Theological librarianship
an online Journal of the american Theological library association 88

CritiCal review

Volume 1, number 2 • December 2008

Australasian Religion Index (ARI)

Australasian Religion Index (ARI) (http://www.anztla.org/ariabout.aspx.) For both institutions and individuals: 
$100 for anZTla members, $150.00 for non-members.

a ustralasian Religion Index (ARI), published by australian and new Zealand Theological library association (anZTla), is an online index of religious and theological literature. it continues the print index of the same name published from 1988 to 2008. ARI is updated continuously and contains the entire contents 
of the print version. all articles are subject indexed. The search interface is a rather spartan beta version. articles 
can be searched by title, subject, or author. a keyword search option is available. however, it searches only the 
subject, author, and article title fields for each entry. so, one cannot limit searches to book reviews or search for the 
contents of a specific journal, although these kinds of searches should be available later. The list of serials indexed 
provided at the site is dated; there are more publications and more recent coverage than is indicated by the list.
ARI indexes more than 80 serials, all published in australia and new Zealand. articles indexed include not only 
those from serials in religion and theology, but also from other fields, such as philosophy, bioethics, history, or 
politics, when they touch on issues in religion or theology. While the majority of the material covered focuses on 
christian denominations and issues, Judaism, islam, and eastern religions are well represented, as are topics in the 
social and psychological study of religion. 
ARI is very valuable resource. Many of the serials indexed by ARI deserve wider notice among north american 
researchers. For many of the subjects indexed there are literally hundreds of articles in ARI that would be difficult 
to learn of from other sources. This is true not only for topics related to australasia, but for the whole range of 
subjects indexed. There is very little overlap between ARI’s coverage and that of other databases available in north 
america, such as ATLA Religion Database (RDB) or Catholic Periodicals and Literature Index (CPLI). only ten of 
the serials listed as indexed by ARI are indexed by either ATLA RDB or CPLI. given its extremely modest cost, 
there is no reason why any theological library should be without ARI.
This resource is highly recommended for every library supporting research in religion or theology. 

Daniel Kolb
Archabbey Library, St. Meinrad