Quality Online Resources for Theological
Research
Prepared by
Olugbenga
C. Oke, CLN
Systems Librarian, JC Pool Library, NBTS,
Ogbomoso, Nigeria.
Websites are categorized by subject on the
next page. Please click on the links below to view
the cluster of relevant websites:
Demography & Statistics | Biblical
Exegesis | Archaeology and Antiquities
Church History & Fathers | Encyclopedias
& General Theological Research | Sacred Music
Free E-books | Online Theses | Open Access
Journals & Databases Turabian & Writing Resources
Demography and Statistics
Association of Religion Data Archives
The Association of Religion Data Archives
(ARDA) is the largest database of religious statistics. Data includes state,
national, and global data on religious adherence, attitudes, and affiliations
with religious bodies.
Pluralism Project
The Pluralism Project was developed by Diana
L. Eck at Harvard University to study and document the growing religious
diversity of the United States, with a special view to its new immigrant
religious communities. This site offers: Images of America; On Common Ground
CD-ROM; World Religions in Boston On-line Version; Directory of Religious
Centers On-line Database; bibliographies, syllabi, links, and other
information.
World Factbook
The World Factbook provides information on
the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications,
transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. Our
Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of
the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a
Standard Time Zones of the World map.
Zip Skinny Zip Skinny U.S. Census demographic
data by zip code-very easy to use.
Biblical Exegesis
Bible Bulletin Board
Provides access to sermons and expositions of
John MacArthur, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and others. Sermon index by
Biblical books.
Biblegateway.com
The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading and
researching scripture online allowing the user to read passages in scripture
based on keywords, phrases, or scripture reference. Over 50 languages and 100
versions are represented on this site.
Blue Letter Bible
Provides Bible texts in English (8
translations), Greek (including the Septuigint), Hebrew, and Latin.
Includes the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
as well as commentaries, hymns, maps, etc.
Linked Word Project
From Bob Jones University, this ongoing
project has “every word in the Bible linked to its lexiconal meaning. Every
verb is linked to the parsing of the original language.”
New Testament Gateway
The New Testament Gateway has annotated links
on everything from the Greek New Testament to Jesus in Film. For updates, new
information, discussion, comments and assorted observations, please visit the
NT Gateway weblog.
Old Testament Gateway
The Old Testament Gateway is a comprehensive,
annotated, academic directory of internet sites on the Old Testament.
Archaeology and Antiquities
ATLA Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative
Focuses on “visual materials, including
digital images of woodcuts, photographs, slides, papyri, coins, maps, and
manuscripts.”
Dead Sea Scrolls Online
The first comprehensive online collection of
Dead Sea Scrolls. Includes the War Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk, Temple
Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, and the Great Isaiah scroll.
Internet Sacred Text Archive
This site is a freely available archive of
electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult
and esoteric topics. Large collections of American, Pacific, African, Asian,
and other traditional people's religion, spiritual practices, mythology, and
folklore and eyewitness accounts of religious practices by Western explorers.
Perseus Digital Library
A electronic resources relating to the
ancient world, comprising scholarly essays, maps, more than 15,000 images,
original language texts, translations, and philological tools. The works of
more than 40 authors are provided, including Aeschylus, Aristophanes,
Aristotle, Cicero, Homer, Horace, Livy, Ovid, Plato, Plutarch, Sophocles,
Thucydides, Vergil, and Xenophon. The library has parallel Greek-English
translations.
UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
This website provides an encyclopedia on
ancient Egyptian history and culture with peer-reviewed articles from the
world's leading Egyptologists, archaeologists, linguists, art historians,
geologists, and others.
Church History and Fathers
Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms
A survey of creeds and confessions from the
Apostles' Creed to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978).
e-Catena: Compiled Allusions to the NT in the Ante-Nicene Fathers
A compilation of catenae, from the Latin for
“chains” or “links, of Scripture cross-references by medieval scholars.
Possibly the most comprehensive catena in existence, it has 12,517
cross-references.
The Hall of Church History
Primary sources in church history until the
20th century.
Encyclopedias and General Theological
Research
Encyclopedia of Religion and Society
The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society is a
peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary encyclopedia on the intersection of religion
and society.
Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion
and Science
This Interdisciplinary Encyclopaedia is a
peer-reviewed encylopedia of Religion and Science. These articles were written
Europeans from a Catholic perspective.
Religion On-Line.org
More than 6,000 articles and chapters about
myriad topics. Topics iinclude Old and New Testament,
Theology, Ethics, History and Sociology of
Religion, Communication and Cultural Studies, Pastoral Care, Counseling,
Homiletics, Worship, Missions, and Religious Education.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)
is a dynamic, peer-reviewed encyclopedia of philosophy.
Wabash Center Internet Guide
A selective, annotated guide to a wide
variety of electronic resources of religious nature. Here one can find syllabi,
electronic texts, electronic journals, web sites, bibliographies, liturgies,
reference resources, and software.
WorldCat
The ultimate bibliographic research tool.
WorldCat links the library catalogs of over 10,000 libraries globally to search
for books by title, author, subject, etc. WorldCat is a premier resource for
discovering all available books on a particular topic.
Sacred Music
Duke University Historic American Sheet Music
A repository of American sheet music
including 3042 pieces from Duke University published in the United States
between 1850 and 1920.
Name That Hymn
A website where one can search hymns by
lyric, view lyrics for popular hymns, and listen to MIDI files of popular
hymns.
Hymn Tune Index
The HTI database contains all hymn tunes
printed anywhere in the world with English-language texts up to 1820, and their
publication history up to that date.
Net Hymnal
A Hymn site on the web, featuring over 10,000
Christ-ian hymns, Author Bios, Composer Biographies, Hymn Histories and Gos-pel
songs from ma-ny de-nom-in-a-tions.
Hymn Site An online United Methodist hymnal.
psalter, common lectionary, and supplement.
Hymnary.org
An online hymn and worship music database for
worship leaders, hymnologists, and amateur hymn lovers alike. One can search or
browse hymns by title, tune, meter, key, scripture reference, and more.
Oremus Hymnal Index of The New English
Hymnal, 1986 with MIDI files for most songs.
The Hymn Society
Founded in 1922, The Hymn Society was
formerly known as The Hymn Society of America, but the name of the organization
was changed in 1991 to The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. The
site contains information about hymn research and compiles historical facts
about hymns.
E-books
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
A broad survey of books that make up
Christian scholarly cannon, such as the 38 vol. Nicene Fathers.
Evangelical Christian Library
An online library of topical Christian life
books by well-known Christian authors, Christian fiction, and Christian
biographies.
Open Library
Open Library has over 1 million e-books that
may be 'borrowed' and read instantly online or on an Internet-capable device.
Books that still under copyright may be read online but not downloaded.
Note: The free
books labeled as 'DAISY protected' are only available to the visually impaired
who have obtained a special permit issued by the Library of Congress.
Princeton Theological Commons
Princeton Theological Commons is a digital
library of 50,022 books on theology and religion.
Many Books
Many Books has 29,000 free e-books with an
easy to navigate genre search to search by subject.
Online Theses
EthOS (Electronic Theses Online Service)
A repository of British theses.
Theses Canada-Library and Archives Canada
A repository of Canadian theses.
TREN Database
The Theological Research Exchange Network
(TREN) is the largest database of theological theses, dissertations, and
conference papers (over 18,000). This is pay-per-use database and many of the
titles are available as PDF file for a nominal fee (usually less than $5 per
title).
Research in Ministry (RIM)
Research in Ministry is a database of
doctoral dissertations abstracts from seminaries accredited by the Association
of Theological Schools (ATS). This database has dissertation abstracts (not
full records) of over 11,100 dissertations, which are searchable by ATLA
subject headings, project advisors, and school.
Open Access Journals & Databases
Best Open Access Journals in Religion
American Theological Libraries Consortium has
compiled a list of 340 open access scholarly journals in theology and allied
subjects. By clicking on the link above, one will be directed to a search
engine of these journals.
Directory of Open Access Journals
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
is the second largest online repository of open access journals. The DOAJ only
indexes journals that are peer-reviewed. The DOAJ includes 81 journals in
religion and 164 in philosophy.
Journal of Biblical Counseling
A biblically-based journal of counseling with
a focus on discipleship. Current issue free to access, there is a charge for
archived issues.
NC LIVE
NC LIVE provides access to breadth of
databases and resources in current events, history, health
information, education, and psychology. With
a public library card, students can find resources for college-level research:
encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, e-books, and electronic media.
Turabian and Writing Resources
Turabian Quick Guide
A concise website with some common examples
of materials cited in both Parenthetical Citations-
Reference List and Notes-Bibliography style .
Each example is given first in bibliography style (a note [N], followed by a
bibliographic entry [B]) and then in reference list style (a parenthetical
citation [P], followed by a reference list entry [R]).
eTurabian
This website is intended to assist one in
properly citing resources according to Kate L. Turabian "A
Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses,
and Dissertations" 7th edition, "Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association" 6th
edition and "MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers" 7th
edition. It is not intended to serve as a substitute for these manuals. Keep in
mind that your professor may have some specific requirements and the professor
is always the final authority.
Purdue Online Writing Academic Writing
This Online Writing Lab (OWL) is an established
online resource that will help one with academic writing. The OWL resources
range from rhetorical approaches for writing, to document organization, to
sentence level work, such as clarity.
