Religious Studies
Starting point contains definitions, facts, figures and overviews
- Dictionaries help you to define your keywords
- Encyclopedias help you to get an overview of your topic and provide more information
than a dictionary
- Handbooks and manuals provide figures and facts
| Encyclopedia of religion | This resource which is a second edition presents a cross-cultural approach that emphasizes religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture. |
| Encyclopedia of new religious movements | Explores the development of new religious movements as a global phenomenon. |
Use the catalogue
to search for more dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks
You can search the Library Catalogue to find books, DVDs, journals and other materials
If you know the exact title in the New catalogue
- At the search screen select a Title search
- Type in the exact title. You can use double quotes around phrases, for example, “room with a view”
- Link to online material or take note of the collection, call number and status to find items in the Library
If you are searching for a topic in the New catalogue
- Type in keywords from your topic to find catalogue records that contain all of your keywords
For example,
+catholic +school
- Use + before a word to indicate that the word must be included
- Another way of doing this is to combine keywords with AND (the AND must be in upper case)
- If a keyword search gives you too many results, you could add another keyword with +
For example, +catholic +school +child
Truncation is generally not needed as entering any version of a word will retrieve many variations.
More information
- For more information select the catalogue Help button
Databases and journal articles for Religous Studies
Use databases to search for journal articles, book chapters, conference papers or
research reports
|
Databases |
Notes |
Help |
| Religion & philosophy collection | Provides citations and abstracts for articles from nearly 250 journals covering world religions, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. Many records include the full text of the cited article. | Help and tips are available from the Religion & philosophy collectionsearch screen and the EbscoHost Database Guide |
| Oxford Islamic studies online | Features reference content including Qur'anic materials, and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture. | Help is available from the search screen |
Complete list of Religion databases. Also check the multidisciplinary databases as they cover a wide range of academic topics. You can select other subjects from the database subject list
Full text not available?
When the full text is not available, search for the journal title in the Library
catalogue to discover if print or online copies are available
Database search tips
- Define your topic and identify the main concepts involved
For example religion AND women
- Make a list of keywords for each concept
For example
religion, religious, faith, creed
women, woman, female, females
- Think about how you can combine these keywords in your search using OR, AND or
NOT
Keywords on the same concept combine with an OR
Combine different concepts with an AND
For example
relig* OR faith OR creed
and
wom*n OR female*
- Appropriate truncation symbols can be used in databases to find variations of
a word, for example relig* finds religion, religions, religious, and so on
For help with searching databases see Connecting and Combining Search Terms or Truncation/Wildcards/Phrase searching: Basic or Online training or Ask the Library
It is important to critically evaluate all information you find particularly
information found on the web.
This is a starting list of internet sites. You may want to do your own searches
using
search engines
- BUBL: Religious studies Includes a broad range of topics related to various religions.
- Intute - Religion and Theology Provides links to internet resources about religion and theology which have been specifically selected and evaluated for use by lecturers, researchers and students in higher and further education institutions.
- Australian Association for Religious Education Promotes cooperation & understanding among educators in schools and universities working in the field of religion; and supports the teaching of religious studies and the development of religious education in schools and universities.
- Christian Research Association Christian Research Association was formed in 1985 to provide up-to-date and reliable information about religious faith and church life in Australia.
- Hindu Council of Australia The Hindu Council of Australia was set up as an umbrella organisation for the purpose of bringing together various Hindu Associations. It thereby aims to be a unified voice for all Australian Hindus, living in the multicultural community of Australia, irrespective of their caste or country of origin.
- BuddhaNets World Buddhist Directory of contact information on Buddhist Orgaisations/Centers and Temples. Also links to sites all over the world.
- Adelaide College of Divinity An ecumenical consortium of Christian colleges working together to provide theological education at their campus in Brooklyn Park, South Australia.
- Adelaide Theological Library Adelaide Theological Library shares the online catalogue of Flinders University Library. Card catalogue access at the theological library is available for older sections of the collection.
- Catholic Resource and Information Service Supports the mission of parishes, schools and other Church Agencies. Membership is open to all and is free for all individual Catholics, Catholic Schools and parishes.
For further information about any of these resources please contact the
Ask the Library service or ask at the library desk
Coordinated by: EASS ALS team