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Online resources One of the most important parts of a research paper is finding and accessing pertinent sources. These may be primary (original) or secondary (scholarly) sources. In the old days, you'd hunker down with a million books and read through their bibliographies and find those books and read through their bibliographies, and spend lots of time getting to know the card catalogues: no longer! UCR subscribes to a number of databases, and there is also a great deal of public domain material on the internet. Of course, you can search "Google" for your paper topic, but you'll want to find the most recent scholarly sources and many campus resources can help you with that. (Unless otherwise noted, the following electronic sources are only available from UCR-linked terminals; to connect to UCR resources from your home computer, see instructions here). [Links to databases have been removed for the archived version of this webpage.]
The catalogue of the UCR libraries, often a useful first step to find out what we have on campus. (Available from any terminal.)
The combined catalogue of all UC campuses. If you find a source you need, but it is not available at UCR, Interlibrary Loan is usually fast and efficient and directly accessible through Melvyl. (Available from any terminal.)
WorldCat An online catalogue of pretty much every library in the world, with direct links to Interlibrary Loan so you can request items directly from its database.
ATLA Religion Database Gives references to articles, essays, books, book chapters, and book reviews, primarily in English but also in some European languages. To see if you can access the text of an article online directly, or to see if the resources is available at UCR (through Scotty) or at another California campus (through Melvyl) click on the orange "UC-eLinks" button.
Web of Science A citation index, often useful in tracking down works on particular subjects and also creating bibliographies by seeing who has cited "classic" works on a subject. Although less reliable, the citation index will also catalogue primary sources (e.g., "Life of Antony").
JSTOR: The scholarly journal archive A database of full-text files of many, many scholarly journals: a great place to start, although do note that most journals have a "moving wall" so that articles newer than five years (or so) will not be included in the database.
Other databases Skim through the list of databases to which UCR subscribes: you'll find many topics (art, literature, music, history) that might be useful resources for your object of study. If you are studying a recent figure of sainthood, even the newspaper databases might be useful to you.
The Internet Sacred Text Archive This collection of "sacred texts" (understood very broadly) might be a good resource for finding primary source materials. Remember, many of these texts have been scanned in and contain errors: if the site refers to a print reference from which the digital version has been derived, it's a good idea to track down that print reference, as well.
Online encyclopedias like Wikipedia have limited value: their contents usually combine public domain encyclopedias with information that has been input directly by readers and is therefore not necessarily reliable. While you might decide to start at a site like Wikipedia for very general information, do not trust that information and certainly do not cite it in a paper for this class.
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Print resources As you will learn if you haven't already, "B" is the home of religion works in the Library of Congress cataloguing system. Sometimes, the best way to find resources in print is to browse the stacks.
For materials we don't have at UCR, you should become familiar with the Interlibrary Loan process. When you find a book resource in Melvyl or Worldcat (see links above) that we don't have at UCR, click on the "ILL" link and fill out the requested information (you'll need your ID number for your UCR Card). If you find an article or essay resource not available at UCR through ATLA, click on the "UC-elinks" orange button; if we don't have that resources, there will be a link that says "Request." Usually the Interlibrary Loan office is able to send PDF files of requested essays or articles.
A few volumes helpful to research have been placed on reserve, in addition to the required texts for the class, including:
Elizabeth A. Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making Derek Krueger, Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East Virginia Burrus, The Sex Lives of Saints
Hagiography You'll find some general resources on hagiography below under "sources for finding a Life." Other sources at UCR (picked at random from the online catalogue; useful for finding recent works through the bibliographies):
Thomas J. Heffernan, Sacred Biography: Saints and their Biographers in the Middle Ages Sandro Sticca (ed.), Saints: Studies in Hagiography Lynda L. Coon, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity Michael Goodich, Lives and Miracles of the Saints: Studies in Medieval Latin Hagiography Hippolyte Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints Alison Goddard Elliott, Roads to Paradise: Reading the Lives of the Early Saints Clyde Binfield (ed.), Sainthood Revisioned: Studies in Hagiography and Biography Thomas F.X. Noble and Thomas Head (eds.), Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Timea Szell (eds.), Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe M. Barnard, P. Post, and E. Rose (eds.), A Cloud of Witnesses: The Cult of Saints in Past and Present James Howard-Johnston and Paul Antony Hayward (eds.), The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Contribution of Peter Brown Corinee G. Dempsey, Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India Robert A. Orsi, Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars who Study Them Samanta J.E. Riches and Sarah Salih (eds.), Gender and Holiness: Men, Women, and Saints in Late Medieval Europe Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey (tr. and eds.), Holy Women of the Syrian Orient
Resources on Early Christianity This course does not require any significant background in the study of early Christianity. Nonetheless, if you wish to fill in your historical background, you may find the following resources helpful:
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Henry Chadwick, The Early Church ________, The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 1: From Origins to Constantine A People's History of Christianity, vol. 2: Late Ancient Christianity Gillian Clark, Christianity and Roman Society Philip Rousseau, The Early Christian Centuries
(Other volumes available in Prof. Jacobs' library)
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Finding a saint's life For the final project, students must focus on a specific hagiographic text. Students may choose to write on one of the saint's Lives assigned for the class, but are strongly encouraged to develop a final paper on a different text. Students especially whose main area of focus is not Christianity are encouraged to look outside the Christian tradition for a saint's Life on which to write.
You can be creative in defining a "saint" (as well as a Life), but please focus on a text that lends itself to the sort of critical readings we conduct throughout the quarter. John Kennedy's Profiles in Courage might arguably be a hagiography; Mitch Alboum's Tuesdays with Morrie is probably not, arguably, a hagiography.
Listed below are some resources for finding a saint's Life, as well as some titles of early Christian, Christian, and non-Christian saints' Lives available in English translation (some may require ordering through Interlibrary Loan).
Sources for finding a Life A Scotty subject listing for "Christian Hagiography": click here. John Delaney, Dictionary of Saints Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend Thomas Head, ed., Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology David Hugh Farmer, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Saints Donald Attwater, ed., The Penguin Dictionary of Saints Acta sanctorum Butler's Lives of the Saints The Encyclopedia of Catholic Saints
Josef Meri, The cult of saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (2002) Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, entries: "Saint"; "Biography and Hagiography"
Internet Medieval Sourcebook on Saints' Lives
Some Lives: Christian Life of Melania the Younger History of the Monks of Egypt Palladius, Lausiac History Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Macrina Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Gregory the Wonderworker Eusebius, Life of Constantine Mark, Life of Porphyry of Gaza John of Damascus, Barlaam and Josaphat Life of St. Columba Life of Patrick Life of Augustine Life of Ambrose Life of Brigid Life of Francis of Assisi
Some Lives: Non-Christian Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars Plutarch, Parallel Lives Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists
Toledot Yeshu Martin Buber, Legend of the Baal Shem
Ibn Ishaq, Life of Muhammad
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