Article Author: Abram Kielsmeier-Jones
In part 1 I linked to some theology resources in Accordance, shared some definitions of theology and systematic theology, and proposed a working list of categories we can use to organize our own systematic theology using Accordance.
This second and concluding post discusses moving from the Bible to theology, as well as the actual user-created tools you can use in Accordance to store your research and insights.
IV. Amplify and Research: Moving from Bible to Theology
Two broad divisions of modules in Accordance are Texts and Tools. “Texts” are any primary texts available in Accordance: Bible translations, original language Bibles, pseudepigrapha, Josephus, and much more. “Tools” are secondary resources that help users better understand primary texts. Tools can include anything from commentaries to theologies to devotional books.
Accordance’s Amplify function seamlessly moves a user from Text to Tool. To “amplify” in Accordance is to search a string of text (found in, say, a Bible) in a tool (say, a systematic theology).
If I am studying “salvation” in the Psalms…
… I can quickly look the word “salvation” up in any given theological tool by Amplifying. Accordance often offers multiple ways to execute the same task; one easy way to Amplify is to select a given word (or words) in your text at hand, then open and search your Library for the resource you want to Amplify to, then click the Amplify button to the right of the resource title. Amplifying from “salvation” in the NRSV to Aquinas yields this Workspace:
What if I want to see what all my theological resources have to say about a given word in the biblical text? For that I can right-click “salvation,” select “Research,” and pick my “Theological” category from my library.
In this way I can see not just how the Psalms use the word “salvation,” but how all of my theological resources in Accordance talk about salvation.
Both the Amplify and Research features make it easy to move back and forth between primary texts (Bible) and secondary resources (theological tools, dictionaries, lexicons, and more).
V. User-Created Tools and (Your) Theology
The Psalms have a lot to say about salvation. So do my theological resources! Where can you put all the verses and comments I’m finding?
Accordance offers a host of user-created features and modules where you can paste verses, quotations, and even record your own insights.
Here are four options that you may find useful in writing (or keeping good notes on) you own theology.
A. Text Highlights
While not a repository of notes as such, you could create a Highlight File called “Theology” and assign a given theological category its own Style. Every time you come across a verse about salvation, then, you could highlight the verse (or relevant words) with your “Soteriology” highlight Style.
Did you know you can search your highlights, then, by Style? In that way you could quickly pull up all of your “Soteriology” highlights with a simple search.
You can watch this recorded Webinar for more about using Highlights in Accordance.
B. Stacks
Stacks are probably the quickest way to capture verses, quotations, and your own comments. Once you’ve created a Stack (whether a “Systematic Theology” Stack or individual Stacks for specific categories of theology), you can add anything to it by selecting text from a Text or Tool and right-clicking. The contextual menu (a little less than halfway down) gives you the option to add that selection to your text.
Stacks also allow the creation of user items.
Stacks are an excellent place to store notes, but they are not searchable. Learn more about Stacks here.
C. User Notes
User Notes allow you to tie notes to any specific Bible verse. They open and scroll in parallel with Bible texts, and you can open and search them on their own. Verse-by-verse is a different organizational scheme than a topical outline of theological categories, of course, but a good workaround is to “tag” a given User Note with a keyword. User Notes do not at present support tags as such, but placing a unique character before a keyword will have the same effect. In my User Notes for John 3:16, for example, I might place “#soteriology” somewhere in the note. Then when I open that User Notes file on its own to search it, I can search “#soteriology” to find all the times I have “tagged” a biblical verse with that keyword, i.e., theological category.
The Help files have great documentation on User Notes (Mac/Windows).
D. User Tool
The User Tool may be the most flexible and best suited option Accordance offers for users wishing to collect notes on and build their own systematic theology.
In part 1 of this two-part series, I proposed theological categories:
- “Theology Proper”: doctrine of God
- Bibliology: Scripture
- Anthropology: humanity
- Hamartiology: the fall and sin
- Soteriology: redemption/salvation
- Christology: Jesus
- Pneumatology: Holy Spirit
- Ecclesiology: the Church
- Ethics: What to do about it
- Eschatology: end times
Each of these could be its own heading in your User Tool. Then under each heading you can copy and paste relevant Bible verses and quotations from your theological resources, even adding your own summaries and notes.
A User Tool is not tied to the biblical text, so you completely control the organization. You could even add sub-categories to the above categories and outline with as much level of detail as you desire. After minimal setup, your User Tool could look something like this:
User Tools are searchable, both one at a time, and as part of a larger Research search you can run on all Tools in your Accordance library.
The Help files have thorough documentation on creating User Tools, too (Mac/Windows).
You may not plan to write your own full-bodied systematic theology, but using just a handful of resources and features in Accordance, you can keep good track of your theological insights all in one place.