Ryan Jessup: Christopher Love, The Christians Combat
Matt Querns: (1) John Downame, The Christian Warfare, Part 4; (2)Richard Baker, A testimony to the power of God being greater than the power of Satan
Jon Rogers: (1) William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour; (2)William Bennit, The work and mercy of God conduceing to his praise
Shiv Singh: Joihn Collinges, Defensative armour, against four of Sathan's most fiery darts
Michael Wee
I. Sections and information within each Section
II. Notes
III. Miscellaneous points on note-taking
IV. Files
I. Sections and Information within each Section:
1. Current Date
2. Bibliographical information
· Author's last name, first name
· Title
· Place, Date
· STC number (preceded by stc e.g. stcA4111), reel number (preceded by r, e.g. r1011)
· PDF file name (preceded by PDF: e.g. PDF: downcw1.pdf)
· Dates of other editions, notes about difference in later or earlier editions (e.g. if a later edition is enlarged or corrected)
· Number of pages
3. Biography of author
· information gathered from the text (not outside sources)
· for clerical treatises and sermons - keep it brief, include intellectual, religious, political affiliations; stand on polemica/political issues
· for autobiographies, provide the above if known, but mainly provide stages (and key dates) of life and spiritual experiences
4. Summary of the whole work
After finishing a text, write a summary of no more than a paragraph, clarifying the author's purpose and argument. Sentence fragments and abbreviations are fine.
5. Summary of the points I am most interested in
Again, this should be about a paragraph. For clerical treatises, summarize depiction of the devil, world, and flesh (including the relationship between the Pauline language of "spirit" and "flesh" with classical faculty psychology language of "reason" "will" "passions" and so forth). Compare with Downame's treatment of the above, etc. For autobiographies, all of the above, but also try to get a sense of the internal dynamic of the individuals' spiritual experience in its own right.
6. Table of Contents
Reproduce the Parts, Sections, Chapters, and Sections, complete with titles and page numbers You'll have to use judgment here. Sometimes chapters or sections number are very small and number in the hundreds. In that case, simply list larger sections and make note of any chapters or sections crucial to the devil, world, and flesh.
7. The notes themselves
Place all notes under the appropriate chapters and sections. (The easiest way to do this is, after copying the Table of Contents, simply copy and paste a second Table of Contents and insert notes as you go.)
II. Notes
Types of notes:
(1) descriptive notes: these are notes that describe the author's points and perspectives -- most notes will be of this type, and it is the default assumption (you need not signal that it is this type of note)
(2) interpretive notes: these are notes expressing your analysis and interpretation: periodically you will need to rise above the author's points and perspective and interpret sections and passages; you may want to offer your interpretation, for example, of a particularly difficult section that is not obvious or you may want to note inconsistencies or the author's logic or lack of logic; if a section or passage is confusing, then indicate that it is confusing; the signal for this type of note is your initials (e.g. FL - note that the author says contradictory things here-the spirit is reason and the spirit is not reason)
Descriptive notes: what to note:
For the descriptive notes, I am interested in two general things:
(1) the purpose, argument (if applicable), and logic of the work, even if the main purpose, argument, and logic have little or nothing to do with my particular interests
(2) my particular areas of interests: temptations of the devil world, and flesh. Keep at least short summary notes of #1, even if the main purpose, argument, and logic of the work has little to do with #2, my interests. For #2, my interests, usually you will take detailed notes.
My particular areas of interest (I will be more detailed in discussions with you):
1.For treatises and sermons of practical divinity
(1) treatment of the threat of the devil, world and flesh (or "corruption" or "lust") - main interest is in temptations, though note any treatment of the devil, world, and flesh
(2) similarities and differences between the author's treatment of the devil, world, and flesh and John Downame's treatment of the devil, world, and flesh; or particular interest is the definition of the flesh and the relationship between classical faculty psychology (conflicts between faculties of reason, passions, will, conscience, etc.) and Pauline psychology (conflict between spirit and flesh)
2. For autobiographies, diaries, and journals
(1) patterns in spiritual and psychological struggles of the individual, the internal dynamic
(2) any description of the threat of the devil, world, and flesh or of temptations
(3) similarities and differences between treatment of devil, world, and flesh/temptations and Downame's model
3. For all: despair and security (note Downame's treatment of these 'opposite' spiritual conditions)
(1) in general, is the condition of the godly defined in terms of a struggle with the question of whether you are saved (and sometimes doubting or losing hope) or in terms of assurance that one is saved?
(2) temptations to despair (loss of hope in salvation, usually tied to predestination) - is despair associated with godliness or with ungodliness/worldliness?
(3) 'security': references to 'carnal' or 'worldly' security? References to godly security (or 'assurance')?
III. Miscellaneous points on note-taking:
Quotations and paraphrase: When the author's arguments seem routine, simply paraphrase the arguments; when the arguments seem crucial (especially when they touch on themes of my particular interests), then quote - always include page numbers for quotes (including page breaks - e.g. if a quote runs from page 3 to 4, it looks like this: "Tom saw /4 Spot run." 3-4)
Language and spelling: When quoting, make sure that everything is accurate, including the original spelling. If paraphrasing, sentence fragments and obvious abbreviations are fine. If you encounter foreign words or symbols that need to be noted, then indicate it. E.g. "Remember the words of the oracle [Greek words]"
IV. Files
This is the most recent of my systems. If you look at some of my past files in the course of your research, they may not conform to these rules. (Even notes from the recent past will not follow each one of these rules.)
Keep notes in a Word file, but keep the format as close to "simple text" (ascii text) as possible. The notes will be copied and pasted in a variety of programs, some of which do not support Word formatting. So minimize the use of special fonts (e.g. italics, bold), tabs and indentations, centering text, bullets, and so forth. Keep the margins uniform (flat right) rather than indenting material. To separate material into divisions and categories, use extra line spaces.
I like to keep the file names under eight characters. (At one time, some software programs did not accept filenames under eight characters; not only did I get in the habit of using fewer than eight characters, but also there may be programs that still ask for fewer than eight characters.) The file name should be the last name of the author (or some part of the author's last name), followed by the first letter or two (or three) of the name of the title. E.g. giffpd.doc for George Gifford's Practical Divinity. If there are multiple volumes or parts, the filename should reflect this. E.g. downcw1.doc for John Downame's Christian Warfare, part 1.