I’ve been using Logos Catholic Bible Software for a few years now and I love it. If you want the ability to do advanced searches and explore Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and sources, then you need this. Also, if you want immediate searchable access to Catholic resources (Church Fathers or Aquinas), please check it out.

I interviewed Andrew Jones about what’s new in the Catholic Logos Bible Software:

Sure. Logos uses the most cutting-edge technology available to integrate the Scripture with thousands of other texts. So, with Logos the Scripture text acts as a hub around which revolves a massive library, some 17,000 resources. These texts are all linked together and to the Scripture in such a way that with just a couple clicks you can explore the entire Christian tradition’s interpretation of a certain passage or a certain doctrine. The Bible is literally surrounded by the Tradition. Logos also has hundreds of language tools and resources that allow you to delve deeply into the Scriptural text in the original languages, even if you don’t know them. The software is smart enough to provide hundreds of hours worth of research in seconds. And it is all presented in an intuitive and totally customizable interface.

Logos is amazingly suited for Catholic Scripture study because it allows us to approach the Bible not as a stand alone text, but as a text in constant dialogue with the living Tradition of the Church. Basically, what the software does is organize massive amounts of information and orient it all on the Scripture. This means that every individual’s experience varies depending on the books they have in their library. So, what the new Catholic libraries allow is for you to start your Logos library with a huge list of great Catholic resources. You start with the Bible in the middle of the Tradition. From there, you can build a totally custom library based on your own interests.

Well, the first thing to realize is that it is not a normal search engine like Google or something like that. Logos doesn’t just search for keywords. Rather, we’ve put human intelligence into the tagging of the books. So, for example, if you search for “Eucharist” the software will return references to the “Lord’s Supper,” “Communion,” and so on. You can search for citations: for example, every time a certain passage of Aquinas’ Summa Theologica is cited by any work in the library. But, what I think is really cool is what you can do with the original languages. So, say you are looking at John 15:4 where Christ says, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” and you want to investigate the word “abide,” Logos is smart enough not to simply search your translation for the English word “abide;” rather, it searchs for the underlying Greek word, here “meno,” and then gives you the results back in English. So, it returns all the places “meno” appears in the Greek regardless of how your Bible translates it in any given passage. You don’t need to know Greek or Hebrew in order to get behind the translations and into the original languages. I know for me, this has totally changed the way I study the Bible.

I think one of the things that is so great about Logos is that it is powerful enough for scholarly study, but at the same time it is easy enough and intuitive enough for anyone to use. In fact, what it does is open up avenues of Scripture study that up till now have been limited to the most advanced scholars. There is no substitute, of course, for study and education, but what Logos does is share the fruits of this study broadly. It offers to the faithful the results of centuries of research and makes them accessible.

Actually, your Logos library works on Apple or Android devices. You can take thousands of books with you wherever you go. It’s hard to describe how awesome this is. In fact, it takes quite a bit of getting used to, being able to pull out your phone and do searches and find references whenever you need to.

Well, I’m a medievalist by training and a student of Aquinas; so, I’d have to say my favorite resource is the Summa Theologica. I love being able to have the Latin and the English scroll together, and I love having St. Thomas always there with me in my studies. No matter what I’m working on, with a click I can find out what he thought about it. He’s become my permanent companion, and I love it.

Please visit our homepage Catholic Logos Library to learn more and register to win a free version.