REL 3366: Advanced Studies in Western Religion

Background information gives you an understanding of your main concepts so that you can do your journal research more effectively. Here's how:

• search each of your main concepts individually using reference materials (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.)
• and be sure to stay on the lookout for other useful keywords for searching!

Newspaper databases are a great way to find religious controversies.

• Newsbank
• Newspaper Source Plus
• US Major Dailies

Or you can look at some "hot topics"...

• Congressional Digest
• Opposing Viewpoints in Context
• Points of View Reference Center

And use what you find to look up court cases!

• Westlaw

• Credo Reference Database (see box below)
• Encyclopedia of Religion
• Encyclopedia of Religion and War
• Encyclopedia of Religion in America
• Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America
• Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion
• Other Oxford Handbooks:
  • Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
  • Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Education
  • Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding
  • Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts
  • Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology
• And Routledge Handbooks:
  • Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide
  • Routledge Handbook of Religion, Gender, and Society
  • Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy

Reference materials are the place to go if you need factual information. Think encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri—simple, straight-forward information, presented in an easy-to-navigate format.

Credo Reference is a library database that has over 600 reference material, including encyclopedias, dictionaries.