Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
Compendium of Theology
A compact synthesis of the whole of theology around the three theological virtues — Aquinas's short summary for his secretary
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Compendium of Theology (Late (begun during the Roman regency, unfinished at Aquinas's death)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Both |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Compendium of Theology
The temporal life of the human creature, from creation through the moral life toward the beatific vision; eternity as the divine mode of existence.
Space
Compendium of Theology
The created cosmos as the spatial setting; the immaterial God who transcends space.
Matter
Compendium of Theology
The hylomorphic creature — body and rational soul — whose composition Aquinas details.
Observer
Compendium of Theology
The rational creature whose return to God is the soteriological topic of the work; the faithful subject as the addressee of the Compendium.
Energy
Compendium of Theology
The activating energies of grace through which the rational creature is moved to its supernatural end.
Information
Compendium of Theology
The articles of faith and the conclusions of natural theology as the discrete propositional content of the Christian doctrine.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Compendium's incompleteness is telling: Aquinas's 1273 mystical experience (after which he refused to write more — "all I have written seems like straw") cut off the work permanently. Whether the Compendium represents what Aquinas would have done as a popular synthesis, or whether the Summa was already meant for that role, is debated by Aquinas scholars. The work's use as a seminary text in the early modern period sometimes flattened its philosophical sophistication; the modern critical edition has restored attention to the precise scholarly language.