Thursday, 5 September 2013

Quality Online Resources for Theological Research


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. 

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