Research Guides: Church History: Encyclopedias and Dictionaries by Period

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries by Period

See also the separate Research Guide to Patristics.

Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity.
Produced by the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum.
IVP Academic, 2014.
3 volumes.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
The most scholarly English-language dictionary of Christian antiquity with over 3200 signed articles each with an extensive bibliography.
The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology.
Edited by Paul Corby Finney.
Eerdmans, 2017. 3 volumes.
Over 1400 articles on Christian art in Africa, Asia, and Europe from 200 to 600.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity.
Edited by Everett Ferguson.
Garland, 1997.
2 volumes.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
A slightly more readable dictionary of Christian antiquity than Angelo Di Berardino’s Encyclopedia of the Early Church (above). Specialists in patristics and early Christian history will find it useful for concise, accurate summaries, ready access to facts, and basic bibliographies.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.
Oxford University Press, 1991.
3 volumes.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
Major survey articles as well as shorter articles on lesser topics covering the Byzantine Empire from the 4th to the 15th centuries.
Dictionary of the Middle Ages.
Charles Scribners' Sons, 1982-1989.
13 volumes.
Articles (many of essay length) on all aspects of medieval scholarship. It is now forty years old, so the bibliographies are very out-of-date.
All of the volumes are available online on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login: volume 1 AAC-AUG, volume 2 AUG-BYZ, volume 3 CAA-CRI, volume 4 CRO-FAM, volume 5 FAM-GRO, volume 6 GRO-ITA, volume 7 ITA-MAB, volume 8 MAC-MYS, volume 9 MYS-POL, volume 10 POL-SCA, volume 11 SCA-TEX, volume 12 THA-ZWA, volume 13 index, supplement 1.
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.
Edited by André Vauchez.
Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.
Edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand.
Oxford University Press, 1996.
4 volumes.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
More than 1200 scholarly articles. Many of the bibliographies are annotated and are divided into separate lists of primary and secondary sources.
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity.
Edited by Roger E. Hedlund.
Oxford University Press, 2012.
2 volumes.
Over 1100 articles.