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This section contains sites aiming to function as Christian magazines, in other words they are aiming to be topical and possibly even of 'daily portal' format.
http://www.agapepress.org/todaysnews.html
This site is really a standard news site; except that all of the articles have a Christian slant. The left side of the home page is occupied with the contents and teaser articles. The main page is really a set of hyperlinks to further articles. There is some advertising but it is not too invasive.
What I particularly liked is that they are prepared to sacrifice one or two sacred cows that the other populist sites are unwilling to touch. One that caught my eye was a biblical review of the Veggie Tales Jonah movie. Whether you agree with the article or not I would seriously consider reading a website that has the honesty to take a broadside at one of the number 1 Christian money-spinners of the year.
http://www.Biblenetworknews.com/
This magazine is almost specialist enough to get into the journal section. It describes itself as 'News from around the world about how Christians are translating, publishing and distributing the Bible'
The site itself is busy; both side-bars are used with garish colors to advertise both issues and articles. The central column is the standard 'teaser article with a more button' format.
My main reason for recommending this site is I like the content. Clearly evangelism is a spiritual occupation; yet getting Bibles spread can and should be treated in an efficient and businesslike manner. This is a very good working site for those wanting to know how the business is being executed and the problems it is facing.
Whilst this site is from the Canadian Bible Society the flavor is international; with some extremely interesting articles about the movement of Christianity in the third world.
I am told this site is very good; however I am so far outside of the target audience I can really only give a second hand recommendation. This is their mission statement as they give it: -
Welcome to Brioland! We hope you enjoy our site. Keep reading for the inside scoop on what we're all about and who's behind the scenes of your favorite mag!
Brio is an Italian word that means full of energy, life and enthusiasm. It's the name of our magazine because it's a terrific definition of our readers! For more than 12 years, Brio has been teaching, entertaining and challenging teen girls toward a healthy self-concept and closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
Their main page is noisy and gaudy; when I looked they were running a poll on the preferred flavor of M&M. Pleasingly; behind the titles of 'soul food' and 'spiritual health' there are a series of Bible based articles designed to encourage a more biblical and spiritual walk in the readership.
If I had a daughter then I would like to think that by her teenage years she would be engrossed in the King James, her father's commentary collection and good works. If she wasn't then I would be glad that magazines like this existed to deal with her where she was.
The opening page is an extremely noisy, advertising filled portal to the main content of the site. The 'online issue' option on the left hand side gets you to this present issue of the magazine, which is a little more staid in presentation (although still too noise for me).
The magazine is published by Strang; they describe themselves as follows: -
We are Strang Communications, a multi-media communications company focused on spreading the name and fame of Jesus throughout the world through the mass media. Our company was founded in 1975 by Stephen Strang.
The articles in the magazine are very contemporary and as would be anticipated from the title focus heavily upon the miraculous. A sister magazine is directly targeted at the Pentecostal community. The magazine shows an energetic focus upon serving the Lord and a broad range of interest in countries outside of the US. For some the articles may lack firm scriptural foundation but it is a good example of what it is trying to do.
http://www.christianity.com/magazine
In producing these lists I am attempting to be eclectic. When I landed upon this site there was a picture of a roaring fire, complete with stockings and presents and a moving banner scrolling across the top of the page saying 'Happy Birthday Jesus'. This is not a manner in which I would choose to decorate my homepage, yet I expect it gives a warm cosy glow to many.
Other than that mentioned the main page is a series of links to many, many articles. Most of these articles are written by ladies and appear to be for ladies. They tackle many real world issues and have a good biblical slant in many places.
What I really like is the statement of faith; straight down the line in easy to read language. This is not a site I will visit often myself; but if I meet someone looking for a site of this ilk, this will probably be the one I recommend.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/
This site is blatantly aiming to be a replacement for you daily portal. The opening page when I visited majored on a series of film reviews from a Christian perspective. The left hand of the screen is then taken with a list of 'what's new' and 'what's hot'. This is an extremely good way of ensuring that the most relevant content is available to a casual readership.
The articles they promote come from a range of magazines; the ones I read were definitely Christian and fairly biblical although definitely aimed at a casual readership. The right hand side of the screen gives a series of links into other resources and also a fair amount of advertising.
I would not really recommend this site as a research home but it might will make a good startup page if you have a computer used by the whole family.
http://www.faithwebbin.net/edibles/
This is almost a 'Chicken soup for the soul' type presentation but from a more directly Christian perspective. The site is quite clean, there are some graphics but all is tasteful and with little advertising. My one big technical complaint is that the pages are served up by cgi so you cannot store a URL to a particular page.
The website is inspired by a lady and is clearly tailored to both a female and 'kidz' audience. Although it is less noticeable there is also a slightly 'black' slant to some of the presentation.
The main articles are divided into Bible studies, topical Bible studies, guest authors, special Bible studies (big events) and 'Bible minute'. I particularly like the last feature. A Bible study in a minute! Whilst I have often declared from the pulpit that believers should commit large chunks of their day to Bible study the reality is we don't always - but how many of us can justify not spending a minute?
http://www.gospelcom.net/uplook/
Uplook magazine is another paper magazine that has acquired a web presence. Reaching the site causes it to instantly upload a little java applet to your browser that then helps you around the site. This is very clever and sophisticated but will cause the more security conscious some concerns. In general this site is trying to be very helpful although personally I wish it would just get out of the way and let me at the text.
The main body of the main window is occupied with 'news' that can be inserted by members. This is moderated but still means that what you may be reading on the main page may not be the opinion of the magazine.
There are a number of good indexes and directories and news capabilities that can be accessed from the front page although for me the key is still access to texts of uplook magazine itself back to 1991.
This is a site aiming to act as a forum for things relating to the 'gospel hall' movement sometimes known as 'The Brethren'. The main page of the site is rather busy but it really acts as a portal to the content of the site. They have collected together quite a few 'little bits and bobs' such as email lists, Bible search and church directory onto the front page. I suspect this makes the site very accessible to first time users; for me it just irritates.
One of the principle features is the forums or discussion rooms. They are heavily moderated and are really used as an area of 'announcement'. There is a 'recently added' table so you can see what is changing. The forums have a very international flavor, which is nice.
They also have a links section that is a good introduction to 'Brethrenism' on the web.
http://gcm.ibelieve.com/default.asp
This site is best introduced by the writers themselves: -
Grace Centered is a daily publication dedicated to stimulating personal and public thought, prayer, and discussion about living the Christian life. Its roots are in Restoration Movement Christianity. Grace Centered strives for unity among all Christians.
This magazine is a fairly standard 'Yahoo news' two column format. Left side is the index, right hand side for advertising. The magazine offers a list of its' contributors along with bios of them, this is quite useful in a fairly eclectic magazine.
As well as the topical Christianity articles there are sections on politics but also Bible study. It appears to be a fairly well balanced collection of topics that may work for some as a daily homepage.
This website is produced by Grace and Truth; here is their explanation of their aims: -
Who Are We? Grace & Truth is an evangelical, non-denominational Christian ministry that publishes gospel tracts, tracts and booklets for Christians, and a monthly magazine. Our readers are world-wide. Our publications are free.
The publication was started as a work of a missionary to Africa; they now publish in twelve languages although this magazine is definitely English. That said I am recommending this magazine because I love the brutal reality of the articles. Whilst available to American's it is clear that the aim of the writers is towards those whose faith is very simple and applied. Amen. This magazine is not dealing with biblical hermeneutics; it is dealing with how you should behave whilst being robbed. This is an excellent reality check for us as we go through life.
Heartlight aims to "provide resources to live victoriously for Jesus in today's world". This is very much designed to be a happy site. One of the key parts is a collection of 'thought for the day' and 'daily devotional' articles. Although I haven't checked all them out the sheer number of options suggest there is one that will appeal.
I cannot find a doctrinal statement but the authors declare themselves as follows: -
HEARTLIGHT - Magazine is edited by Phil Ware and Paul Lee, assisted by Ben Steed. 8332 Mesa Drive, Austin, Texas, USA, 78759. HEARTLIGHT is a registered service mark of Heartlight, Inc. Copyright - 1996-2002.
The site almost has a CNN/Yahoo News look to it, most of the screen is a series of hyperlinks to other things. If you chase hard enough you will eventually run in to some topical and merry articles, although with a fairly reasonable Christian slant. There is an amount of advertising and petitioning but it is fairly restrained (again in the CNN/Yahoo mold)
For a site of this kind I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of links and hooks into deeper research facilities.
This is how RNS view themselves: -
The RNS calls themselves "an authoritative source of news about religion, ethics, spirituality and moral issues." They have been reporting for over 60 years, and cover all religions from Christianity to Islam to New Age.
I do not put this site in here particularly for the believer; I put it in for the researcher. This is an overtly secular publication. Whilst this means that, in my opinion, you cannot trust anything that is said it also means that you get a view of world events that does not suffer from any denominational (or even religious!) bias.
The format is very professional, contents on right, headings with attached hyperlinks. The articles available are update daily and very short. They offer various subscription mechanisms; the prices are heavy, especially for the daily newsfeeds. But if your job is to evaluate daily religious news this is probably where you need to be connected.
http://www.teachinghome.com/index.cfm
I wasn't quite sure where to put this one; but I know I wanted to put it somewhere and as they are the virtual wing of a paper magazine I chose here. The major strength of this magazine is the effort they put into vetting their advertisers. Homeschooler's are 'cut off' almost by definition. In general this is a good thing; but getting quality resources in both terms of theology and materials can be an issue. This site aims to address this.
The website itself is extremely noisy with graphics and adverts all over the place; but that is the aim of it. It is supposed to be something people can browse instead of browsing the education materials in WalMart or LearningExpress. They do not provide the article text of the main magazine online; which is a shame. They do however provide some articles that didn't quite make it into the magazine; these can be interesting.
Whilst I could probably get a decent sermon out of declaring that being a 'virtual Christian' is an extremely bad idea the Virtual Christian Magazine seems to be a very good one. Here is their declaration in their first issue (three years ago)
Our Mission Statement is: Virtual Christian Magazine, Hope and Encouragement for the Real World. An on-line magazine of practical Christian living and inspiration for the 21st Century.
We will share stories of how God dwells with and interacts with people. Accounts of faith's power, love's bond and hope's anchor will fill this magazine. Practical solutions to life's challenges will be discussed along with stories about how God has intervened, encouraged or helped us overcome. We hope to include as many first-person true-life stories as possible to inspire and motivate someone to overcome life's difficulties and offer suggestions about how to live a life centered around Jesus Christ.
I have read a number of articles; the theology is not deep but I did find the articles extremely challenging. There is one in the December issue about Christians in restaurant, which is going to make me very careful next time I am in a restaurant.
This section contains sites are publish or collect together articles upon Christianity. Included in here would be sermon or FAQ sites.
I was horrified when I first discovered a website with a URL similar to mine; then as I investigated it I discovered it was run by somebody I know. God is marvelous in the way he works.
This is a fairly small, very clean site with tasteful graphics and no advertising. The articles are written by various brothers from the British assemblies. The aim seems to be to introduce people to biblical exposition, which is an admirable aim.
The webmaster is Nitesh Patel a full time worker in England which means the contents of this site can be trusted.
Whilst putting my own site in this list could be taken as shameless promotion; in reality this is a site that I regularly recommend to people. It was originally constructed as a lure. I am well known in computer science circles and many people would take significant steps to read my work, so I put it up on a website and hung some Christian treatises around it.
As time has progressed I have amassed sermons and essays on the site. The interesting this is that since a series of articles on Revelation and now on Daniel the traffic on this site has gone through the roof (mainly from search engines). People are very interested in eschatology.
The main reason I recommend it is that I know it, trust it, and can answer questions upon it. As they say; your mileage may vary.
The opening claim on the website is certainly bold enough: -
Mysteries of the Bible Revealed and Resolved"
Participate in the exploration of ongoing Bible Mysteries. Torah Codes, Ancient Chronology, Lost Tribes, Dead Sea Scrolls, Origins Of Christianity, Egyptology, Biblical Archaeology etc.
Whilst I am unimpressed with the opening the main aim of this site is to promote a series of lectures on biblical archaeology; and this it seems to do rather well. Most of the articles are based upon the work of one man, and he is rather controversial. But the lectures are detailed and factual and deserve reading.
The site is fairly graphical with an amount of advertising although it is generally confined to the footer area and does not get in the way.
This site is a little busy with headers, footers, two sidebars and little insertions here and there. The reason for this is that they are pushing advertising space quite heavily. That said it seems to be working as they boast of over 1M page views per year.
The headings are designed to interest and pull people into reading the articles the site contains. There are titles such as 'can sleep bring salvation' and 'is the calculated Hebrew calendar in invention of me'.
However if you ignore the headlines the site actually seems to contain very many, detailed, sound articles. Also their desire to 'spark the imagination' does seem to have persuaded them to tackle some issues that most of the more staid or 'happy' sites leave alone. Another feature is a FAQ section that does actually answers questions that I have heard asked.
http://www.bright.net/~1wayonly/
This is a small and colorful site that appears to be produced primarily by the Southhalls. It has a good selection of articles that are very scriptural but also very, very brief. For those willing to go through pages of theology this site would count as shallow; for those for whom a page is a chunk of reading this site deals with some important topics very simply.
One particular highlight for me is the extremely simple one page explanation that was given of the evilness of the Santa Claus myth.
They also have a large links page that seems to have been vetted, at least to some extent.
This is a tastefully designed site, with low key but attractive graphics that pull the reader in to a relative small but very detailed set of articles. The lead article when I visited was about a Christian perspective on General Relativity. The skeptic series is particularly interesting; it is presented as a series of Q / A from a skeptic to a believer. It is probably even a site you could direct a skeptical non-believer too. There is a gospel series for those searching more truly.
I am mainly recommending this sight for the highlighted articles though. Einstien, monkey, evolution: all are topics that could be used to interest a scientific searcher and the slightly odd angle of approach can even shed a light for believers too.
http://www.geocities.com/intheword1/
I will leave the website to describe itself: -
"IN THE WORD is an independent Christian research and apologetics ministry. Our intent is to make the arguments against Christianity available in as much as we present arguments and evidence in support of Christianity. Throughout this website you will find links to skeptical essays that are either hosted by this website, or linked to off-site. The most relevant of these will be located in a section of the website called "The Critics Corner." On the whole, while this website reflects a biblical world view, we also believe that it is best to keep an open mind and to test ideas and statements for their potential validity. Our only request is that all who come here are open to discovering truth."
The site itself is actually fairly sedate and light although they use a very heavy framing mechanism, which is probably scaring off search engines. The articles are accessed from the left hand frame, there are not that many but each one appears to be carefully thought out and presented. I think the most interesting thing though is the attention paid to actually getting good counter arguments; rather than ones that can be easily shot down.
http://www.gospelway.com/topics.htm
This is a nice plain little site (albeit with some gaudy colors). The main home page has a series of FAQ style questions each leading to an article.
From the link 'Topics' on the left hand side is another page giving a list of about 30 different articles on theological issues. The site also has a search facility that (in my opinion) is a must-have for any collection of topical articles.
There is also an extensive 'dictionary' of topics with Bible references that relate to them under the heading 'reference'.
http://www.newlife.org/biblmain.htm
This website is put up by the New Life community church and features articles by Pastor David MacAdam. The site currently has articles on Hebrews, Nehemiah, James and 'strongholds'.
The site has a nice simple format, a plain html index page gives way to an index page on each book which in turn gives way to a series of article. I suspect each one was an address delivered at the above named church.
The site also has a section 'weekly meditations' which is a little bit like a 'thought for the day' except done weekly!
This site is devoted entirely towards a particular explanation of the rapture. This is a view of the tribulation referred to as the pre-wrath view that seems to be a little different from anything I have previously encountered. I hope I am not misrepresenting them but they appear to split the tribulation into three. The first half (the beginning of birth pangs), the third quarter (the great tribulation) and then the 'Day of the Lord'. They seem to believe the church is raptured after the great tribulation but before the Day of the Lord. I'm not convinced, but these articles are worth reading.
The site itself is highly graphical, and a little emotional for my taste. Decorating the hit counter with the expression 'have been warned' seems unreasonably offensive to me. However the articles are cogent and have a good quantity of scriptural references. Worth a look.
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/
This is a very highly targeted site; it is a part of 'Biblical Discernment Ministries'. The site is very unglossy; it focuses simply upon the message it is trying to spread. There is no advertising or sidebars; simply hyperlinks to the articles.
It doesn't cover every cult I've ever heard of but it lists many of them. Each one has an extensive essay explaining why this is a cult including references into the cults own literature. Not exactly 'fun general reading' but very useful if you ever come across someone from one of these groups or are trying to research information upon them.
http://www.seekerstrove.com/index.html
A can sympathize with the author of this site; he has avoided much Christian learning because it seems slanted. What he has done is labored long a hard to produce a series of very detailed Bible studies on a variety of topics. I haven't counted them but there must be at least a hundred.
He covers a variety of areas but prophecy & parables seem to be the ones in which he has placed most effort. He also has an almost FAQ section for new Christians. He appears to be a mid-tribulationist; again I don't necessarily agree with all he says but his articles are worthy of review.
Whilst this page is the opening page of a 'magazine' the online presentation is really a series of articles. The articles come from the Reformed Baptist Church of Inverness Scotland. They have the last couple of years available online which amounts to some hundred or so articles. The articles tend to be of a very biblical character with a number of historic articles (eg CH Spurgeon) available too.
The site itself is beautifully simple. The opening page has no frame, noise or advertising. It loads quickly and provides a series of hyperlinks to all of the available articles. If you follow the link to the 'magazine' you get another home page that only contains the current issue. From here there is a search link enabling you to search all of the articles.
This site is one of those recommended by GSST. Dale Robbins - Doctorate came from the Northern California area so there is probably some kind of a link.
The opening page is very noticeable with red on black text. A key part of the site is devoted to Christian links but there is also a good selection of articles by Dale Robbins. I particularly liked his 'reference guide' that is a brief practical topical index to the Bible; not unlike the one the Gideon's put in their Bibles.
As well as the lists of articles there is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Christian links complete with commentary upon them.
http://www.xenos.org/classes/papers/toolbib.htm
I had never heard of this group, I have gone over their doctrine a few times, I can't quite work out whether they have really, really got their act together or there is something wrong. It is a home-church based movement, very involved and at heart fundamentalist. Their articles deal with a lot of modern philosophy and they are very modern in their language and approach; yet their statement of faith appears to be spot-on.
The link I have given in this section is to their tools menu. This is an extensive collection of articles and outlines designed to develop ones aptitude to study the Bible and understand scripture for ourselves.
I have gone over a number of the articles, I don't agree with them all; but the ones I have read were worth reading.
This section contains sites that publish, sell, store or index Christian books in either electronic or printed form. Note that three of these overlap with the systematic theology section although the descriptions have been amended.
Amazon has to be the granddaddy of online bookstores. Their site is designed with reasonable taste, it is fast and the service they give is excellent. They do have a lot of advertising but they employ a targeting technique that essentially watches what you browse and what you buy and alters the adverts so that they are focused upon you. For someone like myself that has bought hundreds of items from Amazon the targeting of the adverts is spookily correct. I rarely manage to visit the site without buying a recommendation.
Of particular interest on the Christian side of things is that they have a very broad selection of books but also manage a system for buying secondhand books from 'minor' vendors. These venders are pretty much the same, as you would find on eBay except that Amazon handles all of the admin and vets the vendors carefully. You get the advantages of eBay but with fewer risks.
http://calvarychapel.com/library/index.htm
This site does not have a lot of new content; I have included it for two main reasons. Firstly it does have the writings of some Calvary Chapel pastors that are fairly interesting and secondly it has a set of pointers to other online books that are clearly 'Calvary approved'. Where we live Calvary Chapel is a huge phenomena and thus I often find myself speaking to people from this church; it is useful to know where they are coming from.
The site itself is nice and neat, the color scheme is a little gaudy but there is no advertising or confusion. The Calvary site itself covers a number of other fields of interest but I have provided a link specifically to the book area.
http://www.cbmw.org/resources/books/
This is another very heavily specialized site. This one deals with books relating to the 'gender' issues within the Bible, especially the use or otherwise of gender-neutral language.
As well as the books there is a main website dealing with the statement of faith of the organization that owns the site (The council on biblical manhood and womanhood). This is an extremely controversial subject so you'll probably need to read it to see if you agree.
The main site is a little graphical and rather noisy but use of the headings at the top can get you to the books or journal articles pretty quickly.
www.ccel.org/index/doctrinal.html
The Christian Classics Ethereal library is well known for containing many Christian doctrines of varying vintages. A good clean site, tastefully embellished without any pop ups or flyovers. Whilst the purveyors probably have a doctrinal bias (it is published by Calvin College) they have restricted the expression of it to the papers that they have included on the site.
The stated intent of this site is to have over 1000 Christian texts available for download, they are still quite a long way off but they already have many that are of use, although a good number are available elsewhere too.
One word of warning, they don't seem to vet their books too carefully; they even have a treatise by Ellen G White!
Ouch, this is going to hurt. This is a specialist Christian booksite. They seem to sell just about everything Christian you can imagine. This is a blessing and a curse in that you have to apply your own discernment and knowledge of the books. Their descriptions are designed to sell, not necessarily to match the right reader with the right book. They do have lots of different search capabilities including the ability to search by depth and complexity. They have a very good section on Bible commentaries, which is unusual for 'popular' Christian bookstores.
What is going to hurt is the pricing. They have some incredible deals available, especially on the large volume sets. A complete set of Calvin for $100. They sell distributable KJV Bibles at $2 a piece. Pleasingly; this is not just a 'firesale' site though, they have a better selection of commentaries than most other sites. I highly recommend this site.
This site is mainly included because it covers a set of writings the others don't. This site is a resource for classical (secular) literature. It covers the obvious such as Herodotus and Homer as well as some Chinese writings (all in translation). The site provides searching capabilities.
The style is very simplistic without any adverts, graphics or annoying side-bars. If you need to check something out in the classical literature then this is the place to do it.
Personally I don't like this kind of store. Both sidebars are taken up with advertising and unlike Amazon it is not targeted. However the site is fast and navigation is easy. The searching capabilities are what I might term 'thematic'. The basic premise of this site is that you don't really know what you want but are likely to be inspired by something they suggest to you.
The upside of this site is that it is a reputable company and they offer free shipping on sizeable orders and they do cater for a broad range of tastes. However the reason I recommend it is because of the 'bricks and mortar' link. If I am going to recommend a book to someone that doesn't have that many books then I like to send him or her somewhere that they can look at it before buying. Family Christian Stores is such a place. The prices are a little high but once you have bought once they will routinely send through coupons for substantial discounts.
This is a product of the E4 (for Ephesians 4) foundation. The site itself I actually don't like. It has a very approachable look, lots of very elegant graphics and the 'lead-you-by-the-hand' approach the usually identifies someone trying to get rich quick. The opening page even has a photo of the owners with their two children and an accompanying hard luck story. The second page is full of testimonials and so the sell continues. The order form with the drop-downs to select how hard they have worked and the blatant begging is also unappealing.
However if you leave my personal biases to one side the basic premise of this site is extremely attractive. They have gathered together 37 extremely good Christian books and fitted them into the Logos search system that is highly adapted to serving up Christian literature (as opposed to simply 'biblical' literature). The whole lot can be obtained for $7.95 (if you can resist the begging).
They have an extensive collection of add-on CDs that you can obtain for a $40 'donation' although they claim to give away these on a monthly basis anyhow.
This site is run by the Institute of Christian Economics. The basic aim of this site is to promote a collection of 90 different books that they have published. This is what they say about themselves:
The Institute for Christian Economics is a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization, which is devoted to research and publishing in the field of Christian ethics. The perspective of those associated with the ICE is straightforwardly conservative and pro-free market. The ICE is dedicated to the proposition that biblical ethics requires full personal responsibility, and this responsible human action flourishes most productively within a framework of limited government, political decentralization, and minimum interference with the economy by the civil government.
They appear to be post-millennial Calvinists.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/christian-books.html
This is the website for ICLnet. There are a number of reasons I like this site. First of all the presentation is clear, uncluttered, free from ads and fairly quick to download by dialup. Here I have provided their index to Christian books upon the web.
Whilst I could describe what they try and do, the can do it better themselves:
"The newly renamed Internet Christian Library (ICLnet) has grown upon the foundation laid by The Institute for Christian Leadership (ICL), which provided its resources to Christian higher education institutions from 1983 through 1995. Those services included publishing the Faculty Dialogue and sponsoring a host of writing seminars and workshops for faculty which addressed critical issues facing Christian higher education. The Murdock Charitable Trust, of Vancouver, Washington, was primarily responsible for its support through those years. During that period, ICLnet was developed as an archive to support research, and then expanded as a ministry function of ICL. Since 1994, Worldstar Internet Technologies, Inc. has assumed the costs of hosting the ICLnet website. Volunteers continue to maintain existing materials and their links, as well as research new ones."
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/subjects.html
Personally I have never used library of congress call numbers; and I don't particularly intend to start now. However this website is a list of online books (and hundreds are covered) all listed by library of congress call numbers. I have included it as I thought it might be of use to some researchers with skills in some older research methods.
The site itself is low-key, without graphics or advertising. A simply outline style list of hyperlinks. I don't know how well this list is kept but I tried 10 different hyperlinks and they all worked; this is generally a good litmus test.
In terms of presentation this is just about the perfect site. Every page is quick, almost no graphics and no long run-on pages. The opening screen is an index into over 4000 different articles all of which are available free of charge.
The reason and logic behind the site is best given by them :
Religion Online is moderated by William F. Fore. It came about when Fore taught at the United Theological College in Bangalore, India, during 1997. He discovered that books were almost impossible for students and professors to obtain. For example, a single copy printed in the USA cost about one-third of a professor's monthly salary. When Fore checked out religious resources on the Internet, he found that most sites only refer people to other sites. There were very few sites providing actual texts, and even fewer with scholarly material written by recognized scholars. So Religion Online was born.
Also don't miss the link to BOOKLIST this is a pointer to over 190 online books.
http://www.revival-library.org/
This is a library devoted entirely to books about revival. Despite the wording it is not entirely charismatic, if anything it has a slightly historical bias. To allow them to lay their own claims: -
We have 72 revival accounts, biographies and other inspirational materials in 1362 web pages on the CD, half of which are on this site. We plan to add more when we can find the time! Meanwhile, enjoy the materials that are published in the Revival Library. We're here to help inspire you to seek God with us for a great end-time revival!
The site is a little graphical but without any advertising or noise. The main body is simply a table of links to revival type which in turn go to a list of literature that they possess about that particular revival. This is not general reading material, but if this is the topic you are interested in then this site is good.
http://www.tabernaclebookshop.org/
This website and accompanying catalogue has been a tremendous source of books for me in the past decade. It is actually the online wing of a real bookstore that is situation behind the metropolitan tabernacle church in London. This is one of Spurgeon's old hunting grounds. This bookshop is run as a 'work' rather than an enterprise. This has two consequences. Firstly the books are very cheap; usually just above cost. In fact for books they really want to get out there I have a hunch they sell below cost. The second is that they write extensive reviews on the books they stock and there are a lot of books they simply will not stock.
I recommend this site to people because it may be viewed as safe. The bias is strict Baptist, which is not quite the same as my own (they are more Calvinist) but you are never going to buy a book from here that is not godly, edifying and sound. The site presentation is a little disappointing; you can get the information you want but it is a little awkward to use. They have basically taken their printed catalogue (which is excellent) and turned it into a website. For Americans the exchange rate and shipping costs may be a little prohibitive.
Tyndale is a very well known Christian publisher dealing with such worthies as Tim LaHaye. This site is a typical 'Amazon style' site which means extremely noisy but with work you can search out just about every book in the Tyndale armoury.
One particularly nice feature is they put the first chapters of their new books online; clearly this is a sales tool by in my opinion a very good and fair one. They also do comprehensive bios on their authors, which I think is a very good idea for people buying online.
Note that you cannot actually buy these books online although they will help you find links to where you can.
This section contains sites that publish or host Christian academic journals.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/
This is the 'Journal' wing of a magazine already mentioned. It is a Journal for professional Christian leaders. The main screen consists of a series of article. Most of these have populist titles (such as 'preaching past the fear factor') and are arranged by topic suggesting a series of 'columns' in a printed journal. These topics can be used a filters by clicking on the titles under 'ministry skills'.
This journal has a standard two sidebar format with advertising on the right, some of which moves. As well as the Journal content itself there has been some attempt to foster a community with discussion boards, a prayer network and links to other useful resources.
The Studies in Reformed Theology site is pleasing to the eye, very tasteful and in their own words describes their position as: -
We believe these principles are, in the main, harmonious with the articles of faith published by predestinarian associations and churches of the old order of Presbyterians known as Reformed Presbyterians, or Old School Presbyterians the world over.
This is a site without advertising that is driven from a frame on the left of the screen. They have made a mistake as their articles are generated rather than having their own URL, this means that an amount of the journal contents will not show up in standard search engine.
A significant part of their theological position seems to be that the church has a responsibility to 'leaven' the world, for this reason they tend to have a lot of commentary upon current events.
I should say that I really don't agree with a lot of what this site says; and their attacks upon the 'Darby people', of which I am one, are unnecessarily vitriolic. That said, this is a well-written journal that cogently puts forward this particular view.
Whilst the British assemblies would deny having any doctrinal link (they are each autonomous) this is the magazine that you will find on most of the tables in the chapel halls. The magazine itself is published in paper format although many of the articles have been made available online.
Whilst considerable effort has been put into the graphics and tastefulness of the site the result is a busy screen. There is no explicit advertising of other companies but frames on both sides of the body text are consumed with invitations to read other articles, subscribe or purchase certain items.
The articles themselves are good and will be semi-technical, this site is the electronic side of a magazine; but it is one that has a style more similar to a journal which is why I'm placing it here.
This section contains sites that are aiming to provide a ministry, either to the unsaved or to Christians. Whilst most Christian sites would claim to do this I am restricting this section to those where ministry (rather than money) is the main goal of the site.
http://www.sermonnotebook.org/
According to Alan Carr the author of the site: "This website is dedicated to sharing God's truth with the men of God who minister to others. At present, there are over 700 sermons and sermon outlines on this site, with more being added as they are prepared and preached.". From what I have seen it is a nicely presented site with lots of sermons and articles available - that appear to be sound (although I certainly haven't read them all!)
http://www.interlog.com/~dlim/Preacher.html
This is the ministry site of David Lim. He clearly has an interest in both English and Chinese speaking peoples as his site has a number of non-us printable characters, however these are not too frequent and the site is readily readable. Navigation is a little weird; the pages form a web rather than a hierarchy.
The link I have given is to his page describing his 'ministry position'. I would suggest people read this before embarking upon his (extensive) collection of biblical exegesis. His position tends to be very Bible based but quite unorthodox (at least in realms of British orthodoxy) which is why I find his site interesting.