Research Tools
Style Guides
Professors in the Religion Department generally prefer Chicago or Turabian style for creating citations and organizing a research paper.
Chicago Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue)
Purdue University's online guide.
The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.)
Call Number: Reference LB2369 .C57 2003
Use it online!
The granddaddy of style guides.
The granddaddy of style guides.
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations : Chicago Style for Students and Researchers
Call Number: Reference LB2369 .T8 2007
Chicago style was designed for book publishers; Turabian re-interprets it for scholarly papers.
Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age (5th ed.)
Call Number: Reference Desk LB2369 .H33 2010
Diana Hacker's respected guide also has a handy online companion where you can quickly see citations and sample papers in APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE styles.
Writing Tools
Annotated Bibliographies
See Purdue's excellent guide to creating annotated bibliographies: lists of scholarly sources with brief descriptions.
Databases
If you're doing research in Religion and need articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, or other resources, go to these databases.
- Academic Search PremierThis general database includes full text of more than 4,600 journals in most college subjects, and indexes 4,000 others. Try narrowing your search by SUBJECT and limiting it to "Academic Journals." (See the PAS tutorial to review how to identify scholarly journals.)
- ATLA More scholarly than Academic Search Premier, the American Theological Library Association's database gives you access to more than 1,600 religion and theology journals, some full-text.
- Religious & Theological AbstractsThis database goes hand in hand with ATLA, providing the abstracts that ATLA (which gives bibliographic citations, but not article summaries) does not have.
- The Philosopher's IndexReligion and philosophy are close cousins. This respected database provides author-written abstracts of scholarly material drawn from nearly 500,000 resources (including 550 journals) going back to 1940: journal articles, books, book chapters, and book reviews.
No full text? Click "Find It" by the article to get it elsewhere, or to order it (learn more).
Books
The newest faces in our reference collection — and some old standbys, too. Want to expand your horizons? Don't forget to check bibliographies at the end of an article or encyclopedia entry to get even more recommendations.
Call Number: Reference BL31 .E46 2005 v. 1–10
Use it online!
With the aim of "introduc[ing] educated, nonspecialist readers to important ideas ... in the religious experience of humankind," this illustrated 10-volume encyclopedia is the first place to turn for religious research.
With the aim of "introduc[ing] educated, nonspecialist readers to important ideas ... in the religious experience of humankind," this illustrated 10-volume encyclopedia is the first place to turn for religious research.
Call Number: Reference BL2525 .M449 2009
A classic work that divides North America's 1,500 religions into 19 general families, with in-depth essays on each.
Call Number: Reference BL31 .M4813 2007 v. 1–4
Four illustrated volumes that emphasize religion in daily life.
Call Number: Reference BL80.2 .E495 1988
Twelve of the religions currently practiced in the world, from the well-known to the obscure, are brought to life by 35 essayists. With photos and other illustrations.
Web Resources
- CIA World Factbook: ReligionsThe U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been publishing "factbooks" — compendiums of knowledge about the world — since its inception in 1947. Starting in 2008, it offers concise descriptions of world religions' core beliefs, from Baha'i to Zoroastrianism. Also includes a breakdown of religions by country.
- Religion FactsA clean, straightforward design expresses its author's wish to present "just the facts" about the world's religions without promoting any one of them. In addition to clickable links about individual faiths, the site's so-called "Big Religion Chart" is both concise and comprehensive.
- Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and ReligionA selective, annotated guide (funded by the Lilly Endowment) to a wide variety of electronic resources of interest to those involved in the study and practice of religion.
Librarian |
 Jane Ann Nelson Links: Profile & Guides |
New Religion Titles
Lindell Library ordered these recently acquired items at the request of faculty members from the Religion department.
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