Welcome to SOAS

Follow the Study of Religions blog for updates on SOAS Library resources, book reviews, websites, news-stories and much more

You can go to the Information skills pages on the BLE for general research guides, guides to the various databases and subject specific research guides

You can also use the Subject Guide for Religions on the main Library website for internet resources selected by Library staff : http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/religions/

If you have any queries about the religions collections in SOAS Library, finding books and journals, or using any of the online resources, you can contact me:

Mary Seeley (Subject Librarian for History and Religions; Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica)
Room C3 (Library)
Email: ms28@soas.ac.uk
Tel.: 020-7898-4195

Gersonides: Judaism within the limits of reason: book review

Levi ben Gershom was a 14th century Jewish philosopher, born in Orange in Provence (southern France)

Seymour Feldman analyses his life and work in Gersonides: Judaism within the limits of reason, published in 2010 by the Littman Library for Jewish Civilization

Read the H-Net Review by Norbert Samuelson (Arizona State University) on Humanities and Socials Sciences Online.
Read the book in SOAS Library at QN181.06 / 736666 .
Click here to check the catalogue directly

Digitized cataologue of Coptic manuscripts in Berlin

Visit the Alin Suciu blog on "Research on patristics, apocrypha, Coptic literature and manuscripts" to link to digitized copies of Walter Beltz's two volume catalogue of the Coptic manuscripts in the papyrus collections in the State Museum of Berlin - the Archiv fur Papyrusforschung (1978 & 1980)

The making of Indian secularism: book review

Professor Chandra Mallampalli of  the History Department at Westmont College (California) reviews Nandini Chatterji's "The making of Indian secularism: Empire, law and Christianity" in the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History

Dr. Nandini Chatterji teaches in the History Department at Plymouth University (Devon, U.K.).
Click here to read the her response to Professor Mallampalli's review

And read the book in SOAS Library at JA322.1 /737922

Hugoye (Journal of Syriac Studies) has moved!

Hugoye, the digital journal of Syriac Studies has moved to a new site hosted by the Syriac Institute at http://www.bethmardutho.org/

Click on the "Hugoye" tab at the top of the page to access the journal. Click Current Issue for the very latest articles and Index for all other content from 1998 onwards.
The Beth Mardutho site will also be developed to include more digital resources for the study of Syriac and ancient Christianity

Recent dissertations on Rabbinic literature

This posting (from last month) on the Talmud Blog gives a list of recent (2010 and 2011) dissertations on aspects of Rabbinic literature
Click here for the Talmud Blog's homepage. The blog is edited by Dr Shai Secunda and Yitz Landes and aims to"provide readers with content relating to Talmudic news, reviews, culture, currents, and criticism"