Affordable Theology: Buying in Bulk with Logos

6 hours ago 3
The words Affordable Theology in light bold font with four featured resources in the center and a portion of the article text to the left.

My wife recently determined that Costco was, for us, a better deal than Walmart Plus. She saw firsthand that it is economically efficient to buy in bulk.

This is true of groceries. It’s also true of paper books—but only on those very rare occasions when you can buy a big chunk of someone else’s existing library. And usually that means a retiring pastor whose books all come from a previous era.

The only place I know of where you can buy new books in bulk—specifically, Bible study books you actually want to have—with bulk pricing is Logos.

I’m going to list a few collections of Logos books that I’ve noticed recently—some of which I own, some I don’t—that could help you take advantage of bulk pricing.

Original languages

New International Dictionary of Theology and Exegesis: Old and New Testament | NIDOTTE/NIDNTTE | (10 vols.)

This is the most recent purchase I myself have made. I’ve wanted the NIDNTTE, in particular, for years, because my hero Moisés Silva edited it.

I cite Moisés Silva constantly. I did it quite recently at a pastors conference. He’s one of the few people I trust to do lexicography—the study of the meaning of Hebrew and Greek words—with an eye both to serving the church and to honoring the way God made language to function.

And NIDOTTE is a modern classic set. I’m glad to have this now.

Brill Greek Reference Collection (5 vols.)

I have not personally used these volumes, but countless times I have seen BDAG (the major Greek-English lexicon) mention DELG, a French etymological dictionary of Greek. And at least once, I had to go unearth DELG and do some research in it.

I’m well aware that appealing to etymology can be, and often is, an exegetical fallacy (see references to Silva above). But etymology can be a helpful tool in the hands of the discerning. The Brill Greek Reference Collection is one I want in my tool belt.

Lexham Press Original Languages Suite (25 vols.)

Lexham Press has produced numerous valuable volumes on original language study. There are riches here that I have sampled and to which many friends of mine have contributed, from the Lexham Theological Wordbook to the various (phenomenally beautiful) Hebrew and Greek textbooks to The Greek Verb Revisited and the helpful essays on exegesis and textual criticism in the Lexham Methods series.

In my experience, most people regard these matters as boring until someone who’s done the work can start answering the questions they didn’t know they had. Then they literally—I have seen this with my own two eyes, even recently—lean in closer.

Mobile Ed: GK101 Introduction to Biblical Greek (15 hour course)

You have to start somewhere with learning biblical Greek. I own this course from my time at Logos, and I trust my friend John Schwandt to teach carefully and well.

There is a wide variety of methods available to learn the Greek of the New Testament. I’m not going to say this is the best one for you; that’s a complicated question. But actually getting a course is better than not getting started at all—that I do know.

 Old and New Testament | NIDOTTE/NIDNTTE | (10 vols.)

New International Dictionary of Theology and Exegesis: Old and New Testament | NIDOTTE/NIDNTTE | (10 vols.)

Regular price: $358.99

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Brill Greek Reference Collection (5 vols.)

Brill Greek Reference Collection (5 vols.)

Regular price: $670.99

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Price: $637.44

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Lexham Press Original Languages Suite (25 vols.)

Lexham Press Original Languages Suite (25 vols.)

Dynamic collection value: $438.97

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Price: $417.02

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Regular price: $499.99

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 GK101 Introduction to Biblical Greek (15 hour course)

Mobile Ed: GK101 Introduction to Biblical Greek (15 hour course)

Regular price: $379.99

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Systematic theology

Reformed Systematic Theology (4 vols.)

I’ve had my eye on this set. Joel Beeke and Paul M. Smalley have done really incredible work for the church in multiple projects over the years, and in this work they take the head-heart-hands synthesis—the intellectual, devotional, and practical powers—of the Puritans and others in the Reformed tradition and turn it into a lay-accessible systematic theology. One of the only Reformed systematics to have possibly exceeded this one in mentions-per-blog-post is Bavinck.

Reformed Dogmatics (4 vols.)

Speaking of Bavinck, interest in Herman Bavinck has had a major resurgence in the last ten years. I will be frank: I have made more than one attempt to read this major work of his, and I have so far failed. One of the reasons is that my lifestyle (I blame the children) makes it difficult for me to find time for paper books, but I get to read electronic ones when everyone else is asleep. And when I read something as rich as Bavinck, I want my highlights to be saved.

Bavinck is irenic and careful. He is an exegete as well as a systematic and historical theologian. He writes from a clear place in the Reformed tradition but with humility toward other Christian viewpoints. He has Barth’s proverbial newspaper in one hand and Bible in the other.

Zondervan Counterpoints Series (43 vols.)

Speaking of application to current issues: When I want to make sure to cover all the main views on a given theological issue, I turn to a series like Counterpoints.

It is a matter of charity to represent someone else’s viewpoints in terms that someone will acknowledge and own. It is simple love—it’s the way I’d want to be treated—to look for the most responsible, influential, and careful proponents of any view and let them be its representatives. That is what the Counterpoints series has sought to do for a long time now. Sometimes the array of views on a topic can be bewildering. Welcome to the real world.

Reformed Systematic Theology (4 vols.)

Reformed Systematic Theology (4 vols.)

Regular price: $199.99

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Reformed Dogmatics (4 vols.)

Reformed Dogmatics (4 vols.)

Regular price: $235.99

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Price: $224.19

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Zondervan Counterpoints Series (43 vols.)

Zondervan Counterpoints Series (43 vols.)

Regular price: $577.99

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Price: $549.09

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Homiletics

Charles Spurgeon Collection (149 vols.)

My most important mentor was a great lover of Spurgeon. A pastor/evangelist in my book club is. A member of my little Textual Confidence Collective crew is, too. I’ve heard similar advice drop from such Spurgeon afficionados: Just pick up a page and see what Spurgeon does for you.

Florid nineteenth-century oratory tends to grate on modern ears: not so Spurgeon’s. He had a wit and a heart that make him a perennial favorite. He’s the kind of guy whose collected works you should have in your Logos library.

Charles Spurgeon Collection (149 vols.)

Charles Spurgeon Collection (149 vols.)

Dynamic collection value: $776.48

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Price: $737.66

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Regular price: $784.99

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Church history

Christian History Magazine (issues 1–140)

I read a fair number of articles from this magazine when I worked at a research center in my university library. It gained my trust with its themed issues and quality articles.

Puritan Ultimate Collection (188 resources)

One of the purposes of having a library, and certainly of having a Logos library, is simply having available for reading and citation whatever random John Flavel or Richard Sibbes sermon someone happens to reference favorably. Many times I have been glad to have The Complete Works of Historical Figure X, including some of the very sub-collections in this large collection. John Owen, Thomas Boston, Thomas Watson, John Bunyan—these are resources worth owning.

Christian History Magazine, Issues 1-140

Christian History Magazine, Issues 1-140

Regular price: $249.99

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Price: $237.49

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Puritan Ultimate Collection (188 Resources)

Puritan Ultimate Collection (188 Resources)

Regular price: $1,099.99

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Price: $1,044.99

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Hermeneutics & exegesis

Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash (3 vols.)

I heard often in graduate school of the famous Strack-Billerbeck. But I confess to doing far better at reading a commentary on the New Testament than a Kommentar zum Neuen Testament—even if it is very interesting to me that this Kommentar is aus Talmud und Midrash. My respected friend Jacob N. Cerone, now a resident of Germany, was the general editor of these volumes, and I’m excited to own them.

Mobile Ed: Studies in Biblical Interpretation Bundle, M (4 courses)

I read once that hermeneutical method is the Protestant’s pope. In the absence of a final earthly arbiter for Bible interpretation, we refine our methods for that interpretation. I see real wisdom in this comment, and Keener, Brown, Walton, and Klein are recognized teachers of the hermeneutical art.

I don’t share John Walton’s perspective on the lost world of Genesis, but I find his thoughts on hermeneutics to be challenging and stimulating. Jeannine Brown is on the NIV committee. Craig Keener is one of the most prolific biblical commentators to ever live, with more published words than seems humanly possible (one wonders if he discovered AI before anyone else and kept it secret). You will never learn Bible interpretation without at least implicitly entering into conversation with figures like these.

Handbooks for Exegesis: Old Testament and New Testament (HOTE/HNTE) (10 vols.)

I have Vogt (Interpreting the Pentateuch) in this series—and I have my eye on Futato (Interpreting the Psalms). These are relatively brief volumes that take the reader seriously but give that reader very practical advice for going from zero to sixty in interpreting biblical genres. I remember when a volume like this (in another series, I confess: Tom Schreiner’s Interpreting the Pauline Epistles) had a massively positive impact on my Bible interpretation.

These handbooks are either beginner handbooks for (academic, evangelical) Bible study or expert cheatsheets for how to teach others to do such study. I’m teaching hermeneutics soon myself on the graduate level, so I’m suddenly more interested in these volumes than I knew before.

Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash (3 vols.)

Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash (3 vols.)

Regular price: $159.99

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Price: $151.99

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 Studies in Biblical Interpretation Bundle, M (4 courses)

Mobile Ed: Studies in Biblical Interpretation Bundle, M (4 courses)

Regular price: $599.99

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Price: $569.99

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 Old Testament and New Testament | HOTE/HNTE (10 vols.)

Handbooks for Exegesis: Old Testament and New Testament | HOTE/HNTE (10 vols.)

Dynamic collection value: $177.73

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Price: $168.84

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Regular price: $194.99

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Commentary

Teaching the Bible Series (36 vols.)

We truly do have an embarrassment of riches in Bible study materials. No matter your level of knowledge and experience, there’s a resource for you. This series will help, say, a small group leader (as I myself am!) teach through various biblical books.

Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud Collection (50 vols.)

The translator of these volumes, Jacob Neusner, is a huge name in Jewish studies. These are standard works in the field.

Teaching the Bible Series (36 vols.)

Teaching the Bible Series (36 vols.)

Regular price: $288.99

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Price: $274.54

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Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud Collection (50 vols.)

Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud Collection (50 vols.)

Regular price: $199.99

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Price: $189.99

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Biblical theology

New Studies in Biblical Theology Series Collection (NSBT) (53 vols.)

I own this entire series. I bought it with my own money. I love especially two volumes: Dominion and Dynasty by Stephen Dempster and A Clear and Present Word by Mark D. Thompson. I also thoroughly profited from Paul and the Law by Brian Rosner. This set has many notable works in it: I’ve just offered the three that have meant the most to me.

New Studies in Biblical Theology Series Collection | NSBT (53 vols.)

New Studies in Biblical Theology Series Collection | NSBT (53 vols.)

Regular price: $846.99

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Bible reference

Biblical Reference Collection (20 vols.)

This is a hefty set. I already own almost all of it and have used these volumes for years. Especially valuable, you get all eight InterVarsity Press “black” dictionaries as well as the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary.

Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible (5 vols.)

Wikipedia and ChatGPT can now give us a lot of the most basic information we want, even about the topics traditionally covered by a Bible dictionary. But as of this writing, AI tools still “hallucinate” too often for me to really rely on them, and Wikipedia does not really have the “NPOV” (Neutral Point of View) that it seeks. I want evangelicals to write at least some of my reference works. In ZEB, they obliged.

Biblical Reference Collection (20 vols.)

Biblical Reference Collection (20 vols.)

Regular price: $659.99

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Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible (5 vols.)

Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible (5 vols.)

Regular price: $223.99

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Price: $212.79

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Humanities

Great Books of the Western World (60 vols.)

I have read or sampled a goodly number of these volumes—or at least watched the BBC version. Boswell’s Life of Johnson was remarkable; Dickens’ Little Dorrit is memorable; Gibbon writes phenomenal prose but pours acid on the Christian faith; Dostoevsky does profound philosophy and moral exploration via painful Russian stories.

What else can I say? I don’t do well with reading lists. I read by whim, as Alan Jacobs taught me. But I can’t help but measure myself against this list, and I can’t help but feel a little pleasure at how many of these volumes I’ve at least cracked open.

Great Books of the Western World (60 vols.)

Great Books of the Western World (60 vols.)

Regular price: $374.99

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Price: $356.24

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Piety & Christian growth

New Growth Press Minibook Collection (157 vols.)

I am not currently a pastor, so I don’t find myself reaching often for books like these. But if you are, this is a treasure trove. Think of it as the equivalent of Baxter’s Christian Directory, but divvied into catchy topics and written a bit more accessibly for the modern reader.

New Growth Press Minibook Collection (156 vols.)

New Growth Press Minibook Collection (156 vols.)

Regular price: $586.99

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Price: $557.64

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Take up & read

It’s still early enough in the year for your New Year’s Resolution to kick in. Most of us could do to read more and watch less. Maybe some of the resources above will bring you wisdom and truth and delight and help.

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