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UFDN 3001 Christian Scripture for Transfer Students (Lim)

Introduction

Listed below are some of the major encyclopedias on the Christian traditions, along with some of the appropriate entries in them, listed by denominational tradition.  But on each of these traditions there will be also, of course, books and essay-collections in the book catalog and essays and articles in the databases.  If you would like to go further and identify and procure also books, essays, and/or articles, feel free to contact me (Steve Perisho, at bottom left) for help.

Episcopal

Evangelical Covenent

Free Methodist

Non-Denominationalism in General

 

The official Subject headings that will sometimes capture works on non-denominationalism in general (in the book catalog and article databases) are

  • Big churches.  USED FOR Churches, Big; Churches, Large; Congregations, Big; Congregations, Large; Large churches; Megachurches.
  • Christian sects.  USED FOR Denominations, Christian.
  • Community churches.  Here are entered works on independent local Protestant churches with no formal denominational affiliation.  USED FOR Churches, Undenominational; Undenominational churches; etc.  But you may have to exclude Subject headings like Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches as (however ubiquitous) too narrow for your purposes.
  • Denominations, Religious (Atla Religion Database only; LC:  USE Sects)
  • Independent church associations.  USED FOR Nondenominational organizations; Parachurch associations; Parachurch organizations (all Atla Religion Database).
  • Independent churches.  RELATED TOPICS:  Community churches; Indigenous churches (Atla Religion Database only).  BROADER TOPIC:  Christian sects.  NARROWER TOPIC: 
    • Non-institutional churches.  NARROWER TOPICS:
      • Cell churches
      • Emerging church movement
      • House churches
      • Missional church movement

Unoffical Keywords/phrases (along with the above), placed in fields other than Subject fields), might (I don't say will!) be helpful, too:

  • Non(-)denominational*
  • Post(-)denominational*
  • Un(-)denominational*
     
  • Inter(-)denominational*
  • Intra(-)denominational*
  • Trans(-)denominational*
     
  • Emerg* church*
  • Evangelical*
  • Mega(-)church*
     
  • Non(-)confessional*
  • Post(-)confessional*
  • Non(-)sectarian
  • Post(-)sectarian

But keep in mind that you must run both official Subject and unofficial Title or Keyword/phrase searches!

Keep in mind, too, that you may have to search on specific churches that you already know to be (supposedly) "non-denominational," e.g. Bethany Community Church, Hillsong Church, Willow Creek Community Church, Lakewood Church, Gateway Church, Grace Church, etc.

And finally, the Web, IF used critically to JUMP-start a search, can be helpful on this as well.

Non-Denominational African American

In addition to the dictionaries and encyclopedias below, you may wish to try also the dictionaries and encyclopedias of African-American history and culture.

Non-Denominational Evangelical

Most if not all of the encyclopedias listed elsewhere on this page will contain substantial entries on Evangelicalism.  For help with the search for scholarship on Non-denominationalism, see the box labelled Non-Denominationalism in General, above.

Non-Denominational Progressive

For help with the search for scholarship on Non-denominationalism, see the box labelled Non-Denominationalism in General, above.

Progressivism in the sense used here, by contrast, will be harder to find in the mere encyclopedias.  The entry on "Progressivism" in the 2nd ed. of the four-volume Encyclopedia of religion in America, for example, although not wholly unrelated ("The term 'progressivism . . . nearly always refer[s] to reform, change, innovation, or radicalism"), covers really only "the Progressive Era" of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, not the progressivism of Quest Church in 2020s Seattle.

For the latter you will have to try, in the book catalogs and article databases, Subject headings like the following, all probably too broad to be helpfully reliable, in combination with others like (but very far from limited to) those for Independent churches (above), but also Keywords like progressiv*:

Liberalism
Liberalism (Religion) (Atla Religion Database)
Liberalism—Religious aspects (book catalogs)

Liberals

Progressivism
Progressivism . . . —Religious aspects
Progressivism in religion (AtlaRDb)
Progressivism (United States politics)

Right and left (Political science)
Right and left (Political science) . . . —Religious aspects

You could also try, instead of or in addition to those, official Subject headings and unofficial Keywords and -phrases for the various causes and doctrines of contemporary Christian progressivism.

For more help with this assignment, see me (Steve Perisho).

Presbyterian/Reformed

United Methodist