Religion 2312: Religion & Science

1. Background Sources: Bibliographies, Definitions, Contexts

These books are located in the Reference collection near the Information Commons Help Desk. Though overviews, they often give useful background information and sometimes provide bibliographies to high-quality sources.

Encyclopedia of Religion (16 vols.)   REF  BL31 .E46 1987

This major set is the most comprehensive academic encyclopedia in this field.

Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution   REF Q 125 E53 2000

History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia   REF BL 245 H57

Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science   REF Q 127 A5 E53 1996

Oxford Dictionary of Islam   REF BP 40 O95 2003

Encyclopaedia of Islam   REF DS 37 E523

Concise Encyclopedia of Islam  REF BP 40 G42 1989

Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend   REF BL 1105 D35 2002

Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism   REF BL 1105 K56 1998

Historical Dictionary of Hinduism   REF BL 1105 S85 1977

Harper's Dictionary of Hinduism   REF BL 1105 S77

Concise Encyclopedia of Buddhism   REF BQ 128 P69 2000

Historical Dictionary of Buddhism   REF BQ 130 P74 1993

Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen   REF BQ 130 L492513 1991

2. Books: Search Examples for QUEST

Note that some course topics may require the researcher to look for books on broader subjects and then use the tables of contents and indexes to narrow in on a particular topic.

Here are examples of subject searches that may be useful for this class; these are entered on the Basic Search screen with "subject" highlighted in the "Find Results in:" box.

Evolution--religious aspects (and note further subheadings for particular religions)
Religion and science
Hinduism and science (or substitute Buddhism or Islam)
Medicine--religious aspects
Koran (use instead of Qur'an)
Vedas
Science--history (lots of titles; keyword search "science and history and india" and similar searches are probably better)
Consciousness; Consciousness--religious aspects
 

You may have better success using keyword searching to combine concepts (the following examples assume you are using the Quest keyword searching screen with "all of these terms" as your search mode):

Chinese medicine
consciousness india
neuroscience religious
astronomy astrology
scientific revolution

3. Periodical Databases

Access these electronic reference tools via the library's Databases web page. Many of the articles will have the full text available online; if not, check the Journals link on the library's home page and search for your title to see if it is available in another database or in the library's print collection. Note that our library can get books or copies of articles from other libraries when not owned locally; see our Interlibrary Loan site.

ATLA Religion Database

This is the most comprehensive index for religious subjects.  It offers both scholarly and popular titles in religion from 1949-present, including books as well as journal articles.

Humanities Abstracts

Bibliography of Asian Studies

Religion and Philosophy Collection

Philosopher's Index

PsycINFO

May be useful for cross-cultural studies of consciousness, neuroscience, etc.

Prepared by Christopher Nolan
Last updated September 2003