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.
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
The art of arts is the government of souls — the bishop as physician who adapts his teaching to each patient's condition
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| 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 | Mediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| 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
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
Both — divine eternity and created historical time. The pastor operates in temporal conditions with eschatological awareness. Non-deterministic: the entire work presupposes that pastoral intervention changes outcomes.
Space
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
Finite, substantival, three-dimensional. Not independently theorised — the Pastoral Care is a practical manual, not a cosmological text.
Matter
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
Created, finite, conserved. The embodied human person is the subject of pastoral care — Gregory treats the whole person, body and soul.
Observer
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
Embodied, active, rational. The pastor must discern the spiritual condition of each individual — knowledge is mediate, acquired through observation, conversation, and the application of pastoral wisdom. Personal metaphysical agency: the Trinitarian God.
Energy
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
Conventional patristic framework. Not independently theorised.
Information
Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis)
The Pastoral Care is itself an information technology for pastoral ministry — a manual transmitting Gregory's practical wisdom to bishops across the Church. Personal conservation through the immortality of the soul.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Pastoral Care assumes that the bishop is both contemplative and administrator — a tension Gregory felt acutely in his own life. The 36-pair classification in Part III is comprehensive but schematic: real persons do not fit neatly into paired categories. The work's influence was so great that it became prescriptive rather than descriptive, potentially reducing pastoral art to the mechanical application of rules.