The following primary source databases cover sacred texts and other religious writings relating to different religions and historical time periods.
Primary religious texts from the ancient world and the middle ages.
Holdings of the Arcadian Library, revealing the shared cultural heritage of Europe and the Middle East.
All known Latin works from classical antiquity, patristic works, Medieval Latin texts, and works in many disciplines up to the Second Vatican Council. Please note: access to the database is limited to three concurrent users.
Searchable database of Greek and Latin texts with English translations.
First-hand accounts of life in the medieval world, many translated into English for the first time.
Covers philosophical and theological writings from Latin Christianity up to the year 1216.
Primary religious texts and other sources from the early modern period through to the present day.
Source text of the original edition of the 68 printed volumes of Acta Sanctorum, indices, and references to Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (BHL).
Holdings of the Arcadian Library, revealing the shared cultural heritage of Europe and the Middle East.
Archives Unbound provides access to rare primary source documents topically focused into digital collections covering US foreign policy, civil rights, global affairs, colonial studies, British history, Holocaust studies, LGBT studies, Latin America and Caribbean studies, Middle East studies, political science, religious studies, and women’s studies. Includes over 340 collections.
From its roots as an Anglican evangelical movement driven by lay persons, this resource encompasses publications from the CMS, the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounters.
Entire corpus of Gesamtausgabe (42 volumes) and the 14-volume Kirchliche Dogmatik, with translations of other important works by Barth.
Early Modern Books covers material from the British Isles and Europe for the period 1450-1700, and includes two separate collections: Early English Books Online and Early European Books.
Over 180,000 titles published during the 18th Century, including critical information in history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, and science.
Electronic Enlightenment is a wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.
Users need to register for access to this resource using their UoB email address (scroll down homepage for instructions)
Please note, we have access to the following collections: Unrestricted collection, Moses Mendelssohn-Zentrum collection, and the publicly available collections which include Edited Programs, the podcast, and the Songs from Testimonies collections.
Jewish Life in America explores the history of Jewish communities in America from the arrival of the first Jews in the 17th century right through to the mid-20th century. This collection brings to life the communal and social aspects of Jewish identity and culture, whilst tracing Jewish involvement in the political life of American society as a whole.
All known Latin works from classical antiquity, patristic works, Medieval Latin texts, and works in many disciplines up to the Second Vatican Council. Please note: access to the database is limited to three concurrent users.
Includes the complete 17-volume German edition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke (DBW) and English edition of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works Series (DBWE); an international selection of English-language editions of key authors such as Pope Benedict XVI, Hans Urs von Baltasar, Leonardo Boff, Sergius Bulgakov, Rudolf Bultmann, Helder Camara, James Cone, Mary Daly, Ivone Gebara, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Adolf von Harnack, Bernard Lonergan, Henri de Lubac, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Jon Sobrino, Dorothee Sölle, Ernst Troeltsch, and John Howard Yoder; and a selection of the papers of Reinhold Niebuhr. This collection is complete with over 170,000 pages of printed works and primary sources.
Focuses on modern Islamic theology and tradition and details Islam’s evolution from the late 19th century by examining printed works and rare documents by Muslim writers, both non-Western and Western voices. Includes an international selection of English-language editions of key thinkers such as Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm, Khaled Abou el Fadl, Fethullah Gülen, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Said Nursî, Abdolkarim Soroush, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, and Amina Wadud; writings in Arabic by Muhammad Abduh and in French by Abdou Filali- Ansary, and a selection of more contextual monographs.
Volume IV, Eastern Religions, presents the evolution of eastern religion through the seminal works of major religious thinkers. Explore the doctrines of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Jainism from the late 19th century through the 21st century. Key themes and topics include afterlife, dharma, incarnation, karma, Maya, meditation, mindfulness, reincarnation, sacred texts, and Zen.
More than 54,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide. Please note: you need to register for an account with your UoB email address to access content.
A self-help tutorial on effective research with databases.
The Library has guidance for people looking to use newspaper archives for their research.