Primary sources are materials that provide firsthand testimony to a subject under investigation. Researchers often use these firsthand accounts to understand events and movements from the viewpoint of people living during that time period. Primary sources include documents and artifacts created during the time period under study. These documents and artifacts might include books, letters, diaries, photographs, newspaper articles, pamphlets, government records, songs, poems, and videos. Primary sources also include writings and recordings by witnesses who experienced the events or conditions being documented. For example, oral histories, autobiographies, and memoirs are primary sources.
In religious studies, primary sources include sacred texts and writings by religious officials or practitioners of the religion.
Sometimes collections of primary source documents are republished in books. To find books like these, search WPI Library Search for books about your topic and add keywords like documents, primary sources, documentary history, essential readings, sacred texts, autobiography, or sourcebook to your search terms.
Here are some examples of books containing reprinted primary sources:
Buddhist Philosophy
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The Buddhist philosophical tradition is vast, internally diverse, and comprises texts written in a variety of canonical languages. It is hence often difficult for those with training in Western philosophy who wish to approach this tradition for the first time to know where to start, anddifficult for those who wish to introduce and teach courses in Buddhist philosophy to find suitable textbooks that adequately represent the diversity of the tradition, expose students to important primary texts in reliable translations, that contextualize those texts, and that foregroundspecifically philosophical issues.Buddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects important philosophical texts from each major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies. Each introduction sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addressesand arguments it presents, providing a useful and authoritative guide to reading and to teaching the text. The volume is organized into topical sections that reflect the way that Western philosophers think about the structure of the discipline, and each section is introduced by an essay explainingBuddhist approaches to that subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section in the enterprise.This volume is an ideal single text for an intermediate or advanced course in Buddhist philosophy, and makes this tradition immediately accessible to the philosopher or student versed in Western philosophy coming to Buddhism for the first time. It is also ideal for the scholar or student ofBuddhist studies who is interested specifically in the philosophical dimensions of the Buddhist tradition.
Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia
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For Nirvana: 108 Zen Sijo Poems
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For Nirvana features exceptional examples of the poet Cho Oh-Hyun's award-winning work. Cho Oh-Hyun was born in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, and has lived in retreat in the mountains since becoming a novice monk at the age of seven. Writing under the Buddhist name Musan, he has composed hundreds of poems in seclusion, many in the sijo style, a relatively fixed syllabic poetic form similar to Japanese haiku and tanka. For Nirvana contains 108 Zen sijo poems (108 representing the number of klesas, or "defilements," that one must overcome to attain enlightenment). These transfixing works play with traditional religious and metaphysical themes and include a number of "story" sijo, a longer, more personal style that is one of Cho Oh-Hyun's major innovations. Kwon Youngmin, a leading scholar of sijo, provides a contextualizing introduction, and in his afterword, Heinz Insu Fenkl reflects on the unique challenges of translating the collection.
The Message and the Book: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions
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A magisterial single-volume guide to the great faiths of the world through their most important writings Grand in its sweep, this survey of the sacred writings of the major religions of the world offers a thoughtful introduction to the ideas and beliefs upon which great faiths are built. Under the expert guidance of John Bowker, a religious scholar and author of international stature, readers explore the key texts of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Confucian, Daoist, and Shinto traditions. The author discusses some 400 books, among them such well-known sacred texts as the Bible and the Quran, but also spiritual writings by theologians, philosophers, poets, and others. Bowker provides clear and illuminating commentary on each text, describing the content and core tenets of the work and quoting pertinent passages. He also sets the writings in religious and historical contexts, showing how they have influenced--and in many cases continue to influence--artistic, musical, literary, and political traditions. The Message and the Book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the meaning and the deep significance of primary religious texts of civilizations around the globe.
Religion, War, and Ethics: A Sourcebook of Textual Traditions
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Religion, War, and Ethics is a collection of primary sources from the world's major religions on the ethics of war. Each chapter brings together annotated texts - scriptural, theological, ethical, and legal - from a variety of historical periods that reflect each tradition's response to perennial questions about the nature of war: when, if ever, is recourse to arms morally justifiable? What moral constraints should apply to military conduct? Can a lasting earthly peace be achieved? Are there sacred reasons for waging war, and special rewards for those who do the fighting? The religions covered include Sunni and Shiite Islam; Judaism; Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christianity; Theravada Buddhism; East Asian religious traditions (Confucianism, Shinto, Japanese and Korean Buddhism); Hinduism; and Sikhism. Each section is compiled by a specialist, recognized within his or her respective religious tradition, who has also written a commentary on the historical and textual context of the passages selected.
Sourcebook in Shinto: Selected Documents
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Shinto is a remarkably complex and elusive phenomenon to which Western categories of religion do not readily apply. A knowledge of Shinto can only proceed from a basic understanding of Japanese shrines and civilization, for it is closely intermingled with the Japanese way of life and continues to be a vital natural religion. This companion to Picken's first volume, Essentials of Shinto: An Analytical Guide to Principal Teachings, provides a selection of important and pivotal documents in the history of the Shinto tradition. This volume contains a collection of texts and materials related to the Shinto tradition from the classical age of Japan to modern times. Selections from the Japanese classics are followed by liturgical texts and relevant historical documents from the Nara and Heian periods. Next, documents relating to the period of State Shinto are followed by laws regulating Imperial Household Shinto both pre- and post- World War II. This is followed by a brief selection of writings related to Shinto and the New Religions. The remainder of the book is occupied by selections of texts firstly on Shinto Thought from the 13th century to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The four closing chapters document early and recent western views of Shinto, and a selection of Japanese writings covering the same period. Finally, the appendixes include the official list of Emperors and the nation's oldest shrines.
Windows on the Hosue of Islam
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One. Foundations: Prophetic revelation -- Texts from the Qurʾan -- Surat ar-Rahman, the Merciful -- Writing sacred text -- Surat Yusuf -- Hadith : prophetic and sacred -- Sacred text and architecture -- Varieties of Qurʾan interpretation -- Three commentaries on Surat al-Fatiha, the Opening -- Treatise on the principles of tafsir / Ibn Taymiya -- Sacred text and the mihrab -- The canons of taʾwil / Al-Ghazali -- Experiencing Qurʾan -- Etiquette in recitation / Nawawi -- Two. Devotion: ritual and personal prayer -- On the necessity of proper intention / Sharaf ad-Din Maneri -- Worship as an institution of faith / Nurcholish Madjid -- Hadith on the five daily ritual prayers / Tabari -- Ritual and creed in Moses' conversation with God -- Qurʾan commentary on pilgrimage ritual / Hamka -- Devotion beyond duty -- Prayers of holy women -- Rites of passage and popular practice -- Marthiya : Imam Husayn's conversation with God -- Madih : three contemporary poems honoring Imam Riza -- Naʻt : poem in praise of Muhammad -- Ginan : Ismaʻili petition of a yearning soul -- Sermon for a special occasion -- A radio Mawlid sermon -- Three. Inspiration: edification and ethics -- Exemplary models -- The Prophet: from devotion to edification -- Acrostic poem in praise of Muhammad -- Naʻt in praise of Muhammad -- Interpreting Muhammad's life in modern times / Taha Hussein -- Collections of holy lives -
The cover of this work by an unknown author bears the title Translation of the Entire Text of the "Yao Annals of Creation." In this bilingual text, the Dongba text is in color and the Chinese text is in black. The Dongba glyphs are ancient characters that were used to record the dialect of the western Naxi nationality centered around the Li River in Yunnan. They were developed in approximately the seventh century. The Annals of Creation reflect the understanding of the Naxi people concerning the natural world and the origins of humankind, and depict the Naxi people's ceaseless migrations over the course of their history and the struggle of their ancestors against nature.
Copyright statement: The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.
To find primary sources via Google, try adding keywords like documents, primary sources, documentary history, or sourcebook to your search terms. Primary sources can often be found on library, museum, and government websites.
Examples of Primary Source Collections: