Religious Studies Subject Guide: Reference Sources

New Religious Movements (NRMs) can involve vast numbers of followers and in many cases are radically changing the way people understand and practice religion and spirituality. Moreover, many are having a profound impact on the form and content of mainstream religion. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements provides uniquely global coverage of the phenomenon, with entries on over three-hundred movement from almost every country in the world.

The award winning Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature critically explores the relationships among human beings, their environments, and the religious dimensions of life. This wide-ranging work — chronologically, geographically, religiously — includes 1,000 entries from 520 international contributors.

Covering a wide span of history, this set includes volumes on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Each volume touches on issues such as the right to life, the rights of women, punishment for crimes, war and peace, slavery, violence, and other topics related to human rights. They provide primary sources to document the history of thought on the subject within each religion.

This second edition, which is intended to reflect both changes in academia and in the world since 1987, includes almost all of the 2,750 original entries -- many heavily updated -- as well as approximately 600 entirely new articles. It emphasizes religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture.

This new edition of the Oxford Bible Atlas, now with full-colour maps and illustrations, has been thoroughly revised to bring it up to date with regard both to biblical scholarship and to archaeology and topography. The Atlas will help readers of the Bible understand the contexts in which its stories are set and to appreciate the world from which it emerged and which formed its background.

Containing around 1,800 entries this Dictionary covers, in one volume, all the important deities and demons from around the world. The gods of ancient mythology appear alongside the gods of contemporary religion, and `lesser' mythologies and religions are also fully covered.

The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America harvests the fruits of 25 years of scholarship on the history and current state of women's religious experience in North America. The result of a five-year project led by Rosemary Skinner Keller and Rosemary Radford Ruether and funded by the Lilly Endowment and the Henry Luce Foundation, the encyclopedia marshals the talents of more than 150 scholars to produce the most comprehensive and up-to-date description and analysis of women and religion in North America.

This is a reference for understanding world religious societies in their contemporary global diversity. Comprising 60 essays, the volume focuses on communities rather than beliefs, symbols, or rites.