Tutorial 2: Start Here

Orientation Aids, Reader's Guide, Sources sneak peek, Colyer Categories 

1. Orientation Aids

Start here tabClick the Start Here tab to view assorted orientation aids on the website.  These resources are designed to bring a scholar who is relatively new to the Torrance tradition rapidly up to speed.

2. Reader's Guide

Read the description for the "Reader's Guide," by Elmer Colyer, and click the link.

Examine the intro page for the Reader's Guide, and scan the table of contents.

Reader's Guide, contents

Go to the section on "The Christological and Soteriological Center," either by browsing through successive pages or directly by clicking the link.

3. Sources sneak peek

Scan the page "The Christological and Soteriological Center."  You will see that links to the Sources bibliography are prevalent. 

Find the section where Colyer recommends The Mediation of Christ:

Reader's Guide, link to Mediation of Christ

The numbers after each line (called "McGrath numbers") are links to view the corresponding record in the Sources bibliography.  Before clicking anywhere...

  • Gaze at this list. Do you see dates within the McGrath numbers signifying two different editions of The Mediation of Christ?
  • Tip: Chapters are entered in the Sources bibliography for the first edition in which they occur. With that in mind, can you guess which chapter was added to the second edition of the book?
  • Now explore any of these links, as you wish. In doing so, you will leave the Reader's Guide to go to the Sources bibliography...
    • Click the "1992-TFT-4" link. When you click this link, you have moved to the Sources bibliography for the whole book, in the 1992 second edition. 
      • We'll come back and take a closer look at the layout of Sources records later. For now, just look in the center column, or Main Content area, for the "Publication Life Cycle / Notes" field. Does the "Publication Life Cycle" field confirm the addition of a new chapter in this edition?  
      • If one reads a footnote of some publication that references a page number in the 1983 edition, will that page reference also be correct in referring to the 1992 edition?
      • Explore the many records for The Mediation of Christ. 
        • How do they vary in edition and format? (Hint: note the fields in the left sidebar.) 
        • Use the back button in your browser as needed, but feel free to explore other means of navigation.  (Hint: Check out the links in the right sidebar for "Related Sources.")
    • Chapters: Remember that chapters are not given separate records for every edition; they are analyzed into separate records only for the first edition in which they occur. 
      • Go to Chapter 1.  When you click this link, you're on a chapter record from the first edition of 1983.
      • Go to Chapter 5. When you click this link, you're on a chapter record from the 1992 edition.
        • How do these chapter records compare with the book record?
        • Do any fields on these chapter records convey extra information, in addition to basic citation data? How might these fields prove useful for teaching or research?

Note on terminology: On the Sources record for the 1983 edition, do you see the "Data Entry" field in the left sidebar? An Analyzed book is one for which separate records exist for its chapters. Use the "Contained by" and "Contains" links to move back and forth between records for an analyzed book and its chapters. As mentioned above, chapters are only analyzed for the first edition in which they appear, not for later editions. To go to chapter records from a later edition of a book, click the link under "Original Publication" (in the Items Link block of the right sidebar). The analyzed book will be the original publication.

Again, we'll come back and look in more detail at the Sources bibliography later. For now, the point is that hyperlinking between the Sources bibliography and the Reader's Guide is one of the chief benefits of reading the Reader's Guide online. The utility of the Reader's Guide is not only for beginners!

Development note: The records for The Mediation of Christ (in all formats and editions) have been cleaned up since import. Text cleanup is the #1 development priority for 2019. Until this is completed, other records may appear deficient in comparison, and the site remains in beta. 

4. Colyer Categories

  • Return to the Reader's Guide using the Colyer Category link on any of the Sources records:
    1. Find the Colyer Category field, then click the blue link for "2. The Christological and Soteriological Center."
      Reader's Guide, Colyer Categories links
    2. You will be taken to an index listing every occurrence of this Colyer Category across the entire website. At the top of the Index is a quick link to "Go to the Reader's Guide." Click that link to return directly to section 2, The Christological and Soteriological Center. Scroll down the Reader's Guide page to find the Colyer Categories field.  

Right now, the Colyer Category links do very little. But stay tuned: in the near future, clicking on any Colyer Category link will link you to pages across the website, whether Member Profiles or records in the Sources or Studies bibliographies:

  • When you see a Colyer Category on a Sources bibliography page, it means that the Source is discussed in the Reader's Guide. Click the category to go directly to the place in the Reader's Guide where Colyer discusses that Source.
  • When you see a Colyer Category on a Studies bibliography page, it means that the author of that Study has tagged it with the category because the Sources she or he interacts with in the Study are listed by Colyer on that page in the Reader's Guide. At present only authors tag their Study records with Colyer Categories. 
  • Colyer Categories on Member Profiles may help you identify scholars with shared interests as your own.
    • Ask Me: In addition to the Colyer Category, look on any given Profile for a description in the Ask Me field of any interests on which that member has stated they would welcome inquiries from other members.  The contents of the Ask Me field might relate to a work-in-progress where a member would welcome input, or it might be an area in which a member has published, or where they would be happy to respond to inquiries from other scholars. Think of this Ask Me field, in combination with other profile information (e.g., Colyer Categories, Periods Studied), as an opportunity for members to be of mutual service to one another as a geographically distributed community of scholars.  Example of a profile with an Ask Me field: KVM (remember to log-in first to view profiles).

Development note: Why is the website described in the header as being in "beta"? 
Answer: The Colyer Categories field, although present now, will not be very functional until text cleanup is accomplished. We hope to finish text cleanup in the first half of 2019. The Colyer Categories and other fields, like Genre Type, will then become powerful tools, implemented in conjunction with Advanced Searching. Text cleanup in the Sources bibliography is our number one priority after website development passes a threshold of minimum functionality. See the "Developmental Roadmap." 

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