Sacred Texts & Religion (ebooks)
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian Pantheon Names
Descriptions & other information on the gods of old Egypt.
http://www.vibrani.com/gods.htmEgyptian Book of the Dead - The Papyrus of Ani; Egyptian Book of the Dead. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Books/Papyrus_Ani.html
Ra and the Serpent Egyptian myth of creation.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/StudTxts/raSerpnt.html
Asian Classic Texts
The Asian Classics Input Project works to preserve disappearing books containing the great ideas of the Eastern half of humanity, and to make these books and ideas accessible to the world at large. Downloadable mainly as zipped text & rtf files. Includes ACIP Release V: World.Wide.Wisdom. Over 200 previously unreleased titles from the classics of traditional Asian philosophy in the Tibetan language.
http://www.asianclassics.org
Baha'i
Bahá'í Sacred Writings and other books, articles etc. To read online, or downloadable as text, rtf or Word documents.
http://www.bahai-library.orgBaha'i Library Online (in English, French & Spanish)
http://bahai-library.comThe Kitáb-i-Aqdas
http://www.ibiblio.org/Bahai/Texts/English/AQD/AQD-4.htmlThe Kitáb-i-Iqán
http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KIthe Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah in HTML, with a FLASH version also. Both at: http://www.upliftingwords.org/writings/hiddenwords
Buddhism
BuddhaNet These Buddhist texts may be read online with the Adobe Reader or variants thereof. Texts are presently available in English (UK & US variants), French, German, Spanish & Japanese. The texts may also be downloaded as zipped .pdf files to read offline.
http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks.htmBuddhist Reading Room Sutras & other content for online reading. In American English. Some texts also available for download as ZIP format archives (IBM / Windows users) or StuffIt format (Macintosh users).
http://www.buddhistreading.comOnline Dharma Libraries
"Authors and/or publishers of the works have granted us permission to make these electronic editions freely available to the public. In the Buddhist tradition, this is the practice of dana, or "freely-offered generosity."…Extensive collection of Buddhist texts for downloading.
http://www.dharmanet.org/files.htmlSacred Texts: Buddhism
In English, for reading online.Includes modern (early 20th century) compilations of the Buddhist Canon, plus texts of Northern & Southern Buddhist schools,Tibetian Buddhism and much else.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/budMore Buddhist e-books for online reading.
http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/
Cao Dai
Centre for Studies in Caodaism (Sydney)
Online full text Cao Dai scriptures & books, articles, images,& audio-visuals, in Vietnamese, French & English. Includes information on the history, organization, philosophy and practice of Caodaism. An Australian archive in HTML, thanks to Cong-Tam Dao of the University of Sydney.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/10190
Christianity
The Holy Bible (King James version) in HTML
http://www.bartleby.com/br/108.htmlThe NET Bible (New English Translation) a completely new translation of the Bible. Includes many thousands of hyperlinked (clickable) translator's notes (which may include theological opinion). Online in HTML. Courtesy of bible.org.
http://www.bible.org/netbible/index.htmThe Bible, New International Version Online, in individual chapters.
UK version: http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=64#booklist/
US version http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=31#booklist/
Note usage restrictions as explained at the top of the Biblegateway webpage.The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, in HTML
http://www.catholicfirst.com/bibledrv.cfmNew American Bible, from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in HTML
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible
Old & New Testaments of the Bible formatted for eReader (Palm Reader). New Testament as one download. Old Testament is in four parts. King James version.
http://www.ereader.com/free/ebooksLatin Vulgate Bible, for Palm
This I.8MB .prc file download requires a Palm DOC reader. Find under "L" in the many Bible versions available free at:
http://spiritualworx.com/skw_template.php?page=PalmSoftware.php&fext=prc/Old and New Testament books in groups, in PilotDoc format, zipped. http://www.antioch.com.sg/edgar/bibledoc.html
New Testament TNIV version, as PDF for Adobe Reader.
http://www.tniv.info/bible/index.phpBible Downloads for Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphone and some Symbian devices A variety of Bible versions, plus reader software, available in English, & Albanian, Arabic, Byzantine Greek, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Romanian, Spanish & Swedish.
http://www.olivetree.com/handheld/free/
The Bible, text search of New International Version, in 19 languages.
http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?version=NIVThe Bible, text search of Revised Standard Version
http://www.hti.umich.edu/r/rsvThe Bible, text search of New American Standard Version
http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?version=NASB
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Huge collection of significant Christian works. Especially in English, but with some Russian & Chinese e-texts, plus a few in Latin, Greek, French, German, Czech, Italian & Spanish. Many In ThML (Theological Markup Language, an XML variant), or in HTML. Also as online facsimile, plain text, Open eBook, Palm DocBook, or Microsoft Reader formats. Some MP3 audio files also. From Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Missouri.
http://www.ccel.orgChristian Latin - Online versions of Christian Latin texts from Abelard to Thomas à Kempis.
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/christian.htmlThe Catholic Encyclopedia (1914 edition), for online reading or consultation. Hyperlinked.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathenSome Catholic devotional works formatted for Palm OS and MS Word.
http://www.rosarynmore.com/download.html
Project Wittenberg Works by and about Martin Luther and other Lutherans.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-home.htmlProject Wittenberg's Lutheran Electronic Archive: gives priority to documents written by Luther or about Luther. Documents by other Lutherans and Lutheran churches or organizations are produced to a lesser extent. The majority of the works are in HTML or text format.
http://www.ctsfw.edu/etextThe Walther Library also provides links to a broader range of Protestant and Lutheran works at:
http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/probono.php
Coptic Texts The St. Pachomius Library. In HTML.
http://www.voskrese.info/spl/index.html
Note: For an explanation of the current relationships among the Coptic, Eastern Orthodox and Ethiopian churches see: http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/coptic.htmEarly Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers. In HTML.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.comThe Ecole Initiative - a "Hypertext Encyclopedia of Early Church History," up to the Reformation.
http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb
Mormonism (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) The Book of Mormon,
online by chapters in HTML. Downloadable version (.pdb file) for Palm & Windows CE devices also available. Other Mormon e-texts here too.
http://scriptures.lds.org/bm/contents
Gnostic
The Gospel of Thomas The "Scholars' Translation" of the Gospel of Thomas, by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer.
http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/Trans.htmGospel of Thomas commentary
http://www.gospelthomas.comThe Gnostic Society Library A comprehensive collection of Gnostic texts online.
http://www.gnosis.org/library.html
Ecclesiastical calendar conversion. Warning - this gets complicated.
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/woolley/calconv.html
Desiderata - Meaning, that which is to be desired. Much concentrated & timeless wisdom here.
http://artandpoetry.com/art/sherrie/desiderata.html
Epic of Gilgamesh Summary of the ancient text, this version written by the oldest-known named human author. Written c. 2000 B.C.
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM
Hinduism
The Vedas - claimed to be mankind's oldest scriptures, and considered by Hindus to be a direct revelation of God. Read online in HTML. In 7 parts and 21 chapters. English translation by Professor Raimon Panikkar. Click on the Vedic Experience link.
http://www.himalayanacademy.com/books/vedic_experience/VEIndex.html
Huge collection of online HTML Hindu e-books and PDFs.
http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/
Bhagavad-Gita. In audio versions in16 languages, or as HTML in English only.
http://www.bhagavad-gita.orgDharmic Scriptures. This page at present contains the four Vedas as a zipped Word file for downloading, plus Vedas Exerpts, Vedic Samhitas & Brahmanas Introduction, and the Upanishads, as Word files. Plus over 200 Upanishads and some Puranas as pdfs, with more planned, and the Puranas in English as a zipped file.
http://www.dharmicscriptures.org/scriptures.htmUpanishads - The Texts Available individually online, or downloadable gathered as one PDF file. http://sanatan.intnet.mu/upanishads/upanishads.htm
Upanishads - Transliteration Key
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/upanishad.htmlDvaita Text Resources Some classic Hindu texts as PDF files in Sanskrit, some with Roman script versions.
http://www.dvaita.netHindu Insights Many mini-texts on Hinduism for reading on this award-winning site.
http://www.hinduism.co.zaArs Floreat
A number of spiritual and sacred texts, including the Bible, the Koran, Plato and some Hindu scriptures, presented in Dutch, from an overall philosophical basis of the Advaita Vedanta tradition of India. In PDF.
http://www.arsfloreat.nl
Islam
The Koran (Qur'an)
The Qur'an, in four side-by-side English translations. Available by chapters for online reading. http://www.quran.org/quran/quranframe.htm
The Koran An electronically scanned version of M. H. Shakir's English translation of the Holy Qur'an, as published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc., in searchable SGML form.
http://etext.virginia.edu/koran.htmlThe Koran in the original Arabic, downloadable as a full e-reader software program with support for various fonts and font sizes, 2D animations, MP3 audio sounds, search engine, text color, underline color, tags etc, as prepared by Samir Alicehajic of Zagreb, Croatia. English and German translations are included in the "Koran 6.51" version software. Bosnian, Dutch, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese & Turkish translations which may be imported into the above software are also available. An online HTML English Koran translation, plus Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) also feature on this site.
http://www.yildun.comHoly Qur'an Viewer, version 2.7. Supports Multiple Qur'an Languages, Remote Recitation, Manuscripts. Size: 4.21 MB, an .exe file. Platform: Win95,Win98,WinME,WinNT 4.x,WinXP,Windows2000.
http://www.filesland.com/companies/DivineIslam/1798-download.htmlHadith Viewer Free Multilingual Hadith software as developed by Jamal Al-Nasir. Full Arabic text of Ahadith agreed upon by Imam's Bukhari and Muslim is built into this Hadith Viewer, along with an English translation. English translation of a collection of over 1900 Ahadith compiled by Imam Nawawi also provided. Supports plug-in Hadith collections in different languages.
http://www.2muslims.com/directory/Detailed/225686.shtmlHadith (Sayings and Traditions) A variety of texts online in HTML, some audio also.
http://www.al-islam.org/links.asp?CatId=70Stories of the Prophets (as a : 2.65 MB Self Extracting EXE file).
http://www.filesland.com/companies/DivineIslam/5229-download.htmlInternational Islamic Digital Library "An ambitious project to create a centralized repository of knowledge on Islam and the Muslim communities which is authoritative, comprehensible & reliable".
This Malaysian initiative includes books, manuscripts, multimedia, theses, articles & conference papers. Users need to register.
http://www.iidl.netIslam Denounces Terrorism, Terrorism: The Ritual of the Devil, and other free titles available as online e-books in HTML or download as .pdf files.
http://www.islamdenouncesterrorism.com/Harun Yahya Islamic books online in HTML, or for PDF and MS Word download, from noted Turkish author Harun Yahya. Many titles available in English here. Other languages accessible from the site. http://www.harunyahya.com/m_book_index.php
NZ Muslim Net Many Muslim e-books in English. Variously as Adobe PDF, Flash, MP3 Audio, HTML & self-contained software programs.
http://www.nzmuslim.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=MostPopular
Shi'ite Encyclopedia (Revised 2001 edition). View online in HTML. Or download chapter by chapter in Text or MS Word, or the entire encyclopedia as a zipped file.
http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopediaThe Tragedy of Al-Zahra' by Ayatollah`Allama Sayyid Ja'far Murtada al-`Amili, translated from the Arabic by Yasin T. al-Jibouri (Al-Zahra' refers to Fatima, only daughter of the prophet Muhammed, who became the wife of the Imam Ali). Online in HTML.
http://almujtaba.com/books/tragedy/Islamic e-books (currently seven, more are planned) are offered here in English for downloading in PDF format. From the "Islamic Occasions Network".
http://www.ezsoftech.com/islamic/download.asp
Sufism, the Way of the Heart
"The Ways to God are as numerous as the breaths of humankind." -Sufi Tradition.
Sufiportal. Sufi e-books in German and English.
http://sufiportal.de/download.php?s=list&kid=14Selections from the Diwan of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/diwan.html
The Hikam of Ibn 'Ata'llah
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/hikam.html
Jainism
The Jaina Sutras - Akaranga Sutra and Kalpa Sutra, plus a variety of other Jain texts.
Online in plain text and HTML.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jai/index.htm
Judaism
Note: The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is roughly equivalent to the Christian Old Testament, and has three parts, Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim. The Torah, in the narrow sense (the Written Torah) is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. The Nevi'im are the Prophets - Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets. The Ketuvim is the Writings, including Psalms and Proverbs, Esther and Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Chronicles, Ruth, and the love poetry of Song of Songs. If you take the T (from Torah), the N (from Nevi'im) and the K (from Ketuvim), and put them together in one word, you have TNK. Add some vowels and it becomes the Tanakh.Text versions of the Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim are available in English with some useful further information at:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Tanakh.htmlTwo other English translations, including a useful scholarly version (Kaplan) with hyperlinked translator's notes. Hebrew and Aramaic versions should be available from this site also, http://www.breslov.com/bible/
The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in four HTML language editions - Hebrew, Aramaic, English and parallel Hebrew and English. Zipped version available for download. Book-by-book printer-friendly version and MP3 recordings of the books of the Hebrew Bible also provided, plus The JPS Bible for the Palm Pilot. A Torah encyclopedia as well, in a single ZIP in English, and other Torah resources, all from:
http://www.mechon-mamre.orgJewish Torah Audio. Hundreds of hours of commentary, stories, poetry etc, all in RealAudio or downloadable audio format, plus some text. Describes itself as "The first world-wide Jewish audio since Mount Sinai".
http://www.613.orgDivrei Torah -- Commentaries. Many sources online - provides links to a huge variety of divrei torah.
http://www.shamash.org/tanach/dvar.shtml#shamashSeforim e-books
Hundreds of seforim (Hebrew books by rabbis) as Adobe .pdfs.
http://www.hebrewbooks.orgSeforimOnline.org also distribute old and out of print Hebrew books in PDf for free. As well there are some audio shiurim as mp3 files.
http:// www.seforimonline.org
Myths & Legends
Encyclopedia Mythica
http://www.pantheon.org
Proverbs
One Proverb
A collection of illuminating proverbs and sayings from around the world, available in two ways. Firstly, provides random proverbs and sayings online in HTML - click till relevance reaches out to you. Also as free e-books for Palm eReader, MobiPocket and iSilo readers, and (in beta) for iPods.
http://oneproverb.net/frame1.html
http://oneproverb.net/opPDAbook.HTML
Sprituality (various)
Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, to read online in HTML
http://www.spirituality.com/dt/toc_SH.jhtmlTheosophical texts online
A large collection in plain text, including books by Blavatsky, Judge, Tingley, Purucker, and others; introductory manuals on theosophy and material on the world's sacred traditions.
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/tup-onl.htmPantheism The religion of nature. Basic beliefs and Belief statement.
http://www.pantheism.net/beliefs.htmReligion of Expressionism (Chiropractic) A 5.27Mb PDF download requiring the Adobe Reader.
http://www.TriuneOfLife.orgSummum Bonum The return of Amen Ra. Online in HTML, or downloadable as a self-extracting .exe file (instructions on site) for Windows, Macintosh, Palm &Pocket PC. http://www.summum.us/philosophy/book.shtml
The Milk Is White A synthesis of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and the author's own insights. This book is a very large file (almost 3 MB), so if you don't have broadband patience is required - one of the virtues extolled here. In Microsoft Word format; may be opened while online or saved to your hard disk.
http://www.themilkiswhite.comSpiritwatch Around a dozen free e-books available covering a range of New Age, Psychic and Spiritual subjects and life issues. Reincarnation and karma are major themes. Online in HTML.
http://www.spiritwatch.com/
Shinto
The Kojiki (excerpts), the Nihongi (excerpts), the Yengishiki (Shinto Rituals). PlusThe Book of Tea & other texts.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/
Sikhism
Shri Guru Granth Sahib in text form, the thirty one ragas.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/skh/granth/index.htmSelect writings - IN HTML, English with Sanskrit.
http://www.sikhs.org/transl.htm
Taoism
The Tao Te Ching online, in English, Chinese & German translations.
http://www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/ttc-list.htmlTaoism Information Page. Many more Taoist texts online.
http://www.religiousworlds.com/taoism/index.html
Zen/Western Zen
Zen Buddhism A treasury of Zen texts. In html or plain text.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/index.htmZen Guide Koans, stories & collected words online. Pithy and provocative. In plain text.
http://www.zenguide.com/zenmedia/index.cfmThe Tao Of Programming & much else
Modern internationalism -from Russia with love, in English, some classic & Modern Zen texts.
http://klein.zen.ru/EnglishZen Fun
Sparkling haiku casting those horror messages from your PC's operating system into a more spiritual plane of thought.
http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/resources/zen_fun.html
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrian Archives. Provide the complete text of the Avesta, the most ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism, as well as many Pahlavi scriptures. It also includes information about the Avestan language, and other useful information for students of Zoroastrian religion.
http://www.avesta.org/avesta.html