This list is comprised of the best religion and theology databases available freely online or through Garrett and Northwestern. The latter will require active login credentials. Check out the Recommended Databases section to see some of the best options.
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Recommended Databases
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These databases are some of the best for research in theology and religious studies.
This online collection created by the American Theological Library Association indexes journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion and theology.
This is an essential reference resource for scholars of global hymnody, with information on the hymns of many countries and languages, and a strong emphasis on the historical as well as the contemporary. You must log in to fully access this site. Email for the login information.
Originating in 1996, the Internet Archive contains a wealth of online resources. In recent years, it has begun scanning books and allowing folks to borrow those. You will need a free account to utilize all that this resource has to offer.
Some volumes of The Anchor Bible commentaries are in this collection in addition to various other commentaries.
With thousands of original articles and blogs, unique book reviews, and preaching tips, Ministry Matters offers practical inspiration for preachers, teachers, and Christian leaders.
This is the list of religion databases that are available through Northwestern. This list includes some items from the Styberg religion databases as well as other interesting ones.
25+ reference titles covering diverse topics in religion, including:
The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Islamic Philosophy
A Dictionary of Buddhism
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
A Dictionary of Atheism
A Dictionary of Popes (3 ed.)
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
Dictionary Plus Religion
A Dictionary of Hinduism
The Oxford Dictionary of Islam
A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
The Oxford Companion to the Bible
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (5 rev. ed.)
The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (2 ed.)
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible
The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global (PQDT Global) simplifies searching for dissertations and theses via a single access point to explore an extensive, trusted collection of 3.8 million graduate works, with 1.7 million in full text.
All free, open-access theses and dissertations will now be a part of the full ProQuest dissertations and theses database. This includes all dissertations that were published open access through ProQuest and are available freely online.
Research in Ministry® (RIM®) indexes and abstracts projects and theses from over 100 Doctor of Ministry (DMin), Doctor of Missiology (DMiss) and Doctor of Educational Ministry (DEdMin) programs accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).
The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle of weekly lections, used to varying degrees by the vast majority of mainline Protestant churches in Canada and the United States, built around the seasons of the Church Year.
The WCD provides comprehensive statistical information on world religions, Christian denominations, and people groups. Extensive data are available on over 9,000 Christian denominations, as well as data on people, cities, and countries.
New Resources
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These resources are new additions to the religion and theology databases.
The Art in the Christian Tradition (ACT) database is a regularly updated visual image internet resource. Designed for scholars, students, pastors, and religious educators, all of the images may be used for non-commercial purposes, with attribution.
"BASE is one of the world's most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 300 million documents. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free."
The China Historical Christian Database (CHCD) quantifies and visualizes the place of Christianity in modern China (1550-1950). It provides users the tools to discover where every Christian church, school, hospital, orphanage, publishing house, and the like were located in China, and it documents who worked inside those buildings, both foreign and Chinese. Collectively, this information creates spatial maps and generates relational networks that reveal where, when, and how Western ideas, technologies, and practices entered China. Simultaneously, it uncovers how and through whom Chinese ideas, technologies, and practices were conveyed to the West.
Alternate Name(s)
The DRH is designed to serve as a centralized clearinghouse for scholarly knowledge of the historical record, bringing together a core of quantified, standardized data with qualitative comments.
Ingenta contains thousands of free articles. Use this database to discover many free periodicals online. Make sure to select "All Free" from the Show options.
"JURN is a unique search tool, helping you to find free academic articles and books. JURN harnesses all the power of Google, but focusses your search through a hand-crafted and curated index."
Created by OCLC, OAIster is an open access database that contains books, articles, archival files, movies, datasets, and more. All are freely available with a single click.
"RefSeek is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than five billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers."
The St Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology is a nascent online, free-to-access encyclopaedia of the highest academic standards, treating the full discipline of Theology with rigor and clarity.
The Syriac Reference Portal is a digital project for the study of Syriac literature, culture, and history. Today, a number of heritage communities around the world have linguistic, religious or cultural identities with roots in Syriac language and culture. Syriaca.org exists to document and preserve these Syriac cultural heritages.
"Since 2003, The Free Library has offered free, full-text versions of classic literary works from hundreds of celebrated authors, whose biographies, images, and famous quotations can also be found on the site. Recently, The Free Library has been expanded to include a massive collection of periodicals."
