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Citing Theological Sources: How to do a Bibliography: General Citations: Books, Articles, Websites, etc.

For general citations, this guide leads you to other guides prepared by UST Libraries' Reference Department . However, Bible and Church document examples may refer to the MLA Style Manual, Turabian, or the SBL Handbook of Style.

Chicago / Turabian Style used by The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity

Turabian (9th ed.)

The Chicago Manual of Style/ Turabian citation style includes two systems for citations: a notes and bibliography system and the author-date system. The notes and bibliography system is most commonly used in theology courses here. This system uses footnotes and works cited bibliographies at the end of papers.

What is the difference between the Chicago and Turabian styles of citations?

Turabian is shorter, contains fewer instructions, and does not contain information about publishing your paper in academic journals and publications.

The Chicago Manual of Style is designed for professionals in the field who are publishing and has a great deal of instruction on formatting and other advanced features.

About Style Manuals

Which should you use?

Ask each of your professors which style they want you to use. If they have no preference you can follow any of these styles (just be consistent). However, a humanities style manual like MLA or Turabian works best.  Here our graduate level divinity students are asked to use a guide based on the Chicago / Turabian Style Manual.

  • APA: psychology, education, and other social sciences.
  • MLA: literature, arts, and humanities.
  • AMA: medicine, health, and biological sciences.
  • Turabian: designed for college students to use with all subjects.
  • Chicago: used with all subjects in the "real world" by books, magazines, newspapers, and other non-scholarly publications.

Print versions of these style manuals contain examples of citing more sources than these web pages do, as well as other things you may need to know, such as margins, font size, etc.

Zotero, a free resource created by academics, recommended at St. Thomas.

Zotero is a free tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. Zotero collects all your research in a single, searchable interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and really anything else. Zotero automatically indexes the full-text content of your library, enabling you to find exactly what you're looking for with just a few keystrokes.

Other Citation Styles for Humanities Papers

Society of Biblical Literature Handbook of Style

UST Libraries General Citation Guides

Check with your instructors on the preferred style they want you to use and be sure to consult the most up-to-date edition of that style manual.

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