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  2. Research Guides

Homiletics and Liturgics: Databases

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To schedule a training session on strategies for searching one or more of the databases contact Chris Benda.

Databases in Homiletics / Liturgics

Art in the Christian Tradition

The Art in the Christian Tradition (ACT) database is a freely available, regularly updated visual image internet resource. Designed for scholars, students, pastors, and religious educators, all of the images may be used for educational and/or religious non-profit purposes. Images are added regularly.   There are currently 4067 images in the collection.

The ACT is linked to another Vanderbilt Divinity Library internet resource, the Revised Common Lectionary. This linking allows leaders of worship and teachers to easily find visual art resources related to the scripture readings for each Sunday in the church calendar.

The visual images in the ACT database represent the continuum of the practice of Christianity from the 1st century A.D. to the present. Many of the images are interpretations of Christian scripture: the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha. Sarcophagi, mosaics, frescoes, manuscripts, sculpture, architecture, and paintings are searchable by keyword, scripture reference, iconographic content, personal name, time period, and geographic location.


ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Religion Database with ATLA Serials

The American Theological Library Association's ATLA Religion Database contains over one million bibliographic records covering the research literature of religion in 26 languages. It includes article citations from 650 journals, essay citations from 14,000 multi-author works, and book review citations. Coverage is from 1949 to the present. Included within the database is the ATLAS Full-Text Plus database which provides online full-text versions of a core collection of more than fifty significant scholarly periodicals in the field of religion.

Revised Common lectionary

The RCL is an ecumenical lectionary system developed by the North American Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) and the International English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC). It is based on the Roman Lectionary, Ordo Lectionum Missae.

The Sermon Content Review

The Sermon Content Review (SCR) is a bi-monthly publication of the Center for the Study of Information and Religion (CSIR) at Kent State University. The focus of SCR is on the social construction of knowledge and the influence of sermons in that process. Its purpose is to provide a snapshot sampling of the topics, issues, and events currently being addressed from pulpits around the country; to document the terminology, scripture texts, and information resources used; and, to discover early indicators, emerging trends, and research questions conducive for advancing the study of information and religion. The sermon texts used for the SCR are gathered from the clergy blogs and congregational websites listed on the Sermon Texts Posting Sites Index (STPSI). For more information about STPSI go to http://www.kent.edu/slis/research/csir/research-tools/stpsi.cfm
 

Southern Manuscript Sermons before 1800

Bibliographic database of over 1600 sermons from pre-1800 Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

To schedule a training session on strategies for searching one or more of the databases, contact Chris Benda.