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.
On the Flesh of Christ
Tertullian's c. 206 'De Carne Christi' — anti-Docetic, anti-Gnostic affirmation of Christ's real flesh; 'credo quia absurdum'
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | On the Flesh of Christ (Mid-to-late (Montanist period)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| 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
On the Flesh of Christ
c. 206. Tertullian was in his mid-50s, by this point a committed Montanist (though the relationship between his Montanist commitments and his proto-orthodox theological positions remains scholarly debated).
Space
On the Flesh of Christ
Carthage (Roman North Africa). The space is the early-third-century Latin-Christian community of Carthage, which Tertullian was the first major Latin theological writer to articulate.
Matter
On the Flesh of Christ
Single Christological treatise (~70 pages in standard translation). Form is polemical: each chapter targets a specific Docetic or Gnostic position.
Observer
On the Flesh of Christ
Mid-Montanist Tertullian. The observer-theologian is at once defending proto-orthodox Christology against Gnostic alternatives and articulating his own distinctive Stoic-influenced Latin Christology.
Energy
On the Flesh of Christ
Polemical-Christological energies. The paradox formulation 'credibile est quia ineptum est' is the energetic-rhetorical climax of the treatise.
Information
On the Flesh of Christ
Single treatise of ~25 chapters. The information-content includes both Tertullian's anti-Docetic arguments and his constructive Christology of the real, born, dying, rising flesh of Christ.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Source of the 'credo quia absurdum' paraphrase; defining patristic Latin anti-Docetic / anti-Gnostic Christology. The paradox-formulation has been continuously productive in Christian theology: Augustine inherits it; the medieval scholastics worry it; Kierkegaard makes it the centrepiece of his Philosophical Fragments (1844) reading of the Incarnation as paradox; contemporary analytic philosophy of religion (Stump, Kretzmann) engages it as a question about the logic of incarnational doctrine.