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 Marcion
There is one God — the Creator of the Old Testament and the Father of Jesus Christ — and the unity of the two Testaments witnesses to it
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Against Marcion (Mature (Tertullian's longest and most systematic work)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Against Marcion
The salvation-historical time that runs from creation through the prophets to Christ and the Church — Marcion's rupture is rejected.
Space
Against Marcion
The created material world as the good work of the one God — Marcion's deprecation of matter is also rejected.
Matter
Against Marcion
Matter as created good (against Marcionite material-dualism); the embodied Christ as truly material.
Observer
Against Marcion
The orthodox-Christian reader whose biblical literacy Tertullian aims to ground.
Energy
Against Marcion
The single divine creative-redemptive energy that runs from Genesis to the Resurrection — Marcionite separation of energies rejected.
Information
Against Marcion
The biblical canon as the single discrete-unified information through which God speaks — Marcion's editorial mutilation rejected.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Tertullian later became a Montanist (c. 207-13) and his late works show increasing severity toward the Catholic Church; Against Marcion straddles the period of his turn. Modern scholarship divides on whether the Montanist period entails earlier inconsistencies in the orthodox works; on Against Marcion the consensus is that the substantive theological positions remain orthodox. The work's status as the principal source for what Marcion actually taught means that modern reconstructions of Marcion (Harnack, Lieu) depend heavily on Tertullian's presentation and must allow for polemical distortion.