Introductions to historical research
Bradley, James E. and Richard A Muller. Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995 [Ref. 270.072 B811c]
Danto, Elizabeth Ann. Historical Research. Pocket Guides to Social Work Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. [Ref. HM 571 .D36]
Primary vs Secondary sources (from Bradley and Muller, above)
- Primary source: "A document, datum, or artifact that belongs to the era under examination and that offers the most direct access to the person or issues being studied," p. 39.
- Secondary sources: "Offer information about an event but stand removed from it either in time or by a process of transmission of information," p. 41.
Critical editions
- In the works of antiquity and Middle Ages
- Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina/Graeca
- Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
Patrologia Latina, Graeca [281.1 M635 and online
]- Thesaurus Linguae Gracae
Consult the "Clavis" volumes in the Corpus Christianorum series for guidance to critical editions of biblical and medieval apocyrypha & pseudepigrapha, and the Greek and Latin fathers [Search the catalog
with the key words Corpus and Clavis to turn these up]
- In American religious history, e.g....
The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Yale) [BX7117 .E3; see esp. v. 1, "Note on the text
," p. 118]- The Whitehead Research Project
The Works of George Santayana (MIT) [see especially catalog record, The Last Puritan]
Translations (Patristics, Medieval Studies)
- Guides to choosing
- Bibliographies in Encyclopedia of Religion
Essays in The Cambridge Companion to .... [e.g. Augustine, Dante, etc]
- Examples in series
Loeb Classical Library [Philo, Josephus, Clement, Tertullian, Augustine, etc]
- Ante-Nicene Fathers; Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Fathers of the Church (CUA Press) [Clement, Tertullian, Augustine, etc]
Classics of Western Spirituality [Origen, Augustine, Hildegard, Julien, etc]
Library of Christian Classics [Clement, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, etc)
Online primary sources fulltext
- Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
- Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH)
- Google Books
- African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
- America's Historical Newspapers
- New York Times Historical
- LexisNexis
- American Decades: Primary Sources
- And see: American History: Primary Sources Online
Encyclopedias
- Online
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
[Ref BR95 .O8]Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
[Ref BR302.8 .O93 ]Encyclopedia of Religion in America
[Ref. B2520 E52]New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1st and 2nd eds, 1967 and 2003 [Ref BX841 .N44; online
]- Gale Virtual Reference Library
- Credo Reference
- Oxford Reference Online
- Print: finding them
- First stop: Reference Universe
New Westminster Dictionary of Church History, 2008- [Ref BR95 .W496]
Encyclopedia of the Early Church, 1992 [Ref. BR66.5 .D5813 ]
Patrology, by Johannes Quasten, 1984-2006 [Ref. BR67 .Q3 ]
Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 1982-1989 [Ref. D114 .O94 ]
Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, 2006 [Ref. HQ1147 .E85 W66]
Encyclopedia of Protestantism, 2004 [Ref BX4811.3 .E53 ]
Encyclopedia of American Religious History, 3rd ed., 2009 [Ref BL2525 .Q44]
Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, 1988 [Ref. BL2525 .E53]
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 2005 [Ref CB9 .N49]
- and see: CHIST250
Bibliography: History Compass
Printed Concordances
Biblia Patristica [Ref. BR66.5 .U53]
Complete Concordance to Flavius Josephus [Ref. PA4224 .R4 ]
The Philo Index: A Complete Greek Word Index... [Ref.PA4270 .Z5 B67 ]
Key journals
- Church History
- Journal of Early Christian Studies
- Methodist History
- Religion and American Culture
- Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies
- Browse searching for geographic and period breakdowns
- Church History Primitive and Early Church, ca 30-600
- United States Church History To 1775
- Social History
- Christianity and Justice--History
- Christian Sociology--History
- Subject searching on subheadings
su Social History and .... [e.g. monasticism]
su Social Ethics and .... [e.g. Martin Luther King]
su Social Aspects [or Social Conditions] and .... [e.g. women and England]
- Source material: add "Sources" to any topic
Periodical Databases
- L'anne philologique
- International Medieval Bibliography
- Feminae
- Historical Abstracts
- America: History and Life
- LexixNexis
- Readers Guide Retrospective
- JSTOR
- Project Muse
- Academic Search Premier
Recommended websites in church history