Dictionaries/Encyclopedias/Handbooks

Maintained by Saundra Lipton (lipton@acs.ucalgary.ca) and Cheryl Adams ( cada@loc.gov)

General / Ancient Religions/ Baha'i / Biblical Studies / Buddhism / Christianity / Hinduism / Islam / Judaism / Shinto / Sikhism / Taoism / Zoroastrianism / Language Dictionaries

General

• Concise Dictionary of Religion by Irving Hexham - very good glossary to religious studies concepts and people.
• DRH: Database of Religious History - "First comprehensive online quantitative and qualitative encyclopedia of religious cultural history"
• Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained
• Encyclopedia Mythica - extensive guide to mythology, folklore and religion. Can browse areas of mythology such as African, Chinese, Celtic, Arthurian Legend, folktales through the "Jump to area" drop-down box
• Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics
• Encyclopedia of Religion and Society - edited by William H. Swatos, Jr.
• Internet History Sourcebooks Project - note sections for Christian Origins, Roman Church, Crusades, Papacy, Medieval Church,India, Islam,  Judaism and Religious Traditions of East Asia
• Index of Cults - compilation of information on cults prepared by the Watchman Fellowship
• Interdisciplinary Encylopedia of Religion and Science
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Overview of World Religions Project
• New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge by Philip Schaff - 13 vols. - from Classics Ethereal Library)
• The Skeptic's Dictionary
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Wissenschaftlich-Religionspadägogische Lexikon im Internet (WiReLex)

Ancient Religions

• Encyclopedia of Egyptology - "high quality peer reviewed information on ancient Egypt" - over 130 articles including topics such as funerary rituals, judgment after death , anthropomorphic deities and animal cult rituals
• Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities by Harry Thurston Peck
• Pauly Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft - major encyclopedia for Classical Studies

Bahai

• Baha'i Encyclopedia

Biblical Studies

• And Adam Knew Eve: A dictionary of sex in the Bible by Ronald Ecker. Text is also available at this link.
• Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology -edited by Walter A. Elwell (1996)
• Bibelwissenschaft.de - extensive entries with bibliographies
• BIBL index - Index of Biblical Quotations and Allusions in Early Christian Literature - access is free but need to first create an account . Source: Biblia Patristica published texts and archives
• Comprehensive Aramaic Dictionary
• Dictionary of the Bible, dealing with its language literature and contents by Hastings (Christian Classics Ethereal Library)
• 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism - " offers a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to Scholarly Research and fiction in Second Temple Judaism (including Samaritan and New Testament Studies)". Includes information on people, places and topics in Second Temple Judaism.
• A Greek-English Lexicon by Lidell and Scott
• Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities by Harry Thurston Peck
• Holman Bible Dictionary edited by Trent Butler
• International Standard Bible Encyclopedia edited by James Orr (1915)
• Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon, edited by Brown, Driver and Briggs - links to text and word count from King James Old Testament and New American Standard
• New Testament Greek Lexicon - " based on Thayer's and Smith's Bible Dictionary plus others"
• Postmodern Bible Dictionary
• Encyclopaedia Biblica (from internet archive) - individual volumes available from ETANA v. 1 A-D / v. 2 E-K / v.3 L-P / v. 4 Q-Z
• Utensils in the Hebrew Bible
• Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet (WiBiLex) - very comprehensive encyclopedia to Biblica terms

Buddhism

• Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
• Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms by William Edward Soothill and Lewish Hodous
• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism edited by A. Charles Muller
• Female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
• Tibetan Historical Dictionary

Christianity

General

• Biografisch Lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlandse Protestantisme - biographical dictionary of the history of Dutch Protestantism includes over 2,000 indifiduals.
• Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity - "essential biographical facts of Chinese and foreign Christian missionaries, church leaders, evangelists, and laity chiefly responsible for laying the foundations and advancing the growth of Chinese Christian communities and their influence in societies around the world. While the database is widely inclusive of time periods and faith traditions, the distinctive focus of the project is on the lesser-known Chinese Christians of the modern era (1800 to 1950)."
• Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon
• Dictionary of African Christian Biography
• Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte - good for Christian art

Early Church

• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Smith, Wayte, Marindin 1890)
• Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the end of the 6th century edited by Henry Wace and William Piercy (1911) - also available through Christian Classic Etheral Library and Internet Archive
• The Ecole Initiative : creating a hypertext encyclopedia of Early Church history on the world-wide web - articles on Church history from the origins of Christianity to the Reformation - no longer being maintained
• Germania Sacra - history of the Church of the Holy Roman Empire
• LBG (Lexicon zur byzantinischen Gräzität) - "The LBG is the foremost lexicographical resource in Byzantine Studies mainly covering the period from the 4th to the 15th century A.D. taken from more than 3,000 texts. Seven fascicles have appeared to date, with one more scheduled to appear in 2016. When completed the dictionary will consist of more than 2,000 printed pages, containing approx. 80,000 lemmata."

Brethren

• Brethren Encyclopedia

Catholicism

• All about Mary: An encyclopedic tool for information on Mary, the Mother of Christ
• Catholic Dictionary - from Catholic Culture.org this includes over 5,000 terms
• The Catholic Encyclopedia - work in progress transcribing articles from the Old Catholic Encyclopedia
• Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia
• Crum's Coptic Dictionary
• Encyclopedia Coptica
• Franciscan Women: History and Culture: A geographical and bio-bibliographical Internet Guide
• Iconography Terms - compiled by Nicholas Roumas and Nick Beinor and edited by Raoul Smith
• Lexikon der christlichen Moral - by Karl Hormann
• Lives of the Saints by Butler
• Okumenisches Heiligenlexikon - lexicon of Catholic saints - can search by attributes
• A Russian-English Lexicon of Eastern Orthodox Saints - compiled by Nicholas Roumas

Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints

• Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Lutheran

• Christian Cyclopedia - ed. by Erwin Lueker and produced by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Focus on biographical information

Mennonite

• GAMEO: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online - very good source of information, includes articles copied or adapted from The Mennonite Encyclopedia

Methodism

• Encyclopedia of World Methodism
• The Methodist Archives Biographical Index - lists brief information for over 1300 individuals

Unitarian

• Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography

Hinduism

• A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History and Literature by John Dowson (1888) Also availiable here

Islam

• Dictionary of Islamic Philosophical Terms - based on Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy by Prof. M. Saeed Sheikh
• Dictionary of Islam by Thomas Patrick Hughes (1895)
• Encyclopaedia Iranica - " comprehensive research tool dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent"
• Encyclopedia of Islam - in Turkish
• Major voices in Islam and Science - biographical information on key individuals in Islam and Science
• The Quranic Arabic Corpus includes Quran Dictionary, Quranic Grammar, Ontology of Concepts and links to other resources
• Shiite Encyclopedia by Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project Team

Judaism

• Biographies - from Chazzanut Online - information of Cantors
• A Dictionary of the Targumim, The Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi and the Midrashic Literature by Jastrow
• 4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, and Christian and Islamic Orgins: Scholarship and Fiction, from the 15rh century to the present - project by Gabriele Boccaccini and Carlos A. Segovia - " offers a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to scholarly Research and fiction in Second Temple Judaism (including Samaritan and New Testament Studies)". Includes information on people, places and topics in Second Temple Judaism.
• Jewish English Lexicon
• Jewish Women Encyclopedia (Jewish Women's Archive) - 1700 biographies
• Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
• Jewish Encyclopedia - "complete contents of the 12 volume Jewish Encyclopedia which was originally published betweeen 1901-1906"
• Ma'agarim: The Historical Dictionary Project of the Academy of the Hebrew language
• The Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe

Shinto

• Encyclopedia of Shinto

Sikhism

• Sikh Encyclopedia

Taoism

• FYSK Daoist Culture Centre Database - over 600 articles on history, beliefs, immortals, temples and sacred places, religous practise, rituals, music, literature

Zorastrianism

• Dictionary of the most common Avesta words - includes abbreviations and pronounication
• Glossary of Zoroastrian Terms - may search alphabetically or scroll, contains hot links within definitions

Language Dictionaries

Ancient Languages/Semitic Languages

• Akkadian Dictionary
• Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
• Compendious Syriac Dictionary - version from Tyndale archives
• Concise Dictionary of Akkadian - Addendum and Corrigenda
• Arabic- English Lexicon by Lane
• Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon
• Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament: with an appendix containing the biblical Aramiac (1906) based on the Lexikon of Gesenius as translated by Robinson and edited by Brown with the assistance of Driver and Briggs
• Hebrew- Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament by Gesenius
• Hittite Dictionary ( The Oriental Institute of Chicago) - selected fascicles are available fulltext.
• Léxico de magia y religión en los papiros mágicos griegos - over 2500 words for magic and religion found in the editions of K. Preisendanz (Papyri Graecae Magicae) and R. Daniel and F Maltomini (Supplementum Magicum)
• Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon
• Prinicipal Arabic Lexical Resources (CJK Dictionary Institute)
• Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew
• Whitaker's Words Online - Latin dictionary of approximately 39,000 entries. Can translate from Latin to English and English to Latin

Chinese

• Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary by Rick Harbaugh
• Principal Chinese Lexical Resources (CJK Dictionary Institute)

Japanese

• Jeffrey's Japanese-English Dictionary
• Principal Japanese Lexical Resources (CJK Dictionary Institute)

Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil and other South Asian Languages

• Digital Corpus of Sanskrit - " is a searchable collection of lemmatized Sanskrit texts"
• Digital Dictionaries of South Asia - many south Asian Languages including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Pali, Sanskrit and Urdu
• Imperial Gazetteer of India
• Hobson-Jobson: a glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive
• Pali-English Dictionary ( Pali Text Society)
• Sanskrit, Tamil Dictionary Search - can search by Sanskrit, Tamil, or English word - consists of Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Capeller's Sanskrit-English Dictionary and Cologne Online Tamil Lexicon.
• Sanskrit Dictionary - based on the work by Apte
• Sanskrit-Engish Dictionary - Monier-Williams
• Shorter English-Nepali Dictionary - by Major T. Warren

Tibetan

• Tibetan-English Online Dictionary - can search 85,000 Tibetan terms
• Tibetan to English Translation Tool

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

You are visitor since July 1, 2000

---

Maintained by Saundra Lipton (lipton@ucalgary.ca)