The ATLA Religion Database or ATLA RDB, is an index of academic articles in the area of religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. It is updated quarterly by the American Theological Library Association

American Theological Library Association

The American Theological Library Association is a professional organization of religious and theological libraries in the United States with more nearly 1,000 members...

 (ATLA). The database indexes journal

Academic journal

An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...

 articles, essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s and book review

Book review

A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review could be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review. It is often carried out in periodicals, as school work, or on the internet. Reviews are also often...

s related to a wide range of scholarly fields related to religion. The database is available on a subscription basis, via electronic storage media or as an OpenURL

OpenURL

OpenURL is a standardized format of Uniform Resource Locator intended to enable Internet users to more easily find a copy of a resource that they are allowed to access...

 source.

The total database includes over 1.8 million article citations from over 1,700 journals. There are more than a quarter of a million essay citations from more than 18,000 multi-author works. The number of book reviews is over half a million. ATLA indexes multi-author works, such as Festschrift

Festschrift

In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...

en and conference proceedings

Academic conference

An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...

, with separate records for each essay.

Formats

The ATLA Religion Database has been available as both a CD-ROM and as a MARC record format

MARC standards

MARC, MAchine-Readable Cataloging, is a data format and set of related standards used by libraries to encode and share information about books and other material they collect...

 database. The database also incorporates several print indexes, including Religion Index One: Periodicals, Religion Index Two: Multi-Author Works, and Index to Book Reviews in Religion.

Coverage

The database indexes scholarly works on major world religions. There are, however, selection criteria for inclusion according to scholarly merit and scope. More than 60 languages are represented. Some records cover articles as far back as the 19th century. ATLA claim full coverage for core journals back to 1949.

ATLA RDB has received criticism for under-representing the emerging fields of lesbian theology and womanist theology in its coverage.

Scholarly fields with significant degrees of coverage include:

• Ancient History
  Ancient history
  Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
  
  
• Anthropology
  Anthropology
  Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
  
  
• Archaeology
  Archaeology
  Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
  
  
• Bible
  Bible
  The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
  
  
• Church History
• Ethics
  Ethics
  Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
  
  
• Mission
  Mission (Christian)
  Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
  
  
• Philosophy
  Philosophy
  Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
  
  
• Pastoral Ministry
• Religious studies
  Religious studies
  Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
  
  
• Theology
  Theology
  Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
  
  
• Human Culture & Society
• Ecumenism
  Ecumenism
  Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
  
  
• World Religions

External links

• ATLA Catalog — ATLA Religion Database at American Theological Library Association website