Two Unexpected Results from Logos’s Print Library Catalog Tool

A recent review of Mac OS Ventura began with an all-too-common admission: the features the reviewer had been excited about in previous versions of Mac OS turned out to receive little use.

I don’t think that will be the case with Logos’s killer feature, Print Library Catalog.

I’m very excited to now have the ability to add my print books to my Logos library so I can search them.

Here’s an example of how helpful a print book search is. I recently searched for filioque, the famous clause over which Christians have debated since the ninth century. I received these results:

If I were studying this topic prior to having Logos’s Print Library Catalog, I would have flipped through my (paper) systematic theologies—plus books like Allison’s Historical Theology. The new feature saves time by giving me the page numbers up front. With this feature, I won’t have to check the index of each and every one of my print systematics.

Unexpected search hit #1: Muller

Prior, I don’t know that I would have thought to look in Richard Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics—and I was delighted to get some search hits in this valuable (print) resource from my physical library. Muller’s work includes a discussion of the Council of Florence and its significance for the filioque clause, as well as a lengthy survey of the views held by the Reformers and the Reformed Orthodox.

Muller notes that the Reformers held to the filioque not merely because it was in the creed but for exegetical reasons, and he surveys their work on John 15:26. Muller also observes that the Protestant Scholastics differed from their medieval counterparts in not elaborating on the Spirit’s procession from the Son. They argued for the existence of this procession, but were not willing to go beyond the text of Scripture to further elaborate.

All of this is very helpful information that I think I would have missed if it were not for the Print Library Catalog in Logos.

Unexpected search hit #2: Vanhoozer

Vanhoozer’s Is There a Meaning in This Text? is another book to which my Print Library Catalog search brought me—another book I would not have otherwise thought to check.

In this case, however, the search results indicated to me that Vanhoozer’s discussion was actually not one that I needed to track down for the purposes of my study. By giving me two lines of preceding context and two lines of subsequent context, I had enough information to decide whether pulling out the physical copy would be worth my time.

Conclusion

Search is central to Logos, and once all my print books are added to my Logos library, their inclusion in my searches will be a matter of course. I’m confident that as Logos develops over time and new features are released, I’ll not be looking back on this feature as something that I was initially excited about and then forgot.