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THEO 1434: Judaism and Christianity in Dialogue

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Getting Started

Sources for context

These scholarly sources serve a similar purpose to Wikipedia: providing an introduction to an unfamiliar topic, with suggestions for further reading.

Finding books

Scholars of religion write books. Lots of those books are still in print form, which makes research in religion a little more challenging when you need to use our digital collection.

  1. The library catalog is the most comprehensive list of what we have. Searching for books there and limiting to online only is a solid option for many topics. But you'll also find a lot of very old material there, which is why I recommend a couple of other strategies as well.
  2. Look for books in databases like JSTOR and Project Muse, which also do articles.
  3. Look in ebook collections like ATLA Historical Monographs, Cambridge Companions to Philosophy and Religion, Blackwell Companions to Theology

Finding articles

Citing sources

My general advice is to use whatever style you're most familiar with to cite your sources until someone tells you not to. Chicago style for citing sources is standard in history and religious studies, so it's not a bad thing to get used to using. I've included a link to a very detailed guide to using it by my colleague, and to the manual of style itself. Learn how to cite a book, a journal article, and something from a website, and that will cover about 80% of what you need to cite at BC.

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Librarian

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Chris Strauber
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Contact:
O'Neill Library, room 413
Boston College Libraries
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-552-4447
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