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.
Against Heresies
The most detailed early account of gnostic systems and the first systematic Christian theology of salvation history
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Against Heresies |
|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | 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
Against Heresies
Salvation history is Irenaeus's master category: God's pedagogy unfolds through progressive covenants (Adam, Noah, Moses, Christ). Time is linear, eschatological, and culminates in the recapitulation of all things in Christ.
Space
Against Heresies
One Creator, one creation: the gnostic multiplication of heavenly spaces (pleroma, aeons) is rejected. The cosmos is finite, three-dimensional, and the work of a single good God.
Matter
Against Heresies
Against gnostic dualism, matter is created ex nihilo by God, good, and destined for eschatological transformation. The Incarnation and bodily resurrection are the proof texts: God takes on flesh, and the flesh will rise.
Observer
Against Heresies
The human being is body and soul together — not a divine spark trapped in evil matter. Agency is both human and divine: free will is real, but salvation depends on God's initiative in the Incarnation.
Energy
Against Heresies
Not technically treated. God sustains all creation in being; the covenantal economy is the framework within which all creaturely activity takes place.
Information
Against Heresies
The rule of faith (regula fidei) is Irenaeus's primary informational concept: the apostolic teaching, handed down through the succession of bishops, is the guarantee of doctrinal truth against gnostic innovation.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Irenaeus's millennialism (literal thousand-year earthly reign of Christ, with abundant material blessings) sat uncomfortably with the later spiritualising tradition. His progressive theology of human maturation — Adam was an infant, not a perfect being — is in tension with the Augustinian doctrine of original perfection and catastrophic fall.