Open Source Religion: Spiritual Software and the Production and Ownership of Religious Data (1955–2010)

abstract:From Father Roberto Busa's innovative use of computing in the humanities to the Reverend John Ellison's creation of the first electronic Bible concordance, religion and religious texts played a formative role in the development of data analytics. Yet the subsequent development of spiritual software and the management of religious data have been underexplored. The production, collection, and ownership of religious data—whether Bible translation, sermons, commentaries, or scholarship—resulted in the development of unique digital tools designed for religious purposes. Pastoral research programs, sermon databases, and Bible software turned prior religious media into data accessible through novel digital infrastructures designed for Christian professionals and practitioners alike. A historical account of spiritual software highlights the ways that these emerging systems of information gathering and retrieval shape and are shaped by long-standing strategies for the production, analysis, authorship, and ownership of religious texts.