In August 1998, I ordered some of my first seminary textbooks as a student. That particular semester, one item stood out above the rest. Philip Schaff’s 8-volume History of the Christian Church stood out primarily due to its price. At the time Schaff retailed for about $249. Most of us discovered that you could purchase the set for a little under $100 through CBD (and if you could find a free shipping code so much the better), but it still wasn’t a particularly cheap item. For a single guy living on a grocery budget of $10/week (yes, I did), it was a major purchase.
Fast forward some sixteen years. I still refer to Schaff from time to time. In fact, someone gave me a second set a few years ago and so now I keep one in my office and one at home for ease of reference. But I recently noticed that something significant has changed about the set. In printed form, it still costs eighty-something dollars at CBD and Amazon. The thing we couldn’t have imagined sixteen years ago is that one can now purchase Schaff’s entire 8-volume set on Kindle for just $1.99.
Budget-conscious students are sometimes loath to spend money on textbooks, but the book market has changed quite a bit in recent years. Many resources that would have cost hundreds of dollars just a decade or two ago, can be had for a few dollars or sometimes even for free. Here are a few more Kindle deals that may be of interest to students, pastors, and other Christian readers.
The Ante-Nicene Fathers and Nicene/Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection (37 vols.) – $2.99
The Works of Augustine (50 books) – $1.99
The Martin Luther Collection: 15 Classic Works – $1.99
The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works – $1.99
John Calvin’s Complete Bible Commentaries (22 vols.) – $2.99
The Essential Works of John Owen (22 books) – $2.99
The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Banner of Truth ed.) – $2.99
Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology (3 vols.) – $2.99
W. G. T. Shedd’s Dogmatic Theology (3 vols.) – $4.99
J. P. Boyce’s Abstract of Systematic Theology – $.99
The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon (14 books) – $2.99
Augustus Hopkins Strong’s Systematic Theology (3 vols. in 1) – $1.99
MacArthur Study Bible (ESV) – $6.00
