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Studying Religion and Media

Research tools for RELI 14 / HDS 2043

Scholarship in Religious Studies

Here are some starting points for finding scholarly material on the study of religion. For more resources try the Introduction to Religion guide.

Find Overviews & Introductions

Encyclopedia of Religion
Short introductory essays on almost all topics of religion.

Oxford Very Short Introductions
A series of short books giving the development of and important issues within a subject area. Included in this series are:

Vocabulary for the Study of Religion
Relatively brief but detailed essays giving definition and context for terms relating to religious studies. Articles also contain a bibliography.

Cambridge Companions Online
The Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture are a series of books with in-depth exploration of religious figures or subjects, such as American Islam or Christian Doctrine.

Cambridge Histories
Includes books on religious histories of geographic areas as well as religions as a whole.

Find Scholarly Articles

Many-in-one search (from Andover-Harvard Theological LIbrary)
Search across several major databases in religious studies simultaneously: Academic Search Premier, ATLA Religion Database, Catholic Periodical and Literature Index, Bibliography of Asian Studies, Christian Periodical Index, Index Islamicus, Index to Jewish Periodicals, New Testament Abstracts, Old Testament Abstracts, and Philosopher's Index.

ATLA Religion Database
The main database for all religious traditions; main coverage back to 1949.

Religious and Theological Abstracts
Database of scholarly literature, particularly as religion intersects with other fields, such as sociology, psychology, criminology, urban studies, education, anthropology, etc. Coverage starts in 1958.

World Religion Database
A good source of statistics for religions.

Find journal articles for a religion in a specific culture or geographic region

Bibliography of Asian Studies
Contains journal articles on topics in the humanities and social sciences related to East, Southeast, and South Asia. Coverage 1971-present.

Africa-Wide: NIPAD
Covers all topics in African studies, including religion. Coverage: 19th-century to present.

Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI)
Index to articles covering Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic population. Coverage: 1970-present.