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 Asian Journal
Merton's 1968 final Asian-pilgrimage journal — posthumous
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Asian Journal (Late (final)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Finite |
| 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 | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Variable |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Singular |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Energy · Conservation | Variable |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| 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 Asian Journal
Journal-entries October-December 1968 (last three months of Merton's life); posthumous publication 1973.
Space
The Asian Journal
California, Alaska, Calcutta, Delhi, Madras, Bangalore, Polonnaruwa Sri Lanka, Bangkok; transnational Catholic-Buddhist dialogical pilgrimage.
Matter
The Asian Journal
Tibetan-Buddhist-Catholic encounter (the Dalai Lama, Chatral Rinpoche meetings), the Polonnaruwa Buddhas experience, the East-West monastic-encounter conference; the search for an authentic Christian engagement with Asian contemplative traditions.
Observer
The Asian Journal
Final-life Merton — the fullest-engaged inter-religious-dialogue phase, on pilgrimage in Asia in the final three months before his accidental death.
Energy
The Asian Journal
Dialogical-pilgrim, contemplative-experiential, exploratory-and-receptive energies.
Information
The Asian Journal
Daily and frequent travel-journal entries; combines diary, conversation-record, theological-reflection, and travel-observation registers; edited posthumously by Merton's literary executors.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Asian Journal is the major late-Merton document and one of the foundational records of twentieth-century Catholic-Buddhist dialogue. The accidental death in Bangkok cut off what would likely have been Merton's most-developed contemplative-inter-religious work; subsequent Merton-scholarship has read the journal both as a document of what Merton did achieve and as a fragmentary witness to what was not to be.