The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) is a digital library that provides free electronic copies of Christian scripture and literature texts.

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  • The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) is a digital library that provides free electronic copies of Christian scripture and literature texts. CCEL is a volunteer-based project supported by Calvin College. It was previously hosted by Wheaton college. It was founded by Harry Plantinga in 1993. Plantinga, a professor of computer science at Calvin College, is still the director of CCEL. The purpose of the CCEL is simply "to build up Christ's church and to address fundamental questions of the faith." According to their website, the doctrine that is expressed in the documents of the library sometimes conflict with those of Calvin College, where they are based. CCEL stores all their texts in Theological Markup Language format. Texts are automatically converted into other easier to read formats such as HTML or Portable Document Format . Although they use mainly Public Domain texts, they claim copyright on all their formatting. Users must login to their website to download all formatted versions of the text. CCEL is funded by advertisements, sales of cd-roms (available since 1997), sales of some books not freely downloadable, and individual gifts. Calvin College has also provided them with space, network access, and significant financial support. As of 2006, the library was recording about 200,000 page views per day and providing about 2 TB of information in a month. That's equivalent to over a million books per month. A 2002 reviewer acknowledged that while the site is "intended to be a basic online theological library." It was actually much more valuable than that, and that it "is a treasure of primary sources for anyone teaching Western Civilization or more specialized courses in medieval or Reformation history." They also specifically noted that the ability to search the music "for specific note patterns" was valuable to musicologists. As of 2005, the primary users of the library fell into three main categories. These are university professors and their students using texts from the library as required reading without running up the students bill for textbooks, people preparing sermons and bible studies, and those reading for individual edification. (en)
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  • The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) is a digital library that provides free electronic copies of Christian scripture and literature texts. (en)
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  • Christian Classics Ethereal Library (en)
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