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.
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
A deliberately unsystematic tapestry weaving Scripture with Plato, Stoicism, and Middle Platonism to define the true Christian gnostic
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Stromateis (Miscellanies) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| 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 | 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 | not engaged |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
God is beyond time; created time is the medium of the Logos's pedagogical work. The Stromateis views history as progressive revelation: Greek philosophy, Jewish Law, and finally the Gospel are successive stages of the divine paideia.
Space
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
God is above space; the created cosmos is the theatre of education. Clement does not develop a cosmological physics; his interest is in the soul's intellectual ascent rather than in spatial structure.
Matter
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
Against the gnostics, matter is good and created by God. The Stromateis defends marriage, moderate use of wealth, and bodily life against gnostic ascetics who rejected the material world.
Observer
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
The "true gnostic" is an embodied soul progressing from faith to knowledge. Agency is both human striving and divine illumination. The observer's goal is assimilation to God (homoiosis theoi), the Platonic telos Christianised.
Energy
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
Not technically treated. The Logos is the animating principle of all creation; the Stoic notion of a world-soul is Christianised into the cosmic governance of the divine Word.
Information
Stromateis (Miscellanies)
Truth is scattered across traditions and must be gathered — the Stromateis itself enacts this informational harvesting. Divine knowledge is conserved in the Logos; human knowledge grows by accumulation and illumination.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The work's deliberately unsystematic form makes interpretation difficult: is the structure a genuine literary strategy or a sign of incompleteness? The tension between the esoteric "true gnosis" and the exoteric faith of ordinary believers raises questions about elitism. The degree of genuine synthesis versus mere juxtaposition of Christian and pagan elements remains debated.