Theology & Religion Subject Guide

Fred Sweet

Need research help?


Contact Fred Sweet

Theological Librarian


Fred_Sweet@cornerstone.edu
616-254-1662

Recommended Databases

  • ATLA Religion (FirstSearch)
    • A "FirstSearch" database of articles in Religion, Bible, Theology, Philosophy, Ministry, etc., from over 1550 journals, including 60 leading theology journals that provide full-text articles. Produced by the American Theological Library Association. Supports religious and theological scholarship in graduate education and faculty research. Contains thousands of citations from international titles and multi-author works in the field of religion. Includes a full range of index citations to journal articles, essays in multi-author works, and book reviews from three ATLA print indexes: Religion Index One (RIO), Religion Index Two (RIT), and Index to Book Reviews in Religion (IBRR). Spans over 50 years with selected records going back to 1818.
  • CPI
    • Christian Periodical Index is an index to articles (not full-text) from an evangelical perspective. About 150 journals and popular evangelical magazines are indexed. Some of these titles are available full-text online.
  • RTA (Religious & Theological Abstracts)
    • RTA provides abstracts from nearly 600 journals in Bible, religion and ministry, many titles of which are available either online or in-print through Miller Library. One of the greatest benefits of RTA is that it covers several journals that are not indexed in ATLA-Religion. 

Interdisciplinary Databases

  • International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences
    • A rich encyclopedia with thousands of full text articles relating to the social and behavioral Sciences.
  • Project Muse (for on-campus users)
    • Provides online, worldwide, institutional subscription access to the full-text of about 200 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. See Journal Titles list.
  • PsycINFO (CSA)
    • Includes international material selected from periodicals written in over 25 languages since 1887. Includes current chapter and book coverage with worldwide English-language material published from 1987-present. Adds over 55,000 references annually through monthly updates.
  • SocialSciAbs (FirstSearch)
    • Provides records for English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Contains a bibliographic citation for each record. Includes articles, interviews, obituaries, biographies, and book reviews.
  • Social Services Abstracts
    • CSA's database that provides bibliographic 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.

Interdisciplinary Databases

  • eBooks Michigan
    • A collection of almost 18,000 eBooks available to Michigan libraries. The state "owns" 1 copy of each book and the checkout time is 6 hours. You must create a free account before accessing the titles.
  • Humanities Abstracts (FirstSearch)
    • Abstracts covering diverse subject areas of the humanities
  • Opposing Viewpoints (InfoTrac)
    • Overviews, full-text articles, statistics, and resources on social issues. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center draws on the acclaimed social issues series published by Greenhaven Press, as well as core reference content from other Gale and Macmillan Reference USA sources to provide a complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Access viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine.
  • RefWorks
    • A personal database that allows you to download references from online databases and then formats them for use in bibliographies and research papers. You will need to create an individual account the first time you use this service. Click here for Help Using RefWorks.
  • WorldCat (FirstSearch)
    • Contains all the records cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Offers millions of bibliographic records. Includes records representing 400 languages.

Recommended Websites:

  • American religious history—Library of Congress websites on:
  1. “The Founding of the American Republic”
  2. “Early Virginia Religious Petitions"
  1. American Religious Data Archive (great source for current statistics and research)
  2. Adherents.com: membership statistics for denominations and of world religions--includes religious affiliations of US Presidents, Congress, Governors, etc.
  3. Religion Online (wide scope of full text articles): 
  4. Wabash Center (research) 
  6. Barna Research Group (marketing research on cultural trends and the Church)
  9. Witherspoon Fellowship Lectures: full-text articles from Family Research Council on social-political issues of relevance to Christians
  • Religious texts—
    1. Internet Sacred Text Archive

World Religions—

 

eJournals that focus on Theology or Religion:

To access over 100 journals that are searchable, “full-text” online, go to the “Journals List;” Browse by subject under “Religion & Philosophy;” find a journal title that interests you, then click on the database that is suggested. You may then need to enter the name of the journal or the subject you wish to search (accessible to CU students/faculty/staff only). In addition, the following journals provide free web-access (not limited to CU community):

 

 

Online Reference works:

  • Abbreviations commonly used in biblical and theological studies
  • Religion-Online: More than 4,500 articles and chapters. Topics include Old and New Testament, theology, ethics, history and sociology of religion, communication and cultural studies, pastoral care, counseling, homiletics, worship, missions, and religious education.