Reference Works / Finding Books / Finding Articles / Finding Journals / Web Sites / Contact Julie

Reference Works
Reference works can be found on the second (main) floor (though a few are available online) and are an excellent place to begin your research. Some provide quick facts while others contain scholarly overviews. In addition to the ones listed below, browse the nearby shelves. Books in this library are grouped by subject, so you are likely to find other useful books in the same area.

General information and historical background:

• Encyclopedia of Christianity. 4 vols. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1999. (Ref BR95 .E8913 1999)
• The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church. 3 vols. Minneapolis: Augsberg Publishing House, 1965. (Ref BX8007 .B6)
• The Encyclopedia of Protestantism. 4 vols. New York, Routledge, 2004. (Ref BX4811.3 .E53 2004)
• Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols. New York: Macmillan, 2005. (Ref BL31 .E46 2005)
• The New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. 15 vols. Detroit: Gale, 2002. (Ref BX841 .N22 2002)
• The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. (Ref BR95 .O8 1997)

Religion in America:

• Contemporary American Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1999. (Ref BL2525 .C65 1999)
• The Encyclopedia of American Religions: Religious Creeds. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. (Ref BT990 .E58 1988)
• Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience. 3 vols. New York: Scriber, 1988. (Ref BL2525 .E53 1988)
• Religion and American Cultures. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2003. (Ref BL2525 .R448 2003
  

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Finding articles

Academic Search Premier
Searches both general magazines and scholarly journals on a wide variety of topics. Some are full text; others are merely citations to things that have been published. One way to limit a search is to check the "scholarly (peer reviewed) journals" box to exclude popular magazines from your search.

ATLA
The American Theological Library Association designed this database to support religious and theological scholarship. It contains citations to journal articles, essays in multi-author works, book reviews, and Doctor of Ministry projects. Includes some full text articles.

New Testament Abstracts
The database contains more than 38,000 article abstracts, 1,200 review abstracts, 13,500 book abstracts, and 50 software abstracts in New Testament studies. Approximately 800 current books are also summarized annually. Article coverage in the database dates back to 1985.

Old Testament Abstracts
Content from over 450 journals is covered in Old Testament studies. All abstracts are in English, regardless of the language of the original work. Topics covered include antiquities, archaeology, biblical theology, philology and much more. Coverage in the database dates back to 1978.

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Finding Journals

• Journal Locator: Find out if we subscribe to a particular journal, either online or in print
• Interlibrary Loan: If the journal is not available in print or full text at Gustavus, you may request copies of articles through Interlibrary Loan.

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Web Sites

The Web offers a number of good religion sites - and some that are decidedly flaky. Some are scholarly, some are devotional, and some are a combination. Just be attentive to where the site came from, what purpose it serves and, when in doubt, verify information in another source. (See How to Evaluate Web Sources.)

General/denominational information:

• Hartford Institute for Religion Research
  Go to Organizations on the menu at the left to find links to official denominational homepages. Research Areas also provides links to research and groups linked to particular issues (i.e. women and religion).
• Wabash Center Internet Guide to Religion
  This site contains links not only to information about different religions but also provides links to online journals, magazines/newsletters and a variety of subjects.
• Yale University Divinity School Library - Research Guide for Christianity
  This guide has links to general sites on Christianity, links to sites on specific denominations and links to topics pertaining to Christianity.

Bible and commentary online:

• Oremus (easy to use with search features that provide side-by-side comparisons of texts)
• The Five Gospel Parallels (very useful and clear side-by-side comparison of translations)
• Crosswalk (a commercial site that combines devotional and scholarly material with ads)
• ECanon (an online concordance and search engine)

Reference works online:

• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000, 2002.
• The Oxford Guide to People and Places in the Bible. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996, 2002.

Selective web directories:

• Biblical Studies (from the Journal of Biblical Studies)
• New Testament Gateway (Mark Goodacre, Duke University)
• Sites of Interest (from the Society of Biblical Literature)
• Virtual Religion Index (part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library)

Theology/Doctrine:

• Creeds of Christendom
  Lists creeds and confessions of faith.
  

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Contacting Julie

I'm more than happy to meet with you during the rest of the semester to discuss your research or answer any questions you may have about the library. Please email me: jgilber2@gustavus.edu or call me: x7552.

I also encourage you to visit the Reference Desk to talk to any of our librarians during this or any semester about your research and library questions.

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