Neele Research in Theology in the Digital Age AC Neele RESEARCH IN THEOLOGY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS

Digital text repositories in the field of theology and history, including the works of John Calvin (1509-1564), are promising tools assisting scholars with comprehensive search capabilities, collaborative projects, annotations, and editing options. This paper discusses a case study of the opportunities and limitations of online scholarly archives of primary sources concerning the works of Calvin with particular attention to research, education, and publication.1 The phenomenal increase of digital archives in the field of humanities over the last decade has been nothing short of astounding.2 However promising these digital repositories may seem, a critical assessment of their opportunities and limitations for research, education, and publication is indispensable. The Europeana project currently includes over 15 million digital sources from over 1,000 archives in the European Union (Europeana 2011), the HathiTrust Digital Library, which preserves and provide access to material scanned b