Felician University Library: Understanding Citations for Church, Biblical, and Religious Sources: In-Text Citations

In-Text Citations

Example

Otto states that believing and experience the holy are entirely different phenomena--that we can "become consciously aware of it as an operative reality, intervening actively in the phenomenal world" (143). Includes quotation and author's name.
Believing and experiencing the holy are entirely different phenomena, and we can "become consciously aware of it an as operative reality, intervening actively in the phenomenal world" (Otto 143). Includes quotation but not author's name.
Otto differentiaties between believing and experiencing the holy as an operative reality (143). Has summary and author's name.

All three citations in the examples above, (143) and (Otto 143), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 143 of a work by an author named Otto. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Otto, they will find the following information:

Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. London: Oxford U.P., 1958. Print.

The Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter and verse. For example:

Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be four living creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10).

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation.