Finding theological book reviews is a hit-and-miss proposition. Many books are never reviewed at all; others are reviewed in periodicals that are not indexed. It can be a challenge to find reviews for earlier materials. Increasingly, however, the ATLA Religion Database with ATLA Serials is indexing reviews for an early period including 19th century periodicals.
Interestingly enough, it is just as much a challenge to find scholarly reviews of current books. Most reviews that appear within the first year of a book’s publication are more likely to be notices, summaries, or recommendations rather than critical reviews, and even these take time to be processed by those indexing current materials.
While an increasing number of journals whose contents are theological and religious (broadly defined) are available electronically, in the majority of cases these are not indexed. So that while such issues appear more punctually than printed journals, their usefulness may be curtailed because of the absence of cumulative indexes.
ATLA Religion Database
The ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials contains bibliographic records covering the research literature of religion in many languages. It includes article citations from journals, essay citations from multi-author works, book reviews, and book review citations. Reviews are searchable by book title or author. Many reviews are available full-text. The coverage areas include antiquities/archaeology, Bible, church history, ecumenism, ethics, missions, pastoral ministry, philosophy, and theology. It is complemented by the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index. Together these databases are an essential resource for researchers and students in theology as well as in the social sciences, history, and the humanities.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
The Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It indexes the world’s leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from the major science and social science journals. It provides access to current information and retrospective data. Thousands of new articles and cited references are added weekly. Some of the disciplines covered include archaeology, literature, classics, philosophy, history, and religion. It is part of Web of Science a multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the arts & humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Historical Abstracts
Historical Abstracts is organized by region and period, and allows browsing of chronologies and brief summaries of significant events and themes in world history since 1450. Suggested research topics and easy-to-use search tools, provided within each topic area, allow you to research the entire database for articles, books, collections, and dissertations.
Humanities Abstracts
Humanities Abstracts provides comprehensive abstracting and indexing to hundreds of English-language periodicals covering fields like archaeology, classical studies, art, philosophy, history, literature, and religion. It is essential reference tool for serious research in the diverse subject areas of the humanities.
Electronic Journals
The UTL subscribes to a number of electronic journals relevant to the theological disciplines. Three factors should be noted about these:
- Electronic journals are arranged by title not by subject so that journals in theology can not be located readily
- Not all these journals include reviews
- Some journals offer tables of contents only
However, titles of interest are:
- American Journal of Theology and Philosophy
- Anglican Theological Review
- Biblical Archaeological Review
- Biblical Interpretation
- Catholic Biblical Quarterly Review
- History of Religions
- International Journal of Systematic Theology
- International Review of Mission
- Journal of Biblical Literature
- Journal of Christian Theological Research
- Journal of Church and State
- Journal of Ecclesiastical History
- Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
- Journal of Religion
- Journal of Religion & Film
- Journal of Religious Ethics
- Journal of Religious History
- Journal of Religious Thought
- Journal of Spiritual Formation
- Journal of Theological Studies
- New Testament Studies
- Religion
- Religion and American Culture
- Religion and the Arts
- Religion News Service
- Religion, State and Society
- Religious Studies
- Scottish Journal of Theology
- Theological Studies
- Theologische Literaturzeitung
- Theology Today
NOTE: When you are accessing UTL e-resources remotely you will be prompted for your UTORid.
Updated by Tom Power Nov. 2018; revised AFJ September 2021