The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in religions and related topics. As religion and religious studies cross many subject areas and can be defined in many ways, this site is focused on research topics offered in CSUSM courses. For further assistance, contact Judith Downie, Humanities Librarian.

Books

To search for books, you need to use the library catalog for either keyword or subject searches. Depending on how much time you have, there are additional options beyond our holdings within Kellogg Library.

Books at Cal State San Marcos

Library Catalog
Search our local collection of about 250,000 books. Some possible subject headings and subdivisions are listed here. Note Religion can be both main subject and a subdivision of another topic.

• Religion (general topics, history and philosophy)
• Philosophy And Religion (focused on a specific application of philosophy)
• Religion -- Africa (geographic subdivision)
• Religion and Literature
• Religion -- Indians Of Mexico
• Religion And Mythology -- Navajo Indians
• Religion And State (Religion and secular studies)
• Religion -- Aztecs
• Religion --Blake, William, 1757-1827 (Religious beliefs or writings of a particular person)
• Offenses against religion
• Religion In The Public Schools
• Religion -- Philosophy
• Religion -- United States -- Statistics
• Religions -- Dictionaries (general information about religions)
• Religions -- History (history of religions, may be specific religions or religious thought in general)
• Theology -- Bible
• Theologians -- Germany (Religious thinkers, geographic subject heading)
• Catholic Church  (example of a specific religious organization as subject heading)
• Graham, Billy, 1918-  (individual either as subject or author, note the last name, first name order)
• Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint (saint's name has the honorific placed last as in Teresa, Mother, 1910-)
• Koran -- Commentaries  (Analytical writings on a specific religious work)
   

Other Options

Some examples of related areas of study are ethics, applied ethics, aesthetics, philosophy, theology, logic, and metaphysics. The following are titles found in our Reference Collection which can help you get started:

Encyclopedia of Religion (Eliade, ed.) REF BL31 .E46 1987
American Religious Creeds REF  BL427 .E52 1991
New Catholic Encyclopedia  REF BX841 .N44 2003
Encyclopaedia Judaica  REF DS102.8 .E496 
Harper Collins Dictionary of Religions REF BL31 .H37 1995 
Dictionary of Theology  REF BR95 .R313 1990 
Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen REF BL1005 .L4813 1989
Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America  REF BL2525 .M4 1992
Historical Dictionary of Hinduism  REF BL1105 .S85 1997 
Islam and Islamic Groups: A Worldwide Reference Guide REF BP10 .I73 1992 
Historical Dictionary of Buddhism  REF BQ130 .P74 1993 

Related Works

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia  REF BS440 .I6 1956 
Encyclopedia of Philosophy REF B41 .E5 1972
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy REF B 51 .R68 1998
Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics REF BJ63 .E44 1998
Encyclopedia of Ethics REF BJ63 .E45 2001
 

Browse the Book Stacks
Sometimes, just looking through the shelves can turn up works you would not have considered otherwise. Using the Library of Congress subject system, Religion is generally shelved in the BL call number area with other related fields in BM-BX. The Library of Congress provides a detailed online list of the subclasses in these areas so you can see how this is organized. Religion and related topics can be found primarily in the following call number areas:

BL -- General Religions, including history
BM -- Judaism
BP -- Islam
BQ -- Buddhism
BR -- Christianity
BS -- The Bible
BT -- Doctrinal Theology
BV -- Practical Theology
BX -- Christian Denominations

Circuit (1-3 day delivery)
Search the collections of other San Diego area libraries -- about 3,000,000 books. Find and request books directly online; pick them up at our Library in 1-3 days.

WorldCat (5-10 day delivery)
Search the collections of libraries world-wide -- about 52,000,000 books. Find a book in this database, and fill-out an Interlibrary Loan delivery request. Book will be delivered to Library for pickup.

Special Collections in Other Libraries

You may find a catalog entry or finding list online that tells you that an item or collection exists, but it may not have been digitized and if rare or fragile will be held 'Special Collections'. This means you might not be able to borrow the materials, but have to visit the collection for access. To locate archive and manuscript collections, use NUCMC (National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.)

Journal Articles

To look for articles in journals, you will need to start with a research database. The following databases provide abstracts of articles from thousands of journals and other sources, often providing full-text. You can also browse a list of electronic journals for religion available through our catalog.

Some databases do not offer full text of the articles. Use the button to check our other resources for full text.

JSTOR
Contains complete full-text back files (EXCEPT for the latest five years) of core scholarly journals in such areas as sociology, history, economics, political science, mathematics, African-American studies, Asian studies and others.

Muse (AKA Project Muse)
Full-text coverage for hundreds of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Brief entries on key philosophical and religious persons and concepts.

Academic Search Premier
Our most popular database. Covers a wide array of subjects with full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals, including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles.

Historical Abstracts
Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present.

America: History & Life
Abstracts of journal articles covering American & Canadian history, from pre-history to the present.

Listservs and Forums

• Christian Forums: Non-Christian Religions
• ephilosopher: Philosophy of Religion
• Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
• Interfaith Forums: Comparative Religion
• Others are available at L-Soft Listserv list, just search on the word 'Religion' or other desired topic

E-Texts

• Christian Classics Etheral Library
• Duke Papyrus Archive
• Internet Sacred Texts Archive
• Beliefnet: Sacred Texts
• Internet Public Library: Sacred and Other Religious Texts
• Religious Studies Web Guide: Electronic Texts (hosted at University of Calgary)
• Sacred Texts (documents in support of religious freedom)

Internet

As religion is a very personal topic, not all sites will reflect a unity of opinion or dogma.

• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
• Voice of the Shuttle: Religious Studies Page (individuals, movements, sub-areas and much more)
• Intute: Arts & Humanities: Religion and Theology (portal to a number of religion sites)
• BibleTab.com (concordance to twelve versions of the Bible)
• DOAJ: Philosophy and Religion (open-access scholarly journals, not all materials are available in full-text)
• Gnosis Archive
• Al-Islam.org (Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project)
• Internet History Sourcebooks (Fordham University, offers not only by time period, but pages for Islam, Jewish and other specific sub-topics)
• National Study of Youth and Religion (Center for the Study of Religion at Notre Dame)
• Religous Tolerance attempts to present information on all religions, including those not considered 'mainstream'

Tutorials and Help

Resources for the Study of Religion
Good overview although the site refers to sources available at Yale and not necessarily CSUSM.

Bible Reference Tools Tutorial
From Yale Divinity Library

Style Guides
Examples of how to cite common sources from CSUSM.

Diana Hacker's Research and Documentation Online
Comprehensive and easy to navigate for APA, MLA, Chicago and CSA citation formats

Is it Scholarly?
A guide to the features of scholarly publication.