Caleb Maskell here, from the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University. We’re so glad to see the level of interest and excitement in the Jonathan Edwards Center and the WJEOnline project. We believe that this is a very important work that will harness the unique power of digital media to provide rich content to church and academy alike.
I’m happy to see discussion of our project on this blog, and want to take the opportunity to address a few of the questions that came up.
The money questions:
We have opened up the site for Beta registrants who can sign up to help us test the archive and receive a free year of access. This is a really good deal, and we think that anyone interested in Edwards should click here to join our Beta team.
After the free Beta year is up, we intend to charge an annual access fee to individual subscribers. We are still working out the technical and the financial aspects of this process. The individual subscription fee has not yet been determined, but it will be relatively inexpensive.
We are always accepting contributions to the JEC to advance the progress of this project. (Many people are not aware that we are entirely independently funded, and presently receive no money from Yale at all. We must raise what we spend.) Contributors who want it will be welcome to have complimentary access to the site according to the timeframes that we’ve posted here on the site.
Major gifts to the JEC are, of course, always welcome and completely tax-deductible. Please email me to further discuss such a gift from you or your institution. We have some very specific financial needs at this time.
We also intend to sell access to the archive to institutions (libraries, seminaries, churches) on a number of different pricing scales.
The access questions:
Providing access to accurate versions of the Edwards texts is our top priority. It is what we’re about. To that end we have invested 58 years and several million dollars for the purpose of developing the definitive, accessible Edwards for the 21st century. These investment figures demonstrate that “public domain” does not mean “accessible by anyone.” We are working very hard to bridge that gap, and believe that in doing so we are creating an accessible resource for the church and academy for years to come.
I welcome your thoughts and ideas by email or on the discussion thread of this blog post.
Sincerely,
Caleb J. D. Maskell
Jonathan Edwards Center
Yale University
