Spiritual Research System and Method

Abstract

A computerized system and method are presented that provide access to a research archive for researching fundamental texts of a variety of spiritual and religious domains. The research archive is oriented around ideas having snippets from the fundamental texts. Each idea is associated with a single life issue tag and a religious or spiritual domain. Each idea is further associated with a fixed number of commentaries that comment on the snippet from the point of view of the religious domain and its relationship to the associated life issue tag. The fixed number of commentaries are each written with respect to a particular role. Customized study guides to the spiritual documents can be created using the commentaries by selecting religious or spiritual domains or life issue tags to choose a subset of commentaries to be displayed with the spiritual document.

1 . A computing machine for spiritual research comprising:
 a) a network interface providing data to a remote computing device over a computerized network;   b) a processor that is controlled via programming instructions;   c) a non-transitory computer readable memory;   d) database programming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory and performed by the processor, the database programming managing a database that is transformed during operation by the database programming, the database comprising:
 i) a plurality of document database entities each identifying a full text version of a spiritual document, 
 ii) a plurality snippet database entities each identifying an excerpt from one spiritual document, 
 iii) a plurality of life issue tag database entities each identifying a life issue, wherein the life issue is selected from a set comprising marriage, family, parenting, death, relationships, and divorce, 
 iv) a plurality of commentary database entities each identifying a commentary on one excerpt, 
 v) a plurality of first database relationships, each first database relationship establishing an association in the database between one document database entity and one snippet database entity to indicate that the spiritual document identified by the one document database entity is a source for the excerpt identified by the one snippet database entity, 
 vi) a plurality of second database relationships, each second database relationship establishing an association in the database between one commentary database entity and one snippet database entity to indicate that the commentary identified by the one commentary database entity concerns the excerpt identified by the one snipped database entity, and 
 vii) a plurality of third database relationships, each third database relationship establishing an association in the database between one life issue tag database entity and one commentary database entity to indicate that the commentary identified by the one commentary database entity was written to reflect on the life issue identified by the one life issue tag database entity; and 
   e) user interface programming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory and performed by the processor, the user interface programming providing a user interface to the remote computing device over the computerized network that:
 i) receives a selection of a selected spiritual document and a selected life issue, 
 ii) uses the database relationships to identify commentaries on excerpts of the selected spiritual document wherein the identified commentaries comment on the identified excerpts reflecting on the selected life issue, and 
 iii) presents the selected spiritual document over the user interface; 
 iv) presents proximal to the identified excerpts an indication of the identified commentaries that comment on the identified excerpts. 
   
     
     
         2 . A method comprising:
 a) at a computer system, accessing a computerized database comprising:
 i) a document database entity identifying a spiritual document, 
 ii) a plurality of snippet database entities each identifying an excerpt from the spiritual document and each being linked via a database relationship to the spiritual document, 
 iii) a plurality of life issue tag database entities each identifying a life issue, 
 iv) a plurality of commentary database entities each identifying a textual commentary and each being linked via database relationships to:
 (1) one snippet database entity to indicate that the textual commentary comments on the excerpt identified by the one snippet database entity, and 
 (2) one life issue tag database entity to indicate that the textual commentary comments on the life issue identified by the one life issue tag database entity; 
 
   b) at the computer system, receiving a selection of a selected life issue;   c) at the computer system and using the computerized database, identifying a selected life issue tag database entity for the selected life issue;   d) at the computer system and using the computerized database, identifying:
 i) a set of commentaries database entities linked to the selected life issue tag database entity, and 
 ii) a set of snippet database entities linked to any of the commentary database entities in the set of commentary database entities, 
 whereby the set of commentaries database entities and the set of snippet database entities define a set of relevant textual commentaries made on a set of commented excerpts of the spiritual document all commenting on selected life issue; 
   e) at the computer system, presenting the spiritual document while presenting proximal to each of the set of commented excerpts a first indication that at least one of the set of relevant textual commentaries is available for that excerpt.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the life issue is selected from a set comprising marriage, family, parenting, death, relationships, and divorce 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the first indication is a link that, when followed, presents the full relevant textual commentary. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the first indication further comprises a sub-portion of the full relevant textual commentary. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the computerized database further comprises:
 v) a story database entity identifying a common story related to multiple excerpts, the story database entity being linked via database relationships to a first plurality of snippet database entities to indicate that the common story relates to a plurality of story-related excerpts identified by the first plurality of snippet database entities.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 f) at the computer system and while presenting the spiritual document, presenting proximal to each of the plurality of story-related excerpts a second indication that other story-related excerpts telling the common story are available.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein step f) further presents a link to a different one of the story-related excerpts. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the database further comprises:
 vi) an image database entity identifying an image, the image database entity being linked via database relationship to the story database entity indicating that the image represents a portion of the common story.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 f) at the computer system and while presenting the spiritual document, presenting the image proximal to multiple ones of the plurality of story-related excerpts.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the database further comprises:
 vi) a person database entity identifying an individual person, the person database entity being linked via database relationship to the story database entity indicating that the individual person plays a role in the common story.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 f) at the computer system and while presenting the spiritual document, presenting a third indication identifying the individual person proximal to each of the plurality of story-related excerpts.   
     
     
         13 . A method comprising:
 a) at a computer system, maintaining an archive database having database entities for:
 i) a life issue selected from a set comprising marriage, family, parenting, death, relationships, and divorce, 
 ii) a first spiritual document associated with a first spiritual domain, 
 iii) a first excerpt from the first spiritual document, 
 iv) a second spiritual document associated with a second spiritual domain, 
 v) a second excerpt from the second spiritual document, 
 vi) an expert that is associated with the second spiritual domain; 
 vii) a first expert written commentary on the first excerpt reflecting on the life issue and associated in the database with the expert; 
 viii) a second expert written commentary on the second excerpt reflecting on the life issue and associated in the database with the expert; 
   b) at the computer system, receiving over a network interface a request for commentaries on the first excerpt reflecting on the life issue;   c) at the computer system, presenting over the network interface the first expert written commentary and presenting in association with the first expert written commentary an implicit link to the second expert written commentary on the second excerpt reflecting on the life issue.