LibGuides: History Research Guide: Religion in America

Library Databases & Sources

17th and 18th Century Burney Collection

Part of the British Library Newspaper Collection. Full-text, fully searchable digital archive of nearly 1,270 newspapers and news pamphlets from the UK and around the world.
American Periodicals Series Online (Colonial to early 20th century)
This unique and valuable collection contains digitized page images from American magazines and journals that originated between 1741, when Andrew Bradford's American Magazine and Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine were launched, and 1900.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text

Covers world history from the 15th century to the present (excluding the United States and Canada). Coverage extends to related disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology and sociology. Includes the full text of more than 530 journals and 140 books.
JSTOR - Full Text

This is a full-text archive of key academic journals in many disciplines, mostly in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Being an archive, it does NOT USUALLY have the current issues of these journals. Most journals have a “lag time” of 2-5 years.
New York Times

As of June 2025, Murray State students, faculty and staff can use their network credentials to access their free New York Times subscription, instead of registering for an account as in the past. Instructions follow for new and existing users.
New users: From a web browser, go to nytimes.com, click Login, scroll down and click Continue with work or school single sign-on at the bottom of the login page. Note: Activation via mobile apps is not yet supported.
Existing users: Login to your nytimes.com account via your current login method (eg. email/password or social login method). Then go to Account > Account settings > click "Manage" next to Connected Accounts / Work or School.
OR
Existing NYT program subscribers can continue to visit nytimes.com until their academic passes expire after 4 years, after which they must visit nytimes.com, click Login, and immediately scroll down and click “Continue with work or school single sign-on” at the bottom of the login page (as shown above in the New User section).
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(Old instructions for reference) The New York Times Archive searches the contents of the New York Times from 1851 to present. Full text is provided to Murray State users. Murray State users must create an account to authenticate access, AND MUST BE ON CAMPUS FOR REGISTRATION. Following registration, access is available off-campus. Visit https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/ippass to create a free account. If you are unable able to come to campus to create your account, please contact Cris Ferguson .
Religion and Philosophy Collection
Comprehensive database covering such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. Includes nearly 300 full text journals.
WorldCat

Catalog of thousands of libraries. Books, manuscripts, computer data files, maps, computer programs, musical scores, films and slides, sound recordings, and videotapes. Interlibrary loan requests may be made directly from the database. Date coverage is comprehensive.

Jews and the American Religious Landscape by Uzi Rebhun
ISBN: 9780231178266

Publication Date: 2016-09-06

Jews and the American Religious Landscape explores major complementary facets of American Judaism and Jewish life through a comprehensive analysis of contemporary demographic and sociological data. Focusing on the most important aspects of social development--geographic location, socioeconomic stratification, family dynamics, group identification, and political orientation--the volume adds empirical value to questions concerning the strengths of Jews as a religious and cultural group in America and the strategies they have developed to integrate successfully into a Christian society. With advanced analyses of data gathered by the Pew Research Center, Jews and the American Religious Landscape shows that Jews, like other religious and ethnic minorities, strongly identify with their religion and culture. Yet their particular religiosity, along with such factors as population dispersion, professional networks, and education, have created different outcomes in various contexts. Living under the influence of a Christian majority and a liberal political system has also cultivated a distinct ethos of solidarity and egalitarianism, enabling Judaism to absorb new patterns in ways that mirror its integration into American life. Rich in information thoughtfully construed, this book presents a remarkable portrait of what it means to be an American Jew today.
Religion in America: the Basics by Michael Pasquier
ISBN: 9781138805569

Publication Date: 2016-11-02

Religion in America: The Basics is a concise introduction to the historical development of religions in the United States. It is an invitation to explore the complex tapestry of religious beliefs and practices that shaped life in North America from the colonial encounters of the fifteenth century to the culture wars of the twenty-first century. Far from a people unified around a common understanding of Christianity, Religion in America: The Basics tracks the steady diversification of the American religious landscape and the many religious conflicts that changed American society. At the same time, it explores how Americans from a variety of religious backgrounds worked together to face the challenges of racism, poverty, war, and other social concerns. Because no single survey can ever satisfy the need to know more and think differently, Religion in America prepares readers to continue studying American religions with their own questions and perspectives in mind.
The Secular Landscape by Kevin McCaffree
ISBN: 9783319502618

Publication Date: 2017-02-17

This book proposes a comprehensive theory of the loss of religion in human societies, with a specific and substantive focus on the contemporary United States. Kevin McCaffree draws on a range of disciplines including sociology, psychology, anthropology, and history to explore topics such as the origin of religion, the role of religion in recent American history, the loss of religion, and how Americans are dealing with this loss. The book is not only richly theoretical but also empirical. Hundreds of scientific studies are cited, and new statistical analyses enhance its core arguments. What emerges is an integrative and illuminating theory of secularization.
The Secular State under Siege by Christian Joppke
ISBN: 9780745665412

Publication Date: 2015-04-27

Throughout human history, religion and politics have entertained the most intimate of connections as systems of authority regulating individuals and society. While the two have come apart through the process of secularization, secularism is challenged today by the return of public religion. This cogent analysis unravels the nature of the connection, disconnection, and attempted reconnection between religion and politics in the West. In a comparison of Western Europe and North America, Christianity and Islam, Joppke advances far-reaching theoretical, historical, and comparative-political arguments. With respect to theory, it is argued that only a "substantive" concept of religion, as pertaining to the existence of supra-human powers, opens up the possibility of a historical-comparative perspective on religion. At the level of history, secularization is shown to be the distinct outcome of Latin Christianity itself. And at the level of comparative politics, the Christian Right in America which has attacked the "wall of separation" between religion and state and Islam in Europe with the controversial insistence on sharia law and other "illiberal" claims from some quarters are taken to be counterpart incarnations of public religion and challenges to the secular state. This clearly argued, sweeping book will provide an invaluable framework for approaching an array of critical issues at the intersection of religion, law and politics for advanced students and researchers across the social sciences and legal studies, as well as for the interested public.
American Cultural Studies by Neil Campbell; Alasdair Kean
ISBN: 9781138833135,

Publication Date: 2016-02-04

Exploring the central themes in modern American cultural studies and discussing how these themes can be interpreted, American Cultural Studies offers a wide-ranging overview of different aspects of American cultural life such as religion, gender and sexuality, regionalism, and ethnicity and immigration. The fourth edition has been revised throughout to take into account the developments of the last four years. Updates and revisions include: discussion of Barack Obama's time in the White House, consideration of Hemispheric American Studies, and the increasing debates about globalisation and the international role of the USA, long-form television and American Studies, up-to-date case studies, such as Girls, The Wire, and Orange is the New Black, more material on Detroit, the Mexican border, same-sex relationships and Islam in America updated further reading lists and new follow-up work. Illustrated throughout, containing follow-up questions and further reading at the end of each chapter, and accompanied by a companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/campbell) providing further study resources, American Cultural Studies is a core text and an accessible guide to the interdisciplinary study of American culture.

Beyond Integration by Sarah B. Barber (Editor); Arthur Joyce (Editor)
Call Number: Waterfield Library New Materials Shelf (E59.R38 R39 2018

ISBN: 113890788X

Publication Date: 2017-09-21

This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organization and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americasspans the entire precolumbian period, from Preceramic Peru to the Contact period in eastern North America, with case studies from North, Middle, and South America. Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americasconsiders the ways in which religion itself generated political innovation and thus enabled political centralization to occur. It moves beyond a "Great Tradition" focus on elite religion to understand how local political authority was negotiated, contested, bolstered, and undermined within diverse constituencies, demonstrating how religion has transformed non-Western societies. As well as offering readers fresh perspectives on specific archaeological cases, this book breaks new ground in the archaeological examination of religion and society.
Encyclopedia of Religion in America by Charles H. Lippy; Peter W. Williams
Call Number: Waterfield Library Reference Collection - Waterfield Library (BL2520 .E52 2010

ISBN: 0872895807

Publication Date: 2010-06-01

A multidisciplinary examination of religion in American life Encyclopedia of Religion in America examines how religious history and practices are woven into the political, social, cultural, and historical landscape of North America. This authoritative four-volume reference work explains the origins, development, adaptation, influence, and interrelations of the many faiths practiced, including major world religions, new religious sects, cults, and religious movements that originated or had an influence in the United States. Edited by well-known experts in the field, the Encyclopedia covers all the significant religious denominations and movements that have originated or flourished in North America, from the beginning of European settlement to the present day. The broad multidisciplinary coverage includes the religious life of indigenous peoples, specific aspects of religious life, and the relationship of political, social, economic, and cultural spheres. Topics include: Religion as an influential force in the U.S. Methods of worship Religion and politics Homosexuality and religion African American religion Arts and architecture Church-state issues Education Environment and ecology Ethnicity Evangelicals Faiths Gay and lesbian issues Historical overviews Immigration Media (new and old) Megachurches Movements and denominations New religious movements Popular religion and culture Race and racism Religious thought Religious Right Rites Role of women Terrorism and war Encyclopedia of Religion in America is an essential resource for students and scholars researching issues in a wide variety of social science disciplines, from American history to cultural studies, political science, gender studies, psychology of religion, and more. It reflects new scholarly research and interpretation that have emerged over the last two decades, as well as significant new areas of study, such as post-9/11 America, the role of gays and lesbians in church, gender, and the role of the evangelicals in American political life.
Historical collections relating to the American colonial church by William Stevens Perry 1832-1898
Call Number: Waterfield Library Media Room - Waterfield Library (film #2 reel 34 no.2 )

Publication Date: 1870-78

This item is in a reel of microfilm. It cannot be checked out. For assistance using the microfilm readers, see the INFO desk.
Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia
Call Number: Waterfield Library Media Room - Waterfield Library (film #2 reel 28 no.10 )

Publication Date: 1872

This item is in a reel of microfilm. It cannot be checked out. For assistance using the microfilm readers, see the INFO desk.
Religion and American Education by Warren A. Nord
Call Number: Waterfield Library (LC111 .N67 1995

ISBN: 0807821659

Publication Date: 1995-05-31

Warren Nord's thoughtful book tackles an issue of great importance in contemporary America: the role of religion in our public schools and universities. According to Nord, public opinion has been excessively polarized by those religious conservatives who would restore religious purposes and practices to public education and by those secular liberals for whom religion is irrelevant to everything in the curriculum. While he maintains that public schools and universities must not promote religion, he also argues that there are powerful philosophical, political, moral, and constitutional reasons for requiring students to study religion. Indeed, only if religion is included in the curriculum will students receive a truly liberal education, one that takes seriously a variety of ways of understanding the human experience. Intended for a broad audience, Nord's comprehensive study encompasses American history, constitutional law, educational theory and practice, theology, philosophy, and ethics. It also discusses a number of current, controversial issues, including multiculturalism, moral education, creationism, academic freedom, and the voucher and school choice movements.

Religion and the Founding of the American Republic