UC Davis Religious Studies Blog

RESOURCE: British Museum: Treasures of Heaven

2011-10-09T13:30:00.001-07:00

I call attention to:

British Museum: Treasures of Heaven

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/treasures_of_heaven.aspx

The world of saints, relics, and devotional objects come alive in this remarkable online exhibit offered by the British Museum. Titled "Treasures of Heaven", the exhibit brings together over 150 objects from institutions like the Vatican and art museums across Europe and the United States. For visitors who can't make it to England, the site has plenty of materials for those across the pond. First up is the "Objects" area, which contains video clips of curators talking about a few of the objects in the exhibit including the statue reliquary of St. Baudime and the world of the medieval goldsmith. The exhibition blog (found toward the bottom of the homepage) is a real treat, as there are over 50 posts that deal with conservation practices, metalworking, and the lives of these artisans. In the "Multimedia Guide", visitors can listen to the wonderful Sir Derek Jacobi talk about some of the items on exhibit.

RESOURCE: Stories to Watch: Narratives in Medieval Manuscripts

2011-04-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

Stories to Watch: Narratives in Medieval Manuscripts

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/stories_watch/

How did artists tell stories in the Middle Ages? Many of them chose to create elaborate visual images, replete with tales of adventure, intrigue, and religiosity, while others chose to do so via the creation of illuminated manuscripts. This fine online exhibit from the Getty Museum tells the story of the methods used to create these beautiful and intricate items. Visitors to the site can listen to Getty curators talk about a depiction of the biblical heroine Judith beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes and also view an interactive edition of a personal prayer book. The exhibit also explores themes that include physical action, the use of dialogue, and sequential events. The details in each work are exquisite and it is interesting to see how the artists imagined each of these various moments.

RESOURCE: Princeton Seminary Digital Library

2011-02-18T09:36:00.001-08:00

I call attention to:

Princeton Seminary Digital Library

http://digital.library.ptsem.edu/

The Princeton Seminary Digital Library offers access to over 185,000 pages of digital materials, and for people with an interest in American religious history, 19th century Korean photographs, and a cornucopia of other topics, this website is worth bookmarking. First-time visitors to the site can browse the materials here by author, collection, or journal. Currently, there are twelve different historical journals archived, including "Biblical Repertory," "Theology Today," and "The Princeton Review." In the "Browse Authors" area, visitors can look through the alphabetical listing or view the most prolific authors in a tag cloud. In the Princeton Collection, visitors can view the materials by document type, including images, poems, and sermons. The "sermon" area has some rather intriguing documents, such as a series of sermons originally published in the 1852 "Princeton Pulpit.

CFP: Journal of Religious & Theological Information

2011-02-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

Call for Papers: Journal of Religious & Theological Information

Next deadline: May 1, 2011

The Journal of Religious & Theological Information invites submissions for its Summer 2011 issue. JRTI is a peer reviewed journal published by Routledge and focused on the selection, organization, dissemination, digitization, and preservation of information within the context of religious studies and related fields, including history. By "information" we refer to both print and electronic, and both published and unpublished information (e.g., archives and special collections). JRTI is pluralistic in scope, and encourages submissions from a variety of religious perspectives.

For more details see

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mstover/jrti.html

Recently published articles include:

· Online Primary Sources in Religious Studies: Active Learning Exercises for Information Literacy Instruction

· Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992-2008

· The Information-Seeking Habits of Baptist Ministers

· Book reviews on a variety of topics

JRTI is available full text in Ebsco's Academic Search Complete and in Informaworld. It is indexed selectively in ATLA Religion Database; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA); Ebsco's Academic Search Premier; and America: History and Life.

Send queries, ideas, and manuscripts to Mark Stover, JRTI Editor, at mstover@mail.sdsu.edu

CFP: Journal of Religious & Theological Information

2010-09-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Call for Papers: Journal of Religious & Theological Information

Next deadline: December 1, 2010

The Journal of Religious & Theological Information invites submissions for its Winter 2010 issue. JRTI is a peer reviewed journal published by Routledge and focused on the selection, organization, dissemination, digitization, and preservation of information within the context of religious studies and related fields, including philosophy and ethics. By "information" we refer to both print and electronic, and both published and unpublished information (e.g., archives and special collections). JRTI is pluralistic in scope, and encourages submissions from a variety of religious perspectives, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and indigenous religious traditions.

For more details see:

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mstover/jrti.html

Volume 9(1/2) was recently published and includes the following articles:

The Information-Seeking Habits of Baptist Ministers
The Founding of Christianity Today Magazine and the Construction of An American Evangelical Identity
Academic Impartiality and the Freedom to Be Religious
Librarians and Traditional Cultural Expressions

Send queries, ideas, and manuscripts to Mark Stover, JRTI Editor, at mstover@mail.sdsu.edu

RESOURCE: Pitts Theology Library: Digital Image Archive

2010-08-13T08:57:00.001-07:00

I call attention to:

Pitts Theology Library: Digital Image Archive

http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/woodcuts.htm

Based at Emory University, the Pitts Theology Library has a number of digital archives that are worthy of mention. This particular one brings together over 28,000 images of biblical illustrations. The archive also includes engravings of church buildings and religious leaders. Visitors can search the archive by call number or Bible verse, which is a rather helpful way to look for items of interest. Visitors are also encouraged to use these images for use in church publications, research papers, and other educational settings. Also, visitors can use the "Revised Common Lectionary" area to identify commonly used items, like Gospel lessons and Hebrew Bible lessons. The site is rounded out by a "FAQ" area and a link to the Library's main Special Collection site.

RESOURCE: From Warrior to Saint: The Journey of David Pendleton Oakerhater

2010-04-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Oakerhater/

For those unfamiliar with the story of David Pendleton Oakerhater, this website from the Oklahoma State University Library features a digitized collection of correspondence and photographs from the great-granddaughter of Oakerhater's friend and sponsor, Mary Burnham. Oakerhater was a "Cheyenne warrior who became the first Oklahoman to be added to the Episcopal Church's calendar of saints." In the "Biography" link found on the left hand menu, visitors can find a very thorough life history after Oakerhater's capture as a prisoner of war in the aftermath of the Red River war. Oakerhater had ties to leaders of the American Indian assimilation movement, thus an essay on the assimilation era, written by the Intertribal Governmental Cultural Advisor at the Oklahoma City University of Law can be found in the "Essay" link, also found on the left hand menu. Visitors should also check out the "Letters" written by Oakerhater, and others involved in his life, which can be read line by line in a transcription next to an image of the letter. The text of the letters can also be searched in their entirety.

RESOURCE: Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art

2010-04-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://pilgrimage.asiasociety.org/

The Asia Society's website has an exhibit that explores the art that has derived or been inspired by Buddhist pilgrimage in Asia. Visitors unfamiliar with Buddha and Buddhism might want to watch the "Curator's Introduction", in the right hand corner of the homepage. The art objects in the exhibit are divided into three main parts, "The Buddha and the Sacred Site", "The Journey", and "Memory, Memento and Sacred Bond". Each part has several paragraphs explaining the significance of the art, and visitors can click on each image to see it in greater detail and to learn what it's about. There are also short films that accompany each part that are about a specific event in Buddha's life, such as his enlightenment, his first sermon, and his death. The "For Educators" link, near the top of the page, offers many resources from the Asia Society website, and a "Teacher Resource" specifically for the Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art exhibit.

RESOURCE: Bible Geocoding

2010-03-19T11:26:00.001-07:00

I call attention to:

http://www.openbible.info/geo/

Religious scholars and others have always been interested in the place names found in the Bible, and this site will be a delightful find for anyone who shares this interest. This site, created by a graduate of Wheaton College, features interactive maps of every place mentioned in the Bible. For its main data source, the site uses the Morrish Bible Dictionary, which contains the coordinates for many place names listed in the Bible. Drawing on this material, the site also uses satellite imagery along with shaded relief details from the United States Geological Survey. It's easy to get started; visitors can just click on the "Complete Bible" link at the top of the homepage to look around. It might be more interesting and less overwhelming to use the "Individual Books" area to look around via discrete sections, such as "Genesis", "Matthew", and "Psalms".

RESOURCE: The Reverend Claude L. Pickens, Jr. Collection on Muslims in China

2010-03-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/harvard-yenching/collections/pickens/

During his long life, the Reverend Claude L. Pickens, Jr. spent many years as a Christian missionary in China. Working with his wife, Elizabeth, he maintained a particular interest in China's Muslim population. Pickens spent time in central China as the Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, and he also spent time making surveys of Muslims in northwest China, northeast Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. This digital collection brings together over 1000 photos taken by Pickens during his travels through the region in the 1920s and 1930s. Visitors should start their journey by reading the "Biographical Note" on Pickens, and then giving the finding aid a quick look. The photographs can be viewed via Harvard's VIA catalog, and they just need to search on the name Claude L. Pickens. Overall, the collection provides a fascinating look into this very intriguing facet of Chinese cultural and social history.

RESOURCE: The Aleppo Codex Online

2010-02-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://aleppocodex.org/

As the oldest manuscript of the Bible in existence, the Aleppo Codex is a sacred text for a number of key reasons. The Codex was written in the year 930 CE and it made its way through a number of places in the Near East before arriving in Israel in 1958. In the past few years, the Ben-Zvi Institute (working with funds provided by George S. Blumenthal) has digitized this remarkable document. On the homepage, visitors can read a brief introduction to the Codex, and also read articles that include "Testimonies on the Text" and "The Bible and Its Transmission". Visitors who click on the "View Aleppo Codex" button on the homepage can choose a book and chapter to view, and they also can zoom in and out around the page as they wish. The materials on the site are also available in Hebrew, and visitors can also contact the Institute with any queries they might have.

RESOURCE: African-American Religion: A Documentary History Project

2010-01-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www3.amherst.edu/~aardoc/

Headquartered at Amherst College, the African-American Religion: A Documentary History Project (AARDOC) was founded in 1987. The goal of the project is "to produce a comprehensive history of African-American religion." The history is scheduled to be published in a print edition by the University of Chicago Press later in 2010, and the authors of the project have created this site to bring a selection of these materials to the attention of educators and students. The "Advice for Beginners" section contains a brief description of external reference works of note, and then visitors can make their way through brief outlines of different phases in African-American religious history in areas like "Atlantic World" and "Global Phase". The "Sample Documents" area is a real treat, as it features primary documents that tell the story of Billy Sunday's interactions with African-Americans and the 1822-1823 journal of Betsey Stockton, who joined a company of missionaries as they set sail for the Sandwich (Hawaii) Islands. The site is rounded out by a selection of teaching resources, including syllabi for undergraduate and graduate courses.

RESOURCE: Open Collections Program: Islamic Heritage Project

2010-01-08T11:34:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ihp/

Working together with the generous support of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the Harvard University Library's Open Collections Program has digitized hundreds of Islamic manuscripts, maps, and published texts from the institution's vast holdings. All told, the project currently includes over 145,000 pages dating from the 13th to the 20th centuries CE. The documents are from many regions, including Saudi Arabia and Central Asia, and the subjects covered here include rhetoric, logic, philosophy, calligraphy, medicine, and law. Visitors can search the entire site, and they may also make their way through sections such as "Published Materials", "Manuscripts", and "Maps". The "Maps" area is quite a find, and visitors can browse maps such as a rendering of the Turkish Empire in 1714 and one of Syria from 1853. Of course, most of the materials here are in languages other than English, but for scholars of the Islamic world, this collection is invaluable.

RESOURCE: American Religion Image Library

2009-12-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/ARIL/

The American Religion Image Library is a pilot project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library funded by the Association of Theological Schools with cooperation from the archivists of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. The purpose of the project is to provide images and illustrative text for the instructional needs of teachers of American religion.

RESOURCE: Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon

2009-12-14T22:23:00.001-08:00

I call attention to:

http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/

The CAL database search page currently offers complete CAL lemma search, search for English glosses, text browse, Targum studies module, basic concordance search, advanced search by multiple text number(s), and advanced search by dialect. You can also generate concordances on the screen for selected words, have the option of browsing specific Aramaic texts with the option of word analysis. The Targum search page allows you to view and analyze a given biblical verse in all its available Aramaic versions. You can also search for the translation of an English word into Aramaic.

RESOURCE: Online Critical Pseudepigrapha

2009-12-14T22:21:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.stfx.ca/academic/religious-studies/ocp/

Contains texts of the pseudepigrapha in their original (or extant) languages; some with critical apparatus. Selected by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) for the ATLA Selected Religion Websites Project (ATSRW).

RESOURCE: Hagiography Database

2009-12-14T22:17:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/projects/hagiography_database/

The database contains bio-bibliographical information about saints from the 8th-10th centuries. It is divided into sections: Saints' lists, Authors' lists and a searchable section of citations.

RESOURCE: ETANA

2009-12-14T22:14:00.001-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.etana.org/

Ancient Near Eastern web resources, including archaeological excavation reports, editions of ancient and modern texts, core early monographs, dictionaries, journals, and reports in the public domain. Selected by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) for the ATLA Selected Religion Websites Project (ATSRW).

RESOURCE: Chinese Christian Texts Database

2009-12-14T22:10:00.001-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/sinology/cct/

Research database of primary and secondary sources concerning the cultural contacts between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (from 1582 to ca. 1840).

RESOURCE: Jewish Women's Archive: Jewish Women, a Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia

2009-12-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia

This web site includes an encyclopedia with biographical entries on Jewish women as well as survey articles. It also includes a glossary, news, podcasts, film and educational resources, and a bibliography.

RESOURCE: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

2009-12-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.gameo.org/

Reliable information on Anabaptist-related (Amish, Mennonite, Hutterite, Brethren in Christ) topics, including history, theology, biography, institutions and local congregations. Secular topics from an Anabaptist perspective and full-text source documents.

RESOURCE: Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

2009-12-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/index.html

Electronic version of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society provided on the Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research website.

RESOURCE: Index Theologicus

2009-12-14T21:49:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.ixtheo.de/

The Index theologicus database contains bibliographical references from articles in more than 600 journals, Festschriften and conference volumes. The extensive research possibilities enable theologians and specialists in religious studies to obtain a quick and comprehensive overview of the publications relevant to their own field of research. Ten of the twenty volumes of the conventional “Zeitschrifteninhaltsdienst Theologie” (1985-1994) have now been completely retro-converted into database structures.

RESOURCE: Bibliography of Theology and Peace

2009-12-14T21:46:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.ithpeace.de/bibl/

The online bibliography of Theology and Peace contains more than 100,000 titles subject indexed using descriptors. Literature relevant to research into peace ethics from the individual disciplines of theology and other sciences has been taken into account.

RESOURCE: The Schøyen Collection

2009-12-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.schoyencollection.com/index.html

The Schøyen Collection is a resource for students, academics, research institutions, publishers and all others with an interest in advancing the study of human culture and civilization, regardless of nationality, race or religion. The Collection is also a means to preserve and protect for posterity a wide range of written expressions of belief, knowledge and understanding from many different cultures throughout the ages. The Schøyen Collection comprises most types of manuscripts from the whole world spanning over 5000 years. It is the largest private manuscript collection formed in the 20th century. The whole collection, MSS 1-5426, comprises 13,717 manuscript items, including 2,269 volumes. 6,860 manuscript items are from the ancient period, 3300 BC - 500 AD; 3,844 are from the medieval period, 500 - 1500; and 3,013 are post-medieval. There are manuscripts from 134 different countries and territories in 120 languages and 184 scripts. A hallmark of the collection is its strength in very early manuscripts. The first major river valley civilisations of the world are all represented with their earliest evidence of writing c. 3300 BC. The beginning of script in Europe is represented by bones from France and Spain 4000-3800 BC and the challenging undeciphered Minoan Linear A script from Crete 16th c. BC. Even the New World is represented by divination manuals on stone from Ecuador, ca. 3500-1500 BC, and Australia is represented with cylcons which can be up to 20 000 years old. The Schøyen Collection thus crosses borders and unites cultures, religions and unique materials found nowhere else. This is not a catalogue of the collection. A full catalogue will be published in a few years. The present website comprises a selection of digital descriptions of manuscripts with sample images from The Schøyen Collection. The whole collection comprises about 13,700 manuscripts and inscribed objects, of which about 740 are available on the present website. The selection, descriptions and digitalisation are the responsibility of the owner of The Schøyen Collection. By giving access to parts of unique materials, the present web presentation contributes towards the publication and availability of this internationally important part of the world's cultural heritage, independently of the physical location of the original objects.

RESOURCE: The Buddhist Scholars Information Network (H-Buddhism)

2009-12-11T13:56:00.001-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.h-net.org/~buddhism/

The Buddhist Scholars Information Network (H-Buddhism) serves as a medium for the exchange of information regarding academic resources, new research projects, scholarly publications, university job listings, and so forth, for specialists in Buddhist Studies who are currently affiliated with academic institutions. It is not a list intended for general discussions of issues regarding Buddhism as a religion, philosophy, practice, or lifestyle (there is a wide variety of lists on the Internet that already serve this purpose), nor a list where non-specialists may pose queries. People who are not specialists in Buddhist Studies can access messages from H-Buddhism through this web site, but they can neither subscribe nor post their own messages.

RESOURCE: Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Bibliography

2009-12-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/

This site contains a bibliography of the philosophical literature of India during its classical phase and the secondary material on this literature that is available (for the most part) in English. For purposes of definition, philosophical literature has been deemed to be that which is of philosophical interest throughout, theoretical rather than purely practical in its intended function, and polemical or at least expository in a context where defense of one view among alternatives is appropriate.

The site is an expanded version of the Bibliography which appeared as Volume I of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. There have been three printed editions of this Bibliography: 1st edition 1970, 2nd revised edition 1983, and 3rd revised edition 1995. This electronic version is continuously corrected and updated.

RESOURCE: Monastic Matrix

2009-10-18T22:04:00.001-07:00

I call attention to:

http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/

One of the aims of the Monastic Matrix website is to disseminate research to both lay people and scholars about the "participation of Christian women in the religion and society of medieval Europe." Now housed as part of the University of Southern California's Digital Archives, this website allows visitors to view artwork, archaeology, stained glass, architecture, and textiles. By clicking on the link "Figurae" on the right hand side menu, visitors can browse these digital images by "title", "century", "community", and "image type". The "Beata Antonia", found by browsing "community", treats viewers to many beautiful 16th century Italian frescos. After visitors have had their fill of images, they might try the "Commentaria" section, which contains modern scholarly analyses. They should also take a look at the "Cartularium" which is a digital library of primary sources. Although many of the documents are in Latin, French, or other languages, some have been translated into English.

RESOURCE: Alberto del Pozo

2009-10-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://scholar.library.miami.edu/pozo/

The Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami Libraries was a recipient of 17 original illustrations by Alberto del Pozo in 1998 from the Campilli family. "The Oricha Collection" is their gift, and it contains illustrations in pen, crayon, and ink and the collection "pays homage to the primary gods and goddesses that comprise the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería." The "Introduction" near the top of the page, is a good place for visitors to start learning about Pozo, who was a Parson's School of Design-trained, Cuban artist who died at the age of 47. The "Biographical Sketch" is worth looking at as well. Examples of his colorful, heavily patterned and symbolism-intensive drawings of Santeria gods and goddesses can be found in the link "Gallery". The description of each drawing is given in English and Spanish. Finally, visitors interested in more information on the Santeria, can look at the "Further Readings" link for authoritative books on the subject.

RESOURCE: Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion

2009-07-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://www.ibcsr.org/

The Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion was founded by Patrick McNamara and Wesley Wildman to conduct research into the biological and cultural functions of religion.

The Institute develops, supports, and catalyzes research initiatives into the manifold functions of religion. This involves:

conducting research at the intersection of culture and the mind, focusing on religious behaviors, beliefs, and experiences;
sponsoring the research efforts of others in this area;
coordinating international research projects in order to achieve large sample sizes and to register cultural differences; and
involving multiple disciplines—including cognitive sciences, medical sciences, social sciences, psychology, religious studies, and humanities—to produce interpretations of religious behaviors, beliefs, and experiences with the requisite sophistication and sensitivity.

The Institute provides an institutional locus for training people to conduct cutting-edge research into the biocultural functions of religion. This involves:

providing established investigators interested in the topic with fast-track resources necessary to get them involved in research into the biocultural functions of religion;
introducing undergraduate and graduate students to the numerous tasks of such research;
sponsoring graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in such research; and
establishing and nurturing affiliations with universities that seek education grounded in the biocultural study of religion for their undergraduate and graduate students.

The Institute disseminates knowledge about the functions of religion so as to have a positive influence on both academic scholarship and the general public. This involves:

launching new publishing projects such as a scholarly journal and an academic book series focused on the functional aspects of religion and its significance for human life;
establishing a cadre of trained experts who can consult with domestic and international organizations needing guidance on the ethical, medical, and social implications of religious behaviors, beliefs, and customs;
producing a series of technical working papers and policy recommendations on religion-related issues for public and private organizational entities including federal, state, and local governmental organizations; international aid groups; domestic and international business ventures; health-care organizations; universities and schools; and religious groups;
issuing press releases about new research results that engage media experts with the deepening knowledge of religion;
working with media outlets to explain the significance of research into the functions of religion for the general public;
providing resources to enhance the understanding of religion in journalism, especially by influencing professors and students in university journalism programs;
developing curriculum materials to serve as resources for university course work in functional aspects of religion;
sponsoring colloquia, seminars, working groups, and public lectures on topics in the study of religion; and
maintaining a web presence that centralizes resources for the scientific study of religion that are useful for research specialists, media representatives, policy makers, religious leaders, and the general public.

RESOURCE: Bible-Dictionary.org

2009-06-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://www.bible-dictionary.org/

Bible-Dictionary.org is designed both for those searching for quick information on the Bible and those who want an in-depth treatment of hundreds of Biblical topics.

Bible-Dictionary.org is an easy-to-use reference tool of Bible Dictionaries to boost your Biblical studies and your understanding of the Bible and its times. Bible-Dictionary.org features definitions and explanations of hundreds of Bible terms, including names, places, concepts, quotes, etc.

RESOURCE: Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts

2009-06-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://library.princeton.edu/projects/islamic/index.html

"The Princeton University Library has some 9,500 Islamic manuscripts, chiefly bound paper codices, containing a total of more than 20,000 texts. The manuscripts are located in the Manuscripts Division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, at the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library. Robert Garrett (Princeton Class of 1897) collected approximately two-thirds of these manuscripts and donated them to the Library in 1942. Since then, the Library has continued to acquire manuscripts by gift and purchase. The manuscripts are chiefly in Arabic but also include Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and other languages of the Islamic world. They date from the early centuries of Islam through the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the manuscripts originated in Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and other main centers of Islamic civilization. But there are examples from Moorish Spain and the Maghreb in the West, to the Indian sub-continent and the Indonesian archipelago in the East, and even sub-Sahara Africa.

Subject coverage is broad and comprehensive, including theology based both on Qur’ān and tradition (hadīth); Islamic law (fiqh); history and biography (especially of the Prophet and other religious leaders); book arts and illustration; language and literature; science; magic, and the occult; and other aspects of the intellectual and spiritual life of the Islamic world and its diverse peoples. Representative works of virtually every important Muslim thinker are present. Although textual manuscripts are predominant, there are also illuminated Qur’āns and Persian literary works, including five Safavid and Qajar manuscripts of Firdawsī's Shāhnāmah, the Persian national epic, as well as Persian and Mughal miniatures. In addition to these collections of Islamic manuscripts, the Manuscripts Division also holds Arabic papyri and documents, calligraphy collections, and modern personal papers relating to the Near East. Supporting research in this area are some 300,000 printed volumes in the Library's Near Eastern Studies circulating collections."

The manuscripts can be browsed alphabetically or by subject and genre and can be viewed as high-resolution images.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Calisphere -- share your University of California-created web sites with us

2009-03-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Do you have a web site you’d like to share that has been created by a UC campus faculty member, librarian, or researcher? Would you like to raise the visibility of a web site you’ve created? Is it an online exhibit, curated collection, or thematically-based grouping of materials? Does the web site feature resources such as photographs, maps, historical documents, current articles and research, multimedia, electronic books, or other online resources?

Let us know! We’d like to add it to Calisphere.

Context

Calisphere, managed by the California Digital Library (CDL), provides public access to primary source materials and freely available UC-created web sites. Calisphere offers more than 150,000 digitized items—including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts—selected from the libraries, archives and museums of the UC campuses, and from cultural heritage organizations across California. Calisphere is also a gateway to UC-created web sites that reflect the diverse interests and scholarship of UC, including the humanities, social sciences, math, and science resources. To date, we have published citations to over 500 websites—and we’d like your help to expand our registry.

Who uses Calisphere?

Calisphere is freely available to the public and is used by a broad range of people including UC students, K-12 educators and the general public. By incorporating UC sites in Calisphere, we increase their visibility and make them more broadly available.

Send Us Your URLs

Here’s how.

NEWS: Catholics on the Move, Non-religious on the Rise

2009-03-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Catholics on the Move, Non-religious on the Rise

American Religious Identification Survey is Third in Landmark Series

HARTFORD, Conn. - The Catholic population of the United States has shifted away from the Northeast and towards the Southwest, while secularity continues to grow in strength in all regions of the country, according to a new study conducted by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College. "The decline of Catholicism in the Northeast is nothing short of stunning," said Barry Kosmin, a principal investigator for the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). "Thanks to immigration and natural increase among Latinos, California now has a higher proportion of Catholics than New England."

Conducted between February and November of last year, ARIS 2008 is the third in a landmark series of large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults in the 48 contiguous states conducted by Kosmin and Ariela Keysar. Employing the same research methodology as the 1990 and 2001 surveys, ARIS 2008 questioned 54,461 adults in either English or Spanish. With a margin of error of less than 0.5 percent, it provides the only complete portrait of how contemporary Americans identify themselves religiously, and how that self-identification has changed over the past generation.

In broad terms, ARIS 2008 found a consolidation and strengthening of shifts signaled in the 2001 survey. The percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent. Given the estimated growth of the American adult population since the last census from 207 million to 228 million, that reflects an additional 4.7 million "Nones." Northern New England has now taken over from the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country, with Vermont, at 34 percent "Nones," leading all other states by a full 9 points.

"Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly," Keysar said. We now know it wasn't. The 'Nones' are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union."

The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. These groups, whose proportion of the American population shrank from 18.7 percent in 1990 to 17.2 percent in 2001, all experienced sharp numerical declines this decade and now constitute just 12.9 percent.

Most of the growth in the Christian population occurred among those who would identify only as "Christian," "Evangelical/Born Again," or "non-denominational Christian." The last of these, associated with the growth of megachurches, has increased from less than 200,000 in 1990 to 2.5 million in 2001 to over 8 million today. These groups grew from 5 percent of the population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2001 to 11.8 percent in 2008. Significantly, 38.6 percent of mainline Protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again.

"It looks like the two-party system of American Protestantism--mainline versus evangelical--is collapsing," said Mark Silk, director of the Public Values Program. "A generic form of evangelicalism is emerging as the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in the United State s."

Other key findings:

Baptists, who constitute the largest non-Catholic Christian tradition, have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population.
Mormons have increased in numbers enough to hold their own proportionally, at 1.4 percent of the population.
The Muslim proportion of the population continues to grow, from .3 percent in 1990 to .5 percent in 2001 to .6 percent in 2008.
The number of adherents of Eastern Religions, which more than doubled in the 1990s, has declined slightly, from just over two million to just under. Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups.
Those who identify religiously as Jews continue to decline numerically, from 3.1 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2008--1.2 percent of the population. Defined to include those who identify as Jews by ethnicity alone, the American Jewish population has remained stable over the past two decades.
Only1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
Adherents of New Religious movements, including Wiccans and self-described pagans, have grown faster this decade than in the 1990s.

Professors Kosmin and Keysar are, respectively, director and associate director of Trinity's Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture. The Program on Public Values at Trinity College comprises the Institute and the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, which is also directed by Professor Silk. ARIS 2008 was made possible by grants from Lilly Endowment, Inc. and the Posen Foundation.

CFP: Journal of Religious & Theological Information

2009-02-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

Call for Papers: Journal of Religious & Theological InformationThe Journal of Religious & Theological Information is a peer reviewed journal focused on the selection, organization, dissemination, and preservation of information within the context of religious studies and related fields (including philosophy, ethnic studies, and historical approaches to religion). By "information" we refer to both print and electronic, and both published and unpublished information.

For more details see http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mstover/jrti.html

Submission are accepted on a continuing basis.

Send queries, ideas, and manuscripts to Mark Stover, JRTI Editor, at mstover@mail.sdsu.edu

RESOURCE: Bulletin of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity

2009-01-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

Bulletin of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity

http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/collection.php?alias=/bia

Published by The Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the Claremont Graduate School, The Bulletin of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity is primarily concerned with studies that investigate aspects of Christianity and its practice in the ancient world. The Bulletin comes out periodically, and interested parties can click on the "Browse items in this collection" to get a sense of the broad range of topics that they have covered. Visitors with a dedicated interest in this field can perform a more detailed search across the Bulletin by terms that include title, author, creator, date, keywords, and publisher. For students of divinity, theology, religious history, and ancient history, this site will be one to pass along to like-minded friends and fellow scholars.

RESOURCE: Religion in the News

2009-01-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://caribou.cc.trincoll.edu/depts_csrpl/RINVol11No2/contents_vol11no2.htm

The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life was established at Trinity College in 1996 to advance knowledge and understanding of the varied roles that religious movements, institutions, and ideas play in the contemporary world; to explore challenges posed by religious pluralism and tensions between religious and secular values; and to examine the influence of religion on politics, civic culture, family life, gender roles, and other issues in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Non-sectarian and non-partisan, the Center sponsors public lectures, organizes conferences and workshops, contributes to the liberal arts curriculum, and supports the publication and dissemination of materials for both academic and general audiences. Its initiatives are designed to foster discussion of religion in public life both within the campus community and among various external publics.

The Center publishes Religion in the News, a thrice-yearly magazine that covers media reporting of religion.

RESOURCE: Killing the Buddha

2008-12-12T14:17:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.killingthebuddha.com/

Killing the Buddha Manifesto

Killing the Buddha is a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the "spirituality" section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God. It is for people who somehow want to be religious, who want to know what it means to know the divine, but for good reasons are not and do not. If the religious have come to own religious discourse it is because they alone have had places where religious language could be spoken and understood. Now there is a forum for the supposedly non-religious to think and talk about what religion is, is not and might be. Killing the Buddha is it.

The idea of "killing the Buddha" comes from a famous Zen line, the context of which is easy to imagine: After years on his cushion, a monk has what he believes is a breakthrough: a glimpse of nirvana, the Buddhamind, the big pay-off. Reporting the experience to his master, however, he is informed that what has happened is par for the course, nothing special, maybe even damaging to his pursuit. And then the master gives the student dismaying advice: If you meet the Buddha, he says, kill him.

Why kill the Buddha? Because the Buddha you meet is not the true Buddha, but an expression of your longing. If this Buddha is not killed he will only stand in your way.

Why Killing the Buddha ? For our purposes, killing the Buddha is a metaphor for moving past the complacency of belief, for struggling honestly with the idea of God. As people who take faith seriously, we are endlessly amazed and enraged that religious discourse has become so bloodless, parochial and boring. Any God worth the name is none of these things. Yet when people talk about God they are talking mainly about the Buddha they meet. For fear of seeming intolerant or uncertain, or just for lack of thinking, they talk about a God too small to be God.

Killing the Buddha is about finding a way to be religious when we're all so self-conscious and self-absorbed. Knowing more than ever about ourselves and the way the world works, we gain nothing through nostalgia for a time when belief was simple, and even less from insisting that now is such a time. Killing the Buddha will ask, How can we be religious without leaving part of ourselves at the church or temple door? How can we love God when we know it doesn't matter if we do? Call it God for the godless. Call it the search for a God we can believe in: A God that will not be an embarrassment in twelve-thousand years. A God we can talk about without qualifications.

Killing the Buddha insists that if religion matters at all it matters enough to be taken to task. We believe it’s high time for a new canon to be created, and that the Web is just the place to collect it. We refuse to accept the internet as a world wide shopping mall. We know intuitively it can be a sort of Talmudic cathedral, a tool of transcendence made of words. We’re here to build it. If the end result looks more like Babel than the City of God, so be it. Babel, after all, came close.

RESOURCE: Divining America: Religion in American History

2008-12-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/divam.htm

Divining America: Religion in American History is designed to help teachers of American history bring their students to a greater understanding of the role religion has played in the development of the United States. It is based on the fact that American history and religion intersect importantly at various points—the Puritan migration to New England, for example, abolition, or the Civil Rights Movement. Divining America illuminates these intersections, for to understand such events fully, students must acquire some appreciation of their religious dimensions.

RESOURCE: Restoration Movement

2008-12-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/index.html

This extensive website features historical texts, pictures, resources for historical research and links to other relevant pages dealing with the Restoration Movement. This nineteenth-century unity and restitution effort by Barton W. Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell spawned several distinct religious groups: the Churches of Christ, the Christian Churches, and the Disciples of Christ. The wider historical context also includes the Christian Churches of James O'Kelly and the Christian Connexion of Elias Smith and Abner Jones. The Restoration Movement pages seek to accommodate the historical heritage of all of these religious traditions.

RESOURCE: Investigating Atheism

2008-12-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.investigatingatheism.info/

With their website, Investigating Atheism, the University of Cambridge hopes to add some clarity to the subject. Despite the attention recent books on atheism have received, they have had a mixed reception from the religious communities and from fellow atheists and agnostics. The goal of the site is to "set these contemporary "God Wars" in their historical context, and to offer a range of perspectives (from all sides) on the chief issues raised by the new atheists." A good place to start exploring this very well organized website is by looking in the Selected Features box on the right side of the homepage. There, a visitor can get an overview of the issues and the players, by clicking on "Current Controversies", "Atheist Politics", "Atheism and Meaning", "Arguments for Disbelief", and "Links". The "Links" section is divided up between Atheistic/Humanistic and Responses to the Debate. Visitors will find that studying atheism can be more complicated than it seems. The "History" tab points out the difficulty in recounting the history of atheism, because there is disagreement over its beginnings and players. Click on "Demographics" on the left side of the page to read about the obstacles faced when trying to get an accurate count of the number of atheists in the world today. Imperfect data is available, however, and such data suggests between 500 million and 750 million people don't believe in God.

CFP: Special Issue of the Journal of Religious & Theological Information

2008-10-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Journal of Religious & Theological InformationEmerging

Trends in Religious and Theological Information

The first decade of the 21st century has brought with it an amazing array of technologies, policies, and practices that offer information seekers abundant resources yet also create an array of potential problems related to access, storage, organization, and preservation. This special issue of the Journal of Religious & Theological Information will include articles on emerging trends in religious and theological information such as open access publishing, learning management systems, digitization, Web 2.0, and "the Library as place." Following are some possible topics:

New Collection Paradigms (Open Access) How is open access publishing in the scholarly world affecting religious studies scholars? What journals in religious studies and related fields have moved to an open access model? What are the implications for libraries and endusers in terms of subscription cancellations, instruction issues, etc.? What are the ramifications for publishers of religious studies information?

Information Literacy and Learning Management Systems In what ways have emerging trends in information literacy (with special focus on learning management systems) affected students, librarians, and instructors in the field of religious studies (and related fields)? What are some likely models for the future?

Mass Digitization and Digital Collections Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others have recently engaged in high profile library mass digitization projects. Many individual libraries are also producing digital collections that are reproductions of print-based archival collections. How do the many religious and theological library and special collections fit into these trends? What are some examples of some specialized religion collections that have been digitized? What are the implications for scholars and researchers?

The Global Village: International Implications for Religious and Theological Information To what extent is basic information literacy and competency about world religions necessary in the post-9/11 world? What implications exist for bridge-building, cross-cultural understanding and transformation when "West meets East" (and vice-versa) with a competent understanding of each other's religious experience? In addition to instruction, what are the implications for teaching, research, collaborating, and sharing resources in efforts toward mutual understanding?

Planning ahead for Fall

2008-09-03T17:34:00.001-07:00

For those of you who are in town and already planning your classes for Fall Quarter, please consider sharing your syllabi or at least your reading lists with me, or the librarian with whom you work most closely. Doing so will: 1. help ensure that the library has at least one copy of the materials your students will be reading, and 2. better enable the library to build our literature collections in ways that complement the teaching and research done at UCD. I assure you that I will not share your syllabi without permission.

RESOURCE: The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

2008-06-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://religions.pewforum.org/

Based on interviews with more than 35,000 American adults, this extensive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious makeup, religious beliefs and practices as well as social and political attitudes of the American public. This online section includes dynamic tools that complement the full report. For a video overview and related material, go to the resource page.

RESOURCE: The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies

2008-04-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University.The Labyrinth's easy-to-use menus and links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images on other servers around the world. This project not only provides an organizational structure for electronic resources in medieval studies, but also serves as a model for similar, collaborative projects in other fields of study.The Labyrinth project is open-ended and is designed to grow and change with new developments in technology and in medieval studies.

RESOURCE: Holy Land Maps from the Eran Laor Cartographic Collection

2008-04-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/maps/pal/html/

Historical maps of the Holy Land, dated 1462-1927, from the collection donated in 1975 by its owner, Eran Laor, to the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. Searchable by persons, date, and site. Resolution is excellent, depending on the browser used.

RESOURCE: Tabsir: Insight on Islam and the Middle East

2008-04-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://www.tabsir.net/

A multi-contributor blog that seeks to provide "fair, open-ended scholarly assessment" of current issues related to Islam and the Middle East and to "encourage informed debate rather than partisan posturing on all issues."

RESOURCE: ATLA Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative

2008-04-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

I call attention to:

http://www.atla.com/digitalresources/

A repository of digital resources contributed by the member libraries of the American Theological Library Association and the Association of Theological Schools. The database provides access to digital images of woodcuts, photographs, slides, papyri, coins, maps, postcards, manuscripts, lithographs, sermons, shape-note tune books, and various forms of Christian art, architecture, and iconography. A treasure-trove for illustrating lectures and presentations.