The Sommervogel Archive
A Searchable Research Database

Welcome to the Sommervogel Archive, a database of research in the Psychology of Religion. Developed by Dr. Michael Donahue and supported by Division 36 of the American Psychological Association, the archive presently indexes over 44,000 articles of use in the psychological study of religion. Books and book reviews also are included in the archive.

The archive, named after Jesuit Bibliographer Carlos Sommervogel (1834-1902), extends to users the ability to locate articles by title, subject, year, and other means.  

Print this page of instructions to facilitate your use of the archive.

When you first access the database you will notice two panes. To your left is the Status Area, which allows you to manipulate the viewing area on the right. Search for a record using the following steps:

1. Click on the magnifying glass at the top of the Status Area (left side of your browser). This switches the database to Find Mode.

2. Select the field you wish to search. For example, to find articles by author's name type the author's last name in the Author field.

3. Click the Perform Find button in the left.

4. View the search results. You may do this in three different ways. Browse individual entries by clicking on the book pages in the center of the Status Area. List all entries by clicking on the View As menu button and selecting List. View the entire results by Table by selecting that option from the View As menu.

Note that the number of items found by your search appears in the center of the Status Area and is labeled Found Set. If you find too many items and wish to view only a subset, you can combine search terms to focus on your specific area of interest. For example, if you want to search for all articles published by Spilka since 1980, enter Spilka in the Author field, >1980 in the Year field, then click Perform Find to view the results. Likewise, if you want to see only those articles written by Spilka and Allen, type Spilka Allen (without the word "and") in the Author field.

This resource is made available to you through the generous support of Division 36 of the American Psychological Association. It will be updated regularly, and more complete instructions will be available at this page soon.