata associated with bibliographic records for electronic books, for example, is notoriously low, even lower than for print titles. clearly our library users are still able to conduct research and write papers, even with so many under-cataloged records in our databases. no one complains because our patrons are not aware of the relevant titles that they failed to identify due to inadequate cataloging. 27 essays: the best cataloger is a frustrated library user theolib.org for oclc cataloging members, there is a way to resolve the type of inadequacies noted in the examples. a cataloger can edit the oclc master record, and thereby make better subject headings and perhaps call numbers available to other oclc users. there is a tremendous irony here, however. if our libraries are expected to expend the effort to improve the master records, then we are admitting that the notion of (already purchased) “shelf-ready cataloging” (that is, without cataloger intervention) is not adequate for many of our titles. and if a library commits itself to upgrading bibliographic records for the benefit of other libraries, it will involve more, not less expense than copy cataloging. the impetus for these reflections is my concerns about the direction that this aspect of our profession is taking. like other catalogers, i have developed the skill, over many years, of reviewing and, when necessary, improving the headings assigned to my library’s titles to make them accessible to potential users. developing these headings will always require a person’s, not a computer’s, familiarity with the contents of these titles. it is my hope that this article may provoke a constructive discussion of the implications of administrative decisions that affect the accessibility of our bibliographic resources to our patrons. perhaps it may also open the door to a discussion about the type and quality of “metadata” needed in our new library world. _goback 45 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org pope francis’s strong thought by keith edward lemna does a literature review of the most serious writings about or from pope francis confirm him to be a champion of “pragmatic” christianity in the mold of “weak thought”? “weak thought” (pensiero debole), the invention of the italian atheist and nihilist catholic gianni vattimo, is the most self-aware and logically consistent form of contemporary, progressive christian (a-)theology.1 it is, of course, not known to the run of journalists or editorialists in the englishspeaking world. nevertheless, “weak thought” underlies the prospect for the catholic church’s future that journalists and media personalities, not to mention many catholic academicians, thrill to when they assess pope francis. “weak thought” would empty the counsels of the roman catholic church of any claim to divinely given authority, whether to teach, to preach, or to sanctify through the communion of its sacraments. “weak thinking” by the catholic bishops, united to the bishop of rome, would disclaim definitive interpretation of the gospel, and for that reason would constitute, on vattimo’s account, a profoundly christian configuration to the self-emptying or kenosis of christ on calvary, whereby he himself definitively gave up all claims to the prerogatives of divinity. consequently, “weak thought” should lead the church to reinterpret its teachings in the arena of marriage, family, “gender,” and life issues. where the church’s traditional teaching enters into sharpest conflict with present-day european and north american social norms, there “weak thinking” will resign the “metaphysical violence” of überwindung — of “overcoming” — in favor of verwindung — of “tension,” “twisting,” “accommodation,” “healing.” “weak thought” privatizes religion, moving it away from adherence to authoritative norms or principles and in the direction of social dialogue and edification. santiago zabala, a proponent of vattimo’s work, describes the direction that “weak thought” would take the papacy: today, there are few catholics who do not favor freedom of decision regarding birth control, the marriage of priests, the ordination of women, the free election of bishops by priests, the use of condoms as a precaution against aids, the admission to communion of divorcees who remarry, the legalization of abortion; above all, there are few who do not believe that it is possible to be a good catholic and publicly disagree with the teachings of the church. if the catholic church is to have a future as an institution in the twenty-first century, it will require a papacy that is not above the world, as the head of the church, but in the church as, in the words of pope gregory the great, the “servant of the servants of god.” the catholic church no longer needs primacy in law and honor; it needs a constructive pastoral primacy, in the sense of a spiritual guide, concentrating on the duties required by the present...2 in sum, zabala sees a “post-metaphysical,” “weak” papacy as little more than a dialogue partner for western europeans and north americans, the function of which would be to consecrate the emerging secular, anthropological consensus that has come about in some ways apart from and in stark contrast to the catholic church’s teachings. 1 for a summary of vattimo’s views, see: gianni vattimo, belief, tr. luca d’asanto and david webb (stanford university press, 1999); richard rorty and gianni vattimo, the future of religion, ed. santiago zabala (new york: columbia university press, 2005); thomas guarino, vattimo and theology (new york: t&t clark, 2009); thomas guarino, “the return of religion in europe? the postmodern religion of gianni vattimo,” logos 14:2 (2009): 15-36. 2 in rorty and vattimo, the future of religion, 16. keith edward lemna is assistant professor of systematic theology at saint meinrad seminary and school of theology, saint meinrad, in. 46 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org does the papacy of pope francis fit into this mold? in this essay, i shall suggest that, so far, books about pope francis lead us to think that it is not so very clear whether he is, or at least might become (through what is considered to be his admirable open-mindedness) a champion of a sort of “weak thought.” on the other hand, i shall suggest, books that give us direct access to his writings disclose a francis who commands a more robust, metaphysical, “stronger” christian thinking than vattimo would approve on any level. yet, i will suggest in conclusion, even these books do not completely dispel what the journalists have told us about him, for there is indeed “weakness” in pope francis’s “strength.” certainly, pope francis has become a veritable superstar celebrity in the eyes of journalists, and his penchant for populist theology and spirituality has earned him the loving admiration of those who daily throng st. peter’s square to hear him speak. in the united states, he has already been featured on the cover of time magazine (as 2013 “person of the year”), rolling stone magazine, and even the advocate, hardly traditional bastions of support for the roman catholic church. such publications generally understand francis to be the great “liberal” reformer of catholicism, who is indeed willing to set aside claims to divine authority, to make the church’s “official” thinking “weaker” in vattimo’s sense. by their accounts, francis embodies a desperately needed correction to the malign legacy of his two immediate predecessors, pope john paul ii and pope benedict xvi, who sought to revive an “authoritarian” papacy, to subvert the “spirit” of the reformist second vatican council (1962-1965), convened by pope john xxiii. these two “retrograde” pontiffs, as the media narrative would have it, closed the windows to the modern world that john xxiii had wanted to throw wide open; they thwarted john’s intention that the church reach accommodation with the democratized and pragmatic sensibilities of contemporary western europeans and north americans, particularly in regard to the sexual revolution. pope francis, in presumably taking up again the mantle of john xxiii, has taken on the aura of “superpope,” agent of a “transformative” papacy, a notion that francis himself has acknowledged and publicly deplored.3 this sort of picture of pope francis — as atheist who will put an end to the church (see the infamous remarks of bigmedia personality bill maher4), as champion of “weak thought,” or, even as emissary of what has been called the most popular religion in the united states, “moralistic therapeutic deism” (a kind of spontaneous cultural expression of the instinctive, populist, american version of “weak thought”5) — might seem implausible on its face. there are those, media adulators aside, who might hope that a review of the literature on the pope’s life and thinking would dispel this kind of fantasizing. nevertheless, the most pertinent secondary literature on francis so far tends to encourage the view of a pope who is uniquely open to the “weak gospel” of vattimo’s theorizing. from the outset of his papacy, books have been rushed into print, sounding out, often in subtle ways, the hope for a “weaker” church, a church of dialogue without proclamation, a church of the suffering humanity of jesus, his eternal divinity “bracketed” or discounted altogether. very soon after francis’s election, the well-known vatican-watcher andrea torinelli, who had known him as jorge mario bergoglio, cardinal archbishop of buenos aires, published what seemed to be a very innocuous book on the new pope.6 the book contains some interesting biographical tidbits and a lengthy rehearsal of journalistic rumor-mongering 3 “pope francis grants inverview to italian daily corriere della serra,” vatican radio, last modified march 5, 2014, accessed may 13, 2014, http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/03/05/pope_francis_grants_interview_to_italian_daily_corriere_della_sera/ en1-778625 4 “bill maher: the pope’s an atheist, and the vatican will likely poison him,” national catholic register, last modified june 2, 2013, accessed may 13, 2014, http://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-archbold/bill-maher-the-popes-an-atheist-and-thevatican-will-likely-poison-him 5 “the francis factor,” the archdiocese of baltimore, accessed may 13, 2014, http://www.archbalt.org/about-us/francis-factoromalley.cfm. archbishop o’malley is at pains to insist in this presentation on pope francis that the latter is not, in fact, a “moralistic therapeutic deist,” as some have made him out to be. the expression comes from christian smith and melina lundquist denton, soul searching: the religious and spiritual lives of american teenagers (oxford university press, 2005). 6 andrea torinelli, jorge mario bergoglio: pope of a new world, tr. william j. melcher (san francisco: ignatius press, 2013). in a similar vein, one might also point to a book by john allen jr., against the tide: the radical leadership of pope francis (liguori, mo: ligouri press, 2014). this book is a bit more updated than torinelli’s but written in the same vein. see also, matthew e. brunson, pope francis (huntington, in: our sunday visitor press, 2013). this book gave a nice early look at pope francis and does a nice job detailing his argentinian background and without any detectable ecclesio-political slant. http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/03/05/pope_francis_grants_interview_to_italian_daily_corriere_della_sera/en1-778625 http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/03/05/pope_francis_grants_interview_to_italian_daily_corriere_della_sera/en1-778625 http://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-archbold/bill-maher-the-popes-an-atheist-and-the-vatican-will-likely-poison-him http://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-archbold/bill-maher-the-popes-an-atheist-and-the-vatican-will-likely-poison-him http://www.archbalt.org/about-us/francis-factor-omalley.cfm http://www.archbalt.org/about-us/francis-factor-omalley.cfm 47 bibliographic essay: pope francis’s strong thought theolib.org concerning the conclave that elected him. it is written in a perfunctory hagiographical style, and in many ways provides a nice, initial, popular introduction to bergoglio’s life and his pastoral sensibilities. however, torinelli’s work also presents a subtle “hermeneutic of weakness” regarding the pope’s thought and character. the book portrays pope francis as a pastor who is willing to forego the rigors of church discipline and doctrine for the sake of concrete pastoral exigencies. one almost senses a sigh of relief on torinelli’s part in this regard, because the previous two popes had stressed so consistently, from the time of pope john paul ii’s first encyclical, redemptor hominis (1978), the anthropological relevance of the church’s doctrinal claims. they forthrightly taught that pastoral practice can be effective only if it communicates a doctrinally correct appreciation of jesus of nazareth. thus, john paul ii stressed the universal veracity of the church’s moral norms and the need to recover metaphysics in theology. pope benedict xvi, for his part, insisted that only the trinitarian god affirmed in the ecumenical councils is the god of love, and that charity can flourish only through the living communication, in the sacramental communion of the church, of trinitarian doctrine. torinelli’s book, in my opinion, is among the first readings of pope francis to signal hope for the dawning of a new era of papal understanding in this regard, an era in which doctrine and praxis will no longer be so thoroughly conjoined. pastoral praxis will become “weaker”; doctrine, responding to practice, will elevate the “imperatives” of an unmoored loving-kindness over the communication of eternal verities. this “weakening” would in fact be a return, so it is thought, to the guiding pastoral wisdom of pope john xxiii and pope paul vi. admittedly, i have read torinelli’s book through the lens of vatican insider, the renowned, ecclesially themed website of la stampa, the newspaper that employs him. the daily articles of vatican insider tend to accentuate pope francis’s “weakness.” one can see this by contrasting these daily publications with those of sandro magister, the vaticanist who created the equally renowned website la chiesa, which highlights pope francis’s strength in standing up to the regnant secular thinking on anthropology. tellingly, the vatican insider website has featured the opinions of leonardo boff regarding pope francis.7 boff, a theologian and former franciscan priest, was once an embattled stalwart of a directly marxist form of liberation theology. his heterodox ecclesiology earned a silencing under john paul ii, and he is now dedicated to reflecting on environmental ecology. boff lacks gianni vattimo’s conceptual rigor and his sophisticated assessment of the history of ideas. however, his prescription for the future of the church regarding marriage and family, life issues, and the like echoes vattimo’s. boff is of the opinion, as reported by vatican insider, that pope francis is much closer to his view of things than many assume. torinelli, for his part, does point out in his book that pope francis is doctrinally conservative, but book and website alike are given to the tantalizing prospect that, with francis, pastoral practice may induce a “weakening” on the side of doctrine. this hope for a “weak” papacy is spelled out unambiguously by the journalist paul vallely, in one of the most substantial books yet devoted to francis.8 this book relies on a deeper treasury of research than one finds in torinelli’s initial effort. predictably, like torinelli, and like most authors on pope francis to this point, vallely spends a great deal of time discussing the conclave, and gives obligatory background information (now available from myriad sources, including many under review here) on pope francis’s life. vallely stresses francis’s experience as provincial superior of the jesuits in argentina, for his thesis is that francis’s celebrated “open-mindedness,” his non-judgmental pastoral attitude, is owing to a conscience troubled by his role in the argentine junta’s “dirty war” (1976–83) against dissident citizens from the left. vallely’s narrative describes the young jorge mario bergoglio, appointed provincial superior in 1973, at age 36, as a “conservative,” trying to roll back the clock of jesuit formation to the pre-conciliar hour from which the jesuits had, in the meantime, moved forward. his involvement in the events of the “dirty war,” which impacted the second half of his term as provincial (1976–79), vallely suggests, profoundly shook his convictions. vallely discusses this thesis in great detail: the “dirty war” is, he thinks, essential to who pope francis is now, for it changed him in a decisive manner. allegations that fr. borgoglio had been complicit in the actions of the argentine junta had surfaced in the investigations of the post-junta alfonsín government (1984), and were revived, widely aired — and widely rebutted — in the immediate 7 cf. “with pope francis spring has arrived,” vatican insider, last modified april 29, 2013, accessed may 14 2014, http:// vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/boff-pope-el-papa-24413/. 8 paul vallely, pope francis: untying the knots (london: bloomsbury, 2013). http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/boff-pope-el-papa-24413/ http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/boff-pope-el-papa-24413/ 48 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org wake of francis’s election. principal to the allegations was the fate of the jesuit frs. francisco jalics and orlando yorio, who were under fr. bergoglio’s direct supervision. somehow denounced as active supporters of leftist guerillas and terrorists, they were kidnapped by the government from the slums in which they ministered to the poor and were imprisoned and tortured. set free after five long months of harrowing captivity, they were convinced that fr. bergoglio had been at least in part responsible for their ordeal. pope francis has consistently and publicly denied complicity in their kidnapping. he claims to have intervened directly with the military government for their release, at least in secret, although some dispute this account. torinelli dismisses unequivocally charges that pope francis was complicit in these matters, but vallely lingers on the issue. did pope francis aid or abet the military regime’s “dirty war,” especially in regard to the jesuit priests under his care as provincial superior? vallely comes to the conclusion that he generally worked clandestinely and in secret for the good of the priests under his charge and for others. however, he suggests that pope francis suffers from bad or at least ambiguous conscience about his conduct. could he have done more? should he have been more public in his opposition to the military regime? these are surely, vallely thinks, questions that run through the pope’s mind. in much of the second half of his book, vallely draws the portrait of a pope driven by a troubled conscience to be more “open-minded” about movements in the church, such as liberation theology or radical pastoral outreach to the poor, that, prior to the “dirty war,” he had been inclined to dismiss on principle. bad conscience seems to make for good ministry. vallely appears to suggest that we might expect francis’s open-mindedness to extend to other issues as well. who knows what such open-mindedness might be inclined to embrace as the church moves forward? the pope, once a bit stodgy and retrograde, has seen the (literally) potentially fatal error of his previous intransigence. he has become, one might say, “weaker,” in imitation of the suffering servant who renounced his divinity. vallely’s portrait of pope francis in this regard is not as crudely drawn as many offered by his colleagues in the mass media, but he does, it seems to me, prop it up, as do his colleagues, by confecting a “spirit of pope francis,” an “openminded” alter ego calculated to tame the instinctive doctrinal “conservative.” such a pope might be led to disabuse himself of claims to doctrinal authority for the sake of extending a pastoral embrace to elements in the church and in the world that oppose some of the church’s traditional teachings, particularly in the anthropological domain. in the end, for all practical purposes, such a pope would not, in fact, prove “doctrinally conservative” at all. somewhat more promising among the secondary literature is a book that pope francis has himself been pleased to see published, francis: a pope for our time, by the argentinian journalists luis rosales and daniel olivera.9 rosales and olivera do not insinuate that pope francis is driven by bad conscience and is open to vattimo-like “weakening” of catholic thought, as many have publicly desired and vallely seems to argue. their book is certainly hagiographical, but in a relatively anodyne manner. it is divided into two parts. the first traces the standard points of francis’s biography, seeking to show how his experiences have shaped his pastoral practice, from his deep prayer life to his work with the poor in argentina. for instance, as archbishop of buenos aires, and well after the era of the “dirty war,” pope francis did much to encourage ministry to the poorest of the poor, who live in the slums on the periphery of the city. we learn from one of his priests that pope francis thought that the center or heart of argentina is, in fact, on the periphery of the city, where the poorest of the poor reside, rather than in its traditional cultural center, the plaza de mayo. as archbishop, francis himself gravitated to the periphery, and his experience there surely has shaped his consistent message: the church must “go to the periphery” — whether social, economic, or spiritual — where dwell those who belong at the center of the church’s evangelization. hence, rosales and olivera see francis as a prophetic pope, whose teachings recall (as francis, too, seems to acknowledge) the prophet amos, who himself attacked the exploitation of the poor by kings in the northern kingdom of israel. yet, francis is, they are at pains to insist, no marxist, because, as they argue, he sees marxism as an ideology, and he eschews all ideologies, including fascism and liberalism, that obstruct a pure acceptance of the practical teachings of the jesus of the gospel. 9 louis rosales and daniel olivera, francis: a pope for our time: the definitive biography (west palm beach, fl: humanix books, 2013). on pope francis’s approval of this book, see “pope francis: thumbs up for biography,” last modified march 21, 2014, accessed may 13, 2014, http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pope-francis-luis-rosales-biography-book/2014/03/21/ id/561028/ http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pope-francis-luis-rosales-biography-book/2014/03/21/id/561028/ http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pope-francis-luis-rosales-biography-book/2014/03/21/id/561028/ 49 bibliographic essay: pope francis’s strong thought theolib.org in the book’s second half, the authors explore the impact they expect pope francis to have on the issues facing the church today. what does it mean, they ask, to have a pope so rooted in the example of saint francis? for one thing, they suggest, it means that the church will become much more a “poor church for the poor.” the authors insist that in embracing voluntary material poverty, on the model of both saint francis and pope francis, the church can better combat the spiritual poverty of the modern age, which refers to the loss, especially among the affluent of the “first world,” of connection “to the transcendental meaning of our journey in this world.”10 pope francis’s eponymous invocation of saint francis also portends, in their view, a greater environmental ecological awareness and openness to dialogue with muslims, and a new, inspired witness on the part of the bishop of rome to the modern, mendicant religious orders. the book explores what the authors expect will be pope francis’s profoundly positive impact on ecumenism, and they suggest that his latin american roots mark him particularly as the pope for our time, in light of the church’s growth in the global south. rosales and olivera largely avoid their peers’ tendentious portraiture. nevertheless they do, in the very first paragraph of the book, make a statement that might be taken to set the tone for the rest of the book: “his [pope francis’s] humility and simplicity, combined with his proven political prowess and his ability to communicate, create reason to hope that the vatican will change its course after years of abandoning the essence of christ’s teachings and path.”11 i find it difficult to interpret this statement except as invective against the previous papacy; it is difficult, too, to locate its gravamen, except in disappointed desire for “weaker” pastors. although, and in the next paragraph, the authors insist that the pope is in fact a “doctrinal conservative,”12 their observation reads like a concession; it pales against their enthusiasm for francis’s “irreverent symbolic gestures,”13 tokens of a pastoral de-emphasis on doctrine and discipline in the church. in contrast, pope francis’s own words offer distinct evidence of “stronger thought” than many of his advocates, both in the mass media and in the books so far explored, might wish to ascribe to him. doctrine and praxis appear not much disjoined in his thinking. one of his old argentinian jesuit teachers, father enrique eduardo fabbri, has implied that pope francis is not strictly a disciple of cardinal carlo maria martini, s.j. (1927-2012), the former progressivist archbishop of milan, who counseled a-doctrinal, pastoral “weakening” to the church, and who famously said that the church is 200 years behind the times.14 many contemporary journalists assume that pope francis is purely and simply a martinian,15 which, in some practical respects, would make him rather indistinguishable from vattimo. fabbri is a self-admitted martinian, and he suggests that pope francis and he never developed a very close relationship because he, fabbri, has been a little too martinian or too “advanced” (fabbri’s word) in his thinking on marriage and family issues for pope francis.16 certainly, when we read pope francis’s own words, we are struck, as i have suggested, by a thinker who is indeed “stronger” and “less advanced,” both doctrinally and pastorally, than the media-born figure in whom many have placed their deepest hope. he is not a “martinian” simpliciter. two interviews, given as archbishop of buenos aires, have been published as books and translated into english; these indicate at junctures that francis is given to “strong thinking,” and is not about to accommodate the ambient culture in ways that would degrade the church’s doctrinal inheritance 10 rosales and olivera, p. 115. 11 rosales and olivera, p. xi. 12 ibid. 13 ibid. 14 pope francis: our brother, our friend, alejandro bermúdez ed. and trans. (san francisco: ignatius press, 2013), 35-39. this book is much worth reading in order to get background on pope francis directly from the people who knew him in argentina. space prohibits me from discussing this book further in the present review. 15 cf. paul elie, “the pope in the attic: pope benedict in the time of pope francis,” the atlantic (may 2014), accessed may 13, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/the-pope-in-the-attic/359816/ 16 pope francis: our brother, p. 36. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/the-pope-in-the-attic/359816/ 50 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org in the anthropological domain. were the mass media attuned, so to speak, to the “whole francis,” he would surely be somewhat less popular with them.17 an interview pope francis gave to the argentinian journalists francesca ambrogetti and sergio rubin has served as a foundation for several secondary sources that have explored the pope’s biography.18 the first half of the book deals with his family history and his path to the priesthood and religious life. pope francis demonstrates throughout his refined literary background, which is a subject, we learn, that he was asked to teach as a young jesuit, even though he had no previous background in the subject matter of literature. the first half of the book offers theological reflections of real strength: the necessity of work as the answer to the social question of the modern age and the importance in the christian life of suffering for the sake of imitating christ. regarding the latter point, pope francis stresses that selfsacrifice, deprivation, and fasting are essential to spiritual growth, as long as these are not exaggerated in the manner of the spanish baroque period and are lived with cheerfulness and joy, on the model of saint thérèse of lisieux, a saint for whom pope francis, like all of his papal predecessors stretching back a hundred years to pope pius x, has a special fondness. the second half of the book deals with a range of specific religious questions that the church faces in the current globalized social context. pope francis comes across in this part of the book as deeply motivated by the missionary mandate of the church. mission means, for him, that the church must go outside itself, risk injury to itself (as he says), in meeting people where they are, rather than stay locked up within itself, subject to sickliness and atrophy. he emphasizes the need for a friendly, welcoming church, a church that communicates the joy of the gospel. must a welcoming, joyful church be shaped by “weak thought”? francis seems to deny it: “i sincerely believe that in this day and age the most basic thing for the church is not to limit or reduce the requirements or make this or that easier, but to go out and seek people, to know people by name.”19 so, at the same time as francis stresses the need to accentuate, in the service of evangelization, what unites christian believers with the rest of humanity, he announces his conviction that what is distinctive in the christian life need not, ought not, be downplayed. in the second interview book, a conversation between pope francis and the argentinian rabbi abraham skorka, pope francis’s inclination to “strong thought” emerges with even greater clarity.20 this book ranges over a wide variety of topics, from the existence of god, to the meaning of death, to public policy in argentina. pope francis’s desire to evangelize is no less clear in this book, but his commitment to the fundamental tenets of catholic doctrine, even in areas that are ceaselessly called into question in the present day, is enunciated with genuineness. for instance, he affirms the existence of the devil very plainly: “i believe the devil exists.”21 as pope, he has not failed to emphasize this “hard teaching” of the church. he has done so more than any other pope since pope paul vi. the devil is not, for him, merely a metaphor for the darkness of the human heart, although he affirms as well the “hard teaching” of the doctrine of original sin, which has indeed, he insists, left our hearts darkened. it is true that some of the “weaker” accents in pope francis’s teachings, those that are so beloved by the mass media, come out in this exchange with skorka: for instance, his thinking on sin, which, if given a slight turn in a certain direction, can give the appearance of antinomianism (which is, after all, true of saint paul as well), his desire that the church should avoid any hint of proselytism in its missionary endeavors, or the depth of his aversion to catholic “restorationist” traditionalists, whom he regards as fundamentalists, more troubling to the church’s mission than people who publicly disavow the church’s teachings. on the other hand, he upbraids contemporary society for its consumerism, hedonism, 17 and yet, there may be already an awakening in this respect. see jamie manson, “time to face facts: pope francis agrees with assessment of lcwr,” national catholic reporter, last modified may 13, 2014. accessed may 14, 2014, http://ncronline.org/ blogs/grace-margins/time-face-facts-pope-francis-agrees-doctrinal-assessment-lcwr 18 francesca ambrogetti and sergio rubin, pope francis: his life in his own words, trans. laura dail literary agency (new york: g.p. putnam’s sons, 2013). 19 pope francis: his life in his own words, 81. 20 pope francis and abraham skorka, on heaven and earth: pope francis on faith, family, and the church in the 20th century, trans. alejandro bermúdez and howard goodman (new york: image, 2013). 21 pope francis and skorka, p. 8. http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/time-face-facts-pope-francis-agrees-doctrinal-assessment-lcwr http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/time-face-facts-pope-francis-agrees-doctrinal-assessment-lcwr 51 bibliographic essay: pope francis’s strong thought theolib.org and narcissism, and reaffirms the church’s consistent adherence to natural law anthropology on abortion and on marriage and family issues, even going so far as to describe the push for homosexual marriage in the present day as the pursuit of an “anti-value” and an “anthropological regression.”22 it is, in sum, difficult to make out a case that pope francis’s papacy will eventually be shaped by “weak thought” on these issues. recently, three books have been published in english that contain articles, homilies, and spiritual conferences that francis had written or given as cardinal archbishop of buenos aires and that render his “strong thought” especially vivid. the first is a collection of messages to argentine educators.23 he promotes in this book the development of schools truly devoted to integrated education, to an education that respects the development of the whole person. he recognizes that the religious dimension of the person must be respected and nurtured, and that education should involve the transmission of wisdom, which entails “transmission” of jesus christ, who is wisdom incarnate. francis’s vision of education, as advanced here, opposes reductionist programs that would constrain the development of the intellectual life to the domains of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, that would, in fine, strip education of its religious dimension. a particularly “strong” book devoted to francis’s own words, the second in the list of three to which i have just referred, details his profoundly theological and spiritual understanding of humility.24 here, pope francis emerges as a christocentric thinker whose vision of the christian life is rooted in deep, meditative prayer. the first part of the book contains presentations that he gave in argentina on the nature of corruption; the second, on self-accusation, was inspired by the writings of saint dorotheus of gaza, a sixth-century christian monk and abbot. in these writings, pope francis communicates a strong sense of the need for interior transformation, away from corruption, but always informed by a sense of one’s own inadequacy and need for god’s merciful grace. corruption is, francis argues, an interior state, the result of a fundamental turning away from god’s grace through the delusion of habitual self-sufficiency. it can make its appearance in different ways, but it stems from a failure to receive god as one’s most prized treasure. corruption is different from sin, for it consists in habitual failure to open oneself to mercy, or in the disposition to refuse forgiveness and even to deceive oneself that one has no need of forgiveness. corruption can set into the fabric of society as well as in the individual soul. as the liberation theologians speak of “social sin,” pope francis speaks of “social corruption,” but for francis it is clear, as it may not be for some liberation theologians, that the guilt of the individual cannot be gainsaid. we each bear personal responsibility for our own corruption. francis’s reflections on corruption, sin, and self-accusation show us a thinker who has strongly received the christian monastic tradition. his prescriptions for the moral life are thus not detachable from his acceptance of orthodox christian doctrine and spiritual practice. these are intertwined in his thinking as in the thinking of the church fathers. he is augustinian in his understanding of grace. his focus on the need to be ever-vigilant regarding the truth of our own interior states of soul, so as not to become corrupt, hypocritical, or pharisaical, recalls the like focus of the church fathers — east and west. like the fathers, whom he has so clearly read, he grounds his understanding of the christian life on the beatitudes of christ, on the revealed architecture of interior transformation through grace. his reflections on corruption speak to all human beings — christian and non-christian — and call us all to conversion or to openness to god’s merciful revelation in christ, which is to overcome our false and habitual sense of self-sufficiency. the call from corruption to conversion, as pope francis understands it, is a call to divest ourselves of the inner pharisee that resides within each one of us. 22 pope francis and abraham skorka, on heaven and earth, p. 95. 23 pope francis, education for choosing life: proposals for difficult times, trans. deborah cole (san francisco: ignatius press, 2014). other sources for pope francis’s thought could be explored here. for instance, the aparecida document, the most recent production of the general conference of the bishops of latin american and the caribbean, or his writings on luigi giussani, the founder of the ecclesial movement communion and liberation. recently i have explored these in keith lemna and david delaney, “three pathways into the theological mind of pope francis,” nova et vetera 12:1 (winter, 2014): 25-36. also, this article explores the pope’s connection to the argentinian “theology of the people.” space does not permit me to rehash this material in the present article. 24 pope francis, the way of humility: corruption and sin, on self-accusation, trans. helena scott (san francisco: ignatius press, 2013). 52 july 2014: volume 7, number 2 • theological librarianship theolib.org finally, the book in which the strength of pope francis’s thinking and teaching stands forth most clearly is open mind, faithful heart: reflections on following jesus, the third book to which i have referred and the last that i want to treat here.25 a trinitarian, christocentric, ecclesiocentric mindset is on full display in this book, as is a deep, prayerful appropriation of sacred scripture. in a word, this is the best book that has been published by or about pope francis thus far; it would not surprise me were it to become, over time, a modern-day, spiritual classic. were someone to ask me to recommend just one book that gets to the heart of pope francis’s thinking, i would direct him or her to this title. open mind, faithful heart is a collection of texts from diverse spiritual retreats or conferences that francis gave in argentina to collaborators in christian ministry. there is a compelling unity to the book, made possible by the book’s editors and by francis’s coherent and consistent vision. the book is very practical and concrete. it is truly pastoral, but not without overt rooting in catholic doctrine. a forward by argentine archbishop josé maria arancedo of santa fe de la vera cruz nicely summarizes the structure of the book, which is articulated in four parts. archbishop arancedo compares the logic of its structure to that of the current catechism of the catholic church, and he notes that its spiritual reflections are rooted in an orthodox christology, which gives both the human and divine natures of the person of christ their proper due. the starting point for the book is encounter with jesus christ and reflection on the nature of prayer; the need for personal relationship with the god revealed in christ remains its theme throughout. the stress that open mind, faithful heart places on the requirement that the christian believer follow the way of the cross if he or she is to live an authentically christian life illuminates francis’s early papal teaching. in the apostolic exhortation evangelii gaudium, his first official papal writing, pope francis reminded us that the christian life should not be forlorn or a life of sadness: it is a life of joy.26 but the joy he speaks of comes through the glory of the cross.27 there is, then, no opposition in the pope’s thinking between the theology of the cross and a theology of glory. his exhortation is to follow christ with missionary vigor wherever he wants to lead us, even if our life should be demanded of us. this sense of personal mission will, he insists, bring renewed zest and joy to the christian life. the theme of joy connected to the glory of the cross is prevalent in open mind, faithful heart. the pope calls us to live, perseveringly, a “constant encounter” with christ; to live in perfect accordance with the mission that god has given to each of us and with the courage of the cross. god calls us in christ to meet the evangelical needs of the church, in love for him, for self, and for humanity. there is, in fact, both strength and weakness in this proposal. because these characteristics are uniquely juxtaposed in his teachings, we must acknowledge, in the end, that the journalists whose writings i have recounted in this review have a point in interpreting pope francis as they do, even if they have not quite taken the full measure of him. his doctrinal orthodoxy, the “strength” of his thinking, is the orthodoxy of radical conformity to the weakness and human failure of the cross of christ. the final few reflections contained in open mind, faithful heart help us to understand this apparently paradoxical juxtaposition of characteristics (see chapters 44-48 especially). pope francis wants us to grasp the totality of christ’s divestment of self on the cross, so that we can fully embrace the cross in our own lives and understand what it means to be christian. jesus dies, he reminds us, as the “accursed one” (cf. deuteronomy 21:22-23), hung on a tree outside of the walls of jerusalem. a prophet, we are told in scripture, cannot be killed outside of the walls of jerusalem (luke 13:33). jesus is thus not put to death as a prophet, but as a political revolutionary or zealot. he is not recognized for who he is. pope francis explains: “jesus’ total divestment includes the manner of his death on the cross: he did not even have the final satisfaction of dying in a way that bore witness to the true meaning of his existence.”28 the totality of christ’s 25 pope francis, open mind, faithful heart: reflections on following jesus, trans. joseph v. owens, s.j. (new york: crossroad publishing company). 26 pope francis, evangelii gaudium, vatican website, 2013, accessed may 14, 2014, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html. 27 pope francis, evangelii gaudium, i.5. 28 pope francis, open mind, faith heart, p. 278. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html 53 bibliographic essay: pope francis’s strong thought theolib.org divestment is the inescapable model of all christian discipleship. we must give ourselves to god in total surrender. we must exemplify, in our own lives, the “failure” of the cross. good jesuit that he is, pope francis universalizes saint ignatius of loyola’s counsel in this regard: to those making the spiritual exercises and deciding about how to lead their lives, he [saint ignatius of loyola] proposes that they ‘choose poverty with christ poor rather than wealth, contempt with christ laden with it rather than honors’ (spex 167) — all this for the sake of following jesus christ more closely. this proposal of ignatius is not a debatable spiritual opinion of a particular epoch; it is not just a ‘corollary’ that can be more or less negotiated according to circumstances. it is of the very essence of the destitution of christ: if we do not accept it in the total way that ignatius proposes, then we are not wholeheartedly following the master.29 the weakness that pope francis embraces, with saint ignatius of loyola, has nothing in common with nihilistic “weakness.” if, in vattimo’s “weak thought,” god hands over all of his power to man by revoking his own, an act symbolized in the kenosis of the cross, and thereby dismantles any relationship of power or verticality between himself and humanity, for pope francis the glory of the cross is an act whereby the god-man efficaciously models total, perfect human surrender to the will of the father. the father remains the father and christ is always the only eternally begotten son of god. certainly, pope francis understands the “weakness” of the cross to have certain implications in the pastoral life of the church, implications of which we are often incognizant. he might very well differ from his two immediate predecessors in the papacy in this respect. in this limited sense, the journalists may be correct. individual christian witness and the witness of the church at large must be, on pope francis’s view, willing to embrace failure. it is a mistake for the church to seek political dominance. its witness must be more subtle than that, a “broken witness,” one might say. the church must be, unqualifiedly, willing and open, in pope francis’s view, to show the power of god’s transforming mercy through its own weakness and humility. in this way only can the church reflect in itself the attractive glory of god’s eternal, triune life.30 but none of this entails a lent without easter. pope francis has been insistent on the point.31 i think it is clear from his own writings that none of this entails for pope francis a remaking of catholic dogma, a denial of the triune god who has power over death. rather, it requires, on his view, a better understanding and witness to the “paradox” of the gospel: the strength of god’s love is known to us only in the weakness and suffering of our flesh. mission, in his view, can only proceed from a position of weakness, but it must be a joyful, merciful weakness, confident in the power of god to wipe away every tear. the doctrine of the church must be embodied through this witness, not jettisoned or bracketed. indeed, the doctrine can be better embraced by people who think they oppose the gospel when it is offered to them with the face of mercy and self-surrender. this does not entail a reduction of the papacy to a mere partner in dialogue, in the sense implied by the quotation from zabala given above.32 the dialogue of mercy that pope francis seeks is a bringing across to people of the logos of christ. for pope francis, christian dialogue should seek to bring to people the hook of divine revelation, including the dogmatic tradition through which god’s eternal, triune love is made known to us, under the lure of humility and mercy, attitudes of the spirit that, he thinks, conform to the dogmas of the faith. as we move forward in interpreting pope francis, it is essential that we read his own pre-papal words, and open mind, faithful heart is of special importance in this respect. the journalists who have written about pope francis thus far have missed the nuances of his theological message, however important and valuable their work is in giving us access to important biographical details. they have hoped for a change in doctrine or even, in some cases, for a bracketing of the transcendent god. some have hoped for a re-envisioned christology. none of this is to be found in francis’s own words. in his words there is weakness in strength, to be sure, but the weakness in this strength is the cross of christ, through which the divine power of the eternal trinity inaugurates the life and authority of the church and brings real resurrection of the flesh. 29 ibid, 279-80. 30 cf. evangelii gaudium, i.5. 31 ibid, i.6. 32 see above, note 2. 70 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org five recent commentaries on the book of acts by brandon c. wason introduction it is not uncommon for people working in theological libraries to be asked what the best commentary on x is. the problem, of course, is that there is no right answer to that question. commentaries are expressions of a person’s (or persons’) perspective(s) on a specific text, and this comes in many shapes and styles. even though we might have our own favorites, no one would seriously suggest that there is some platonic ideal form of a biblical commentary by which others should be judged. commentaries have specific agendas and approaches and their usefulness should be evaluated on the basis of how well they meet their own criteria and the relevance of those criteria for use by students, pastors, scholars, or others interested in the text. thus, to the patron looking for the best commentary on x, i usually ask them about their project or what type of information they hope to get out of a commentary before making some recommendations. there is a whole spectrum of reasons that people are reading scripture, and, for the most part, commentaries have filled these niches (and probably more!). in 1988, f. f. bruce described the abundance of commentaries written on acts as an embarras de richesse.1 since then, there has been a steady stream of new commentaries in various series and formats, and thus today’s interpreter of acts has an overabundance of works at their disposal, which draw on a wide-range of perspectives and methodologies.2 this essay outlines some of the prominent commentaries published in the last half century and then takes a more detailed look at five recently published works with suggestions for their use among students, pastors, and scholars. the background in this section i outline some of the major works published on acts between the 1950s and 2010. while commentaries have accompanied scholarly research on the bible since its origins, there has been a relatively recent proliferation of new commentaries and commentary series. this was not the case in the middle of the twentieth century especially for commentaries on acts. one reason for this is that german scholarship in the first part of the twentieth century tended to favor the writings of paul and john over acts. martin dibelius is a notable exception but he never wrote an acts commentary.3 conzelmann’s pioneering monograph on luke’s theology helped rejuvenate actaforschung (acts scholarship).4 he later published his own commentary (1963), which was eventually translated into english for the hermeneia series in 1987, and while it has its moments of brilliance, it is often uneven in its treatment of the text.5 perhaps the most notable 1 f. f. bruce, the book of acts, rev. ed., new international commentary on the new testament (grand rapids: eerdmans, 1988). 2 despite such an abundance of commentaries published to date, there are still major series that have lacunae at acts such as the new international greek text commentary (being written by stanley e. porter), the word biblical commentary (being written by steve walton), and the new testament library (being written by carl r. holladay). 3 martin dibelius, studies in the acts of the apostles, ed. heinrich greeven, trans. mary lang and paul schubert (new york: charles scribners’s sons, 1956), trans. of aufsätze zur apostelgeschichte (göttingen: vandenhoeck and ruprecht, 1951). 4 hans conzelmann, the theology of st. luke, trans. geoffrey buswell (new york: harper & brothers, 1960), trans. of die mitte der zeit: studien zur theologie des lukas (tübingen: mohr siebeck, 1954). 5 hans conzelmann, acts of the apostles, ed. eldon jay epp, trans. james limburg et al., hermeneia (philadelphia: fortress, 1987), trans. of die apostelgeschichte, handbuch zum neuen testament (tübingen: mohr siebeck, 1963). brandon c. wason is a phd candidate in new testament at emory university, atlanta, georgia. he is a robert w. woodruff library fellow. 71 bibliographic essay: five recent commentaries on acts theolib.org german commentary from this period is the tenth edition of the meyer commentary on acts by ernst haenchen (1966), which he began writing while in a swiss hospital in 1944.6 haenchen’s work on acts is insightful, thorough, and (judging by recent treatments of acts) continues to be a relevant conversation partner. the prolific essays and commentary by the french scholar jacques dupont were also influential though not as accessible to english readers.7 a few english-language commentaries stand out from this period as well. the first is the commentary of kirsopp lake and henry j. cadbury, which is part of the five-volume set on acts called the beginnings of christianity.8 this is the only commentary from the hand of cadbury, who was a widely influential american scholar who paved the way for a literarycritical understanding of luke’s writings.9 f. f. bruce, the scottish biblical scholar whose training began in the classics, composed two significant commentaries on acts. the first, originally published in 1951, deals with the greek text and includes philological and historical discussions.10 the second, based on an english translation, is more theological and historically centered.11 robert c. tannehill’s two-volume work on luke-acts also deserves mention. the second volume, published in 1990, covers the book of acts and demonstrates the narrative parallels within acts and between acts and the gospel of luke.12 tannehill is one of the first to write a non-traditional commentary,13 and from the 1990s onwards commentaries begin to break into more discrete categories. some argue specific theses14 and others specific approaches or methodologies.15 luke timothy johnson writes in the catholic series sacra pagina. he pays close attention to the literary and theological aims of 6 ernst haenchen, the acts of the apostles: a commentary, trans. r. mcl. wilson et al. (philadelphia: westminster press, 1971), trans. of die apostelgeschichte, 14th ed., kritisch-exegetischer kommentar über das neue testament (göttingen: vandenhoeck and ruprecht, 1965). 7 jacques dupont, les actes des apôtres, 3rd ed. (paris: cerf, 1964); jacques dupont, études sur les actes de apôtres (paris: cerf, 1967); jacques dupont, nouvelles études sur les actes des apôtres (paris: cerf, 1984); and in english: jacques dupont, the sources of acts, trans. k. pond (new york: herder & herder, 1964); and jacques dupont, the salvation of the gentiles: studies in the acts of the apostles, trans. j. keating (new york: paulist, 1979), which contains only select essays from dupont’s études sur les actes des apôptres. 8 kirsopp lake and henry j. cadbury, english translation and commentary, vol. 4 of the beginnings of christianity, part 1: the acts of the apostles eds. f. j. foakes jackson and kirsopp lake (london: macmillan, 1933). the beginnings of christianity series was a landmark publication that retains much value today. the more recent series called the book of acts in its first century setting (bafcs) edited by bruce winter has been published in this same tradition although the two series have different aims. 9 cadbury’s dissertation, “the style and literary method of luke” (phd diss., harvard university, 1914), examined luke’s use of medical language since it was often argued (e.g., hobart) that luke was a physician and as such used more medically oriented language. cadbury compared luke’s language to other writers from the period and concluded that luke did not use a higher volume of medical language, and so it is often said that cadbury received his own doctorate by stripping luke’s of his. cadbury also popularized the term “luke–acts,” which refers to the literary unity of the two books. in addition to numerous essays on acts, he published a couple of notable books: henry j. cadbury, the making of luke-acts (london: spck, 1958) and the book of acts in history (new york: harper, 1955). 10 f. f. bruce, the acts of the apostles: the greek text with introduction and commentary, 3rd ed. (grand rapids: eerdmans, 1990). 11 f. f. bruce, the book of acts, rev. ed., new international commentary on the new testament (grand rapids: eerdmans, 1988). 12 robert c. tannehill, the narrative unity of luke-acts, 2 vols. (minneapolis: fortress, 1986–1990). 13 referring to the genre of his work, tannehill, narrative unity, 2:8 writes: “this work is not a monograph but a new kind of commentary.” 14 for example, jacob jervell, die apostelgeschichte, kritisch-exegetischer kommentar über das neue testament (göttingen: vandenhoeck and ruprecht, 1998), argues the thesis that luke was a jewish christian and to get at luke’s theology one must read acts in light of its jewish context. the commentary extends other works by jervell that follow this trajectory: jacob jervell, luke and the people of god: a new look at luke-acts (minneapolis: augsburg, 1972); jacob jervell, the unknown paul: essays on luke-acts and early christian history (minneapolis: augsburg, 1984); jacob jervell, the theology of the acts of the apostles, new testament theology (new york: cambridge university press, 1996). 15 for example bruce j. malina and john j. pilch, social-science commentary on the book of acts (minneapolis: fortress, 2008); mikael c. parsons and martin m. culy, acts: a handbook on the greek text (waco: baylor university press, 2003). 72 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org luke, favors primary sources over secondary sources, and has rich analyses in the interpretation sections.16 c. k. barrett’s two-volume contribution to international critical commentary is very detailed, and between his commentary and joseph a. fitzmyer’s anchor bible treatment of acts, there are very few secondary sources that are overlooked.17 for analysis that incorporates rhetorical criticism, the works of ben witherington and mikael parsons are worth consulting as well.18 one of the most significant commentaries to emerge in this period is richard pervo’s volume that replaced conzelmann’s commentary in the hermeneia series.19 pervo contends that acts is an early second century work, written in ephesus, and dependent on paul’s letters and josephus. pervo resists rigid classifications of the book’s genre and argues that it is a popular work of history sharing qualities with ancient fiction.20 while many interpreters of acts will remain unconvinced by his conclusions (as some of the more recent commentaries reveal), pervo’s contributions to acts cannot be ignored. his expert handling of primary and secondary sources, his detailed yet concise treatment of major issues in the text, and his captivating writing style have contributed to his work earning a place next to haenchen’s as one of the premier commentaries on acts. it has been more than a half-decade since the publication of pervo’s commentary on acts, and currently there are a number of new contributions staking their claims in the marketplace. newness offers the advantage of being up-to-date, but it does not guarantee that a commentary is fresh. in the following section i will highlight some of the strengths and approaches of these recently published commentaries and point out ways that they reach their target audiences. a student’s commentary eckhard j. schnabel has contributed a large, one-volume commentary for the zondervan exegetical commentary the new testament (zecnt) series.21 this series is aimed at students and pastors who have familiarity with greek but do not want to be distracted by many of the critical and scholarly digressions. this makes it a suitable option for use in an exegesis class. one of the commentary’s strengths is the layout. each section of the commentary is divided into seven components: literary context, main idea, translation and graphical layout, structure, exegetical outline, explanation of the text, and theology in application. some of these features are more helpful than others, and, because they exist for every passage, the reader might find them redundant at times. the “main idea” section allows the reader to quickly get a sense for the author’s assessment of the passage without getting lost in the verse-by-verse minutia in the explanation section. the unique graphical layout of the author’s translation visually demonstrates the text’s flow of thought according to schnabel. this may be useful as a reference, but also obscures the readability of the translation. there are “in depth” text boxes that are separated from the main flow of text. these offer supplementary background information about a topic or address issues that are weaved throughout acts (e.g., the speeches in acts, ephesus, epicureans and stoics, and peter). they typically read like brief encyclopedia entries on the given subjects. one feature that makes the commentary even more 16 luke timothy johnson, the acts of the apostles, sacra pagina (collegeville, mn: liturgical press, 1992). 17 c. k. barrett, a critical and exegetical commentary on the acts of the apostles, 2 vols., international critical commentary (edinburgh: t. & t. clark, 1994–1998); joseph a. fitzmyer, the acts of the apostles: a new translation and commentary, anchor bible (new york: doubleday, 1998). the bibliography of fitzmyer’s commentary, though now sixteen years old, still serves as a worthwhile starting place for individual passages or issues in acts. 18 ben witherington iii, the acts of the apostles: a socio-rhetorical commentary (grand rapids: eerdmans, 1998); mikeal c. parsons, acts, paideia (grand rapids: baker, 2008). 19 richard i. pervo, acts: a commentary, hermeneia (minneapolis: fortress, 2009). pervo’s contributions on acts have engendered much scholarly discussion on the book’s genre and date; his most notable works on these topics are richard i. pervo, profit with delight: the literary genre of the acts of the apostles (philadelphia: fortress, 1987) and richard i. pervo, dating acts: between the evangelists and the apologists (santa rosa, ca: polebridge, 2006). 20 pervo, acts, 18: “acts is a ‘popular’ work. unrestrained by the conventions governing elite literature, popular writers were able to blend genres and create new ones.” 21 eckhard j. schnabel, acts, zondervan exegetical commentary on the new testament (grand rapids: zondervan, 2012). schnabel’s other major contribution is a two-volume work on christian mission: eckhard j. schnabel, early christian mission, 2 vols. (downers grove, il: intervarsity, 2004). 73 bibliographic essay: five recent commentaries on acts theolib.org accessible to pastors and bible teachers is the “theology in application” component, which discusses the text’s theology and its relevance for present-day readers. in terms of the standard introductory issues, schnabel endorses the view that acts is a continuation of the gospel of luke, written at an early date (possibly as early as 62 c.e.) by luke, the physician and companion of paul.22 he considers acts to be a work of history although he rejects most scholarly attempts to label the specific genre of acts.23 there is also an appendix following the main commentary that addresses luke’s theology and its applicability to the church today. the approach of schnabel’s commentary is grammatico-historical, and the greek text drives the thought of the commentary.24 schnabel generally does not refer to lexical, syntactical, and grammatical issues in a gratuitous fashion, but addresses them in ways that inform his comments. historical background is also used to illuminate the ancient text. yet advanced students and scholars might observe the massive size of this commentary (1162 pages) and expect a lot of depth related to secondary sources and scholarly discussions. they, of course, would be disappointed because this is not one of the commentary’s aims. ministers, bible teachers, and students with exposure to greek will find more value in it, especially those who hold to similar perspectives on acts. the commentary may be useful in exegesis classes, but students writing research papers will want to consult other major commentaries to enlarge their bibliographies. a reformation commentary intervarsity press recently launched a new series called the reformation commentary on scripture, and the volume on acts is one of the first to appear.25 those familiar with intervarsity’s earlier series called the ancient christian commentary on scripture will quickly note the resemblance between the two series.26 the editors of the volume are esther chung-kim and todd r. hains, neither of who are new testament experts by trade,27 but this is not a disadvantage for a commentary that presents biblical interpretation from the sixteenth century. because interpreters of the bible in the sixteenth century approached the text differently than we do today, the general introduction, written by the series editor timothy george, provides a background to studying these texts and includes a primer on the use of the bible during this period. the commentary’s format breaks the book of acts into smaller passages and, following a brief introduction to each passage by the editors, are excerpts from the reformation authors in english (translated if need be). the commentary presents a variegated selection of authors who represent different ecclesial affiliations. additionally, the authors selected are not just the john calvins and martin luthers; many lesserknown thinkers are represented and some texts included in this publication are here translated into english for the first time. the selection of comments from the sixteenth-century authors is what the editors deemed to be most relevant for the commentary. thus, if a reader is looking for specific author’s comments on a text (e.g., john calvin) they might not find what they are looking for, but they may be pleasantly surprised by what they do find. after the conclusion of the commentary proper, there is a timeline of the reformation (spanning from 1337 to 1691), followed by biographical sketches of the authors quoted in the volume. readers can track down the sources (listed in the bibliography) to get a better picture of the larger context of the excerpted passages. 22 schnabel, acts, 22-28. 23 schnabel, acts, 28-41. 24 schnabel, acts, 41-43, endorses the alexandrian witness to acts and generally does not interact with the western readings unless they have bearing on his interpretation of acts. in general, the commentary is weak on text-critical analysis which is highlighted in a recent review: peter r. rodgers, review of eckhard j. schnabel, acts: exegetical commentary on the new testament, novt 55 (2013): 404-5. 25 esther chung-kim and todd r. hains, acts, reformation commentary on scripture (downers grove, il: intervarsity, 2014). 26 the contribution for the ancient christian commentary series on acts is francis martin, acts, ancient christian commentary on scripture (downers grove, il: intervarsity, 2006). intervarsity also publishes a related series called ancient christian texts, which includes commentaries or sermons from church fathers although there are currently no volumes covering the book of acts within this series. 27 esther chung-kim is a professor of religious studies specializing in reformation history and early modern europe. todd r. hains is a phd candidate studying historical theology. 74 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org the value of this type of volume coincides with a trend in biblical studies to pay more attention to the bible’s reception throughout history.28 though there are specific commentaries that treat issues of reception history,29 the importance of this series (and the ancient christian commentary on scripture series) is that readers are faced with the primary texts themselves rather than a scholar’s opinion of the text. this allows the reader to make use of these resources in whatever way they see appropriate. the reformation commentary on acts is a very fitting volume for anybody wanting to learn more about the reformation, the history of the bible’s interpretation and its reception, or to simply broaden their perspective beyond what they might typically find in current books about the bible. a catholic commentary william s. kurz has recently contributed the acts volume for the catholic commentary on sacred scripture series.30 the work is accessible to readers with no knowledge of greek since it is based on an english translation. one could gather that kurz’s decades of scholarly research on acts has surely left its mark on the commentary, but the text is not aimed at scholarly discussions and digressions.31 it is direct, concise, and reservedly employs footnotes. the additional resources section at the end of the commentary is also very selective. although kurz brings a historical-critical eye to acts, he also retains an interest in its contemporary application. he states that acts “provides a paradigm for the life and mission of the church today.”32 kurz joins the discussion of other commentators, such as luke timothy johnson and joseph a. fitzmyer, who bring a catholic perspective to the book of acts. kurz upholds the traditional position that the author of acts was luke, the travelling companion of paul, but he acknowledges that there are differences between acts and the letters which are best explained by the later date of acts (post 70 c.e.).33 for each passage, the commentary proper presents the text from the new american bible revised edition, followed by cross-references, notes on the catechism, and then kurz’s own comments that typically address one to three verses at a time. scattered throughout the commentary are maps and photographs of ancient sites as well as sidebars that address background subjects (e.g., “the judaizing problem in the early church”), or material from postbiblical christianity (e.g., “st. john chrysostom on the parting of paul and barnabas”). each section of the commentary ends with a reflection and application segment that bridges the gap between the ancient document and today’s setting. the resulting product is a very readable and accessible work that could be used by (catholic and non-catholic) church leaders and laypersons wanting to know more about this biblical book. a preaching commentary ronald j. allen’s recent commentary is one of the first published in the fortress biblical preaching commentaries series.34 allen holds the position of professor of preaching and gospels and letters at christian theological seminary and has 28 see, for instance, mark knight, “wirkungsgeschichte, reception history, reception theory,” journal for the study of the new testament 33 (2010): 137-46; david paul parris, reception theory and biblical hermeneutics (eugene, or: pickwick, 2009); michael lieb, et al., eds., the oxford handbook of the reception history of the bible (oxford: oxford university press, 2011); and dale c. allison jr., et al., eds., encyclopedia of the bible and its reception (berlin: de gruyter, 2009–). 29 the blackwell bible commentaries series is an excellent resource for those interested in the reception history of biblical books, but at the present the volume on acts has not yet appeared. 30 william s. kurz, acts of the apostles, catholic commentary on sacred scripture (grand rapids: baker, 2013). 31 in addition to numerous articles on acts, kurz has written the following books: william s. kurz, following jesus: a disciple’s guide to luke and acts, rev. ed. (ann arbor: servant publications, 2003); william s. kurz, reading luke-acts: dynamics of biblical narrative (louisville: westminster/john knox press, 1993); william s. kurz, farewell addresses in the new testament, zacchaeus studies (collegeville, mn: liturgical press, 1990). 32 kurz, acts of the apostles, 18. 33 kurz, acts of the apostles, 15-16: “although acts has some theological differences from paul’s letters, or has details about the judaizing controversies that are hard to reconcile with paul’s own account in galatians, these can be partially explained if acts was written at a later time, when the controversies were no longer burning questions.” 34 ronald j. allen, acts of the apostles, fortress biblical preaching commentaries (minneapolis: fortress, 2013). 75 bibliographic essay: five recent commentaries on acts theolib.org a long history of combining biblical interpretation and preaching.35 the commentary demonstrates a well-grounded understanding of acts scholarship, although he rarely cites scholars directly. allen offers an easily readable distillation and presentation of his views on the text. in the introduction he presents luke as jewish, unlikely a physician, who wrote luke-acts somewhere between 80-90, although he does not always have a strong conclusion on these matters. he writes a culturally sensitive commentary and seeks to make his own perspectives transparent since one cannot fully separate them from a commentary on preaching. though many who use this book will certainly bring a different perspective to the table, they will nevertheless find much of his application of the text useful to their own contexts. the commentary proper is well reasoned and clearly written. for each passage, allen gives an explanation that draws on historical-critical and literary methods, and then offers suggestions as to how a person can preach on the passage. he does not give detailed sermon outlines or fully developed sermon topics, but presents ideas that the reader can think through on their own. this is probably the part of the book that will be most helpful to its target audience. of course, those not needing the work for preaching purposes will still find the preaching ideas stimulating. allen is also a strong proponent of the narrative unity of luke-acts and argues that attention to this unity should be incorporated into one’s preaching of luke-acts. “to read the two volumes in separation is to rend asunder what luke intended to join together.”36 thus, a person composing a sermon on luke should trace its themes into acts and viceversa. however, his understanding of this structural unity of luke-acts may be a bit ambitious. he argues that the overall structure of luke-acts is a macro-chiasmus and thus each passage in luke has a corresponding passage in acts. at the center of the chiasmus, the most important part is the ascension of jesus. for each section of his commentary he discusses the parallels to the corresponding passage in luke. while some may not accept this presentation of the structure of luke-acts, his commentary does promote interaction between the two volumes in a way that is unparalleled in other mainstream commentaries on acts.37 readers interested in preaching or finding contemporary application in the book of acts will want to consult allen’s commentary. they will find it inviting and thought provoking. the annotated bibliography at the end of the work lists many of the major publications on luke and acts to direct the reader further. an encyclopedic commentary the third volume of craig keener’s acts: an exegetical commentary has just been published (october 2014).38 while keener has written extensively on acts39 and has authored other major commentaries and critical works,40 this massive 35 here are a few of the works that allen has published dealing with luke-acts and preaching: ronald j. allen, preaching lukeacts, preaching classic texts (saint louis: chalice, 2000); ronald j. allen, “the story of jesus according to ‘luke’” and “the story of the church according to ‘luke,’” in the chalice introduction to the new testament, ed. dennis smith (saint louis: chalice, 2004), 175–219; ronald j. allen, interpreting the gospel: an introduction to preaching (st. louis: chalice, 1998). 36 allen, acts of the apostles, 3. 37 tannehill’s narrative unity of luke-acts does something similar. 38 craig s. keener, acts: an exegetical commentary, 4 vols. (grand rapids: baker, 2012–). 39 craig s. keener, “paul and sedition: pauline apologetic in acts,” bulletin for biblical research 22 (2012): 201-224; craig s. keener, “interethnic marriages in the new testament (matt 1:3-6; acts 7:29; 16:1-3; cf. 1 cor 7:14),” criswell theological review 6 2009: 25-43; craig s. keener, “fever and dysentery in acts 28:8 and ancient medicine,” bulletin for biblical research 19 (2009): 393-402; craig s. keener, “why does luke use tongues as a sign of the spirit’s empowerment?” journal of pentecostal theology 15 (2007): 177-184; craig s. keener, “acts 10: were troops stationed in caesarea during agrippa’s rule?” journal of greco-roman christianity and judaism 7 (2010): 164-176; craig s. keener, “the plausibility of luke’s growth figures in acts 2.41; 4.4; 21.20,” journal of greco-roman christianity and judaism 7 (2010): 140-163; craig s. keener, “power of pentecost: luke’s missiology in acts 1-2,” asian journal of pentecostal studies 12 (2009): 47-73. 40 for instance: craig s. keener, the gospel of john: a commentary, 2 vols. (grand rapids: baker, 2003); craig s. keener, 1-2 corinthians, new cambridge bible commentary (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2005); craig s. keener, the gospel of matthew: a socio-rhetorical commentary (grand rapids: eerdmans, 2009); craig s. keener, romans, new covenant commentary series (eugene, or: cascade, 2009); craig s. keener, the historical jesus of the gospels (grand rapids: eerdmans, 2009). 76 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org new acts commentary is truly a magnum opus. in its final form, keener’s commentary will have four volumes and be the most extensive academic commentary on acts to date. there are already more than 3,300 pages in the first three volumes (not counting bibliography and indexes which are supplied via cd-rom).41 it is an immense and encyclopedic work of scholarship. scholars and advanced students are likely to benefit the most from it. church workers preparing for sermons or ministers are less likely to consider it a suitable companion to their study. the commentary takes a social-historical approach to acts and excludes other methodologies and styles of commentaries. thus, his work is relatively light on modern literary theory, reception history, and lexical and grammatical issues. the 41-page prolegomena (too long to be called a preface) sets out the limitation and aims of his work in the hopes that readers and reviewers do not judge it for something that it is not. the majority of the first volume is dedicated to the introductory matters, such as authorship, date, genre, theology, and historicity. here the reader will benefit from consulting the elaborate table of contents so as not to get lost in the introduction. keener argues that the author of acts, luke, was a traveling companion of paul, and dates the composition of the work in the early 70s c.e.42 luke also provides a generally historically accurate narrative. for the speeches, keener points to the practice of ancient historians and argues that the speeches were shaped by luke in accordance with his literary aims but at the same time retaining their original gist when those data was accessible to him.43 commentaries do not provide definite answers to the issues in the text, but they can tell us how individual scholars came to their conclusions. whether or not one ultimately agrees with keener’s analyses, this commentary offers a wealth of data mined both from both ancient and modern sources. keener’s work guides readers through a maze of scholarly material that is unmatched in any other work of its kind. the value of its up-to-date and expansive secondary sources (despite his claim that they are not an emphasis) will help users build the necessary bibliographies for research on acts. the bibliography contained on the cd-rom for the first three volumes takes up three hundred densely formatted pages. for this reason the work can also be labeled as a reference or encyclopedic commentary. it may not be the best first option as a source on acts because it simply offers so much information, but librarians may want to consider pointing patrons who are looking to dig deeper into the text of acts to the work. final remarks new is not always better and theological librarians will have to evaluate the relevance of these recent commentaries based on their own library’s needs. yet each of these five commentaries do bring something new to the table, whether that consists of the arrangement, historical content, theological perspective, application, or scholarly insight. schnabel’s work will most likely appeal to students of greek within the evangelical tradition. the reformation commentary by chungkim and hains will be sought out by students and scholars interested in church history and the bible’s reception. kurz’s commentary introduces a catholic academic’s perspective to readers of the text in english. allen’s approach similarly bridges the gap between the academy and the pastor or layperson, but additionally tailors his work for preaching. lastly, keener’s work will help advanced students and scholars gain more insight into social and historical issues in the text. for the best results, the mindful interpreter of acts should create some sort of cocktail of commentaries that presents a spectrum of theological perspectives, methodological approaches, and mixture of older and newer texts. 41 schnabel’s commentary comes in at 1168 pages, but other major critical commentaries on acts are still under 1,000 pages. josef zmijewski, die apostelgeschichte, regensburger neues testament (regensburg, germany; friedrich pustet, 1994) is 971 pages; pervo, acts is 812 pages; witherington, acts of the apostles is 874 pages; fitzmyer, acts of the apostles is 830 pages; darrell l. bock, acts, baker exegetical commentary on the new testament (grand rapids: baker, 2007) is 880 pages. 42 keener, acts, 1: 400. 43 keener, acts, 1: 29 and 1: 317-19. 77 critical review: the oxford handbook of religious conversion theolib.org the oxford handbook of religious conversion lewis r. rambo and charles farhadian, eds. the oxford handbook of religious conversion. new york: oxford university press, 2014. 803 pp. $130. hardcover. isbn: 9780195338522. the oxford handbook of religious conversion (ohrc) is one of the latest releases in the ambitious oxford handbooks series, the purpose of which is to offer “an authoritative and state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research in a particular subject area.” the specific goal of the ohrc is to provide “an invitation to a model of conversion studies that is global, interdisciplinary, multireligious, and inclusive of the personal, social, cultural, and political dimensions of the human predicament” (16). this reviewer is not aware of anything that comes close to the breadth and depth of a genre surveying this important topic in religious studies. (newton and southard’s handbook of religious conversion [1992] is somewhat similar in scope but is only about one-third the length of the ohrc and is now over twenty years old.) the contributors were tasked with reflecting the “global, interdisciplinary, multireligious” agenda of the volume. they are international scholars, representing private and public academic institutions and writing from a wide variety of religious persuasions and a broadly interdisciplinary range of fields. religious conversion is addressed from a truly unique set of disciplines, surveying perspectives from sociology, psychology, geography, anthropology, feminist studies, literature, modern languages, communication theory, and political science, as well as traditional categories of world religions, religious studies, and cultural history. thirty-two essays have been assembled, and each represents critical thinking and serious scholarship, as reflected in their robust engagement with mostly secondary sources, cited in the endnotes. each chapter concludes with an extremely helpful, up-to-date bibliography. the editors have provided a constructive, programmatic introduction that outlines the book’s methodological assumptions, expressed goals, broad perspectives, and major issues, and proposes an emerging definition of conversion. the handbook is neatly divided into two main sections: part 1 covers “disciplinary perspectives” and part 2, “religions.” the primary purpose of this twofold division is so that “the reader may approach this handbook in different ways” (16). if the reader wishes to undergo a comparative analysis of religious conversion within the world’s major religions, then she may begin by reading part 2 to identify common, recurring themes and notable distinctives. on the other hand, if the reader desires to investigate the various diverse aspects and perspectives that are treated by the aforementioned academic disciplines, she may delve into any number of chapters in part 1. for example, since feminist studies have brought to light numerous previously unknown perspectives within academic disciplines, it might behoove the reader to take in eliza f. kent’s “feminist approaches to the study of religious conversion.” surely one’s perspective can only be broadened by the inclusion of gender issues in the religious conversion process. alternatively, one may want to combine these two approaches to studying religious conversion. one could read heinz streib’s “deconversion” from part 1 as an aspect of academic discipline and then go on to read stuart a. wright’s “disengagement and apostasy in new religious movements” in part 2 as an investigation into “deconversion” within a specific religion or religious movement. i was both pleased and enlightened to find these two essays in the ohrc because they offer fresh insight into the “downside” of conversion. the essays that address the topic of brainwashing and religious conversion could also be consulted in this discussion. three issues caught my attention for the reader’s consideration. first, i find that the ohrc, like other works with multiple contributors, is necessarily uneven in quality. some of the chapters are outstanding essays on their assigned topics. bruce hindmarsh’s essay “religious conversion as narrative and autobiography” is excellent, interacting with primary and secondary sources, but also importantly and convincingly reaching beyond his own area of expertise (the history of early british evangelicalism) to include aspects of several other world religions. additionally, todd m. johnson’s 78 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org “demographics of religious conversion” is a fine contribution to his field. some essays, however, lack detailed critical engagement and do not meet the standards set by those that are noteworthy. second, when recommending a reference work to students, i would prefer one containing essays constructed upon the priority of primary sources. one of the dangers of the academic enterprise is to build one’s works upon what others have said about the giants, rather than building upon the shoulders of giants themselves. i recall years ago driving to college on the interstate in a terrible blizzard with less than twenty feet of visibility. i believed that by following the tail lights of the car directly in front of me, i would remain true to the road and therefore arrive safely at my destination. instead i followed the car immediately in front of me into the ditch, as did others after me. following what others have said does not necessarily lead one on the road to truth, but rather can mislead one in disastrous ways. part 2 of this volume should contain essays that delineate aspects of religious conversion based primarily on the writings of the religion’s founder(s). i find this lacking in several essays. third, i was puzzled by the inclusion of the chapter “migration and conversion of korean american christians” by rebecca y. kim. i think the essay itself is valuable and only highlights an important movement within modern christian missions, migration and religious conversion. the korean community is vitally important to what is happening globally with respect to christian conversion and expansion, both in korea and in america. however, i wondered, why just the korean movement? why not have essays on migration and conversion to christianity among chinese americans or christianity and islam among particular countries on the continent of africa? i know parts of chapters mention some of these significant movements. but surely these migration and conversion movements which are transforming the global community merit standalone essays. i also wondered about essays addressing religious conversion among political refugees. i can only guess that this was an editorial choice due to lack of space. notwithstanding these considerations, i believe that the editors have achieved their goal of offering a “model of conversion studies that is global, interdisciplinary, multireligious, and inclusive of the personal, social, cultural, and political dimensions of the human predicament.” graduate students and scholars alike will greatly benefit from this reference work, which promises to be the standard work in its genre for years to come. naturally the electronic version of this work may be especially useful to its readers for its ability to search specific keywords and themes. at one point, lewis rambo comments that his work as an editor is much like that of a musical conductor: “both select musicians/scholars, both seek to give each musician/scholar the best possible venue for his or her gifts, and, when all is going well, all come together to create something new, stimulating, and even beautiful” (18). i think that aside from my minor squabbles with a few notes on the score, this handbook is already and will continue to make important contributions to religious studies and across multidisciplinary boundaries. that is, the editors have assembled, directed, and produced a large-scale work, the various sounds of which join together in forming a noteworthy composition. john g. bales baylor university, waco, texas 87 critical review: search committees theolib.org search committees: a comprehensive guide to successful faculty, staff, and administrative searches christopher d. lee. search committees: a comprehensive guide to successful faculty, staff, and administrative searches. 2nd edition. sterling, va: style publishing, 2014. 180 pp. $29.95. paper. isbn: 9781620362006. christopher d. lee’s search committees: a comprehensive guide to successful faculty, staff, and administrative searches was published in association with the college and university professional association for human resources. lee’s background includes serving as the chief officer of human resources at four institutions of higher education and teaching human resources at several schools. since colleges and universities expend significant time and resources to identify, hire, and retain the best faculty, staff, and administrators, lee argues they need to invest more time in planning the process. he believes that a successful search requires careful planning during each step, and he provides the tools and techniques for accomplishing this. the cost of a bad hire negatively impacts an institution not only with direct costs, including salary, benefits, and professional development funds, but also with the intangible costs of poor staff morale, damaged reputation, and negative impact on current and prospective students. given these potential costs, lee suggests asking committee members “whether they’re willing to wager $3 million on that decision,” which he believes reflects a realistic cost for a bad hire who stays in the position (2). lee examines the process for approving new hires, including an organizational analysis that reviews the position’s impact on the institution, its essential functions, and its job description. he then explores assembling the best search committees, advertising and recruiting, sourcing strategy, screening and evaluating candidates, addressing bias in the process, and preparing and conducting interviews. he gives special attention to preparing a welcome package for the interviewee that empowers the candidate to make informed decisions. lee’s discussion of developing interview questions examines a variety of question types, including informational inquiries, case study scenarios, and situational and behavioral responses, as well as the characteristics of bad questions. he argues that great questions provide critical insights for making informed, data-driven decisions. lee provides a list of 119 potential general interview questions, 78 potential faculty interview questions, and 57 questions designed for administrator, executive, and supervisor interviews. lee places extra emphasis on diversity throughout the work. he makes a strong case for educational diversity and argues for the inclusion of a diversity advocate on all search committees. his discussion of steps after the interview includes managing post-interview evaluation processes, determining organizational fit, conducting background and reference checks, making a hiring recommendation, and closing the search process. he continues by examining how to successfully welcome a new hire to campus and address the new hire’s long-term success and retention. lee writes that “retention improves when the rigorous process finds well-qualified candidates who match both the position and the institution. this occurs because candidates get a sneak preview of community life and culture by interacting with a wide range of community members. they are then able to make more informed decisions about accepting any offer of employment” (1). this book is highly recommended and should be required reading for anyone leading or serving on a search committee. the text is well written and organized. throughout the text, lee provides exhibit and vignette boxes, illustrating a variety of tools for gathering both qualitative and quantitative information. exhibit #10, “how to evaluate resumes and cvs,” and exhibit #13, “narrative or qualitative screening instrument,” are especially useful for committee members. the exhibits for gathering feedback from town hall meetings and presentations also give committees valuable tools. additionally, the advice for committees on working with senior leaders to define the senior leaders’ role in the process 88 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org provides a useful resource for committees. a complementary website, www.searchcommittees.com, offers additional materials, including free training videos and the author’s blog. in seminaries and schools of theology and ministry every hiring opportunity is important. the negative impact of one new hire who does not support the institution’s mission can have devastating effects for years. especially in seminary libraries, with their very small staffs, a bad hire can paralyze the vision and services of the library. as committee members and leaders, librarians must educate themselves on the search process. an ala-accredited master’s degree does not tell a committee everything they need to know, but lee’s book empowers academic search committees to make better decisions and set up both the new hire and the institution for a successful long-term relationship. jonathan c. roach st. thomas university library, miami gardens, florida 42 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights scott kaihoi is a library specialist at bethel university library, st. paul, minnesota, and is an mlis student at the university of wisconsin—milwaukee. he would like to thank dr. jin zhang of the university of wisconsin—milwaukee for overseeing and providing feedback on this research. by scott kaihoi abstract using an online survey, this study sought opinions on the ala’s ethical standards as embodied in the library bill of rights (lbr) from librarians working in a variety of contexts who self-identified as christian.  while the majority of respondents (72 percent) indicated overall support for the lbr, a  substantial minority (over 40 percent)  had areas in which they differed with its ethics, usually in the form of feeling that certain types of content (e.g., pornography, harmful materials, etc.) could or should be limited.  this  would seem to suggest that many christian librarians do sometimes perceive a need to place the value of defending what they perceive to be true and right above the call to remain professionally impartial about certain kinds of content. this study is the follow up to a pilot study entitled “christian librarians and the library bill of rights: a survey of opinions and professional practice” published in the spring, 2014 issue of the christian librarian. research objectives the american library association (ala) is widely recognized as an organization that advocates for free speech, free access to information, and resistance to censorship in and out of libraries. in doing so, it often places at the very top of its set of ethical priorities the values of tolerance and the freedom to offer or consume information from all points of view without restriction. documents produced by the american library association like the library bill of rights (lbr) and the code of ethics, along with their supporting interpretive documentation, demonstrate these priorities and show clearly that regardless of how individual libraries and librarians perceive them, the ala views the documents as a set of “unambiguous statements of basic principles that should govern the service of all libraries.”1 this implies that insofar as professional decision making is concerned, these documents represent the standard to which the ala feels all librarians should strive to adhere. individual librarians, however, sometimes hold to worldviews with ethics that might come into conflict with those of the ala. for example, the christian worldview adheres, in one form or another, to belief in a god who has revealed objective truth which can be known by human beings. for christians, then, there is a god-given standard by which things like good and evil or valuable and worthless can be judged. christian librarians who believe strongly in the universal applicability of such a standard might feel that the importance of protecting patrons from materials that are demonstrably harmful outweighs the value of providing access to all points of view in some situations. such a difference in ethical priorities would not necessarily imply that those librarians reject values championed by the ala like tolerance of all viewpoints or the right to freedom of speech; rather, it would simply be a matter of differences in underlying assumptions causing other values to trump them in certain situations. though christian librarians undoubtedly have very diverse interpretations of when and if this difference between some of the underlying assumptions of christianity and the ala actually leads to practical difficulties in their professional 1 ala council, “interpretations of the library bill of rights,” http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/ interpretations . http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations 43 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org work, the potential for conflict led to this author’s desire to study 1) the extent to which christian librarians agree either in whole or in part with the ethics of the ala as embodied in the lbr, 2) whether agreement or disagreement with the ala’s ethics has any bearing on the professional decisions they make in their work, and 3) whether they feel that christians working in public libraries ought to follow the ethics of their faith or of the lbr when they perceive a conflict between the two. the last of these was included to function as a sort of control. many christian librarians seem to work in private libraries serving christian communities where personal ethics and the ethics of the community are likely to overlap significantly. because of this, gathering opinions from christian librarians who work in a public library context (to which the ala’s ethics are thought to apply most strongly) is a way to understand how christian librarians feel about professional vs. personal ethics in a context with a very diverse constituency not necessarily governed by christian norms. literature review the christian worldview is by no means the only worldview with which the ethics embodied in the lbr might be in conflict. there are plenty of ethical critiques of the lbr from other standpoints, such as social contract theory2 or utilitarianism.3 even more common are general critiques of the lbr on the basis of its ambiguous language and lack of legal grounding for some of the things it asserts as rights.4, 5 while christians echo many of these general observations about the lbr’s shortcomings, this study is chiefly concerned with critiques of the lbr from a distinctly christian standpoint. there is a small body of literature dealing indirectly with this subject, and at least one essay that addresses it directly. oftentimes where disagreement between the lbr’s ethics and christian ethics exists, the focus is on which of two values should be emphasized when conflict between them forces a choice. j. ray doerksen’s critique exemplifies this as he calls christians to reject the hierarchy of values promoted by the lbr — namely, the lbr’s assertion that freedom and personal autonomy are the most important rights librarians are in charge of protecting. he states that “the assumptions beneath the library bill of rights have no validity beyond the opinions or biases of the people advocating those rights,” and the ala’s placement of “personal autonomy” at the top of the librarian’s ethical hierarchy is something a christian librarian ought not to accept.6 rather, he asserts that a commitment to truth and using free will to do right ought to be more important than freedom itself, and that christians may have to sacrifice freedom in situations where defending truth and doing right necessitate it. doerksen’s comments raise the question of whether christians generally agree with such a critique. other than the pilot for this study,7 the only research on christian librarians’ opinions on the ethics of the lbr that the author is aware of was done by craighton hippenhammer in 1993 and published in two parts.8 his survey of christian librarians working at christian colleges and universities deals with questions related to censorship in their libraries, and he included a number of questions related to librarians’ agreement with the lbr. he found that 45 percent supported the lbr fully, with another 46 percent who partly supported it.9 only 8 percent said they definitely did not support it.10 those who opposed it listed such objections as its inapplicability to private libraries, its strong stance on opposing censorship 2 martin fricke, kay mathiesen, and don fallis, “the ethical presuppositions behind the library bill of rights,” library quarterly 70, no. 4 (2000): 468-491. 3 tony doyle, “a critical discussion of the ethical presuppositions behind the library bill of rights,” library quarterly 72, no. 3 (2002): 275-293. 4 gordon b. baldwin, “the library bill of rights – a critique,” library trends 45, no. 1 (1996): 7, 18-27. 5 shirley a. wiegand, “reality bites: the collision of rhetoric, rights and reality,” library trends 45, no. 1 (1996): 75. 6 j. ray doerksen, “the y factor,” the christian librarian 42 (1999): 15. 7 scott kaihoi, “christian librarians and the library bill of rights: a survey of opinions and professional practice,” the christian librarian 57, no. 1 (2014). 8 craighton hippenhammer, “patron objections to library materials: a survey of christian college libraries part i,” the christian librarian 37, no. 1 (1993): 12-17; hippenhammer, “patron objections to library materials: a survey of christian college libraries part ii,” the christian librarian 37, no. 2 (1994): 40-47. 9 hippenhammer, “patron objections to library materials: a survey of christian college libraries part i,” 13. 10 ibid. 44 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org (specifically the requirement to work with all groups that oppose it), and its requirement to include material in library collections that patrons at a christian institution might find morally objectionable or of little value.11 in addition to the discussion of what has been published on the christian librarian viewpoint, is also important to highlight the ala’s extensive body of interpretive literature regarding the lbr. these documents address many of the potential objections to the lbr based on its lack of applicability outside of a public library context, or from librarians serving populations with distinct preferences and information needs (e.g., religious institutions, private colleges and universities, k-12 schools, etc.). they also indicate the positions taken by the ala on ethical issues where ethical or doctrinal differences specific to a community or individual librarian might conflict with the principles in the lbr. in these documents, while acknowledging that practices of individual libraries will necessarily vary depending on the needs of their constituency (e.g., there is no expectation that a private university library make its meeting rooms available to everyone, only that it ought to make them available to the members of the community they serve on an equitable basis12), the ala is very clear in its position that the spirit of the lbr ought to be applied to all libraries in their specific contexts, and that such principles ought to trump personal or doctrinal differences. among the specific examples given for this are things like an insistence that minors should not have abridged access to any materials provided by the library, whether print or electronic13, 14 (including school libraries),15 offensiveness to a community or objection by a community to a viewpoint should not be the basis for omission from a collection or restriction of access,16, 17 and that the internet should not be filtered whenever possible (and filtered in the least restrictive manner when filtering is required by government regulations).18, 19 the ala documents specifically state numerous times that personal preferences or ethics ought not to affect librarian decisions, and that one of a librarian’s most important goals should be “to facilitate access to all points of view on current and historical issues.”20 this refrain can also be seen in the ala’s code of ethics, a document that is arguably seen as more widely applicable than the lbr, article vii of which states: “we distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources.”21 all of this together shows that while the ala does not necessarily disagree that some material may be harmful, offensive, or otherwise undesirable to librarians and patrons, it places free speech and the ability to access all legal information above the concern about the potential harm such materials might cause. 11 ibid., 14. 12 ala council, “intellectual freedom principles for academic libraries: an interpretation of the library bill of rights,” http:// www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/intellectual. 13 ala council, “free access to libraries for minors: an interpretation of the library bill of rights,” http://www.ala.org/ advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries. 14 ala council, “access for children and young adults to nonprint materials: an interpretation of the library bill of rights,” http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accesschildren. 15 ala council, “access to resources and services in the school library media program,” http://www.ala.org/advocacy/ intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessresources. 16 ala council, “diversity in collection development: an interpretation of the library bill of rights,” http://www.ala.org/ advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/diversitycollection. 17 ala council, “intellectual freedom principles for academic libraries.” see principles three and four. 18 ala council, “intellectual freedom principles for academic libraries.” see principle number six. 19 ala council, “access to digital information, services, and networks: an interpretation of the library bill of rights,” http:// www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessdigital. 20 ala council, “restricted access to library materials: an interpretation of the library bill of rights,” http://www.ala.org/ advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/restrictedaccess. 21 ala council, “code of ethics of the american library association,” http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/ codeethics. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/intellectual http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/intellectual http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accesschildren http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessresources http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessresources http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/diversitycollection http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/diversitycollection http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessdigital http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessdigital http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/restrictedaccess http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/restrictedaccess http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics 45 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org method sampling method this study works with a broad definition of “christian” that would include any individual who self-identifies as christian. with that definition, christian librarians working in a higher education context are relatively easy to identify and reach due to their organizational affiliations, but christian librarians working in school and public libraries are much harder to identify. in order to try to reach christian librarians in all of these contexts, a combination of systematic and snowball22 sampling methods was used for choosing participants. to reach christian librarians in an academic context, a base sample of librarians was chosen from schools belonging to the council for christian colleges & universities (cccu) using a systematic sampling method. three librarians were randomly chosen from each of forty randomly selected cccu schools, with the exception of two schools that had less than three librarians, making this portion of the sample 117 librarians from twenty-two states. the librarians from this sample were entirely different from the sample used in the earlier pilot study. e-mail addresses for the individual librarians were then retrieved from each library’s website, and a cover letter with a link to the survey was e-mailed to them that included an invitation to pass the survey on to other christian librarians they might know, noting that there was a particular interest in reaching school and public librarians. in addition to the above, the cover letter and survey link (along with the same invitation to pass the survey along) were posted to three listservs serving christian librarians: the association of christian librarians’ listserv, the fellowship of christian librarians and information specialists’ listserv, and each of the sections of the catholic library association’s listserv. the latter two include a large percentage of school and public librarians. the hope was that by reaching some christian librarians working in school and public libraries with an invitation to pass the survey along to their colleagues, the survey would reach a larger number of these librarians who are otherwise very difficult to identify. this methodology makes estimating sample size and response rate difficult, but the author estimates that there were roughly 500 librarians initially contacted between the listservs and direct e-mails, and the snowball sample may have brought that total closer to 650. assuming those estimates are reasonably accurate, the response rate would have been approximately 20 percent. survey design the 1ibrarians were all e-mailed a link to a fifteen-question survey (including some multi-part questions) prepared and delivered using qualtrics, and they were asked to respond to it online. a copy of the survey can be found in appendix c below. in response to feedback given on the survey used for the initial pilot study,23 several changes were incorporated into the survey instrument for this study. a number of respondents to the pilot study indicated that they did not feel that the lbr (or at least certain parts of it) is applicable in their libraries, so a question was added regarding the lbr’s applicability to non-public libraries. an option for “not applicable” was also added to the multi-part questions asking about agreement and adherence to the lbr. several questions from the pilot survey were also eliminated, and others were reworded for clarity. respondent profile in total, 127 librarians participated in this study. four librarians’ answers were discarded either because the respondent failed to complete the survey or indicated that he or she was not of the christian faith, leaving the final number for the respondent pool at 123. 22 in this case, the “snowball,” or chain-referral method of sampling (further explained below) involved asking a few members of the christian school and public library communities that were identifiable through their organizational affiliations to both participate in the study and then recruit other, less-identifiable members of those communities to participate. 23 kaihoi, “christian librarians and the library bill of rights.” 46 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org the respondents were 72 percent female and 28 percent male, and all but eight respondents had at least a master’s degree. the denominational breakdown of the respondents can be seen in table 1. table 1 – denominational breakdown of respondents answer % protestant 48% catholic 35% orthodox 0% non-denominational 9% other (please specify) 8% total 100% of the ten indicating “other,” seven listed protestant denominations (e.g., assemblies of god, southern baptist, etc.), making the actual number of protestant respondents slightly higher at around 54 percent. the remaining three listed “messianic jewish congregation,” “mennonite,” and “christian churches and churches of christ,” respectively. the majority of the respondents work in christian college or university libraries, though a significant minority work in other kinds of libraries (see table 2). interestingly, nearly half of all respondents have worked in libraries for twenty years or more, while only 11 percent have worked in a library for less than five years (see table 3). table 2 – type of library in which respondents work answer % christian college or university library 62% public library 6% public school library 1% secular college or university library 6% private school library 14% other (please specify) 10% private library or archive (e.g., museum, business, etc.) 1% total 100% table 3 – respondents’ years of experience as librarians answer % less than 5 years 11% 5-10 years 20% 11-15 years 11% 16-20 years 11% 20+ years 47% total 100% 47 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org results following the demographic section of the survey, the first question dealt with respondents’ opinions on the applicability of the lbr to non-public libraries. respondents were asked to indicate which of the given options was closest to their view. the range of options given was taken from the views expressed both in the pilot study and the previous literature consulted, and was admittedly rather narrow based on the fact that most librarians seem to view the lbr as being primarily for public libraries. the results of the question (shown in table 4) indicated that a majority of respondents view the lbr as primarily applicable to public libraries, but at least some of the content is applicable to other types of libraries. very few felt that it was only applicable to public libraries. table 4 – opinion on applicability of lbr to different kinds of libraries answer % the library bill of rights is equally applicable to all libraries. 23% the library bill of rights is most applicable to public libraries, but the majority of its content is applicable to other types of libraries as well. 40% the library bill of rights is most applicable to public libraries, but some of its content can be applicable to other types of libraries as well. 33% the library bill of rights is only applicable to public libraries; it is not applicable to other types of libraries. 4% total 100% respondents were then shown the text of the lbr followed by a question asking about their personal support of each article (see appendix c, question 7 on p. 58 below). the results are recorded in table 5, and show that while an overwhelming majority support or strongly support all six articles of the lbr, only for article v (dealing with abridgment of access on the basis of origin, age, background, or views) did a majority of respondents indicate strong support for the lbr. articles iii, iv, and vi showed a significant minority of respondents indicating neutrality or objections, and 16% of respondents felt that article vi was not applicable in the libraries in which they worked. table 5 – personal support of the lbr lbr article strongly support support neutral object strongly object not applicable in my library article i 48% 34% 5% 8% 3% 2% article ii 40% 35% 5% 15% 2% 2% article iii 38% 38% 11% 8% 3% 2% article iv 27% 25% 21% 20% 2% 4% article v 62% 26% 3% 5% 2% 2% article vi 34% 26% 12% 9% 3% 16% respondents were then asked to indicate the level to which they adhered to the lbr’s articles regardless of how they personally felt about them. similar to the previous question, the vast majority of respondents indicated that they adhered to the lbr, though for each article with the exception of article v more than half of the respondents indicated that they adhered with at least some exceptions (see table 6). interestingly, for all six articles there were more respondents who indicated they always adhered to the lbr than there were respondents who indicated strong support for it, and far more respondents indicated that the articles of the lbr were not applicable in their libraries. nearly a third of respondents felt that article vi was not applicable in their library. 48 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org table 6 – adherence to lbr regardless of personal support of it lbr article always adhere adhere with some exceptions sometimes adhere occasionally adhere rarely or never adhere not applicable in my library article i 46% 40% 4% 0% 2% 7% article ii 42% 39% 7% 5% 3% 5% article iii 43% 29% 9% 3% 6% 10% article iv 30% 31% 12% 7% 4% 15% article v 64% 31% 0% 0% 2% 3% article vi 34% 26% 5% 3% 2% 31% respondents who marked anything other than “always adhere” were presented with a follow-up question asking them to give brief examples of situations in which they did not adhere to the lbr. there were 89 respondents who provided specific examples, and their answers were coded and organized into appendix a below. answers that were similar were grouped together, and the phrasing provided by respondents was included whenever possible. many respondents gave examples for more than one article, so the total number of responses recorded in appendix a exceeds the number of respondents who actually answered the question. the survey’s final questions dealt with respondents’ opinions about christians working in public libraries. the first of these asked respondents to indicate their level of agreement with the statement, “a christian librarian working in a public library setting should always abide by the professional and ethical standards outlined in the library bill of rights even if he or she perceives conflict between it and his or her personal moral convictions.” nearly two-thirds of respondents indicated that they agreed with the statement, while only 26 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with it (see table 7). table 7 – agreement with statement regarding conflict between lbr and personal convictions answer % strongly agree 31% agree 31% neither agree nor disagree 11% disagree 18% strongly disagree 8% total 100% this was followed up by a question asking respondents whether they thought public libraries should ever limit access to, filter, or refuse to acquire any materials (print or electronic) based on the content or viewpoint of the materials. twothirds of all respondents (exactly 66 percent) answered this question, “yes,” and those who did were presented with a follow-up question asking them to indicate what sorts of materials ought to be limited in this way. of those, 78 gave responses, and many respondents listed more than one kind of content. the responses were grouped together and are listed in appendix b below. finally, the very last question in the survey was an open-ended question asking respondents if they had any other comments on the topic of library ethics and the christian faith. sixty-three respondents made comments, and while the responses were too diverse to include everything expressed in its entirety, a few consistent sentiments worth highlighting came through. nine respondents used the space to emphasize that they felt all or many points of view ought to be represented in any library collection, while six used the space to reiterate their opinion that personal or christian values ought to trump any other conflicting values. five felt that christians unwilling or unable to adhere to the principles 49 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org of the lbr ought to leave the library profession, and, five others expressed their feeling that these sorts of ethical issues are difficult to navigate. four thought that the ala was too selective in the application of its values, and four thought that individual libraries need to adapt the lbr to fit their contexts. four others thought that the document is too inadequate as it is written to be applied to most libraries. the rest were miscellaneous comments about things like the survey instrument itself, references to previous answers, or other similar content. discussion overall, the survey indicates general support for the lbr, though that support comes with caveats for most of the respondents. as was seen above, only for article v did a majority indicate adherence without any exception, and a large majority of respondents (72 percent) indicated there were instances in which they would not fully adhere to at least one of the lbr’s articles. most of these objections were not necessarily flat rejection of lbr principles; rather, respondents indicated qualified support by giving examples of situations in which the lbr might need to give way to a higher or more pressing principle, or by declaring that the document’s deficiencies do not allow for complete adherence. a number of the objections consistently raised, particularly to articles i, ii, and iv, stem from the overly inclusive language of the lbr and are not distinctly christian. this is not surprising given the general deficiencies in the lbr’s language already noted, and these objections (things like meeting rooms and displays being closed to public access or acquisitions policies that omit things not relevant to a school’s curriculum) are addressed in the ala’s interpretive documentation. while worth mentioning since they were so often brought up by respondents and indicate that the interpretive documentation is not read widely enough to clarify the issues raised by the deficiencies in the lbr, these sorts of objections are not of primary concern here. much more relevant to answering the research question were the responses in which respondents indicated a lack of full agreement with the lbr based on issues of ethical differences. the chief objection of this sort came from librarians who perceived conflict between the values of their constituents or governing institutions and the ala’s values of 1) representing all points of view and 2) not limiting materials based on content. the respondents who answered that they adhered to the lbr with at least some exceptions mentioned forty times omitting or restricting materials containing viewpoints that conflict with the values of the community their particular library serves (see appendix b below). things like pornographic material, material opposing christian teaching, material from cults, and gratuitous, inappropriate language were all mentioned more than once within those forty responses. in addition, there were fourteen more general responses not associated with any particular lbr article in which respondents indicated that either their christian community standards or personal christian ethics trumped the ethics put forward in the lbr wherever there might be conflict between the two. even added together these objections do not show a majority of respondents taking exception to the lbr on ethical grounds, but the 44 percent minority who raise these sorts of exceptions is noteworthy. given that only a minority of respondents indicated that their personal views and professional decisions conflicted with the principles found in the lbr, it is extremely interesting to note that the majority of respondents indicated they felt that even public libraries should abridge access or omit at least some materials based on content. the two thirds of respondents who felt this way mentioned things like pornography, internet filtering, and material inappropriate for children among the things that even public libraries should limit (see appendix b). this is in direct contradiction to the lbr’s ethical stances on these issues in which public libraries ought to represent all views and not restrict access based on age, and in this case it was a majority that differed from the ala’s stances. other objections on ethical grounds mentioned by a much smaller minority of respondents were the lack of a felt obligation to resist censorship and/or work with groups who do, and the acceptability of content or viewpoint-based omissions from a collection for things like materials that teach patrons how to cause harm to self or others, materials that promote racism, materials that promote illegal activity, materials deemed to be of low quality, or materials containing fringe viewpoints. that librarians would want to limit material of this type is not surprising since limiting those sorts of materials seems in line with ethical norms in most of america, but, strictly speaking, such content-based omissions 50 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org would go against the spirit of the lbr. however, as documents like “restricted access to library materials”24 and “access to digital information, services, and networks”25 show, the ala acknowledges that such omissions are often practiced out of obligation to meet government requirements or community preferences. given the degree of concern over sexually explicit content and the age-appropriateness of materials expressed in the survey, it is somewhat surprising that more librarians did not raise objections to article v of the lbr in which denial of access based on age is prohibited. this could perhaps be attributed to the fact that the majority of the respondents work in academic libraries where children are not often patrons, or perhaps agreement with the rest of the article is so strong that the age provision is either overlooked or considered a matter of interpretation. still, age-based restrictions generally go hand in hand with concerns over pornography and other materials perceived to be harmful to minors, and one might expect support for article v to have suffered as a result. comparing the results of this survey to hippenhammer’s research from twenty years ago, the results show that the number of librarians expressing support for part or all of the lbr is very similar; however, there were some interesting differences regarding those expressing opposition to various articles. there were noticeable increases in opposition to articles i and ii, while opposition actually seemed to decrease for articles iii and vi. for article vi, at least, the decrease may be because in the current study an option for indicating “not applicable to my library” was offered to separate objections based on applicability in certain library contexts from ones that might be more ethically based, where these sorts of objections were included in hippenhammer’s tally. table 8 – librarian objections to the lbr in hippenhammer’s study vs. current study lbr article hippenhammer study objectors (1994) this study’s objectors (2014) article i 7% 11% article ii 11% 17% article iii 13% 11% article iv 22% 22% article v 5% 7% article vi 20% 12% looked at another way, in hippenhammer’s study, only around 40 percent of respondents listed any objection to the lbr,26 while in the current study 72 percent listed at least some specific way in which they less than fully adhered to the lbr. this comparison may not be entirely fair since the questions are slightly different — one might qualify his or her adherence to the lbr while indicating a more formal “objection” to it — but they are similar enough that the difference is at least worth mentioning. one of the striking differences between hippenhammer’s study and this study is the greater frequency with which pornography is mentioned by respondents in the latter. it seems reasonable to speculate that the addition of high-speed internet connections to public spaces in libraries may have something to do with this. prior to the ubiquity of the internet, libraries would have had to collect pornography in order for it to be a major issue (which they largely did not do), whereas in the current information environment merely supplying unfiltered internet access on library computers seems to result inevitably in at least some consumption of pornography in library spaces. one of the goals of this study was to collect enough responses from librarians working in different professional contexts to see if there was any significant difference in opinion between librarians working in different types of libraries. the opinions of public librarians were especially sought since the lbr would presumably have greater influence in a public 24 ala council, “restricted access to library materials.” 25 ala council, “access to digital information, services, and networks.” 26 ibid. 51 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org library than in a private christian one. unfortunately, there were not enough answers collected from christians working in public libraries to generalize about their responses for comparison. however, it is interesting to note that five of the eight respondents indicating they worked in public libraries adhered less than fully to the lbr, and one even indicated in one of the open ended questions that where christian ethics and the lbr differ the respondent supports “the scriptures over and above the library bor.” also of interest is that four of the public librarians who responded indicated that in public libraries there are at least some types of materials that ought to be limited or not collected based on viewpoint, with three of them giving pornography among the types of materials they would omit or limit. as for school librarians, there were enough responses collected that a comparison could be made, but the number and types of objections to the lbr were extremely similar to those of the respondents generally. there was nothing noteworthy to highlight apart from what has been discussed already. limitations & further research it is difficult to construct a questionnaire that reflects the nuances inherent in the issues of ethics and the influence of personal beliefs on professional practice. as one respondent noted regarding the survey question asking about personal support for the various articles of the lbr, “…some librarians may select ‘support’ because they generally support the article. other librarians may select ‘do not support’ or ‘object’ because they object to that one small part.” this is true, and there are likely some responses in both this and other questions with a limited range of options in which respondents would have answered differently if the question had been more open ended or a wider range of answer options had been given. nonetheless, the questions do still measure the general perception of the lbr among christian librarians, which was the goal of this study, and hopefully some of the nuances come through responses to the open-ended questions in the survey. because listservs were a major vehicle for the distribution of this survey, those with membership in a professional association of christian librarians make up a large portion of the respondents. the size and makeup of the overall christian librarian population is not known, so it is difficult to tell whether this would have a significant effect on the study’s results. in retrospect, the question asking about participants’ denominational affiliations was poorly constructed, and a clearer, more comprehensive list of denominations would have produced results more useful for comparison. despite the attempt to include a wider number of non-academic librarians in this study, the majority of respondents still worked in christian college and university libraries. without a clear picture of how the christian librarian population is distributed among the various types of libraries it is difficult to know the extent to which this influences the data, but it seems safe to say that there is a larger percentage of christian librarians working in public libraries than this sample reflects. conducting a survey with similar questions that included librarians of other faiths would be very interesting. given the answers collected here, it seems likely that librarians of faiths with similar moral positions on content like pornography and depictions of violence would respond similarly to the way the christian librarians in this survey did. comparing such a study to this one, and even possibly to a study conducted of librarians generally, would be instructive for determining the extent to which objections like the ones raised by respondents in this study were tied to a particular faith. given the strong concern shown in the survey with pornography and other sexually explicit content in libraries, it also would be useful to do a study focused on determining how christian librarians generally define pornography and how they would devise library policies to handle it. this was a suggestion made by hippenhammer in his study, where he insightfully mentions that the word “pornography” is a “slippery term,” the definition of which can vary widely from person to person.27 as he suggests, it would be very useful to know how christian librarians in particular define it and think of it professionally since a significant number of them indicated that it is an ethical issue in which they would place personal views above those of the lbr. 27 hippenhammer, 17. 52 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org conclusion in seeking to discover the extent to which christian librarians perceive conflict between the ethics of their christian worldview and the ethics that underlie the lbr, it is clear from the results of this study that while christian librarians do largely support the lbr, most have at least one area in which they do not adhere to the ideals embodied in it. while many of these objections stemmed from flaws in the language of the lbr that makes fully adhering to it impossible, a substantial minority of respondents (over 40 percent) gave objections that indicated the ethics with which they made professional decisions differ from those of the lbr, and the objections listed tended to have a distinctly christian flavor in that they often dealt with the limitation of material to which conservative christian morals would object. pornography and other sexually explicit material were of particular concern. some respondents even specifically stated that where the lbr and their personal christian ethics differed, it was the christian ethics that trumped the lbr’s. however, in noting this it should be emphasized again that even among those with such objections, their objections for the most part were less a matter of complete disagreement with the lbr’s ethics and more a matter of whether the value of unlimited access to all kinds of materials ought to trump concerns for the harm certain kinds of materials might cause. the responses in this survey would seem to support the notion that, like doerksen, many christian librarians do sometimes perceive a need to place the value of defending what they perceive to be true and right above the call to remain professionally impartial about certain kinds of content. 53 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org areas of less than full adherence (by article) number of people listing this objection percentage of overall respondents listing this objection article i authors/materials with viewpoints that conflict strongly with the values of the community a library is serving can or should be omitted (specific examples mentioned in conjunction with this given below): 18 14.6% pornographic or sexually explicit content 7 5.7% oppose christian teaching or disparage the person/ministry of jesus 4 3.2% gratuitous inappropriate language 2 1.6% racist 1 0.8% promote gay lifestyle 1 0.8% occult/satanic worship 1 0.8% budget and space constraints force libraries to prioritize acquisitions, and for libraries serving specific populations [e.g., religious institutions, schools, etc.] some collection development practices may look like censorship 16 13.0% would not collect materials that advocate harm to others 1 0.8% article ii materials not supportive of curriculum are omitted 9 7.3% “all” views cannot possibly be represented 8 6.5% materials that are offensive to community can be excluded 7 5.7% pornographic material is excluded 5 4.1% donations from sects or cults promoting their religious views are not added to the collection 2 1.6% materials deemed potentially harmful or offensive to the community are available by request only 2 1.6% factually inaccurate/fringe viewpoints will be excluded 2 1.6% appendix a: exceptions to full adherence to the lbr 54 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org areas of less than full adherence (by article) number of people listing this objection percentage of overall respondents listing this objection materials promoting illegal activity are excluded 1 0.8% materials that willfully misrepresent others’ viewpoints can be excluded 1 0.8% article iii private libraries serving religious communities may censor certain materials based on community convictions or institutional standards 6 4.9% fighting censorship is difficult at a library with community standards that do not allow for certain viewpoints 3 2.4% i do not actively challenge censorship 2 1.6% fighting censorship can be difficult at a school library where minors are being protected by adults 1 0.8% the senior librarians make decisions about fighting censorship — i support what they decide 1 0.8% article iv other groups have never approached us 5 4.1% will not cooperate with groups that only oppose the censorship of a narrow set of specific materials [but wish to censor other views] 4 3.2% groups whose values conflict with values of library’s community/parent institution need not be worked with 4 3.2% free expression that is disruptive, harmful, or discourage others from using library is not acceptable 3 2.4% libraries need not actively seek to cooperate with such groups 2 1.6% cannot possibly seek to work with “all” groups 2 1.6% we do not have the time to engage other groups like this 2 1.6% article v abridged service based on age is acceptable 4 3.2% 55 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org areas of less than full adherence (by article) number of people listing this objection percentage of overall respondents listing this objection article vi our library is private--meeting rooms/displays are not made available to the public outside of our community 17 13.8% we do not get requests from the public to use our space 3 2.4% at a christian college library, library space and displays are not available to groups that oppose the christian faith 3 2.4% in academic setting, sometimes priority is given to a certain population (e.g., students) over others (e.g., staff or guests) 3 2.4% displays that promote violence or radical/extreme viewpoints are not allowed 2 1.6% does not apply to my library 1 0.8% general objections the standards of the lbr do not apply to private libraries like they do to public ones—the community standards of our christian institution govern our library’s operations 7 5.7% where lbr conflicts with christian ethics, christian ethics take precedence 7 5.7% the language of the lbr is too extreme 3 2.4% 56 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org content or viewpoint number of times mentioned percentage of overall respondents mentioning this pornography / sexually explicit content 46 37.4% promotes racism, hatred, or abuse 16 13.0% “how to” material for engaging in harmful or illegal activity (e.g., bomb making, suicide, overthrowing government, etc.) 14 11.4% material of low quality, extreme fringe viewpoints, or with obvious factual inaccuracies (incl. holocaust denial) 10 8.1% internet filtering (including abridged access for children) 9 7.3% limited access for materials inappropriate for children 8 6.5% material in which community has no interest 7 5.7% depicts or promotes gratuitous violence 6 4.9% obscene or illegal materials (e.g., child pornography) 6 4.9% content conflicting with local community’s values 4 3.2% “immoral” materials 1 0.8% homosexuality 1 0.8% animal cruelty 1 0.8% material that does not build character in citizens 1 0.8% satanism, occult worship, etc. 1 0.8% appendix b: content respondents felt should be limited, abridged, or omitted from public libraries 57 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org appendix c: survey instrument intro please answer all of the questions, and note that there are multiple pages of the survey.  data from surveys that are left unfinished will not be recorded.  please take this survey only once. please indicate the age range into which you fall. 0 18-30 0 30-45 0 45-60 0 60+ please indicate your gender. 0 male 0 female please indicate your highest level of education: 0 certificate or associate’s degree 0 bachelor’s degree 0 mls or mlis 0 second master’s (or other advanced degree) 0 doctorate 0 master’s degree (other than mls or mlis) please indicate how long you have been a librarian 0 less than 5 years 0 5-10 years 0 11-15 years 0 16-20 years 0 20+ years please indicate the type of library in which you are employed: 0 christian college or university library 0 public library 0 public school library 0 secular college or university library 0 private school library 0 other (please specify) ____________________ 0 private library or archive (e.g., museum, business, etc.) 58 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org do you consider yourself a member of the christian faith? 0 yes 0 no if “yes” is selected what is your denominational affiliation? 0 protestant 0 catholic 0 orthodox 0 non-denominational 0 other (please specify) ____________________ lbr   the following is the text of the ala’s library bill of rights.  please refer to it as needed in answering the remaining questions in this survey. “the american library association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.   i. books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.   ii. libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.   iii. libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.   iv. libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.   v. a person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.   vi. libraries that make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.   adopted june 19, 1939, by the ala council; amended october 14, 1944; june 18, 1948; february 2, 1961; june 27, 1967; january 23, 1980; inclusion of “age” reaffirmed january 23, 1996.” which of the following statements best aligns with your feelings about the library bill of rights’ applicability to libraries? 0 the library bill of rights is equally applicable to all libraries. 0 the library bill of rights is most applicable to public libraries, but the majority of its content is applicable to other types of libraries as well. 0 the library bill of rights is most applicable to public libraries, but some of its content can be applicable to other types of libraries as well. 0 the library bill of rights is only applicable to public libraries; it is not applicable to other types of libraries. 59 peer review: christian librarians and the ethics of the library bill of rights theolib.org looking at the text of the ala library bill of rights above, please indicate whether you personally support or object to the following portions of the document (i.e., indicate whether your own ethical or spiritual convictions are consistent with the statements made in the library bill of rights): strongly support support neutral object strongly object not applicable in my library library bill of rights article i 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article ii 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article iii 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article iv 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article v 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article vi 0 0 0 0 0 0 whether you personally support or object to the library bill of rights, please indicate the degree to which you adhere to the standards outlined in each of its articles in your professional practice of librarianship. always adhere adhere with some exceptions sometimes adhere occasionally adhere rarely or never adhere not applicable in my library library bill of rights article i 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article ii 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article iii 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article iv 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article v 0 0 0 0 0 0 library bill of rights article vi 0 0 0 0 0 0 if you chose anything other than “always adhere” for any of the options in the above question, please provide a brief explanation or examples of situations in which you do not adhere to the standards of the library bill of rights.  (please try to limit responses to one or two sentences.) 60 march 2015: volume 8, number 1 • theological librarianship theolib.org please indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following statement:  “a christian librarian working in a public library setting should always abide by the professional and ethical standards outlined in the library bill of rights even if he or she perceives conflict between it and his or her personal moral convictions.” 0 strongly agree 0 agree 0 neither agree nor disagree 0 disagree 0 strongly disagree should official policies of public libraries ever limit access to, filter, or refuse to acquire any materials (print or electronic) based on the content or viewpoint of the materials? 0 yes 0 no if “yes” is selected what sorts of content or viewpoints would warrant the filtering, refusal to acquire, or limitation of access to materials in a public library? (please try to limit responses to single words and short phrases.) are there any other comments you would like to make on the topic of christian librarianship and the ethics of the ala as embodied in the library bill of rights?