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.
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
Bellarmine's 1586-93 Disputations — the definitive Counter-Reformation theological response to the Reformers
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei (Career-defining) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Finite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
1586-1593. Bellarmine was 44-51 across publication; the underlying lectures had been delivered 1576-1588 at the Roman College.
Space
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
Rome / Ingolstadt. The lectures had been delivered at the Roman College (then run by the Society of Jesus, on the central Counter-Reformation programme); publication was in Catholic-Bavarian Ingolstadt, the central Counter-Reformation printing centre.
Matter
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
Three folio volumes (~3000 folio pages total). Form is systematic-controversial scholastic theology: each controversy treated by enumerating Protestant positions, then the Catholic position, then the systematic-philosophical defence.
Observer
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
Mid-career Bellarmine. The observer-theologian is the leading Jesuit controversial theologian of the post-Trent generation, working at the institutional centre of Counter-Reformation theology.
Energy
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
Massive systematic-controversial energies. The Disputations are the most ambitious single Counter-Reformation theological project; their scale (and the speed of their composition — Bellarmine wrote at extraordinary pace) was a major political-theological achievement.
Information
Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
Three large folio volumes. The Disputations are the standard Counter-Reformation theological reference; their detailed engagement with named Protestant writers was distinctive.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The most influential single Counter-Reformation theological work; Bellarmine's controversies with James I and others followed from this work. The Disputations were placed on Pope Sixtus V's Index of Prohibited Books in 1590 (because Bellarmine defended a less-than-absolute papal authority on temporal matters — the indirect-power doctrine), then removed from the Index on Sixtus's death later that year; the controversy illustrates the complex politics of post-Tridentine Catholic theology.