This guide was prepared to assist students performing research on topics in religion and philosophy. It suggests resources available, but it is only a representative sample -- it is by no means a comprehensive list of all that's available, either in the library or on the Internet.
You can use the Online Library Catalog to search for books, videos and DVDs, CD-ROMs, and other materials that are located in Davis Memorial Library. Use the keyword search to locate materials on a particular topic. Type the concepts you are looking for connected with the word "and." For example, if you are looking for books about twentieth century philosophy and philosophers, you could type "twentieth century" and philosoph?. The quotation marks make the computer keep those search terms together, and the question mark searches for variations of the word (in this case, singular and plural). If you don't get the results you want, stop by the reference desk or give us a call at 630-7123.
If you would like to find out what journals Davis Memorial Library owns in hard copy, a list of print titles arranged by subject is available. Browsing through print versions of journals can give you a good overview of major issues in a particular field and ideas for research paper topics.
If you are looking for journal articles on a specific topic, use the journal article databases available on the library's Electronic Resources page. Many articles are available in full-text versions, but some offer only citations. If you find an article that is citation-only, you can use the Journal Finder link to determine whether the complete article is available in a different database. Always write down or print out the full citation to an article (author, article title, journal title, volume, issue, date, and page numbers) that you are looking for or that you have cited in a paper.
Search hint: When searching for journal articles on a particular topic, conduct a more specific search than you would for books. For example, instead of searching for twentieth century and philosoph*, search for narrower topics such as these:
Academic Search
Premier
Academic Search Premier covers a wide variety of disciplines,
and contains a cross section of scholarly journals, popular magazines, and
newspapers. The database indexes over 8,200 publications, with full text for
nearly 4,650 of those titles.
Search hint: Use "and" and "or" operators (as in the examples above). Use an asterisk (*) to search for variations of a word. Select "Relevance" as the "sort by..." option if you would prefer to have your results shown in order of importance and not date.
Arts & Humanities Search
Arts & Humanities Search covers all topics in the arts and humanities. Over 1,100 journals are indexed. This database is a citation-only database(no full-text). The citations cover from 1980-present. If the Library owns the journal in a print format, the citation will say "Methodist University." To determine if the article is available in another database, use Journal Finder to check.
Project MUSE
Project Muse provides
full-text access to journals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences
journals from scholarly publishers. Articles in this database are often complex
and written in an academic style. Titles of interest include Buddhist-Christian
Studies;Journal of Early Christian Studies; Journal of Speculative Philosophyp;Journal of the History of Ideas; Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal; Modern
Judaism; Philosophy East and West; Philosophy and Literature; Philosophy and
Rhetoric; Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology; Theory and Event; and
others.
Search hints: If your search results are off-target, try changing the default on the search screen from "All Fields (w/text)" to "All Fields except text". Note than using the search box that appears on the results page only searches within the existing results. Go back to the main search page to start a new search.
RIM Online
"RIMŽ Online is a freely available database that indexes DMin and DMiss projects from reporting schools of theology accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Indexing began in 1981."
netLibrary provides access to over 25,000 ebooks and audiobooks on a variety of subjects. Users can check out these ebooks for two hours and read these items online or download them onto their own computers. These online books include searchable text and printable pages (though the whole document cannot be printed). To continue the search from above, type "twentieth century" and philosoph*. (Use an asterisk instead of a star to search for both singular and plural forms.)
Reference books
can help you develop possible topics, begin your research, and find critical
pieces of information to finish your project. Try some of the following titles
for information:
| Title | Location |
| Oxford Companion to Philosophy |
R
100 O98 2005 |
| World Philosophy : Essays-Reviews of 225
Major Works (5 volumes) -- as close as we can get to having Cliff's Notes for the major philosophical works written between the 6th century BC and 1971 |
R 100 W927 |
| Dictionary of Philosophy |
R 103 B628o 2005 |
| Encyclopedia of Philosophy (8 v.) |
R 103 E56 |
| Encyclopedia of Ethics (2 v.) |
R 170.3 E56 |
| Encyclopedia of Bioethics (5 v.) |
R 174.203 E56 1995 |
| Atlas of the World's Religions |
Atlas 200 S636a 1999 |
| Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions | R 200.3 B862 2006 |
| Encyclopedia of Religion (16 volumes) |
R 200.3 E56 1986 |
| Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion (2 v.) |
R 200.82 E56 1999 |
| New Religions : a Guide |
R 200.9034 N532 2004 |
| Contemporary American Religion (2 v.) |
R 200.973 C761 1999 |
| Religion and American Cultures |
R 200.973 R382 2003 |
| Encyclopedia of Religion in the South | R 200.975 E56 2005 |
| Anchor Bible Dictionary (6 v.) |
R 220.3 A539 1992 |
| World Christian Encyclopedia |
R 230.003 W927 2000 |
| New Catholic Encyclopedia (17 v.) |
R 282.03 N532c |
| Encyclopedia of American Religions |
R 291.0973 M528e 2003 |
| Oxford Companion to World Mythologies | R 292.13 L485o 2005 |
| Encyclopedia Judaica (15 v.) |
R 296.03 E56 |
World Scripture, an Anthology of Sacred Texts - "This collection contains over 4000 scriptural passages from 268 sacred texts and 55 oral traditions, and is organized in terms of 164 different themes. This text is the result of a five-year project involving the collaboration of an international team of 40 recognized scholars representing all the major religious traditions of the world." In other words, select a particular theme (e.g., heaven, demonic powers, eternal life), and this site will quote scriptures from the world's religions concerning it.
Religion Online - A collection of full-text articles written by religious scholars. The site currently contains over 5,700 chapters, monographs, speeches, and articles.
Bible Gateway - The Bible Gateway is an Internet site which allows users to search different translations of the Bible for verses and concepts. Includes footnotes and cross-references.
Adherents.com - "A growing collection of over 62,000 adherent statistics and religious geography citations -- references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc."
Virtual Religion Index - An annotated catalog of religion sites, covering Western and non-Western religious traditions.
Religion Resources at the Internet Public Library - Well-organized lists of high-quality Internet sites.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Contains lengthy scholarly articles which are updated frequently. Users can browse by subject or search by keyword.
Philosophy Pages - Includes a survey of the history of Western philosophy, a timeline, discussion concerning philosophical figures, and a dictionary of philosophical terms and names.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Contains in-depth articles on selected people, places, and ideas.
Philosophy Resources at the Internet Public Library - Well-organized lists of high-quality Internet sites.
EpistemeLinks - Contains over 17,500 categorized links to philosophy resources on the Internet.