Research guides: RLG202H5: Introduction to Judaism: Reference Sources

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.)
The Cambridge History of Judaism
— Volume 1 Introduction: The Persian Period
— Volume 2 The Hellenistic Age
— Volume 3 The Early Roman Period
— Volume 4 The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period
— Volume 5 Jews in the Medieval Islamic World, The Islamic World
— Volume 6 The Middle Ages: The Christian World, The Christian World
— Volume 7 The Early Modern World, 1500–1815
— Volume 8 The Modern World, 1815–2000
A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
Reader's Guide to Judaism
Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers (2nd ed.)
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2nd ed.)
Gale - Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.)
— takes a cross-cultural approach that emphasizes religion's role in everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture.
— contains authoritative information on a wide range of topics related to religion and spiritual practice, including belief, worship, religious art and architecture, rituals, myths, and symbols.
— has extensive biographical profiles of major figures in the world's religions and religious studies.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
➤ ➤ Jewish Studies

The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (2nd ed.) by Adele Berlin (Editor-In-Chief); Maxine L. Grossman (Editor); Maxine Grossman (Other)
Publication Date: 2011
In 2,400 entries, The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion covers more than three millennia of Jewish religious thought, custom, law, and practice, from traditional approaches to Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and post-denominational Judaism.
The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law by Editor: Christine Hayes
Publication Date: 2017
This book explores the Jewish conception of law as an essential component of the divine-human relationship from biblical to modern times, as well as resistance to this conceptualization. It also traces the political, social, intellectual, and cultural circumstances that spawned competing Jewish approaches to its own 'divine' law and the 'non-divine' law of others, including that of the modern, secular state of Israel.
Part I focuses on the emergence and development of law as an essential element of religious expression in biblical Israel and classical Judaism through the medieval period.
Part II considers the ramifications for the law arising from political emancipation and the invention of Judaism as a 'religion' in the modern period.
Part III traces the historical and ideological processes leading to the current configuration of religion and state in modern Israel, analysing specific conflicts between religious law and state law.