Religious Studies Reference Materials
A Guide to Resources at SJSU's King Library
General Religion | Asian Religions | Christianity | Islam | Judaism | Special Topics
Reference sources--encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.--are a valuable resource for students. Reference sources are one way to acquire general background knowledge in a subject area. This knowledge may help you identify an appropriate topic for a research paper. The background knowledge gained from reference sources may also help you narrow a topic that is too broad. Religious studies dictionaries are useful when negotiating unfamiliar, specialized terminology in the course of your research.
These web pages list specialized reference sources in religious studies. Some non-reference materials--introductory monographs and primary sources--are included as well. This page (the home page) lists general reference sources in religious studies. Other pages (see the links above) list reference sources focusing on specific religions. The "Special Topics" page organizes reference sources thematically, e.g., "religion and ethics," "religion and politics," "mythology," etc. Many reference sources are available online through library databases.
Electronic Resources (Reference) | Dictionaries | Encyclopedias | Handbooks | Atlases | Primary Sources | Research and Writing Guides | Indexes
Bowker, John, ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. [http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/views/BOOK_SEARCH.html?book=t101]
The Hutchinson Dictionary of World Religions. Abingdon [U.K.]: Helicon Publishing Limited, 2005. [Net Library http://www.netlibrary.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/]
Hinnells, John R., ed. A New Dictionary of Religions, Rev. Ed. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL31 .P48 1995]
Jordan, Michael. Dictionary of Gods & Goddesses. NY: Facts on File, 2004. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL 473 .J67 2004
The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford [UK]: Oxford University Press, 1997. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL 31 .O94x 1997]
Smith, Jonathan Z., ed. The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1995. [King 6th Floor BL 31 .H37 1995]
Doniger, Wendy, consulting ed. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1999. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL31 .M47 1999]
Eliade, Mircea, editor in chief. The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1987. [King folio 8th Floor BL31 .E46 1987]
Ellwood, Robert S. & Gregory D. Alles, eds. The Encyclopedia of World Religions. New York: Facts on File, 1998. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL80.2 .E497 1998]
Jones, Lindsay, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 15 vols. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL 31 .E46 2005]
Melton, J. Gordon & Martin Baumann, eds. Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 4 Vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL80.3 .R45 2002]
Eliade, Mircea. The Eliade Guide to World Religions. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL80.2 .E415 1991]
Farrington, Karen. Historical Atlas of Religions. New York: Checkmark Books, 2002. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL80.6 .F37 2002x]
Smart, Ninian, ed. Atlas of the World's Religions. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL 80.2 .A85x 1999]
Primary Sources: Anthologies of Religious Scriptures
Ballou, Robert O., ed. The Bible of the World. New York: The Viking Press, 1939. [King 6th Floor BL70 .B5]
Dye, James W. & William H. Forthman, compilers. Religions of the World; Selected Readings. New York, Appleton Century Crofts, 1967. [King 6th Floor BL29 .D9]
Gaer, Joseph. The Wisdom of the Living Religions. New York: Dodd, Mead,1956. [King Reference 2nd Floor BL 29 .G27]
Miller, John & Aaron Kenedi, eds. God's Breath: Sacred Scriptures of the World. New York: Marlowe & Co., 1999. [King Nonfiction 3rd Floor 291.82 God's]
Pye, Michael. Comparative Religion; An Introduction through Source Materials. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. [King 6th Floor BL29 .P9 1972b]
Barber, Cyril J. & Robert M. Krauss, Jr. An Introduction to Theological Research: A Guide for College and Seminary Students. 2nd. ed. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000. [King Reference 2nd Floor BR 118 .B28 2000]
Thomas, R. Murray. Theses and Dissertations: A Guide to Planning, Research, and Writing. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2000. [King Reference 2nd Floor LB 2369 T458 2000]
[Other books are available in the stacks: Quality Research Papers: for Students of Religion and Theology... by Nancy Jean Vyhmeister (King 6th Floor BL 41 .V94 2001); Research Techniques for Scholars and Students in Religion and Theology by Dennis C. Tucker (King 6th Floor BL 41 .T83 2000); Library Research Guide to Religion and Theology by James R. Kennedy, Jr. (King 6th Floor BL 41 .K45) and Writing Research Papers: a Norton Guide by Melissa Walker (King 7th Floor LB 2369 .W25 1997). See also Citing & Writing.]
Indexes allow you find out if anything has been published in journals, magazines, etc. about a specific topic and get a precise reference to date and pages. They may include abstracts (summaries) of each item; online indexes may include full text of some articles.
The main indexes for religious studies topics in the SJSU Library are listed below. Electronic versions of many indexes are now available on the Internet. For most of these, off-campus access is restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff through the proxy password. To access these databases online, go to Articles & Databases; choose "A-Z Titles." If you want to know where (or if) articles from a specific journal are available online, see our Electronic Journals (SJSU) page.
Primary Indexes and Abstracts for Religious Studies
[For online access to the indexes listed below, go to the SJSU Library's Articles & Databases page.]
Religion & Philosophy Collection
Full text of about 300 journals (80% peer-reviewed) covering topics such as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. Some journals are covered as far back as 1975. For broader interdisciplinary topics you can combine a search in this database with a search in the database Academic Search Premier, of which this is a subset. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Humanities Full Text
Includes religion and theology. Dates covered: 2/84 to present. Full-text coverage begins in January 1995. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Humanities Index 1974- (King Reference 2nd Floor AI 3 .H8x)
The print predecessor to Humanities Full Text, it gives citations only. For articles published 1965-74, use the Social Sciences & Humanities Index (1st Floor Indexes AI 3 .R4)
Religion Index One. Periodicals 1977-2003. (King Reference 2nd Floor BL 1 .A5x)
The primary source to articles on all aspects of religion. It covers both scholarly journals and magazines for the general reader. Like most indexes, it allows you to search by subject and by author. A unique feature is the "Scripture Index" (covering the Bible only).
Religion Index Two. Multi-Author Works 1970-1999. (King Reference 2nd Floor BL 1 .A53x)
This indexes not periodicals, but books that are collections of article-length works by different authors--such as collections of essays or conference proceedings.
Other Useful Specialized Indexes
Bibliography of Asian Studies
Contains an extensive listing of books, pamphlets and periodical articles on different aspects of Asian life and culture, including 35,000+ on "Philosophy and Religion." Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
PubMed (incorporating Bioethicsline)
Covers the legal, public policy, and ethical issues surrounding health care and biomedical research. Topics include euthanasia and other end-of-life issues, organ donation and transplantation, allocation of health care resources, new reproductive technologies, genetic intervention, abortion, AIDS, human and animal experimentation. Includes references to journal articles, monographs, analytics (chapters in monographs), newspaper articles, court decisions, bills, laws, audiovisual materials, and unpublished documents.
ERIC
The primary index for education and related fields, this source is very useful for education at all levels. It indexes journal articles and other documents, such as papers given at conferences, reports of professional organizations and government bodies, etc.
Handbook of Latin American Studies
A free bibliography on Latin America consisting of works selected and annotated by scholars. The multidisciplinary Handbook alternates annually between the social sciences and the humanities. Each year, more than 130 academics from around the world choose over 5,000 references for inclusion in the Handbook.
JSTOR
Electronic archive containing older (at least 2-5 years) issues of core scholarly journals; has good coverage of religion. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Philosopher's Index
Provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields from 1940 to present. It covers the areas of ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysic logic as well as material on the philosophy of religion. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
PsycInfo
PsycInfo covers psychology and related areas, with an emphasis on research literature. Indexes journal articles (1967-present), dissertations, conference proceedings and book chapters (1987-present). Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Social Sciences Full Text
Indexes and abstracts articles from English-language periodicals plus the full text of selected periodicals. Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of social sciences journals. Abstracting coverage begins with periodicals published in January 1994. Full text coverage begins in January 1995. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Social Services Abstracts
Coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,600 serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews. 1980-present. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Sociological Abstracts
Provides access to the world's literature in sociology, social work and related disciplines. Includes abstracts of journal articles selected from over 2000 journals, abstracts of converence papers, relevant dissertations, book reviews, and selected sociology books since 1963. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
General Databases with Religious Studies Coverage
Academic Search Premier
Full text for more than 4,650 publications, including more than 3,600 peer-reviewed journals. PDF backfiles to 1975 are available for over 100 journals. Designed specifically for academic institutions. The majority of full text titles are available as searchable PDFs, and some are scanned in color. This scholarly collection offers information in nearly every area of academic study. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU or SJPL cardholders.
Expanded Academic ASAP (InfoTrac)
Some religion periodicals, as well as many general-interest periodicals that cover religion, appear in this index, which covers about 2600 general interest magazines and basic scholarly journals since about 1980. Many of the articles are available in full-text, both in ASCII text, HTML, and PDF formats, and sometimes include images. Includes such titles as Christian Century, Christianity Today, Church and State, First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, The Journal of Religion, Middle East Quarterly, Sociology of Religion, and Tikkun. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU or SJPL cardholders.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. A rich collection of articles, editorials, columns, reviews, etc. provide a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
LEXIS/NEXIS Academic Universe
This huge database includes the full text of articles from a wide variety of magazines, newspapers and wire services. It covers many general magazines and major newspapers with religion coverage. It is updated very quickly, usually within a day, and you can print out or download the complete text of articles. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Readers' Guide Full Text
An interdisciplinary database containing comprehensive indexing and abstracting of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada, plus the full text of selected periodicals. It is a comprehensive index to popular literature, covering all subjects and general news. Full-text coverage begins in January 1994 for most titles. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
America's Newspapers: California
A good source for information on local religious groups and events. Complete text of articles from the San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and other California newspapers, back to the mid-1980s. Off-campus access restricted to SJSU students, faculty and staff.
Religious Studies Reference Materials is based on Edith Crowe's Library Research in Comparative Religious Studies web page. Religious Studies Reference Materials was created by Randall Studstill. Please send any suggestions or recommendations regarding the content of this site to randallsjsu(at)baymoon.com. Updated May 26, 2008.