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- James Gulick, Reference Librarian and Bibliographer (HC)
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Religion 002 : Religion in America (SC)
For assistance with your research contact James Gulick. Office in Magill Library Haverford College. jgulick@haverford.edu 896-1170.
NOTE: For Jewish topics consult Judaism in America guide.
Background Sources:
The encyclopedia of American religions.
Publisher: Wilmington, N.C. : McGrath Pub. Co., c1978-
Has entries on over 2500 different religious groups. Note the survey articles at the start of the work which will help you to contextualize your group into the bigger picture of American religion. These articles end with useful bibliographies.
American decades.
Publisher: Detroit : Gale Research, c1994-<c2001>
Each volume covers a decade in the twentieth century. All of the volumes are arranged the same. Each volume has a chapter on Religion. The arrangement of each chapter is: A Timeline listing important developments in the area under discussion; a short overview of the topic; short entries on developments in the area with one or two suggested secondary sources; a Headline Makers section which has short entries on significant individuals; and a Publications section which is an annotated bibliography of significant primary sources related to the topic. At the end of the book there is a bibliography called General References which lists suggested scholarly readings for the various topical chapters. You might also check the index to see where your person, event, or topic is discussed.
The religious right
Publisher: Millerton, NY : Grey House Pub., c2007.
An example of the many specialized reference materials that are available.
Finding Books:
WorldCat
Provider: OCLC
A catalog of the holdings of books, journals, and other materials held by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) member libraries. Includes manuscripts, maps, films and sound recordings. Covers works published before 1,000 BC-present.
Interlibrary Loan and E-ZBorrow - Request items that are not available in Tripod on this page. Note that PALCI E-Z Borrow provides books in 3 to 5 days. For books not in E-Z Borrow, request though Interlibrary Loan (ILL). It may take up to 10 days for requests to arrive. For journal articles not in Tripod, request through Article Delivery.
Indexes:
ATLA religion database + ATLAS
Provider: EBSCO
Provides online access to the entire core collection of more than fifty significant scholarly journals in the field of religion. Also provides citation information for journal articles, book reviews and essays for over 600 journals in the fields of religion and theology. Covers 1949-present.
America, history and life
Provider: EBSCO
Provides abstracts of journals, reviews and dissertations on United States and Canadian history from prehistory to the present. Covers 1954-present.
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.
Biographical Sources:
American national biography
Provides biographical portraits of more than 17,400 men and women. No living person is included.
Religious leaders of America
Publisher: Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1999.
Profiles religious figures whose impact has occurred since 1865. The appendix sorts the biographies by their religious affiliation.
Specific Religions Traditions:
There have been histories written of almost every religious group. If the material is not available in the TRI-CO you will have to use WorldCat to obtain it.
Architecture:
Houses of God
Publisher: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997.
Houses of God looks at how Americans shape their places of worship into multifaceted reflections of their culture, beliefs, and times. Peter Williams divides the nation into seven distinctive regions and traces the historical development of and geographic influences on religious building in each. It is a deeply interdisciplinary study in which Williams examines the influences of immigration and internal population movements; landscape and stylistic changes in architecture; and "secular," liturgical, and theological influences.
When Church became theatre
Publisher: Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2002.
"For nearly eighteen centuries, two fundamental spatial plans dominated Christian architecture: the basilica and tbe central plan. In the 1880s, however, profound socioeconomic and technological changes in the United States contributed to the rejection of these traditions and the development of a radically new worship building, the auditorium church. When Church Became Theatre focuses on this radical shift in evangelical Protestant architecture and links it to changes in worship style and religious mission."--BOOK JACKET.