Sociology Resources: Sociology of Religion

The ARDA strives to democratize access to the best data on religion, allowing users to interactively explore high-quality data on American and international religion. Over 350 data files are available for preview and most can be downloaded for additional research.

The Center for Religion and Civic Culture is an organized research unit of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California. It promotes discipline-based, transdisciplinary, and interdisciplinary research related to the involvement of religion and religious institutions in civic culture. Its research utilizes both social scientific and normative methods.

The Hartford Institute for Religion Research conducts studies in all major areas of the sociology of religion, and its web site is an excellent resource for any student of the field. Here you can find information on the major professional associations and key scholars in the field, a substantial number of online articles, selected online sources for research, a bibliographic database, and other useful things.

The IJRR was founded to publish very high quality, original research on religion by scholars, regardless of their field of specialization. Access to articles is free.

This site consists of "significant primary texts relating to religion and mythology," from ancient texts to modern religious resources. The collection also includes writings by freethinkers Charles Darwin, Thomas Paine, Mark Twain, Clarence Darrow, and Albert Einstein.

A collection of annotated sites on "the study of Islam, Qur'an, hadith, the Sunnah, Shi'ism and Heterodox Movements Sufism, Islam in the modern world, militant Islam, jihad, Islamist or extremist Muslims, and terrorism, Islam in Iraq, Muslim women, Islamic art, architecture, music, as well as Islamic history, theology, philosophy, and Arabic and other Islamic languages such as Persian, and religion in general." [Librarians' Internet Index]

A project by Moriyuki Abukuma to make Weber's texts available online. Sources and credits are provided for all documents.

Useful link directory includes general religion sites and sections on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, religions of the Americas, Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha'i, native American religions, and atheism.

"Resources designed 'to assist professors, scholars and general seekers who are interested in exploring religious issues.' This site aims 'to develop an extensive library of hundreds of entries, presenting many different points of view, but all written from the perspective of sound scholarship.' Contains nearly 5,500 articles in such topics as the Bible, practical theology, ethics, social issues, history of religion, and education. Includes links to over 200 full-text books. [LII]

Statistics covering membership in "over 4,000 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc." Indexes of religion by country and by name; statistics on largest communities of religions by countries and states of the U. S.; religious affiliations of U. S. presidents and current members of Congress. Lists of scriptures by religion; FAQ and L-FAQ ("less frequently asked, but interesting, questions"). Links to other religious

The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion was founded in 1949 by scholars in religion and social science. Its purpose is to stimulate and communicate significant scientific research on religious institutions and religious experience. Its web site includes a useful directory of web resources.

An extensive, selective, annotated directory of Internet resources on religion and related topics. From the Rutgers University Religion Department. [Librarians' Internet Index]