Library Guides: Religion: Books

Catalogs for Finding Books

Use the catalog to find books and e-books at the Library. To find books beyond the Library, use WorldCat, which is especially useful for discovering what other libraries own a particular title and for placing an interlibrary loan request.

WorldCat (OCLC)

WorldCat is a database that allows researchers to search the combined catalogs of hundreds of libraries around the world. It contains more than 52 million records for books, journals, audiovisual materials and more. This source can help researchers find items, verify citations, and identify which libraries hold a particular title.
University of Chicago Library Catalog

Find items in all campus libraries, including books, periodicals, sound recordings, videos, DVDs and more.
Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog (KVK)
KVK is very helpful for locating books in Europe.

The KVK allows users to search the catalogues of multiple German, Swiss, and Austrian libraries. Other international libraries can be added as well.

Collections of e-books

Search for E-Books Using the Catalog.

See also the Library's guide How do I find e-books?

Some of the following collections contain free full-text access to titles out of copyright (Google Book Search and HathiTrust). Others are paid subscriptions (Intelex Past Masters and Oxford Scholarship Online).

20th-21st century imprints

Internet Archive
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The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.

Cambridge University Press Textbooks
Includes introductions to subfields of religious studies
Equinox Religion Library
Equinox Religion Library - Interactive Ebooks
Google Books

Search the full text of books to find ones that interest you and learn where to borrow or buy them.
HathiTrust

HathiTrust is a shared digital repository created by major research libraries. It offers searching of the full text of books and full access to works in the public domain
UChicago users may login to download high quality PDF versions where available.

Open Access Digital Theological Library
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The mission of Open Access Digital Theological Library (OADTL) is to curate high-quality content in religious studies and related disciplines from publisher websites, institutional repositories, scholarly societies, archives, and stable public domain collections.
Open Book Publishers
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Database of open access academic books in Humanities and Social Sciences

Twentieth Century Religious Thought

Twentieth Century Religious Thought is a multivolume, cross-searchable online collection that brings together the seminal works and archival materials related to worldwide religious thinkers, from the early 1900s until the turn of the 21st century.

Pre-20th century

Eighteenth Century Collections Online

ECCO is a fully text-searchable corpus of books, pamphlets and broadsides in all subjects printed between 1701 and 1800. It is is a digitization of the eighteenth-century section of the works catalogued in the English Short-title Catalogue (ESTC). The ESTC project has been recording all works published or printed in Britain, Ireland, territories under British colonial rule, and the United States. It also catalogues material printed elsewhere which contains significant text in English, Welsh, Irish..
Early American Imprints: Series I. Evans, 1639-1800

This incomparable digital collection contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period. Digitized from one of the most important collections ever produced on microform, Early American Imprints, Series I is based on Charles Evans renowned American Bibliography and Roger Bristols supplement. Including more than 36,000 printed works and 2.3 million pages
Early American Imprints: Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819

A comprehensive set of American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century. It is based on the noted "American Bibliography, 1801-1819" by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. With more than four million pages from over 36,000 items
Early English Books Online

Early English Books Online (EEBO) features page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700. Over 200 libraries worldwide have contributed to EEBO. From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period and features a substantial number of text transcriptions specially created for the product.
Intelex Past Masters

InteLex Corporations Past Masters series encompasses the largest collection of primary source full-text electronic editions in philosophy in the world. The series includes significant collections in the history of political thought and theory, religious studies, education, German studies, sociology, the history and philosophy of science, economics, and classics. InteLex acquires and develops definitive editions of the full corpora of the seminal figures in the history of the human sciences, including published and unpublished works, articles, essays, reviews, and correspondence.
From their website
Sabin Americana Collection, 1500-1926

Works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents, forming a collection of over 6 million pages from 29,000 works.

Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography.

Book Reviews

Looking for book reviews? Start with searching for the title of the book in ATLA Religion Index. Then, try other databases listed below.

ATLA Religion with ATLASerials PLUS

AtlaSerials PLUS (Atlas PLUS) includes more than 580+ full-text journals in many diverse areas of religion and theology, with full-text content in more than 20 languages from more than 35 different countries. Atlas PLUS includes all of the titles in Atla’s original full-text product, AtlaSerials (Atlas), and 200+ additional full-text titles.
IBR Online

Multilingual and interdisciplinary index to book reviews, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Marginalia
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The Marginalia Review of Books is an international, open access review of literature and culture in the nexus of history, theology, and religion.
How do I find reviews?
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A guide for finding reviews, including book reviews.

Theses and Dissertations

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Includes citations for materials from the first U.S. dissertation (1861) to those accepted as recently as last semester. Starting in 1997 full-text is often available. If full-text is not available information about ordering the document is provided.

Research in Ministry (RIM)
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). RIM is a searchable database with entries for authors, titles, thesis/project advisors, schools, and ATLA subject headings.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses @ the University of Chicago

Limits searches in ProQuest's Dissertation database to dissertations and theses written at the University of Chicago. Full text is available for most written from 1997 to the present, with some available for prior years. The University Library holds a copy of virtually all UofC dissertations. Consult the Library Catalog for holdings and location information.

How do I find dissertations?
Resources for finding dissertations, such as old or foreign dissertations.

Subject Specialist

Anne Knafl

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Joseph Regenstein Library 464

Subjects: Humanities, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Religion