Harvard Library Resources for Teaching Fellows in the Study of Religion

Introduction

Because Study of Religion addresses the history, practice, and theology of many different faiths, within many different cultures, this guide is not -- and could not be -- comprehensive. Rather, listed here are a number of starting points that Harvard's collections make possible, including both electronic and print resources.

This page is a work in progress. I plan to keep on adding resources and developing annotations. If you have suggestions or comments, please contact me with the information, and I will include. Please feel free, also, to refer students to me or send me questions or requests for research consultations.

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General List of Online Resources for the Study of Religion

Below is this guide's master list of online resources for the study of religion. Most are Harvard Libraries E-Resources; a few are sites of interest that are publicly available. This list includes resources in various formats (periodical indexes, subject encyclopedias, and full-text databases, for example) and of various scopes (from the very general, such as ATLA Religion Database, to the very specific, such Corpus dei Manoscritti Copti Letterari (CMCL)

You will also find on this site subsidiary lists of resources by type and subject.

If you are working on an interdisciplinary topic, there may well be other electronic resources quite useful to you that are not listed here. There are several ways to find additional electronic resources in your subject area:

  • Use the menu to link to the Find E-Resources page, and search for electronic resources by Title, Keyword, or Subject. (Religion resources are included under Arts and Humanities, as "Phiilosophy and Religion.")
  • Use the menu to link to the Quick Search page, and click on the broad subject headings to see which resources librarians suggest as good starting-points for research in various areas.
  • Consult the list Selected E-Resources by Subjects and Formats.

    • Double asterisks (**) denote resources available through the vendor EBSCO, which can be searched either individually or with other EBSCO databases.

    **ATLA Religion Database with ATLA Serials: This database is the primary electronic resource for finding periodical articles in religion. ATLA Religion Database indexes journal articles, essays, and book reviews and strives to cover all religions and all theological points of view. There are links from cited articles in more than 50 journals to page images of the articles themselves, and the full-text of other articles is accessible through the Find It At Harvard function. For most articles prior to 1949, see print indexes.

    **Academic Search Premier: Academic Search Premier (ASP) is a multi-disciplinary database that includes citations and abstracts from over 4,500 scholarly publications (journals, magazines and newspapers). Full text is available for more than 3,500 of the publications and is searchable. Most complete coverage begins in the 1990s. Limit search to scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals to omit popular magazines and newspapers.)

    Acta Sanctorum: The Acta Sanctorum Database is an electronic collection of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, organized according to each saint's feast day; the source text for the database is the text of the sixty-eight printed volumes of Acta Sanctorum published in Antwerp and Brussels by the Société des Bollandistes, from 1643 to 1940. Although the text is primarily in Latin, the database has an English-language search engine and English-language help.

    Adherents:Public Resource. Self-described as "a growing collection of over 43,870 adherent statistics and religious geography citations: references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc."

    African-American Biographical Database: The African American Biographical Database (AABD) brings together biographical sketches assembled from biographical dictionaries and obituary files, slave narrative collections, internet sites, etc., covering the period 1790-1950. The Profile Search makes it possible to find individuals by religion and other variables such as name, place of birth, date of birth, date of death, occupation, and gender.

    Alan Godlas' Islamic Studies Web Site: Public Resource. A comprehensive site on Islam, nominated for a Webby award in the category of Spirituality in 2002.

    America: History and Life: America: History and Life is the primary bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present, covering over 2,000 journals published worldwide. Coverage begins in 1964. Includes cultural history.

    American Religion Data Archive: Includes statistics such as number of churches and chyurch nmembership, religion professionals, and religious groups. Users can create maps at state and national levels, by selecting categories; and reports of congregations and mamberships at national, state, and county levels.

    Analecta Hymnica: Originally published from 1886 to 1922 in 55 volumes by Guido Maria Dreves, the series provides the most extensive collection and history of medieval Latin hymns of the Catholic Church, 500-1400.

    Andover-Harvard Library Reference Guides: Useful tutorials, including advice on searching for books and for articles on particular Biblical passages. See, for example, Andover-Harvard Library Guide: Religious Statistics: Reference Books and Other Resources.

    L'Année Philologique: L'Année Philologique is an international annual index to research on all aspects of Greco-Roman antiquity, from prehistory to 800 AD. (Using L'Année Philologique is somewhat complicated; see a guide from Davidson College here.)

    Anthropology Plus: Anthropology Plus is a joint interface for searching Anthropological Literature and Anthropological Index, each of which is individually accessible from the Harvard Libraries Portal. Both indexes cover the top several tiers of anthropology journals, so many duplicate records will be retrieved. Each index uses different indexing terms, however, so duplicate records will each provide different links to related articles.

    ARSTOR: ARTstor is a growing database that now holds some 300,000 digital images and accompanying scholarly information, including many images drawn from Harvard collections. ARTSTOR Resources in Religion suggests some collections and approaches to use when searching for religion-related images.

    Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science): A&HI, the Science Citation Index, and the Social Sciences Citation Index jointly constitute the resource Web of Science; the three indexes may be searched separately or in any grouping. A&HI is a multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities, including journals in religion, philosophy, Asian studies, and Medieval and Renaissance studies. Because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (often called its bibliography), you can also search the database for articles that cite a known author or work. Most of the journals indexed by A&HI are also covered by other indexes, but some are not; and other indexes do not provide cited reference lists.

    Asia Resources on the World Wide Web: Public Resource. From the Association for Asian Studies, compiled by Dr. Ray Lum, Harvard College Library, a meta-site of links to web resources on: China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, accessing material such as video, journals, newspapers, dictionaries, libraries, and art.

    Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library: Public Resource. Another global resource to web sites and research in Asian Studies, with links to resources on regions and countries.

    Bar-Ilan University Online Responsa Project: The Responsa is a full-text database of 100,000 rabbinical responsa relating to various aspects of Jewish law, including Tthe Bible and its principal commentaries, the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, Midrashim, the Zohar, Maimonides, the Shulchan Aruch and many other resources. In Hebrew.

    Bible Gateway: This resource includes the text of the NIV (New International Version), the RSV (Revised Standard Version), the KJV (King James Version), Darby (translated by J.N. Darby), YLT (Young's Literal Translation), Elberfelder (German), SV1917 (Swedish), the Latin Vulgate, LSG (French), and the RVA (Spanish) Bibles and selections from a Tagalog translation.

    Bible in English (Lion) (990-1970): Twenty different versions of the English Bible from the tenth to the twentieth century, including 12 full Bibles, 5 New Testament texts, 2 versions of the Gospels only, and William Tyndale's translations of the Pentateuch, Jonah, and the New Testament.

    Biblical Archaeological Society Online Archive: This archive offers browsing and searching access to rowse and search access to Biblical Archaeology Review, BR (Bible Review), Archaeology Odyssey, and proceedings of symposia sponsored by them: Ancient Israel (1999), Aspects of Monotheism (1996), Feminist Approaches to the Bible (1995), The Rise of Ancient Israel (1996), and The Search for Jesus (1994).

    Bibliography of Asian Studies: Contains over 519,000 records on all subjects (primarily in the humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, South, and Southeast Asia. Citations are drawn from the 100 most important Western-language journals in Asian studies. Coverage from 1971.

    Bibliotheca Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevii Digitalis: This resources provides access to the standard works of Medieval Latin prosopography (i.e., collective biography) in page-image/facsimile format. Among titles available are Casimirus Oudinus: "Commentarius de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis" (Leipzig, 1722); Iohannes Trithemius: "Catalogus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum" (Zagreb, 1531); and Fabricius: "Bibliotheca Latina mediae et infimae aetatis" (Florentiae, 1858).

    British Periodicals: Harvard's access to British Periodicals Collection I consists of more than 160 journals that comprise the UMI microfilm collection Early British Periodicals. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences. Includes journals on the subjects of Protestantism, Religious Thought, Catholic Church, Christian Ethics, Christian Life, Church of England, and Jews. Harvard also holds many of these journals in print form.

    **Catholic Periodical and Literature Index: The database includes indexed citations to articles published in Roman Catholic periodicals, papal documents, church promulgations, and books about the Catholic faith that are authored by Catholics and/or produced by Catholic publishers. Coverage from 1981.

    Christian Periodical Index: Provides access to English-language articles and reviews from an evangelical perspective, including more than 120 publications, most from 1979 to the present. Representative of the major doctrinal positions within evangelical Christianity.

    Columbia University Libraries Middle East and Jewish Studies Guide : A compilation of electronic bibliographic resources and research materials on the Middle East and North Africa, organized by region, country and subject.

    Corpus dei Manoscritti Copti Letterari: Database for the study of Egyptian Christian culture from the 1st to 12th century ACE and in particular, the study of Coptic literature. Includes information partly in English and partly in Italian, on Coptic texts, grammar, the history of Coptic literature, catalogues of manuscripts, and a comprehensive bibliography for Coptic studies.

    Digital Dictionary of Buddhism: Dictionary of Buddhist terms from a range of languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan. Definitions given in English.

    Digital Karl Barth Library: Database of the works of Swiss theologian Karl Barth, 1886-1968, including critical editions of his German works ("Gesamtausgabe") and the 14-volume "Kirchliche Dogmatik" or "Church Dogmatics."

    Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts: This resource includes digital facsimiles and searchable texts of works by Protestant Christian reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries, including Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Tyndale, Melanchthon, Beza, Bucer, Bullinger, Chemnitz, Episcopius, Oecolampadius, Cranmer, Menno Simons, Arminius, and many others. There are some supplementary translations into English.

    Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation: This collection comprises over 1,500 primary works from the 16th and 17th centuries, including the key catechisms, scholarly treatises, papal documents, devotional works, and theological volumes that sparked reform from within the Catholic Church.

    Digizeitschriften: DigiZeitschriften provides page images and increasing full text of periodicals in Economics, English Languages, Geology, History, Law, Librarianship, Literature, Philology, the Sciences, and Sociology. Includes Archiv fur Liturgiewissenschaft, 1950-2000; Jahrbuch fur Liturgiewissenschaft, 1921-1982; Theologische Rundschau, 1898-2001; Zeitschrift fur Theologie und Kirche, 1891-2001.

    Encyclopaedia Judaica: This digital version of the print resource covers all aspects of Jewish history and culture in the Diaspora and in Israel, from ancient times to the present.

    Encyclopaedia of Islam: The standard reference work in Islamic Studies. The online resources provides access to the main Volumes I-XI of the English print edition; the Index of Subjects to Volumes I-XI and to the Supplement, Fascicles 1-6; the Index of Proper Names to Volumes I-X & to the Supplement, Fascicles 1-6; and to the Supplement to Fascicle 7-8.

    Encyclopedia of Life Sciences: A database of full-text articles in the biological sciences. Includes articles on bioethics.

    Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an: English language encyclopedia covering all aspects of the Qur’an, including qur’anic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis as well as essays on important themes and subjects within qur’anic studies.

    Europa Sacra: This database covers Church prelates during the Middle ages, including information on all 1300 medieval bishoprics, archdioceses and patriarchates and prosopographical information on 18,507 bishops, archbishops and patriarchs.

    Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Hewlett Library: Research Tutorials Online provides clear information in a simple format, suggesting print resources that provide overviews in particular subject areas. “Links to Other Sites” may also be useful.

    Hartford Institute for Religion Research Guides: Public Resource.

    Harvard College Library: Provides quick links to very useful information, such as HCL Research Guides, HCL Library Contacts and Liaisons, library hours, forms for ordering books, and locations of specialized study spaces.

    Harvard College Library Research Guides: Current to current and past courses, general research areas, and particular formats. Definitely worth exploring.

    Harvard College Library Liaisons: Lists Harvard College Library librarians with expertise in particular areas. You may contact these people to arrange an in-depth consultation that focuses on your subject of interest.

    Index Islamicus: A bibliography of publications in European languages on all aspects of Islam and the Muslim world, from 1906 to the present. Index Islamicus provides access to over 2,000 journals and series. It also covers conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works, and book reviews.

    **Index to Jewish Periodicals: This database provides a guide to English-language articles, book reviews, and feature stories in more than 160 journals devoted to Jewish affairs, dating back to 1988.

    Inter Libros: Research Guide for Classic and Medieval Studies: Guide compiled by Widener Research Librarian Michael Hemment.

    Islam in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa: The bibliography contains several thousand references to secondary literature in European languages about Islam in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, published between 1960 to 2005.

    International Medieval Bibliography: The IMB is a comprehensive, current bibliography of journal articles, essay collections and conference proceedings covering various disciplines, including Theology and Philosophy, concerned with topics in the period 400 to 1500 AD in the geographic area including Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

    JSTOR (Journal Storage): JSTOR comprises the full text of more than 500 academic journals in a wide range of disciplines. The resource allows browsing by issue and full-text searching of individual titles, by discipline(s) or the entire collection. Each title is included from its inception. For titles that are currently published, the last 1-7 years (varies) are not available. In JSTOR, see Tips and More Tips for examples of sophisticated full-text searching techniques. Also note: by choosing JSTOR Advanced Search, you may limit your search to articles in a particular subset of journals, such as those in JSTOR Asian Studies, JSTOR Jewish Studies, JSTOR Middle East Studies, and JSTOR Religion.

    Lettres Pontificales: Searchable registers of papal letters from the 13th- and 14th-century popes, based on Registres et lettres des Papes du XIIIe siècle (32 vols.; Rome, 1883- ) and Registres et lettres des Papes du XIVe siècle (48 vols.; Rome, 1899- ).

    Lexis-Nexis Polls and Surveys:

    Lexis-Nexis Statistical: A bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts the statistical content of selected United States government publications, state government publications, business and association publications, and intergovernmental publications.

    Luthers Werke: Electronic version of the Weimar Edition, which, regarded as a monumental work in the field of theology and the German language, was first published in 1883 and includes 112 volumes in 117 sections.

    Medieval Sources: Medieval Sources contains hundreds of original medieval history documents, in collections compiled for the teaching and study of history. Of particular interest may be the collections Christian dualist heresies in the Byzantine world, c.650-c.1450; The Jews in Western Europe 1400-1600; and Catholic England.

    MENALIB: Public Resource. The Middle East Virtual Library is an information portal for Middle East and Islamic Studies. It provides access to online information and to digital records of printed and other offline media.

    MENIC: Public Resource. The Middle East Network Information Center, a service of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, is a treasure trove of resources, with thousands of links to Web-based Middle Eastern materials. One of its most notable features is the ability to browse Web resources by country of interest.

    **MLA International Bibliography: Consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore, and includes coverage from 1926 to the present, providing access to articles in over 3,000 journals and series, as well as monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats.

    Monumenta Germaniae Historica: The MGH was founded in 1819; this database provides full search access to the over 300 volumes in the major series, the Scriptores, Leges, Diplomata, Epistolae and Antiquitates, and 33 sub-series,

    **New Testament Abstracts: NTA is a guide to literature about the New Testament and its historical milieu, abstracting articles from over 500 international periodicals and summarizing current books. Coverage is from 1985.

    North American Jewish Data Bank: Public Resource. The Data Bank archives and makes available electronically questionnaires, reports and data files from the National Jewish Population Surveys (NJPS) of 1971, 1990 and 2000-01; provides access to other national Jewish population reports, including the American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS) and the Survey of Heritage and Religious Identification (HARI), 2002.

    **Old Testament Abstracts: OTA indexes and abstracts journal articles, monographs, multi-author works, and software related to Old Testament studies, with coverage from 1978.

    Oxford Reference Online: Religion and Philosophy: This resources provides the full text of the following dictionaries, encyclopedias and guides, which can be searched individually or collectively:

  • A Dictionary of the Bible
  • The Oxford Companion to the Bible
  • The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible
  • A Dictionary of Buddhism
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
  • The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Islam
  • A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
  • The Oxford Companion to Philosophy
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Popes
  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
  • The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions

    • PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service): PAIS International indexes public policy literature, with emphasis on contemporary issues and the making and evaluating of public policy. International in scope, PAIS indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. PAIS Archive covers 1915-1976; PAIS International covers from 1976. A source for articles on religion and politics.

    Past Masters: Provides full-text electronic editions of works by major philosophical figures, in both original language and in English translation. Includes works by theologians Anselm of Canterbury, Aquinas, Augustine, Calvin, Chesterton, Francis of Assisi, Kierkegaard, Knox, Luther, Newman, Ockham.

    Patrologia Latina: The database is an electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina, covering the works of Church Fathers from 200 CE to 1216.
    Although the text is primarily in Latin, the database has an English language search engine and help.

    Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Public Resource. Has goal “ to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs by delivering timely, impartial information to national opinion leaders, without taking positions on policy debates.” Functions as “both a clearinghouse, gathering and disseminating information, and as a town hall, providing a neutral venue for discussion.”

    Philosopher’s Index: The major indexing source for scholarly research in philosophy, Philosopher’s Index contains over 213,000 bibliographic citations with author abstracts and covers major articles from anthologies and books written in English, Spanish, German, Italian, and French, as well as articles published since 1940 in more than 480 journals from 38 countries. Includes philosophy of religion.

    Portals to the World: Public Resource. Links to electronic resources from around the world selected by Library of Congress subject experts. Categorized by country; for which countries, provides links to religion-related country-specific information.

    Project Muse: Provides access to the full text of 200+ scholarly university-press journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. Individual titles offered by Project Muse are listed separately in the Harvard Libraries Portal. To view a complete list of Project Muse's offerings, point your browser to the Project Muse Catalog of Database Holdings.

    RAMBI: The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies: A selective bibliography of articles in the various fields of Jewish studies, compiled from thousands of periodicals and from collections of articles - in Hebrew, Yiddish, and European languages- mainly from the holdings of the Jewish National and University Library. 1966-present

    Research in Middle Eastern Studies: Guide compiled by Research Services’ Liaison for Middle Eastern Studies Cheryl LaGuardia, providing a starting point for research in Middle Eastern Studies.

    Research in Ministry Online: Maintained by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), RIM indexes DMin and DMiss projects from reporting schools of theology accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Indexing began in 1981.

    Roper Center for Public Opinion: : Provides access to summary-level and micro-level public opinion data, focusing strongly on United States but with growing European, Latin American, and Japanese data. Data archive (micro-level data) is searchable by keyword, date, and survey organization. The Roper Center resources require users to set up individual accounts in order to gain access to the data.

    Scriptores Codicum Medii Aevi and Scriptores Possessoresque Codicum Medii Aevi: These integrated databases provides access to more than 30,000 names of writers of medieval manuscripts and more than 15,000 names of owners of medieval manuscripts. The information on each scribe or owner of a manuscript includes: name; short biographical data with city of origin and birth and death dates (as available); libraries holding manuscript(s); and short references to secondary literature.

    Sociological Abstracts: Sociological Abstracts is a scholarly resource for researchers, professionals, and students in sociology, social planning/policy, and related disciplines. It includes citations and abstracts from over 1800 journals, plus relevant dissertation listings, abstracts of association papers and selected books, and citations of book reviews and other media. Includes sociology of religion.

    Tibetan Buddhist Research Center Digital Library: TBRC consists of The Digital Library, an image repository, and The Knowledge Base, a searchable access point to the Digital Library, also containing information about individuals' kin, teachers and students; information about important social, political and religious institutions; information about Places, and the interrelationship between Places; and detailed catalogs of large collections. Texts are browsable by tradition or category; they may be searched via the Knowledge Base. Some works also have searchable detailed outlines. Please note that not all texts discovable through the Knowledge Base are available online. For texts not available online in the Core Collections, please contact TBRC directly

    Vetus Latina: The database is a compilation of Latin biblical texts from the 2d to 4th centuries CE.

    Wheaton University Center for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE): Public Resource. “Research Helps” provides many links to websites related to evangelical churches and institutions. See, especially, the “Links to Evangelical Denominations,” which provides specific denominational designations.

    Yale University Library General Religion Guide : Public Resource. Provides pointers to print and microform collections, online databases, and Internet resources for conducting research in religion. Though these guides are based on Yale collections, Internet links may be useful.

     

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    Online Resources by Type

    Biographical Information

    Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

    Electronic Book Text Collections

    Electronic Journal Text Collections

    Electronic Image Collections

    Indexes to Periodicals, etc.

    Library Research Guides

    Statistical and Data Resources

     

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    Online Resources by Subject

    Asian Studies (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism)

    Christianity (including Catholicism, Protestantism, and other designations)

    Cultural and Political Contexts

    Ethics and Bioethics

    Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

    Islam and the Middle East

    Judaism

    Selected Print Resources: Subject Encyclopedias

    For anyone beginning research, gaining a sense of the context can be extraordinarily helpful: How are some of the terms used in the writings on the topic defined? What are the most important aspects of the topic? What are major works on the topic? Many excellent subject encyclopedias are now available online; but the majority are still in print. A selection of these -- and a few other references volumes -- appears below.