Researching What Theologians Have Said About Your Concept
For the several church history parts of the assignment, you will be trying to find primary sources, written by theologians throughout church history (as identified on your syllabus and/or the timelines in your textbook), that include some sort of comment on or discussion of your concept. You can track down these sources in books, in journal articles, and in Internet resources. (See the 'What Are Primary Sources?' box below for more information). Information on specific reference works and databases that are recommended as particularly useful for either providing access to primary resources or for providing authoritative summary information or analysis to help you better grasp your concept in a particular theologian's work or period of church history is provided in the Find Books and Find Journal Articles and Find Internet Resources tabs. (Hover over the Concept Study - Church History tab above to see these sections).
APU Libraries have many books that are written by particular theologians (primary sources), as well as those written about particular theologians (secondary sources). Secondary sources can be very helpful for finding primary sources - you might, for example, find a book or reference dictionary entry written about St. Augustine and his doctrine of grace. While this type of book or entry would be a secondary source since it is about St. Augustine (and not by him), you could still benefit by seeing which works written by St. Augustine are cited throughout the text and/or in a bibliography. See Find Books for useful reference works. Search for your theologian in the library catalog by selecting 'Author' from the drop-down menu, or by selecting 'Subject.' You can also try an advanced search in the catalog for a theologian as a subject, and then enter a keyword relevant to your concept. Also see Searches to Get You Started on the Find Books page. If the APU catalog doesn't give you much, try the LINK+ catalog.
Defining and finding primary sources can be challenging. The resources below provide a good overview and several examples of primary sources.