Reference Resources
Dictionaries and encyclopedias are the best place to start your research as they provide:
- an overview of a subject
- introduce basic concepts
- summarize key issues
- define terms
- cite sources that can lead a researcher to additional information.
These resources listed below may be shelved in the Reference section on Wilson 4, in the Main Stacks on Wilson 1, or available online as ebooks.
There are multiple resources on various religious traditions, but to get started, the best general encyclopedia for the study of religions is:
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Reference Resources
Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period by Call Number: REF BM50 D525 1996, 2 vols.ISBN: 0028972929Publication Date: 1995
Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture by Call Number: ebook & BM50 C26 2011ISBN: 9781316153611Publication Date: 2011
Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity by Call Number: ebook & REF BR66.5 D5813 2014, 3 vols.ISBN: 9780830829439Publication Date: 2014
Online Religious Studies Reference Collections
- Oxford Reference Online: ReligionContains twenty encyclopedias and other reference works, including many of the resources that were in the discontinued Oxford Biblical Studies Online.
- Oxford Handbooks Online: ReligionEach handbook takes an aspect of its discipline, explains the key issues, the classic and contemporary debates on those issues, and describes how those debates might evolve. The handbooks offer authoritative and trustworthy guides to the scholarship that defines the field.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Biblical StudiesOxford Bibliographies Online are authoritative, scholar-developed research guides. They combine features of an annotated bibliography and a subject encyclopedia, guiding researchers to the best available scholarship on the topic.
- Routledge Handbooks Online: ReligionIncludes handbooks on a variety of topics related to religioius studies, from veiling to early Christian art to the occult to animal ethics.
- Blackwell Companions to...There are 50 titles in this Companion series, including: Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Paul, Christian Ethics, and Practical Theology.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library: ReligionSelect the "Religion" subject link on the left to view resources including the Encyclopedias of Religion; Judaica; Buddhism; African Religions; and Islam and the Muslim World.
- Religion CompassPeer-reviewed surveys of current research in the major disciplines and sub-disciplines in religious studies, including new religions, ancient near eastern religions and east asian traditions.
- New PaulyCovers more than 2,000 years of Greco-Roman history, ranging from the second millennium BCE to early medieval Europe.