Theology and Religion: Databases

The Buddhist Digital Resource Center, Inc. promotes research and scholarship in Tibetan Buddhism and advances the preservation of the Tibetan cultural heritage by making its literary tradition widely available in the form of digital images.

The Core Text Collection is an assembly of digitalized Tibetan materials supplied via the web. Each collection contains multiple works on Tibetan literature which have been assembled specifically to be incorporated into institutional libraries. Each collection comprises roughly 1000 volumes from the BDRC holdings selected by the late E. Gene Smith, former Executive Director of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center.

Currently Core Text Collections 1 – 12 are available to Bodleian Library readers. To check whether a text is available, look under the ‘Bibliographic’ tag for that text. If therein the ‘Product Information’ line states the text is part of any of Core Text Collections 1-12, then the text should be available for reading on-screen or download, in all Oxford University Libraries or remotely on personal computers through the single sign-on system.

Please note that BDRC uses the Wylie system for transcription of Tibetan.

If you encounter difficulties finding a text, please contact the Tibetan Subject consultant librarian by emailing charles.manson@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Oxford Bibliographies are comprehensive subject bibliographies, which provide an up-to-date overview of the most recent and authoritative scholarship in a given field. Oxford Bibliographies provides faculty and students alike with a seamless pathway to the most accurate and reliable resources for a variety of academic topics. Every article in the database is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, written and reviewed by academic experts, with original commentary and annotations. The modules include:

African American Studies, African Studies, American Literature, Anthropology, Art History, Atlantic History, Biblical Studies, British and Irish Literature, Buddhism, Childhood Studies, Chinese Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Classics, Communication, Criminology, Ecology, Education, Environmental Science, Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Hinduism, International Law, International Relations, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies, Linguistics, Literary and Critical Theory, Management, Medieval Studies, Military History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Public Health, Renaissance and Reformation, Social Work, Sociology, Victorian Literature.

This database represents a comprehensive survey of Pauline references in pre-Nicene writings. It is searchable both by Pauline epistle and passage as well as by early Christian writers and their texts, by region, and by approximate date. A portion of the research was first published in The Pauline Effect: Early Christian Use of the Pauline Epistles (de Gruyter, 2015). The new online resource is an expanded version of this initial research with more than 27,000 entries from over 200 extant works in the first four centuries (CE). It was created by Professor Jenn Strawbridge with the help of Oxford’s IT Research Support Team, and supported by the John Fell Fund and a Small Research Grant.

academic-bible.com provides access to the original Bible texts in Greek and Hebrew, published by the German Bible Society, in addition to English and German Bible translations.

The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading and researching scripture online -- all in the language or translation of your choice! It provides advanced searching capabilities, which allow readers to find and compare particular passages in scripture based on keywords, phrases, or scripture reference.

The Global Jewish Database (the Responsa Project) contains the world's largest electronic collection of Jewish texts in Hebrew ever recorded, which embody thousands of years of Jewish learning. The database includes numerous works from the Responsa Literature - rabbinic case-law rulings which represent the historical-sociological milieu of real-life situations. In addition, the database includes the Bible, the Talmud and their principal commentaries; works about Jewish law and customs; major the codes of Jewish law, such as Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch with its principal commentaries; midrashim, Zohar, etc… This internet version of the Responsa Project includes a variety of tools and capabilities in its various features of search, navigation of texts, and hypertext links between books in different databases.

PLEASE NOTE: To access this resource off-campus VPN is required.

STEP - Scripture Tools for Every Person - from Tyndale House, Cambridge, is a bible study library and browser. It includes original language texts, apparatus for original language texts, ancient and modern versions, translation notes, commentaries, dictionaries etc. The hundreds of datasets are kindly provided by the CrossWire Bible Society.

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials is the full text version of the ATLA Religion Database (ATLA). This database is a collection of major religion and theology journals selected by some of the major religion scholars in the United States. Coverage of this database dates back to 1949.

Past Masters is a collection of primary-source full-text humanities databases. Past Masters titles are usually comprised of the complete works of individual authors.