Reference materials, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and atlases, are books that patrons need to "refer" to occasionally for specific, quick, bits of facts or background information on a subject. They can help you gain a better understanding of a subject, provide information that might become a paper topic, and offer bibliographies that will lead you to other, more specific resources. Unlike many Internet resources, these works were written by trained scholars and went through scholarly review before publication.
A subject encyclopedia will have longer summaries of the state of the scholarly discussion, references to primary source material, and a bibliography you may wish to consult. Some of the books on this list will include the word Dictionary in the title, but will have longer articles and bibliography.
For help with technical terms, see the Dictionaries list.
New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology by 
Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics by 
Bioethics, 4th ed. by 
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics by A topic dictionary will provide brief definitions of technical terms needed for reading discussions within a discipline. Technical philosophical and theological terms may not be used in the same way as common English. Ethics related to medical or political issues may require dictionaries related to those fields as well.
For summaries of the state of research, see the Encyclopedias list.
Historical Dictionary of Ethics by 
Handbook of Roman Catholic Moral Terms by 
The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics by 
