Every discipline and many fields have specialized encyclopedias. Unlike Wikipedia, these encyclopedias are written, reviewed, and edited by academic experts. Consulting an encyclopedia in the early stages of your research can help you define your key terms, situate your topic in its wider scholarly context, find related fields of inquiry, and even locate seminal works of research that may be contained in the bibliographies at the end of each entry. Titles are organized into four broad groups: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Other World Religions. The sidebar includes some texts that cover global religion more generally.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian ChurchFor reference books on the Bible, please see this Guide's section Sacred Texts & Commentaries
Encyclopedia of Christian Theology
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
The Oxford Dictionary of Popes
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
Who's Who in Christianity
Brill's Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd & 3rd eds)For reference books on the Qu'ran and the Hadith, please see this Guide's section Sacred Texts & Commentaries
The Oxford Dictionary of Islam
Brill's Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures
Encyclopaedia of Islamic Jurisprudence
Fifty Key Figures in Islam
Encyclopedia Judaica (2nd ed)For reference books on the Tanakh and the Talmud, please see this Guide's section Sacred Texts & Commentaries
Brill's Encyclopaedia of Judaism (2nd ed)
A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations
Who's Who in Jewish History (2nd Edition)
Oxford Dictionary of Hinduism
A Popular Dictionary of Sikhism
Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism
A Popular Dictionary of Shinto
Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion
The Cambridge History of Christianity
The Cambridge History of Judaism
The New Cambridge History of Islam
Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science