The Big Idea
What is the best use of a church library and the books it holds?
If you ask most people the purpose seems to be something along these lines:
- It is a place to let members check stuff out like a public library.
- It is a place to archive the Church’s history.
- It is an artifact from the past we should clear out.
A conviction has slowly been growing in me to put some work into building a living heritage library. The basic idea being, if every other source of information was shutdown or destroyed tomorrow, what is a core library that could take someone from knowing nothing about Christianity and lead them to being a fully trained Lutheran? What would that kind of nuclear library look like and consist of?
From this I have start to think about two core principles:
The Library must be living and not just an archive. Meaning that it is actively used by the Pastor, Elders, and Parishioners. Full of books worth reading and rereading. The core of which being obviously Scripture and the Confessions. Along with Luther’s core recommendations for a library from his letter to All Councilmen.
The Library must be organized as a heritage. Rather than being arranged by Dewey Decimal or other systems that are more interested in collecting as many books and sources as possible. This library will be organized as a heritage to be handed down as a prized possession. Therefore it should be organized for easy access for beginners and long time learners alike with clear entry points and progressions like that between small and large catechisms.
What prompted me to reach out to you about this idea today was seeing your reprint of Graebner. I have the privilege to have inherited a church library in my current congregation (which is still in rather disarray) that is full of historic originals included two 1910 originals of Grabener’s Outlines. You have clearly spent a lot of time considering the prospect of passing on our sound Lutheran heritage and I would be very interested in collaborating toward even just a start of a core living heritage library.
here at my current congregation but also potentially laying out a model that could be replicated elsewhere as needed.
In the age of the internet and rising AI, books have firmly entered the status of “disposable” for many people and even businesses. I have felt this sentiment personally when a child rips a book or I spill something on one. Why not just get another one?
But that attitude assumes something that is not always as given as we may realize. What if the book I want is not available? Or what if for some unknown reason the price is now far beyond what I can pay? Our modern trust that another book I is waiting in a pipeline just for me to order it, relies on a lot of trust in companies and supply chains that are more fragile than we would like to remember (covid and toilet paper?…).
The obvious retort to this for most people is: “Yes but the Internet and digital libraries solve all that!” And while digital libraries have done wonders for collecting and making available large amounts of books they still have some serious limitations.
- free open web ones are no guaranteed to always be there. If the people running them quit they might too
- paid libraries may not always be accessible if your subscription runs out or if terms of service change.
- You have to trust the administrator of these libraries are accurately holding the book and other content and are not taking shortcuts with them. Like text scanning that might mess up or ai that might change things.
- local storage of digital resources is not without risk of loss as well. power surges, aging machinery, etc.
Basically digital media is made for fast not for long-term storage.
This is not to say digital libraries are not useful and valuable. I have used them to find old books that would never be in a local library. But Anthropic’s example of taking this sentiment to its most extreme expression should be a warning. If large companies are willing to start a secret operation to: “destructively scan all the books in the world.”1 How are we as the Church maintaining our responsibility to keep access to Scripture and all the needed resources to learn how to read and understand Scripture available without subscription gates, instability, and potential corruption of texts?
The image that sticks in my mind about the role of monastic libraries during the dark ages is one that seems increasingly pressing as the digital world continues to become more and more chaotic and confusing. While the Roman Empire was melting down and the political and economic landscape was changing, monastic libraries emerged as a place of learning and continuity. It offered a stable place to house books and carry them through the many changes generationally.
What if a church library could operate similarly in a very chaotic and ever changing digital and even economic world? What are the kinds of texts resources and information that may not always be easy to find, but are important for preserve our ability to read and understand Scripture?
Search engines have famously degraded in the quality of their results (need to find sources)
Luther's Works Volume 45, To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany that they Establish and Maintain Christian Schools, p. 371-372.
For if the gospel and all the arts are to be preserved, they must be set down and held fast in books and writings (as was done by the prophets and apostles themselves, as I have said above). This is essential, not only that those who are to be our spiritual and temporal leaders may have books to read and study, but also that the good books may be preserved and not lost, together with the arts and languages which we now have by the grace of God. St. Paul too was concerned about this when he charged Timothy to give attention to reading II Tim. 4:13, and bade him bring with him the parchments from Troas (II Tim. 4:18). Indeed, all the kingdoms which ever amounted to anything gave careful attention to this matter. This is especially true of the people of Israel, among whom Moses was the first to begin the practice when he had the book of the law kept in the ark of God (Deut. 31:25-26). He put it in charge of the Levites so that whoever needed a copy might obtain one from them. He even commanded the king to procure from them a copy of this book (Deut. 17:18). Thus, we see how God directed the Levitical priesthood, among its other duties, to watch over and care for the books. Later this library was added to and improved by Joshua, then by Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, and by many other kings and prophets. Thence have come the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, which would never have been collected or preserved had God not required such care to be bestowed upon them. Following this example, the monasteries and foundations of old also established libraries, although there were few good books among them. What a loss it was that they neglected to acquire books and good libraries at that time, when the books and men for it were available, became painfully evident later when, as time went on, unfortunately all the arts and languages declined. Instead of worthwhile books, the stupid, useless, and harmful books of the monks, such as Catholicon, Florista, Grecista, Labyrinthus, Dormi secure, and the like asses dung were introduced by the devil. Because of such books the Latin language was ruined, and there remained nowhere a decent school, course of instruction, or method of study. This situation lasted until, as we have experienced and observed, the languages and arts were laboriously recovered-although imperfectly-from bits and fragments of old books hidden among dust and worms. Men are still painfully searching for them every day, just as people poke through the ashes of a ruined city seeking the treasures and jewels.
Luther's Works Volume 45, To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany that they Establish and Maintain Christian Schools, p. 377.
For it is to be feared - and the beginning of it is already apparent - that men will go on writing new and different books until finally, because of the devil’s activity, we will come to the point where the good books which are no being produced and printed will again be suppressed, and the worthless and harmful books with their useless and senseless rubbish will swarm back and litter every nook and corner.
Luther’s advise on furnishing a Library:
What Luther Says, Vol 1. p. 110.
My advice is not to huddle together indiscriminately all sorts of books and to look only to their number and quantity. I would make a selection of books. There is no need of collecting the commentaries of all jurists, the sentences of all theologians, the questions of all philosophers, and the sermons of all monks. In fact, I would throw out such dung and furnish my library with the right sort of books, consulting with scholar as to my choice.
First of all the library should contain Holy Scripture in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, and in whatever other languages it may be available. Then there should be the best and oldest commentators, if I could find them, in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Then books that aid us in acquiring the languages, such as the poets, and orators, no matter whether heathen or Christian, Greek or Latin: for these are the books from which one must learn grammar. Then should come books about the liberal arts and all the other arts; and finally also books of law and of medicine, though here, too, a judicious choice of texts is necessary. Among the chief books, however, should be chronicles and histories, in whatever language they may be had, for they are of wonderous value for understanding and guiding the course of the world, and especially for noting the wonderful works of God.
Preservation of History
access to material not easily found
Not about easy access
more about access to things that are important
And long term access
Church library as separate from Pastor’s library
Current factors that affect things
a A Holistic versus Mechanistic Perspective what about a perspective focused on life as the foundational activity of God in the world?
Avoidance of Tail Knowledge and Knowledge Collapse
Search engine biases
AI biases
History of Technology that affects things
printing press - access of printed
broadcast systems - few to the many
social media - many to the many
Instability of technological communication systems
DVD and CD era in Church libraries short lived
Not likely to have professional librarians or archivists
Generational focus rather than just practical
Things that Church libraries often have
Old out of print books or hymnals
Bible study resources and helps
History of Church and Lutheranism
The sterilization of history and artifacts as things that belong in museums out of reach
Example of codex sinaiticus being taken from its home and put in a bunch of random museums
AI Companies shredding books
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🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million books and keeps buyers anonymous. Pre-2022 books are premium because they’re free of AI-generated text. A federal judge ruled the practice is fair use because eliminating the original means only one copy exists at a time. Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books partnerships to obtain “all the books in the world.” My Take This got to me. A bookseller told 404 Media that rare books with almost no surviving copies are being fed into this pipeline. Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email. ISBNdb’s website literally says “‘AI company destroys two million books’ is not a headline that generates sympathy,” and they still built an entire business around making it happen quietly. They offer NDAs as a feature. They coach clients to call it “digital preservation.” I’ve covered AI companies scraping the internet, torrenting libraries, and stealing music. This is worse because it’s irreversible. You can re-upload a website. You can reprint a bestseller. You can’t replace the last three copies of an 18th-century botanical text once someone shreds them for training data. And the judge said it’s legal. So it’s going to accelerate. “We shred rare books and offer NDAs so nobody finds out” is a legitimate business model in 2026. What a timeline. Hedgie🤗
Save Your Books: AI Companies Destroying Books For Training
Start of a Library List
Core scriptural language library
Latin Greek Hebrew
Memory
Writing Grammar
Core theological library
Doctrinal works