InfoGuides: REL 301.03C/CV (Cumming): Is America a Christian Nation?: Getting Started

Assignment

Research Essay—Each student will write a research essay of 2,000-2,500 words based on one of these four essay prompts:

1. Was Christianity united in 18th century America? If so, around what principles? If not, why not?
2. Was Thomas Jefferson a Christian? Why or why not?
3. Should early America have adopted an established (i.e. state sponsored) religion? If so, which religion? If not, why not?
4. What was the relationship between Christianity and slavery in post-Revolution, pre-Civil War America?

E-books for background information

The Blackwell Companion to Religion in America by Philip Goff (Editor)
ISBN: 9781444324099
A Companion to Colonial America by Daniel Vickers (Editor)
ISBN: 9781405149853
Companion to American Cultural History by Karen Halttunen (Editor)
ISBN: 9781405180306
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Politics in the U. S. by Barbara A. McGraw
ISBN: 9781118528655
A Companion to Thomas Jefferson by Francis D. Cogliano (Editor)
ISBN: 9781444344639
A Companion to the American South by John B. Boles (Editor)
ISBN: 9781405138307
The Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth-Century Theology by David Fergusson (Editor)
ISBN: 9781444319989

JSTOR
Access the journal archives Arts & Sciences I, II, & III, and over 40,000 ebooks on the JSTOR platform; book chapters and journal articles are cross-searchable. JSTOR is an extensive archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering subject disciplines in Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.

Finding Books

Use the library catalog (http://pepperdine.on.worldcat.org) to find books (print and electronic) on your topic.

su:Freedom of religion United States.

su:Church and state United States.

su:United States Church history To 1775.

su:Church and state United States History 18th century.

su:Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 Religion.

su:Presidents United States Religion.

Slavery and the church United States History 19th century.

su:United States Church history 19th century.

su:Christianity and politics United States History 18th century.

Finding Articles

To find journal articles, try using the ATLA Religion database, which covers Religion journals, or Academic Search Complete, which covers interdisciplinary journals.

Be sure to limit your results so that only articles from peer-reviewed (scholarly) journals appear. You can do this on EBSCOhost via the search page:

Atla Religion Database
Provides access to 632,100 article citations from more than 1,650 journals (518 currently indexed), more than 260,200 essay citations from over 16,700 multi-author works, more than 575,400 book review citations, essays, ministry reports and a growing number of multimedia citations. Full text for more than 442,300 articles & reviews. Includes major theology and religious journals reflecting all major faiths, denominations and language groups. Beginning in 1949 although indexing for some journal titles extends back into the nineteenth century.
JSTOR
Access the journal archives Arts & Sciences I, II, & III, and over 40,000 ebooks on the JSTOR platform; book chapters and journal articles are cross-searchable. JSTOR is an extensive archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering subject disciplines in Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.
Academic Search Complete
Provides full text coverage to nearly 9,100 journals, including over 7,900 peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more. Full-text coverage dates back to 1985 and is updated daily.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context
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A complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Users have access to viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, interactive maps, videos, streaming audio, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

From immigration to stem cells to texting-while-driving, Opposing Viewpoints in Context delivers 13,000+ pro/con views, 1,000+ court case overviews, and thousands more topic overviews, biographies and profiles.
Encyclopedia of American Religions (7th ed. 2003)
Contains general essays that historically trace the major religious families and traditions, as well as directory listings that include contact and descriptive information on individual churches, religious bodies, and spiritual groups.
HeinOnline
Online research product with more than 90 million pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. Visit HeinOnline LibGuides for tips on searching this database.