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.
The German Sermons
The ground of the soul is the ground of God — and the divine birth happens in the still point of the soul
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The German Sermons (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Space · Curvature | Undefined |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Non-local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Disembodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Singular |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| 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
The German Sermons
The "eternal now" in which the divine birth happens is outside time. Created time is real, but the mystical event is timeless.
Space
The German Sermons
God is not spatially located; the "ground" of the soul is not in space. Lived space matters practically.
Matter
The German Sermons
Created good; the body is the locus of practical discipleship even as the higher mystical life transcends bodily attachment.
Observer
The German Sermons
The Eckhartian observer is the soul whose ground is identical with God's ground — Singular at the mystical level. Embodied in practical life; disembodied at the level of pure ground. Passive in the moment of divine birth.
Energy
The German Sermons
The divine processions are the energetic principle; reversible at the mystical level (the soul returns to its source).
Information
The German Sermons
God's eternal Word is the substantival informational reality. Personal information is conserved in the deepest sense — the soul's identity with God's is its ultimate persistence.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The 1329 condemnation of seventeen propositions from Eckhart's works as heretical (with eleven more as evil-sounding) shaped his reception for centuries. Modern Catholic scholarship (Bernard McGinn) has rehabilitated Eckhart's orthodoxy by attending to context and rhetorical mode; rumours that Pope John Paul II authorised a quiet rehabilitation are unverified but reflect contemporary Catholic engagement.