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.
A Black Theology of Liberation
"God is black" — Cone's 1970 systematic theology, the founding text of black liberation theology
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | A Black Theology of Liberation (Early (the systematic founding text of the field)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
A Black Theology of Liberation
Historical-political time of black experience under white supremacy; the kairos moment of liberation theology's emergence.
Space
A Black Theology of Liberation
The political-social space of black American life and the church.
Matter
A Black Theology of Liberation
The embodied black body — site of oppression and locus of God's liberating identification.
Observer
A Black Theology of Liberation
The black Christian theologian — embodied, plural, both active in liberation and subject to oppression. Personal-providential liberating God as framework.
Energy
A Black Theology of Liberation
The political-theological energy of liberation — God's liberating action enabling and empowering human resistance.
Information
A Black Theology of Liberation
The African American religious tradition preserved through the church; the biblical-prophetic information of God's liberating character.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Cone's sharp early polemics (Black Theology and Black Power, A Black Theology of Liberation) drew accusations of black separatism and theological reductionism; his later work (especially The Cross and the Lynching Tree, 2011) developed the framework with greater theological and dialogical maturity. The relation between Cone's liberation framework and Latin American liberation theology (Gutiérrez) was productive but also developed independent emphases. Subsequent black womanist theology (Delores Williams, Katie Cannon) developed Cone's framework while engaging gender-specific dimensions he had insufficiently addressed.