Religious Studies

The following is a selected list of resources for research in Religious Studies. For further assistance, contact Paul Frantz, Reference Librarian, at pfrantz@uoregon.edu.

Starting Your Research

These reference sources will provide an overview of a specific topic and suggest other materials which might be useful for your research.

• Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. (1st ed. in print in Knight Reference BL 31 .E46 1986), is an authoritative set with entries covering the world's many religions. An older set, James Hasting's The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Knight Reference BL 31 .E4; 13 volumes) provides the viewpoints of a different generation.
• For further encyclopedic treatment, consult:
  • New Catholic Encyclopedia (Knight Reference BX 841 .N44)
  • Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Knight Reference BQ 128 .E62 2004)
  • Encyclopedia of Islam (Knight Reference DS 37 .E523)
  • Encyclopedia Judaica (Knight Reference DS 102.8 .E496)
• For an emphasis on religion in the United States, consult J. Gordon Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions, 6th edition (Knight Reference BL 2525 .M449 1999).
• The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (Knight Reference BL 31 .H37 1995) provides concise definitions. Useful are "Feature Articles" that summarize the world's major religions.
• Encyclopedia Britannica Concise, frequently scholarly, articles on many topics of interest to those doing work in religious studies.

Finding Articles

To look for articles in academic journals or magazines, start with a periodical index. An index will allow you to find articles by subject, by a few keywords which describe your topic, or by author.

• OneSearch allows you to search for journal articles in a number of religious studies databases simultaneously, including ATLA Religion Database and Index Islamicus.
• ATLA Religion database indexes approximately 600 religious studies periodicals and multi-author books, with coverage back to 1949. The full text of about 40 religious journals is included in the database.
• Index Islamicus is an international bibliography of publications in European languages on all aspects of Islam and the Muslim world, covering from 1906 to the present.
• Index to Jewish Periodicals is an annually published guide to articles, book reviews, feature stories, and other contents in English, appearing in more than 150 periodicals devoted to Jewish affairs. From 1988 to the present.
• JSTOR provides full text retrospective coverage of core academic journals.
• Arts and Humanities Search provides indexing to about 1500 periodicals in the humanities. Its "Citation Index" allows researchers to see which journal articles have been cited by subsequent writers.

Finding Books and Dissertations

• The University of Oregon Library Catalog identifies books and other resources owned by the UO Library.
  Books on religious studies can be found under the following call numbers:
  • BL Religion
  • BM and DS 101-151 Judaism
  • BP and DS 35-39 Islam
  • BQ Buddhism [both in the Knight and East Asian collections]
  • BR-BX Christianity
• The Summit (Orbis Cascade) Union Catalog makes available more than 27,000,000 books, videotapes, recordings, etc. from over 30 Pacific Northwest academic libraries.
• WorldCat provides access to library catalogs around the world and is most frequently used for obtaining books, manuscripts, conference proceedings, etc. through interlibrary loan.
• Dissertation Abstracts provides summary information to dissertations in all subjects from 1861 to the present.

Locating Facts and Figures

• American Religion Data Archive stores and distributes data sets from the leading studies on American religion, including many surveys.
• Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches (Knight Reference BR 513 .Y4 latest edition) is a basic statistical source for North American religion.

Contacting People and Organizations

• Directory of Religious Organizations in the United States (Knight Reference BL 2530 .U6 D57 latest edition) is a comprehensive source for contact information for virtually every religious body in this country.
• A select list of scholarly organizations in religious studies and related disciplines

Web Resources

• The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon.
• The Internet Sacred Text Archive provides a linked bibliography of complete books scanned into the archive. Both primary and secondary sources are included.
• Voice of the Shuttle is a comprehensive web site for humanities research.