Good information can often be found in a bibliography. It will list authors cited in the book, essay or article. Find one or two relevant articles, then search for more sources using the citations.
Some databases contain only abstracts. Reading through these and searching by keyword can help you to narrow the topic.
Research in Ministry (RIM) indexes and abstracts project reports and theses from over 100 Doctor of Ministry, Doctor of Missiology, and Doctor of Educational Ministry programs accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. RIM Online is a searchable database with entries for authors, titles, thesis/project advisors, schools, and ATLA Thesaurus subject headings.
Religious and Theological Abstracts
This is an index to articles appearing in scholarly journals in religion and theology since 1958. Each of the article citations includes a fully searchable abstract in English.
Every database will allow you to search by keyword.
It also has a special vocabulary it uses to describe each topic. If you are not finding resources take a look at the indexes (databases) or subject headings (WorldCat). These tools can save you time!
WorldCat Subject Heading Examples
ATLA Religion Database, Subject Index Examples
