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 Courage to Be
Anxiety of fate, guilt, and meaninglessness is overcome by the courage to be — grounded in the God who appears when the God of theism has disappeared
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Courage to Be |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| 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 | Experience |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Courage to Be
Time is the medium of existential anxiety and the courage to be. The "moment" of decision (taken over from Kierkegaard) is the point of religious self-affirmation.
Space
The Courage to Be
Not directly engaged.
Matter
The Courage to Be
The body is the locus of finitude and the experience of anxiety.
Observer
The Courage to Be
The Tillichian observer is the anxious embodied self — embodied, plural, active in the search for courage. Metaphysical agency is personal in the "God above God" sense: the ground of being is the source of courage.
Energy
The Courage to Be
Being-itself is the energetic principle; the power of being grants the courage to affirm one's own being.
Information
The Courage to Be
Substantival; the ground of being is the source of meaning. Personal information conserved in the doctrine of ultimate concern.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Tillich's "God above God" has been read as both a profound philosophical-theological achievement and as an evasion of the personal God of orthodox Christianity. The 1960s "death of God" theologians (Altizer, Hamilton) read him as their precursor; orthodox theologians (both Catholic and Reformed) have read him as the point where liberal theology overshot. The book's philosophical-theological substance survives the debate; how it is positioned relative to confessional theology remains disputed.