The Encyclopedic Impulse in Religious Studies

Authors

  • Eric Ziolkowski

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/rsrr5-2-675

Keywords:

Encyclopedias, Reference Works

Abstract

It is no mere coincidence that the ongoing revolution in information technology has coincided with an explosive increase of reference works, not the least in religious studies and biblical studies. The unprecedented production rate of such works today led one scholar to dub our times “a golden age of reference books,” resulting in the challenge of “oversupply.” This article reflects historically upon the basic impulse behind the conceptualizing, planning, and production of large encyclopedias in religious and biblical studies: the sense of information overload, and the desire to bring order to it.

Downloads

Published

2015-12-01

How to Cite

Ziolkowski, E. (2015). The Encyclopedic Impulse in Religious Studies. Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, 5(2), 157–66. https://doi.org/10.11157/rsrr5-2-675

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2015): Special Issue: Editing Encyclopaedias and Handbooks in Religious Studies in the Twenty-First Century

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The work may not be used for commercial purposes. The work may not be altered, transformed, or built upon.

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).