Asian American Religion: A Special Topics Bibliography

Abstract

This bibliographic search was conducted on the Amerasia Journal Cumulative Bibliography Database 2996 maintained in the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Reading Room. The database is a cumulation of all citations from the Amerasia Journal ”annual bibliographies” that were published in print to volume 17, as well as those electronically compiled and managed thereafter since volume 18 up through volume 21. Consisting of over 17,800 records, these records are easily searchable and retrievable by author, title, and key words. Each record is also indexed with descriptors, which are terms not found in the title. The 1996 edition is only available for use in the Reading Room, and it will not be distributed. By late Spring 1996, the Reading Room will produce a limited number of copies of AJCB 1995 (2nd update), which will be the last update we will produce. It will contain over 16,000 citations representing Amerasia’s annual bibliographies to volume 20. Moreover, only Macintosh versions will be produced and updated. We‘ve already sold all our DOS licenses and cannot afford to both purchase more licenses and produce the database in this version. Based on my understanding of ”religion,” I approached my search for information on anything that would tell me about the beliefs, interests, concerns, practices, and experiences of Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans, i.e., their world of ”spirituality.” What makes ”spiritual” experiences unique is that these experiences are felt to explain, describe, and shape meaning relating to Asian American lives beyond the visible and operate on intuition or faith rather than logic or reason. I took both the institutional and personal manifestations of religion and spirituality into consideration.