Theology on the Web

Theology on the Web has had over 2.5 million visitors to its seven websites in the last year! During that time period these visitors have downloaded around 10 Terabytes of high quality theological books and articles, all provided free of charge to the user. But webservers need to be paid for. My webserver costs have continued to rise, as I have needed to increase capacity in order to handle the rising number of visitors. So this year I am asking for your help to cover the annual charge to keep the sites online and the service free for all. https://gofund.me/e9d425a6

Harold Rowdon notes that George Müller’s… …significance for world mission begins with his philanthropy. His Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad (SKI, 1834) was designed to support the “spread of the gospel” by raising money for schools for children and adults, distributing Scriptures and Christian literature, supporting missionaries “whose proceedings appear to be most according to the Scriptures,” and the orphanage he established in Bristol (1835). During his lifetime, almost one and a half million pounds were received for these purposes, of which £260,000 was spent on supporting missionaries. In the early 1870s Müller was sending abroad £10,000 annually to nearly 200 missionaries. At one critical stage in its early history, the China Inland Mission depended almost entirely on support from SKI. [Harold H. Rowdon, “Müller, George,” Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, p.480.] On this new page on Missiology.org.uk you will find links to three Müller biographies, two of which were written by his wife Susannah. These books are in the public domain. https://lnkd.in/eVxq9PqF

F.F. Bruce’s Commentary on 1 & 2 Corinthians now online https://lnkd.in/dH8pK-vd

I was saddened to hear via Tyndale House of the death of Alan Millard, Rankin Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic languages, and Honorary Senior Fellow (Ancient Near East), at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE) in the University of Liverpool. I first met Professor Millard whilst working at Liverpool Cathedral and it is no exaggeration to say that he played a significant part in the success of Theology on the Web. He was the first scholar to give his permission for one of his books (Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives) to be digitised and encouraged other scholars to make their work available online. For some years I have hosted his bibliography here: https://lnkd.in/e4Y7rwBs The brief entry on Wikipedia fails to do justice to his huge contribition to the work of Tyndale House in Cambridge or to the wider field of Biblical Studies and Biblical Archaeology. He will be greatly missed. Main image: Professor Millard (right) at a Tyndale House Biblical Archaeology Study Group at High Leigh Conference Centre.

El Couffa was a Prayer Newsletter of the Algiers Mission Band, published between 1912 and 1917. These newsletters were stapled and sewn together and contain written content and paintings by Lilias Trotter [1853-1928], who founded the Mission. A small number of these newsletters were produced and then sent out to a circuit of supporters, who would read them and then pass them on to the next person on the mailing list. These newsletters have been digitised at the request of AWM-Pioneers and are now available online. Click the link below to visit the table of contents. https://lnkd.in/etTNnFfZ

Professor Ronald E. Clements (1929-2024) I was saddened to hear of the death of Professor Ronald E Clements, who died on 2nd April at the age of 94. https://lnkd.in/ehrEiRJd Professor Clements kindly allowed me to upload a number of his books and articles, which you can find listed in his extensive bibliography here - https://lnkd.in/e6JC5sx6

A quick update on my post about digitising the early issues of The Review and Expositor. I am pleased to report that, thanks to a donation from one of my supporters, which covered most of the cost, I have been able to buy 6 out of the 24 volumes I was looking for. I hope to start scanning them shortly.

The Palestine Exploration Fund carried out remarkable work in mapping and excavating the land of Israel in the 19th Century. This book is provides a summary of their work between 1865 and 1895. https://lnkd.in/eCPz3Jc5

Digitisation of The Review and Expositor (1904-1928) For some time I have been wanting to digitise and make available, free of charge, the early issues of The Review and Expositor. The issues published between 1904 and 1928 are now in the public domain. As can be seen from the table of contents (available here - https://lnkd.in/ewWzRipS), they contain some very interesting articles. The difficulty I face is that these issues are very rare in the UK, so I need your help to locate copies that I can scan. If you are able to assist me either by providing physical copies or by sponsoring the project so that I can purchase the few copies available from booksellers, please contact me.

The main purpose of Theology on the Web is missional - to make biblical scholarship accessable to everyone free of charge, so as to better equip Christian ministers and scholars. I am therefore delighted to report that visitors to BiblicalStudies.org.uk have surged recently to reach 51,000 in the last 24 hours! Looking at ranking of referrals by country, the fact that the US is number one on the list is not really a surprise (though the amount of traffic from there has been enormous over the last few days). However, the number of referrals from Singapore, Brazil, China and Russia are significant. I think I am right in thinking that Singapore is the main theological training hub for Asia, so it is wonderful to see so many visits from there. The popularity of the site in Russia and China is also heartening, as it shows that China is not blocking access and as a result many of the folks there are making use of the site's resources. It is also worth noting that Hong Kong is No. 12 on the list (after India) with 1,220 requests. The vast majority of the visits appear to be direct downloads of pdf files (739 GB in the last month) with very little change to the visits recorded to the site's html pages. The downside of this is that there has been no corresponding increase in financial support for the site - essential if capacity is to keep pace with demand - as the webpages that provide links to Patreon, Buy-me-a-Coffee and are not being visited.