Library of Congress Subject HeadingsLarge call number ranges are devoted to topics related to Christianity, including all of the books with call numbers starting BR (on Christianity) and BX (on Christian denominations). In addition, the BS range covers the Bible while the BTs and BVs are on doctrinal and practical theology, respectively. And, of course, you can books relevant to research of Christians and Christianity with almost any other call number too. The subject heading Christianity might be a useful starting point, but would require narrowing. These subject headings are just a few that might be more useful for research on Christianity.
General Reference Works:
Topical Reference Works:
The tabs below represent three call numbers (BR, BS, and BX) with material particularly relevant to research on Christianity. E-books do not have call numbers and consequently have their own tab.
The primary sources below are arranged according to broad chronological categories (early Christianity, medieval Christianity, Reformation-era Christianity, and modern Christianity). Of course, this is just a small sample of material that is out there. Check the History Research Guide or contact me for help finding other sources.
Early Christianity
Electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. Covers the works of the Latin Fathers from Tertullian in 200 A.D. to Pope Innocent III in 1216. Includes the complete Patrologia Latina, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's column numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included.
Medieval Christianity
Electronic version of the Acta Sanctorum, a collection of documents examining the lives of saints, organized according to each saint's feast day.
Contains the text of the sixty-eight printed volumes of Acta Sanctorum published in Antwerp and Brussels by the Société des Bollandistes, from the two January volumes published in 1643 to the Propylaeum to December published in 1940. All prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indices, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (BHL) reference numbers, are also included.
An image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.
The Digital Scriptorium (DS) is a non-commercial online image database of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, or manuscripts made in the tradition of books before printing. DS unites scattered resources from a consortium of many libraries into a union catalog for teaching and scholarly research in medieval and Renaissance studies. It provides unprecedented access to illuminated and textual manuscripts through digital cataloging records, supported by high resolution images and retrievable by various topic searches. DS enables users from the most casual to the most specialized to study the rare and valuable materials of academic, research, and public libraries. It makes available collections that are often restricted from public access and includes not only recognized masterpieces but also understudied manuscripts that have been previously overlooked for exhibition or publication. DS fosters the public viewing of non-circulating materials otherwise available only within restricted access libraries. As a visual catalog, DS allows scholars and beginners to verify with their own eyes cataloguing information about places and dates of origin, scripts, artists, and quality. Special emphasis is placed on the touchstone materials, i.e., manuscripts signed and dated by their scribes, thus beginning the American contribution to the goal established in 1953 by the Comité international de paléographie latine (International Committee of Latin Paleography): to document photographically the proportionately small number of codices of certain origin that will serve stylistically to localize and date the vast quantities of unsigned manuscripts. DS publishes not only manuscripts of firm attribution but also ones that need the attention of further scholarship and traditionally would have been unlikely candidates for reproduction. Because it is web-based, it also allows for updates and corrections, and as a matter of form individual records in DS can and do acknowledge contributions from outside scholars. DS encourages interaction between the academic and the library world to build a growing and reciprocally beneficial body of knowledge. DS looks to the needs of a very diverse community of specialists: medievalists, classicists, musicologists, paleographers, diplomatists, literary scholars and art historians. At the same time DS recognizes a broader user community in the public that values rare and unique works of historical, literary and artistic significance.
Translations of the work of influential Catholic theologian and philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas.
Electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. Covers the works of the Latin Fathers from Tertullian in 200 A.D. to Pope Innocent III in 1216. Includes the complete Patrologia Latina, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's column numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included.
Reformation-Era Christianity
Contains every book published in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the United States between 1475-1700.
From the first book published in English through the 17th-century, this collection contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. The database offers complete citation information and page images.
Digital access to European works printed before 1701. The contents are drawn from major repositories, including the Danish Royal Library, the National Central Library in Florence, the National Library of France, the National Library of the Netherlands, and the Wellcome Library in London.
Includes access to collections 1-10. Religious works dominate, but the resource also includes secular material. Fully searchable pages scanned directly from the original printed sources in high-resolution full color. Each item is captured in its entirety, complete with binding, edges, endpapers, blank pages and any loose inserts.
Modern Christianity
Provides access to materials exploring important aspects of LGBTQ life. Includes periodicals, newsletters, manuscripts, government records, organizational papers, correspondence, an international selection of posters, and other primary source materials.
Includes access to five modules: LGBTQ History Since 1940, part 1; LGBTQ History Since 1940, part 2; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture; and L'Enfer de la Bibliotheque Nationale de France Digital Archive.
Features publications from the Church Missionary Society (CMS), the South American Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS) between 1804 and 2009.
Includes access to two modules:
Module 1: Global Missions and Contemporary Encounters, 1804-2009: features publications from the Church Missionary Society and the South American Missionary Society between 1804 and 2009.
Module 2: Medical Journals, Asian Missions and the Historical Record, 1816-1986: focuses on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children subscribers.
Provides access to the works of renowned Swiss Reformed theologian, Karl Barth (1886-1968).
Includes the entire corpus of Barth's Gesamtausgabe, comprised of more than 40 volumes of sermons, letters, lectures, conversations, and academic writings. Also includes Barth's magnum opus, the 14-volume Kirchliche Dogmatik.
Contains over 70,000 images of original manuscripts (including biographies and chronologies) and printed materials covering Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Oceana, and South Asia.
Includes interactive maps and original documents linked to essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. The sections cover Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion and Empire; and Race, Class and Colonialism, c1783-1969. The images are sources from the British Library, including the Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library; the University of Birmingham Library; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and the Public Record Office and the State Records, New South Wales, Australia.