Verbum empowers you to search for keywords within specially tagged theological topic sections with ease.
The Lexham Survey of Theology
The Lexham Survey of Theology (LST) provides a brief introduction to the major topics of systematic theology. The 234 topics addressed are grouped into eight categories including the Trinity, Scripture and Revelation, the Works of God, Humanity, Christ, the Holy Spirit and Salvation, the Church, and the Last Things.
Each topic features a definition, an article-length description of the topic, key biblical passages discussing that topic, a list of recommended resources, and links to related concepts.
Search the Lexham Systematic Theology Ontology (LSTO)
Verbum has annotated spans within hundreds of systematic theologies to correspond with the 234 topics discussed in the LST, and it has done so with the LSTO. The important benefit of annotating spans is that you can search within these annotated spans.
For example, if you want to find references to wine within your systematic theologies, you can search for the term "wine" within the LSTO section on the Sacraments using the search: wine IN LSTO:"The Church’s Sacraments".
Note: As with all power-user searches, the operators are case-sensitive and need to be typed as you see here.
The example above has limited the results to hits within a user-generated collection, but you can also accomplish this with an All or Books search.
Note: This search will only reveal the words you enter, not their synonyms, but you can add additional operators to your search to find multiple terms. Add more terms to the first half of the search, to have Verbum look for multiple terms: bread OR cup IN LSTO:"The Church’s Sacraments".
You can also run searches like this in the Bible(s) of your choice.
This searches the text of the Key Verses flagged for each topic within the LST. Since your theologies will likely use theological terminology, you may not be able to run the exact same search in your theologies and Bibles, but the mechanics are the same.
Note: You can use all the available query syntax options to search the LSTO. Even if you’re not a power user, you can use Search Templates to build your query.
Verbum continues to annotate additional resources, making this search richer and more powerful every time. If you’d like to suggest systematic theologies that should be prioritized for future inclusion in the LSTO, consider joining Faithlife's LST group.