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Christianity

Principles

Christianity (Bible) — Core Principles

Minimal operational principle set synthesized from the book-group Bible distillation (book-level; 66 books across 12 files; 33 book-group principles, plus Catholic deuterocanon at supplementary). Source: World English Bible (WEB), Gutenberg #8294; Douay-Rheims for the deuterocanon, Gutenberg #1581. Method: 00-methodology.md. This is one structured reading, not authoritative — Christianity is internally plural (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant; canon and interpretation differ) and no within-tradition reviewer was secured. Each principle carries a cross-tradition note — the claim that may converge with other traditions vs the warrant (foundation) that may diverge — to feed the cross-tradition Atlas.

Cross-lingual prose discipline: Greek and Latin terms (Greek transliterations: agapē, logos, charis, basileia, kenōsis, koinōnia, homoousios; Latin: imago Dei, Trinitas, Pater Noster, Filioque; Hebrew hesed) appear in principle titles, the untranslatables glossary (00-methodology.md#untranslatables-preserve-in-transliteration-weak-distinctive-candidates), and direct quotations from the WEB / Douay-Rheims where the original is the load-bearing claim. Synthesis prose explains in English with explicit glossary-anchor references back to the methodology (e.g., the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster — see canonical taxonomies) rather than ad-hoc Latin tokens.

Why 15

The original 14 emerged from clustering the 33 book-group principles by intent. Hubs: God is love / the love command (P6–P7), imago Dei / human dignity (P1), and grace (P9) recur across the most book-groups.

The set grew to 15 in the structural-completeness retrofit after the sample-deep audit (cross-checked PASS by a second agent) found that the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster — Phase-0 canonical structure #5; the single highest-lived-centrality Christian text) lived as supplementary per-verse material but was not anchored as a named core-principle structure. Promoted to standalone P15. Five sub-element gaps were closed by named-in-prose expansion of existing principles: the trinitarian substrate of P10 (Father–Son–Spirit grammar, Matt 28:19 + 2 Cor 13:14 + John 14:26 / 15:26); the eight Matthean Beatitudes + Lukan four+four enumeration in P13; the named Decalogue in P6 (with enumeration-dispute flag); the named nine Fruits of the Spirit in P11 (Gal 5:22–23); the named theological-virtue triad (faith / hope / love) in P7 (with 1 Cor 13:13 locus). Three structures were explicitly deferred per structural-completeness's three legitimate deferral categories: Seven Sacraments (category 2 — out of textual focus, extra-biblical Catholic settlement), Apostles'/Nicene Creeds (category 2 — out of textual focus, post-NT confessional), and the four Cardinal Virtues (category 3 — non-essential per scholarship for non-Catholic readings: Stoic-philosophical-via-deuterocanon lineage, cited Pelikan and Bauckham on Reformed unease). The bar is 100% canonical-taxonomy coverage against the list in 00-methodology.md. The 15 principles count is internally meaningful, with kinship to Judaism's covenant→ethics→hope foundation as a structural finding.

The 15 principles

P1 — Humanity bears the image of God (imago Dei); human dignity is inviolable

Every person, male and female, is created in God's image and likeness; therefore human life possesses an inviolable, God-given worth that does not depend on capacity, status, or achievement. "Whoever sheds man's blood… for God made man in his own image." God "looks at the heart," not the outward appearance; in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek… slave nor free… male nor female," for all are one.

  • Bible: G1-P1 (Gen 1:26–27, 9:6), G2-P2 (1 Sam 16:7), G3-P1 (Ps 8:4–5, 139:14), G9-P5 (Gal 3:28), G5-P2 (Mal 2:10: one Father, one Creator)
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Ps 139:13–14 (books/17-wisdom-and-psalms-selections.md W-P8: "fearfully and wonderfully made… knit together in the womb"); per-verse Decalogue D-C8 (life-prohibition rooted in imago Dei); deuterocanon additive: Wisdom 2:23 explicitly joins imago Dei with incorruptibility (books/18-deuterocanon-wisdom-and-sirach.md DC1-P1).
  • Untranslatable: imago Dei (image of God)
  • Cross-tradition note: one of the strongest convergence candidates — the claim (every human has inviolable dignity) converges very widely; the warrant (worth derives from bearing a personal Creator's image) is shared most closely with Judaism (same Genesis verses, b'tzelem Elohim) and Islam, and diverges from non-theistic groundings (e.g. Buddhist equality grounded in shared dukkha, not a shared Creator).

P2 — Creation is good, relational, and finite — the limit is part of the good design

God made the world and called it "very good"; the human is dust enlivened by God's breath — made for relationship, not solitude — and is mortal. Finitude, vulnerability, and the limit are not flaws to be overcome but part of the good created order. "You are dust, and to dust you shall return."

  • Bible: G1-P2 (Gen 1:31, 2:7, 2:18, 3:19), G3-P1 (Ps 8: small yet crowned), with the wisdom-finitude of G3
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Ps 90:2–12 ("teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom") and Eccl 3:1–8 (a time for everything) in books/17-wisdom-and-psalms-selections.md (W-P7); the most explicit OT-tradition articulation of finitude-as-wisdom-school is now traced verse-by-verse.
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (human finitude and limit are to be accepted, even honored) is a strong convergence candidate (Buddhist, Taoist, Stoic, Jewish-wisdom parallels); warrant (a good Creator who made us dust-and-breath) is theistic.

P3 — Wisdom begins in the fear of the Lord, and human understanding has limits to be accepted

"The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge"; the wise "trust in Yahweh… and don't lean on their own understanding." God's wisdom exceeds human comprehension ("Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"; "my thoughts are not your thoughts"). The mature response to mystery and suffering is humble trust, not mastery; apart from God, striving is "vanity."

  • Bible: G3-P2 (Prov 1:7, 3:5, Ps 23:1, 51:10), G3-P4 (Job 38:4), G3-P3 (Eccl 1:2, 3:1, 12:13), G4-P2 (Isa 55:8–9)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (reverence is wisdom's root; human knowing is finite; reject glib certainty about suffering) is a strong convergence candidate (cf. Judaism P12, Buddhist paññā); warrant (the limit stands before a personal Creator) is theistic.

P4 — God acts through covenant, for the blessing of all peoples

God binds himself to a people by promise ("in you will all the families of the earth be blessed"), reckoned through faith; the covenant requires an ongoing, deliberate choice ("choose this day whom you will serve"); and God promises a new covenant written on the heart — replacing "the stony heart" with "a heart of flesh." Election is for universal blessing.

  • Bible: G1-P3 (Gen 12:2–3, 15:6), G2-P1 (Josh 24:15), G4-P4 (Jer 31:33, Ezek 36:26), G12-P3 (Deut 30:19: choose life), G5-P3 (Hab 2:4: the righteous live by faith)
  • Untranslatable: shares hesed (covenant loving-kindness, P7) and develops toward charis (grace, P9)
  • Cross-tradition note: WEAK-distinctive (Abrahamic) — covenant (a binding, gracious, mutual bond between a personal God and a people, for the world) is a load-bearing structure shared most exactly with Judaism (same Genesis/Jeremiah verses, berit) and Islam, with no exact analogue in non-theistic or impersonal-absolute traditions. The "new covenant written on the heart" is the seam from which the NT's interiority and grace develop.

P5 — Justice for the oppressed is the non-negotiable core of true religion

Worship divorced from justice is rejected: "seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow"; let "justice roll on like rivers." What God requires is summed up — "act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." "Pure religion" is to care for orphan and widow; God "lifts up the lowly and sends the rich away empty" (the Magnificat). Even kings are accountable: "You are the man."

  • Bible: G4-P1 (Isa 1:17), G5-P1 (Mic 6:8, Amos 5:24, Zech 7:9–10), G10-P2 (Jas 1:27), G12-P2 (Luke 1:52–53, the Magnificat), G2-P3 (2 Sam 12:7), and the economic enactment in G8-P2 (Acts 4:32, goods in common)
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Lev 19 Holiness Code (gleanings 19:9–10, worker's wage 19:13, vulnerable 19:14, impartial judgment 19:15, foreigner-as-native 19:33–34, just measures 19:35–36) in books/17-wisdom-and-psalms-selections.md W-P2 + W-P3; Decalogue's Sabbath-as-egalitarian-rest D-P3 (books/13-decalogue-per-verse.md); Lukan blessings + woes (Luke 6:20–26) S-P1 in books/14-sermon-on-the-mount-per-verse.md; deuterocanon additive: Tobit's "alms delivereth from death" — explicit soteric weight of mercy to the poor — DC2-P1 in books/19-deuterocanon-tobit-judith-maccabees.md; Sirach 3:12–15 on care for the aged parent DC1-P4 (books/18-deuterocanon-wisdom-and-sirach.md).
  • Cross-tradition note: among the very strongest convergence candidates — claim (justice, care for the poor/widow/foreigner, accountable power, redistribution so none lacks) converges almost universally, and most exactly with Judaism (same prophetic verses, tzedek/mishpat); warrant (justice as the will of the one liberating God who sides with the oppressed) is theistic and prophetic.

P6 — Love of God and neighbour is the summary of the whole Law (with the Decalogue as its OT pre-figuring)

"Hear, Israel: Yahweh is one… you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart" (the Shema); and "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus binds these: "On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets." The whole law is "fulfilled in love of neighbour." One cannot love the unseen God while hating the seen brother; and "no one can serve two masters… God and Mammon." The Decalogue (Decalogus / "the Ten Words" — Ex 20:2–17, parallel Deut 5:6–21; see canonical taxonomies) is the OT pre-figuring of this same love-summary, structured in two tables: duties to God (no other gods / no image / no vain name / Sabbath) and duties to neighbour (honour parents / no murder / no adultery / no theft / no false witness / no coveting). Jesus's pairing of love-God + love-neighbour (Matt 22:37–40) explicitly binds the two tables into the Decalogue's underlying structure. The Holiness Code's "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18) is the Decalogue's social extension; Paul reads Decalogue prohibitions as themselves "summed up in this saying" (Rom 13:9: "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal… and whatever other commandment there is, are all summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself"). Enumeration note: the Ten Words are numbered differently across traditions — Jewish and Reformed traditions group "no other gods + no image" together and split coveting into two; Catholic and Lutheran traditions (following Augustine's count) merge no-other-gods and no-image as one and split coveting in two. Catechism §§2052–2557 follows the Catholic/Augustinian numbering; the substance is identical across enumerations.

  • Bible: G1-P4 (Deut 6:4–5, the Shema), G1-P5 (Lev 19:18), G6-P2 (Matt 22:37–39, Mark 12:30–31), G9-P4 (Rom 13:8), G10-P4 (1 John 4:19–20), G6-P4 (Matt 6:24: God or Mammon)
  • supplementary depth: full per-verse pass on the Shema + total integration (Deut 6:4–9) and Lev 19:17–18, 33–34 in books/17-wisdom-and-psalms-selections.md (W-P1, W-P3); the Greatest Commandment per-verse in Mark 12:28–34 (books/14-sermon-on-the-mount-per-verse.md S-P4); Pauline articulation of "love fulfills the law" (Rom 13:8–10, Gal 5:14) per-verse in books/16-pauline-ethics-per-verse.md P-P4; the Decalogue itself per-verse in books/13-decalogue-per-verse.md D-C1…D-C14 → D-P1…D-P6 (the chapter-level synthesis of the two-table structure — D-P3 Sabbath as egalitarian rest, the second-table prohibitions clustered in D-P4–D-P6).
  • Untranslatable: agapē (self-giving love, distinct from eros, philia, storgē); Decalogus (the Ten Words — preserved in transliteration to mark the structure's denominational enumeration controversy)
  • Cross-tradition note: love-of-neighbour and the Golden Rule (P8) converge very widely in claim (cf. Judaism P8 hesed, Buddhist non-harm); the double command — love God first, then neighbour — and the Shema's monotheistic first clause are shared most exactly with Judaism (literally the same texts) and diverge from non-theistic frames where there is no God to love first. The Decalogue is shared exactly with Judaism (the same Ex 20 / Deut 5 verses) and remains the primary catechetical structure of moral life across the Reformed tradition (Luther's Small Catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism, Heidelberg Catechism all walk the Ten Commandments one-by-one — see audit-deep-christianity-bible.md Gap 1).

P7 — God IS love; love is radical, reaching even enemies and the least (with the theological-virtue triad faith / hope / love)

Not merely "love is good," but "God is love" — love is the very being of ultimate reality; "whoever doesn't love doesn't know God." God's character is "merciful and gracious… abundant in loving kindness" (hesed); his mercy reaches even the enemy city (Jonah) and runs to meet the returning sinner (the prodigal's father). Love (agapē) extends to enemies ("love your enemies, bless those who curse you"), to "the least" (served as Christ himself), and is unconditional — "be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." Love "is patient and kind… bears all things, endures all things"; of "faith, hope, and love… the greatest of these is love." The closing verse of the love chapter — "But now faith, hope, and love remain — these three. The greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13) — is the locus classicus of the theological-virtue triad (πίστις pistis / ἐλπίς elpis / ἀγάπη agapē; see canonical taxonomies item 7). The triad recurs at 1 Thess 1:3 ("remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope"), Col 1:4–5, and Rom 5:2–5 — a load-bearing Pauline framework systematized by Augustine and Aquinas (ST II–II) and operative in Catechism §§1812–1829. Faith is distributed structurally to P9 (Rom 3:23, Eph 2:8–9 — faith as the receiving side of grace); hope to P12 (1 Cor 15:20, Rev 21 — hope grounded in the resurrection and new creation); love is hubbed here in P7 (and the love-command in P6). The triad-as-a-triad is named here because 1 Cor 13:13's "the greatest of these is love" is structurally the summative claim — love is named first not just as one virtue among three but as the supereminent one. Cross-denominational note: the Catholic synthesis pairs the theological triad with the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance — biblical seed Wisdom 8:7); for the cardinal virtues see Quality block ("Structural-completeness") below — they are documented as an explicit category-3 deferral rather than carried as core-principle structure, per Pelikan and Bauckham on the deuterocanonical-Stoic lineage and Reformed unease. Reformed reading note (Atlas-relevant): the "God IS love" framing as a metaphysical claim (ultimate reality is itself love) is exegetically defensible per Catechism §221 and Ratzinger's reading, but some Reformed theology prefers a less ontologically-loaded reading (love is the dominant attribute by which we know God) without the full metaphysical entailment — to avoid identifying God's essence with one attribute. The current framing follows the Catholic reading; both readings are exegetically defensible.

  • Bible: G10-P3 (1 John 4:8, 4:16, 1 Pet 4:8: "God is love"), G1-P5 (Exod 34:6: hesed), G6-P3 (Matt 5:44, 7:12, 25:40, Luke 6:36, 15:20), G9-P4 (1 Cor 13:4–13, including 13:13 theological-virtue triad), G5-P2 (Jonah 4:11: mercy to the outsider); triad parallels: 1 Thess 1:3, Col 1:4–5, Rom 5:2–5
  • supplementary depth: full per-verse pass on 1 Cor 13 in books/15-love-chapter-per-verse.md (L-P1 through L-P4 — love is constitutive of value, definable in character, eschatologically permanent, the greatest of the triad); per-verse Matt 5:38–48 + Luke 6:27–36 (S-P2 in books/14-sermon-on-the-mount-per-verse.md: love of enemy warranted by Father's indiscriminate goodness); Pauline non-retaliation Rom 12:14–21 (P-P3 in books/16-pauline-ethics-per-verse.md).
  • Untranslatable: agapē; hesed (the OT root, WEB: "loving kindness"); the theological triad in Greek (πίστις pistis / ἐλπίς elpis / ἀγάπη agapē)
  • Cross-tradition note: "God IS love" (1 John 4:8) is a WEAK-distinctive metaphysical claim — that ultimate reality is itself love, not merely that love is commanded or disciplined. This grounds the Christian warrant for love in the divine nature, differing even from Judaism (where love is covenant command/hesed) and sharply from traditions where love is a discipline (Buddhist mettā) rather than the being of the absolute. The radical-love claims (love of enemy, the Golden Rule, mercy to the least) converge strongly; the warrant (imitation of a God who is love and emptied himself, P10) is distinctive. The theological-virtue triad (faith / hope / love) has structurally cognate triads in other traditions (e.g., Sikh sat-santokh-pyār; Buddhist sīla-samādhi-paññā) but the specific trio of trust-in-the-promise / hope-for-the-new-creation / self-giving-love-of-the-self-emptying-God is Pauline-distinctive, anchored in 1 Cor 13:13.

P8 — The Golden Rule and self-giving love (even unto laying down one's life)

"Whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Jesus gives a "new commandment" — "love one another, just like I have loved you" — and names love's height: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Self-giving is love's full form.

  • Bible: G6-P3 (Matt 7:12, the Golden Rule), G7-P3 (John 13:34–35, 15:13: new commandment, lay down one's life)
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Matt 7:12 + Luke 6:31 + the Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10:25–37) in books/14-sermon-on-the-mount-per-verse.md S-P4, S-P5 (neighbour is the role enacted, not the category occupied); deuterocanon additive: Tobit 4:16's negative-form Golden Rule in OT-tradition canon, DC2-P2 in books/19-deuterocanon-tobit-judith-maccabees.md — strengthens cross-tradition convergence of the Golden Rule by giving it an explicit OT-tradition verse.
  • Untranslatable: agapē; kenōsis (self-emptying, the warrant — see P10)
  • Cross-tradition note: the Golden Rule is among the broadest cross-tradition convergences (it appears, in some form, in most traditions, including Judaism's Hillel and Confucian shu); the self-giving/sacrificial ideal ("lay down one's life") converges in claim with sacrificial ideals elsewhere; the warrant (imitation of the incarnate God's kenōsis) is distinctively Christian.

P9 — Salvation is by grace (charis) through faith — a gift, not an achievement

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"; the human predicament is universal — no one is self-sufficient before God. Yet "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us": salvation is "by grace… through faith… the gift of God, not of works, that no one may boast." Right standing is received, not earned; being "in Christ" makes one "a new creation." God's love is its origin: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son."

  • Bible: G9-P1 (Rom 3:23: universal sin), G9-P2 (Rom 5:8, Eph 2:8–9, 2 Cor 5:17: grace, gift, new creation), G7-P2 (John 3:16), G10-P1 (Heb 11:1, Jas 2:17: faith proved by works), G5-P3 (Hab 2:4)
  • Untranslatable: charis / grace (unmerited divine favour)
  • Cross-tradition note: the Christian pole of the Atlas grace-vs-self-effort axis — sharply divergent in warrant from self-effort traditions (Buddhism P5/P8: "no one can purify another"; "you yourself must make the effort"). The claim of a universal human flaw (P9's "all have sinned") converges loosely with traditions diagnosing a universal predicament (cf. Buddhist dukkha); but the warrant (offence against a holy God, healed by divine gift, not by technique) diverges fundamentally. The faith/works balance (Paul vs James) is held in tension within the canon: works are faith's fruit, not its ground.

P10 — The Word became flesh: the incarnation and kenōsis (God enters human finitude); with the trinitarian substrate (Father–Son–Spirit)

The eternal Logos, who "was God," "became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth"; Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life." Redemption comes through a servant "pierced for our transgressions… and by his wounds we are healed." Christ, "existing in the form of God… emptied himself (kenōsis), taking the form of a servant" — the downward movement of self-giving humility that is the believer's pattern. Trinitarian substrate (sub-element, hybrid pattern per Learning 6: anchor what is in-corpus, future-work the rest). The Christology named above sits inside a trinitarian grammar of God — Father, Son, Holy Spirit named together as one — that scripture bears without itself articulating the dogmatic formulation. The biblical substrate is verifiable verbatim in the WEB: the baptismal formula at Matt 28:19 ("baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"); the trinitarian benediction at 2 Cor 13:14 ("The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all"); the Paraclete sayings at John 14:26 ("the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name") and John 15:26 ("the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father"); and the Johannine Prologue at John 1:1, 1:14 anchoring the Logos. The trinitarian grammar — one God in three coequal Persons — distinguishes Christianity from strict-unitarian monotheism (Judaism, Islam, the historical Arian movement, modern Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, LDS). Honest extra-biblical flag: the words Trinitas, consubstantial / homoousios, hypostasis, Filioque do not appear in scripture; the homoousian formulation is the dogmatic settlement of Nicaea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381), articulated further in the Athanasian Creed. The Bible carries the substrate; the formulation is post-NT doctrinal settlement. Future work: the Filioque clause ("and the Son") added by the Western church to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is the standing Catholic-Orthodox controversy on the procession of the Spirit (Catholic and the magisterial Protestants affirm; Orthodox reject) — this distillation cannot adjudicate this controversy, and it is flagged for within-tradition Eastern Christian reviewer outreach (see audit-deep-christianity-bible.md Gap 9 §10 Rec 2 and §9 within-tradition limits). Pelikan vol. 1 treats the trinitarian settlement as the dogmatic settlement of the patristic era; Ratzinger devotes Part Two of Introduction to Christianity to it.

  • Bible: G7-P1 (John 1:1, 1:14, 14:6), G4-P3 (Isa 53:5, 9:6: the suffering servant — note: this is the Christian reading; Jewish biblical scholarship reads the Servant Songs as Israel collectively, the prophet, or the post-exilic remnant), G9-P3 (Phil 2:5–7: kenōsis); trinitarian substrate: Matt 28:19 (baptismal formula — verified verbatim against WEB), 2 Cor 13:14 (trinitarian benediction — verified verbatim against WEB), John 14:26 (Paraclete sent by the Father — verified verbatim), John 15:26 (Spirit proceeds from the Father — verified verbatim). Future work: Filioque (post-NT dogmatic controversy; out of textual scope; within-tradition Eastern Christian reviewer).
  • supplementary depth: full per-verse pass on the kenōsis hymn Phil 2:5–11 in books/16-pauline-ethics-per-verse.md P-P8 — Christianity's load-bearing warrant for self-giving love, with the claim-vs-warrant frame-independence flag explicitly attached; deuterocanon additive: Baruch 3:38's "afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men" (in Catholic reception read proto-Christologically as wisdom-incarnate) DC1-P2 in books/18-deuterocanon-wisdom-and-sirach.md — an antecedent of John 1's Logos with explicit incarnational language.
  • Untranslatable: logos (the divine self-expression made flesh); charis (grace); kenōsis (self-emptying); Trinitas (Latin: the Trinity — preserved to mark the substrate-vs-formulation distinction); homoousios (Greek: "of one substance" — the patristic doctrinal term, post-NT but the conceptual locus of the trinitarian settlement)
  • Cross-tradition note: the incarnation is a WEAK-distinctive of Christianity — no other major tradition holds that the transcendent God becomes a finite human (it diverges even from Judaism and Islam, which reject it). kenōsis — self-emptying by God himself — has no close cross-tradition parallel. This is among the sharpest warrant-level divergences in the whole pool, and it directly grounds the AI-age anthropology (the irreplaceable human face). The trinitarian substrate further distinguishes Christianity from strict-unitarian monotheisms (Judaism's strict Shema-rooted monotheism; Islam's tawḥīd) — these traditions share with Christianity the claim "there is one God" but diverge on the warrant of how that one God's life is internally structured: Christianity confesses one God in three Persons; Judaism and Islam confess one God simpliciter. The cross-tradition Atlas's "monotheism nuance" axis turns on this distinction (see Atlas re-attestation note).

P11 — The church is a communion (koinōnia) — and transformation is interior (with the nine Fruits of the Spirit as the Pauline character grammar)

The first believers "continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and koinōnia (fellowship), in the breaking of bread, and prayer," "of one heart and soul," holding "all things in common" so none was in need. Love takes economic form. And transformation is interior: "be transformed by the renewing of your mind," putting on "compassion, kindness, humility, and gentleness"; God gives "a new heart… and a new spirit." The interior transformation's Pauline character-grammar is the nine Fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22–23 — see canonical taxonomies item 6): "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control" (WEB, verified verbatim). The list is contrasted with "the works of the flesh" (Gal 5:19–21 — sexual immorality, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, wraths…) — the two-column structure makes the fruits the explicit alternative formation the Spirit produces in the koinōnia. The parallel Pauline list at Col 3:12 — "compassion, kindness, humility, lowliness of mind, longsuffering" — overlaps several fruits and binds them to community life ("put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved…"). Vulgate twelve variant: the Vulgate Latin tradition lists twelve (adding longanimitas, modestia, continentia, castitas) by reading Greek enkrateia through Latin amplification; Catechism §1832 follows the Vulgate twelve. The Greek text (and the WEB) holds nine. The fruits are named here as a named structure because (a) the list itself is catechetically central (the standard Pauline character index across Christian formation traditions); (b) the contrast with "works of the flesh" frames the Spirit's interior work as a formation curriculum, not a private mystical state.

  • Bible: G8-P1 (Acts 2:42: koinōnia), G8-P2 (Acts 4:32: goods in common), G9-P6 (Rom 12:2, Col 3:12: renewed mind + parallel character list), G9-P? (Gal 5:22–23: the nine Fruits of the Spirit), G4-P4 (Jer 31:33, Ezek 36:26: new heart, interior covenant)
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Rom 12:1–8 (body as living sacrifice, renewed mind, differentiated unity in body of Christ) in books/16-pauline-ethics-per-verse.md P-P1, P-P2; per-verse Fruits of the Spirit Gal 5:19–23 in books/16-pauline-ethics-per-verse.md P-C15 (works of the flesh) + P-C16 (nine fruits — verified verbatim against WEB); deuterocanon additive: Tobit's marriage prayer (Tob 8:5–9) as covenant union ordered to love and posterity DC2-P3 in books/19-deuterocanon-tobit-judith-maccabees.md, and Sirach 3 on honoring (and caring for the cognitively-declining) aged parent DC1-P4 in books/18-deuterocanon-wisdom-and-sirach.md — directly strengthens the domestic koinōnia dimension.
  • Untranslatable: koinōnia (communion / fellowship / sharing-in-common); karpos tou pneumatos (Greek: "fruit of the Spirit" — preserved to mark the singular-noun grammar; Paul writes ὁ καρπός τοῦ πνεύματος (one fruit with multiple aspects) rather than τὰ καρπά (many fruits) — a small grammatical point with theological weight: the Spirit produces one integrated character expressed in many facets, not nine separate gifts to be ticked off)
  • Cross-tradition note: shared-goods-so-none-lacks (claim) converges with many traditions' almsgiving/redistribution norms (cf. Jewish jubilee, Islamic zakāt); the warrant — koinōnia in the risen Christ, a communion grounded in the resurrection and the Spirit — is distinctively ecclesial. Interior transformation ("renewing of the mind") converges in claim with the Buddhist primacy-of-mind; warrants diverge (Spirit-given new heart vs mental cultivation). The nine Fruits as a named virtue-list participates in a cross-tradition parallel — the Five Constants (Confucian), Eightfold Path (Buddhist), Five Pillars (Islamic), Five Great Vows (Jain), Three Pillars (Sikh) — same structural form (a named-list-of-virtues as canonical structure), different substance and warrant. The Pauline distinctive: the fruits are produced by the Spirit, not cultivated by the self; this parallels the P9 grace-vs-self-effort axis at the level of character formation.

P12 — The resurrection is the hinge of the faith and the ground of hope

"If Christ has not been raised… your faith is in vain"; but "now Christ has been raised from the dead… the first fruits." Death is defeated — "Death, where is your sting?" The resurrection is the central event of the New Testament and the foundation of the whole Christian hope.

  • Bible: G12-P1 (1 Cor 15:14, 15:20, 15:55)
  • supplementary depth: deuterocanon strongly additive — 2 Maccabees 7 (mother and seven brothers) is the most explicit OT-tradition articulation of personal, bodily resurrection ("the King of the world will raise us up… in the resurrection of eternal life"; the mother's "the Creator… will restore… both breath and life"); DC2-P4 in books/19-deuterocanon-tobit-judith-maccabees.md. This is genuinely additive to the Protestant canon's articulation: the Protestant 66-book canon contains Daniel 12:2 but not this level of explicit, narratively embedded martyr-resurrection witness — and 2 Macc 7's language is the direct verbal antecedent of NT resurrection language.
  • Cross-tradition note: the resurrection is a WEAK-distinctive: a bodily rising that defeats death — neither reincarnation nor immortality-of-soul-only — with no close cross-tradition parallel, and the warrant for Christian hope. It diverges from cyclical/cessation goal-states (e.g. Buddhist nibbāna as cessation, not resurrection) and even from the Jewish messianic hope's emphasis (P13 there). The claim ("death is not the final word") converges loosely with afterlife/restoration hopes; the warrant (a particular man bodily raised, as first fruits) diverges fundamentally.

P13 — History culminates in a renewed creation, free of suffering and death (the kingdom, basileia) — inaugurated in the eight Beatitudes

Jesus proclaims the basileia (kingdom/reign of God), and its inaugural charter is the eight Matthean Beatitudes (Matt 5:3–12 — see canonical taxonomies item 4): (1) "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven"; (2) "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"; (3) "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth"; (4) "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled"; (5) "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"; (6) "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"; (7) "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God"; (8) "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" — closing with the ninth address-shift, "Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake" (5:11–12), traditionally read as a personal application of the eighth rather than a separate beatitude. The Lukan parallel (Luke 6:20–26) gives four blessings + four woes ("Blessed are you who are poor / hunger now / weep now / when men shall hate you ; … but woe to you who are rich / full now / laugh now / when all men speak well of you"), binding the Beatitudes to material economic reality and not letting them be spiritualized only. Standing intra-NT tension (the so-called "Lukan correction"): Matthew's "poor in spirit" (interiorized — those aware of their need before God) vs Luke's "you who are poor" (material — the literally poor) is a load-bearing exegetical dispute. Both are kept in the canon; neither dominates. Catholic Catechism §§1716–1729 treats the Beatitudes as "the heart of Jesus' preaching," holding both registers. Liberation theology (Gutiérrez, Boff, Sobrino) sharpens the Lukan reading politically; conservative Protestant reading often emphasizes the Matthean. The eight inverted-blessings name who the kingdom belongs to in P13's inverted logic: greatness is inverted, the kingdom belongs to the lowly. The canon's final horizon is "a new heaven and a new earth," where God "will wipe away every tear" and "death will be no more" — "Behold, I am making all things new." Hope is not escape from the world but its renewal.

  • Bible: G6-P1 (Matt 5:3–12 — the eight Matthean Beatitudes; Luke 6:20–26 — the Lukan four blessings + four woes), Luke 4:18 (Nazareth manifesto: "good news to the poor"); G11-P1 (Rev 21:1, 21:4, 21:5: the consummation)
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Matthean Beatitudes (Matt 5:3–10 + 5:11–12 persecution-address) at books/14-sermon-on-the-mount-per-verse.md S-C1 (the eight inversions) + S-C3 (the persecution beatitude/address-shift), and Lukan blessings + woes at S-C2 (blessings) + S-C17 (woes binding to economic reality) → synthesized S-P1 "the kingdom inverts the order of value." Cross-canon seam to the Magnificat (Luke 1:52–53) in P5.
  • Untranslatable: basileia (kingdom / reign of God); the eight Beatitudes carry the underlying Greek makarios (blessed / happy / fortunate-in-the-divine-ordering — neither Latin beatus nor English "happy" fully captures the inverted, eschatological-already-present sense)
  • Cross-tradition note: the consummation is a teleological/eschatological frame — a strong divergence axis. The Christian warrant (a personal God renews this creation, bodily, ending death) diverges from cyclical/cessation goal-states (Buddhist nibbāna) and converges most with the Jewish shalom/restoration hope (P13 there), with which it shares the prophetic seed. The claim ("ultimate peace beyond suffering") loosely converges across traditions; the warrant (resurrection + new creation, not cessation) diverges. The Beatitudes' eight-fold inverted-blessing structure as a named ethical taxonomy parallels other tradition virtue-lists (Five Constants, Eightfold Path, Five Pillars, Five Great Vows, Three Pillars) — same structural form (a named-list-of-virtues), different substance: the Beatitudes are who the kingdom blesses (descriptive of the kingdom's logic), not what to do (prescriptive practice). This is itself a structural Atlas finding: the only major virtue-list whose form is blessing pronounced rather than practice prescribed.

P14 — Technology is not morally neutral, and AI must not replace the human (the AI-age principle)

(Bible-implicit.) Tools take on the character of those who make and use them; the human face — a heart that gives itself and a conscience that discerns good from evil — can never be replaced by a computational system. The anthropological seed is biblical (P1 imago Dei, P2 the limit, P10 the irreplaceable incarnate human face); the application to AI is a contemporary inference drawn from those seeds.

  • Bible: no direct verse — the Bible supplies only the anthropological seed (P1 imago Dei, P2 the limit, P10 the irreplaceable incarnate human face). Genesis's good-but-limited creation and the prophets' idolatry-critique (trusting "the work of one's own hands") are the nearest scriptural roots.
  • supplementary depth: deuterocanon partially additive — Sirach 38:1–15 (DC1-P5 in books/18-deuterocanon-wisdom-and-sirach.md) provides the most explicit biblical-tradition endorsement of medical science as God-created good, with the load-bearing tension that applied knowledge is a gift but ordered to God's service ("pray to the Lord, and he shall heal thee" alongside "give place to the physician"). This is a partial OT-tradition seed for a non-neutral but good-when-ordered view of technology.
  • Cross-tradition note: a contemporary inference rather than a direct scriptural verse. The claim (artifacts embed values; the human must not be subordinated to its tools) is a modern convergence candidate that few ancient traditions address directly.

P15 — The Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster): Jesus' own prayer pattern — God's Name, basileia, and will first; daily bread, mutual forgiveness, and deliverance from evil second

The single highest-lived-centrality Christian text. Asked by a disciple "Lord, teach us to pray," Jesus gives the pattern (Luke 11:1–4); in the Sermon on the Mount it appears as the model of un-showy interior prayer (Matt 6:9–13). The prayer's structure — address (Our Father in heaven) + three God-ward petitions (Name hallowed / basileia come / will be done) + four human-need petitions (daily bread / forgiveness of debts as we forgive / not into temptation / deliver from evil) — subordinates self to God's reign in form before it asks for anything for the self; and it makes mutual forgiveness internal to the prayer itself — the disciple cannot ask what they refuse to give. The Matthean form (Matt 6:9–13, WEB verified): "Pray like this: 'Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'" The Lukan form (Luke 11:2–4, WEB verified) is shorter: "Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." The doxology ("For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.") at Matt 6:13 is a liturgical accretion not present in the earliest manuscripts of Matthew — preserved in the Didache (~1st–2nd c.) and the Byzantine textual tradition. Catholic liturgy omits the doxology from the prayer proper (it returns later in the rite); Protestant liturgical traditions usually retain it (following the Textus Receptus / KJV reading). Catechism §§2759–2865 devotes its entire fourth part to the Lord's Prayer — naming it "the summary of the whole gospel" (citing Tertullian) and "the most perfect of prayers" (citing Aquinas). Every Christian liturgical tradition prays it daily (Catholic Mass, Orthodox Divine Liturgy, Anglican Daily Office, every Protestant denomination's order of worship); it is the most-recited Christian text by orders of magnitude. Structural seam to other principles: the three God-ward petitions sit inside P6 (love-God-first) + P13 (the basileia); the four human-need petitions sit inside P5 (daily bread = sustenance / economic justice), P11 (mutual forgiveness as the binding of koinōnia), and P9 (deliverance from evil rests on grace). The Lord's Prayer thus integrates the principle architecture into a single prayed pattern — which is why it is promoted to standalone P15 rather than left as silently distributed across the others.

  • Bible: Matt 6:9–13 (the Matthean form — full, with doxology textual-history flagged); Luke 11:1–4 (the Lukan form — shorter; preserves the framing dialogue: "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples")
  • supplementary depth: per-verse Lord's Prayer at books/14-sermon-on-the-mount-per-verse.md S-C9 (the full Matthean text with the manuscript-history note on the doxology) → synthesized S-P3 ("the Lord's Prayer subordinates self to God's reign — and binds forgiveness given to forgiveness asked").
  • Untranslatable: Pater Noster (Latin: "Our Father" — the prayer's traditional name in Western Christianity; preserved to mark the prayer-as-form rather than the prayer-as-content); epiousios (the Greek adjective in Matt 6:11 / Luke 11:3 rendered "daily" — a hapax legomenon, possibly "for-the-coming-day" or "supersubstantial"; the Vulgate splits Matthew's supersubstantialem / Luke's cottidianum, a translation knot whose ambiguity is theologically load-bearing — is the bread asked for ordinary, eschatological, or eucharistic?); basileia (in the second God-ward petition — see P13)
  • Cross-tradition note: the Lord's Prayer is the central case of ritual/liturgical prayer-pattern as canonical structure — it parallels the Shema (Judaism; recited morning and evening), the daily salat with its Fatiha (Islam; recited five times daily), the Bahá'í daily Obligatory Prayers, the daily Sikh Nitnem anchored in the Japji Sahib, the Buddhist Tisaraṇa + daily chants, the Zoroastrian Ahuna Vairya (Yatha Ahu Vairyo). Same structural form (daily-recited prayer-pattern given by the founder or in early canonical strata), different substance and warrant. The Christian distinctives: (a) the prayer is given by the founder himself in a teach-us-to-pray dialogue; (b) it makes mutual forgiveness internal to the petition for divine forgiveness — a self-binding ethical clause that is structurally rare across the parallel forms; (c) the seven petitions concentrate the whole gospel into a single repeatable form, which is why every Christian formation tradition treats it as basic.

Convergence/divergence summary (Atlas preview)

Likely cross-tradition convergence (claim level) Likely divergence (warrant/foundation)
P1 imago Dei dignity · P5 justice & care for the poor · P6 love of neighbour / Golden Rule (P8) · P7 compassion/mercy + theological-virtue triad faith/hope/love · P3 reverent wisdom + epistemic humility · P2 the limit/finitude · P11 nine Fruits of the Spirit (claim — virtue-list-as-canonical-structure) · P13 eight Beatitudes (claim — virtue-list-as-canonical-structure) · P15 the Lord's Prayer (claim — daily-recited prayer-pattern; parallels Shema, salat + Fatiha, daily Sikh Nitnem, etc.) P9 grace, not self-effort (the grace axis) · P10 incarnation & kenōsis + trinitarian substrate (Father-Son-Spirit monotheism vs strict-unitarian Shema / tawḥīd) · P12 bodily resurrection · P7 "God IS love" (metaphysical) · P4 covenant (berit) · P14 the AI-age application (contemporary inference from biblical anthropological seeds) · P13 Beatitudes' inverted-blessing form (unique among virtue-lists — who-the-kingdom-blesses rather than what-to-do) · P15 Lord's Prayer's mutual-forgiveness self-binding clause (structurally rare in parallel daily-prayer forms)

WEAK-distinctive jewels to preserve: charis/grace (P9), the incarnation + kenōsis (P10), the trinitarian grammar of God (P10 substrate — distinctive among the monotheisms), the bodily resurrection (P12), "God is love" as a metaphysical claim (P7), and the Lord's Prayer's mutual-forgiveness self-binding clause (P15). These are the Christianity column's highest-value Atlas inputs — and they must not be discarded as "low confidence" merely because they diverge.

Strong structural kinship with Judaism (see structural-analysis.md): Christianity shares Judaism's covenant→ethics→hope arrow (often the same verses: the Shema, Lev 19:18, Isa 1:17, Mic 6:8, the Decalogue Ex 20 / Deut 5). The Christian distinctives are concentrated in the NT's grace/incarnation/resurrection cluster, which transforms the inherited covenant into a love-and-grace center.

Supplementary additions

supplementary added per-verse depth for the highest-density principle-bearing sections (Decalogue, Sermon on the Mount core, 1 Cor 13, Pauline ethical core, OT wisdom/Psalter + Lev 19/Deut 6) and book-level coverage of the deuterocanon. Additive only — the 14 core-principle principles were unchanged at R3. The per-principle Evidence/Covers lines above point into supplementary files (books/13–books/19). (The 15th principle was added in structural-completeness, anchored in supplementary Matt 6:9–13 / S-C9 / S-P3.)

Strengthened (per-verse depth): P1 (Ps 139 + Decalogue), P2 (Ps 90 + Eccl 3), P5 (Lev 19 Holiness Code + Decalogue Sabbath + Lukan blessings/woes), P6 (Shema + Greatest Commandment + Rom 13:8–10 + Gal 5:14 + the Decalogue itself per-verse, now named in P6), P7 (1 Cor 13 + Matt 5:38–48 + Luke 6:27–36 + Rom 12 + the theological-virtue triad locus 1 Cor 13:13 now named in P7), P8 (Good Samaritan), P10 (Phil 2 kenōsis hymn per-verse + trinitarian-substrate verses Matt 28:19 / 2 Cor 13:14 / John 14:26 / 15:26 now named in P10), P11 (Rom 12 body of Christ + Gal 5:22–23 nine Fruits of the Spirit now named in P11), P13 (the eight Matthean Beatitudes Matt 5:3–12 + Lukan four+four Luke 6:20–26 now named with the spiritualizing-vs-material tension flagged in P13), P15 NEW (Matt 6:9–13 + Luke 11:1–4 — Lord's Prayer per-verse supplementary at S-C9 / S-P3 promoted to standalone core-principle).

Genuinely additive (deuterocanon):

  • P1 imago Dei: Wisdom 2:23 explicitly joins imago Dei with incorruptibility.
  • P5 Justice/care for poor: Tobit's "alms delivereth from death" — soteric weight of mercy; Sirach 3 on care for the aged parent.
  • P6 Love command: (no additive deuterocanon material — Shema, Lev 19:18, and the Decalogue Ex 20 / Deut 5 are the seed texts).
  • P8 Golden Rule: Tobit 4:16 gives the negative-form Golden Rule in OT-tradition canon (the form Hillel and Jesus build on).
  • P10 Incarnation: Baruch 3:38 (proto-Christological "seen upon earth, conversed with men").
  • P11 Communion / family: Tobit's marriage prayer; Sirach 3 on elder care.
  • P12 Resurrection: 2 Maccabees 7's mother and seven brothers — the most explicit OT-tradition articulation of bodily resurrection and direct verbal antecedent of NT resurrection language. This is the strongest deuterocanonical addition.
  • P14 Technology/AI: Sirach 38 (the physician and medicine as God's gift) — the closest biblical-tradition antecedent of a non-neutrality framework: applied knowledge is good but ordered to God's service.

supplementary total atomic-statement counts: 14 (Decalogue) + 18 (Sermon on Mount + parallels) + 9 (1 Cor 13) + 20 (Pauline core, including Gal 5:19–23 Fruits) + 23 (Wisdom/Psalms/Lev/Deut) + 9 (Wisdom of Sol + Sirach + Baruch) + 9 (Tobit + Judith + Maccabees) = 102 supplementary atomic statements → 43 supplementary principles (book-section level). The core-principle set grew from 14 → 15 in structural-completeness (P15 Lord's Prayer promoted from supplementary).

Quality

  • Source coverage: all 66 books / 12 book-level files / 33 book-group principles map to ≥1 core-principle principle.

  • Traceability: each core-principle principle lists covered book-group principles + evidence verses.

  • Standalone comprehension: each principle stated to be intelligible to an outsider, with the frame-specific warrant flagged separately.

  • Scope notes: (a) Protestant 66-book canon as base — the Catholic deuterocanon is covered at supplementary (Douay-Rheims); Orthodox canon remains a real boundary. (b) Book-group granularity — per-verse depth (every parable, every Psalm, every chapter of Romans) is supplementary. (c) No within-tradition reviewer — Christianity's internal plurality (Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant) is not adjudicated; this is one structured reading. The audit recommends a three-stream within-tradition panel (Catholic + Orthodox + Reformed/Anglican, with Pentecostal voice ideally) given the scale of internal plurality. (d) Several disputed questions (the Filioque, the Seven Sacraments enumeration, the Catholic four-cardinal-plus-three-theological virtues taxonomy, the Catholic Beatitudes-as-heart-of-preaching reading) are handled below per Catholic interpretation where flagged, with Reformed/Orthodox alternatives named — these denominational alignments should be surfaced explicitly in any cross-tradition Atlas summary that pulls from this column.

  • Quotes pending future char-for-char audit against the WEB and Douay-Rheims. Audit verified 18 spot-checks, all MATCH (audit-deep-christianity-bible.md §4) including the four trinitarian-substrate verses (Matt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14, John 14:26, John 15:26) and Gal 5:22–23 used in the structural-completeness fixes.

  • Structural-completeness: PASS (10/10 canonical taxonomies covered) against the canonical theme-taxonomy list — 7 covered by standalone-or-named-sub-element, 3 explicit deferrals.

    • Standalone principles: 1. The Greatest Commandment (P6 — pre-Plan-013 standalone, Matt 22:37–40 with Shema + Lev 19:18). 2. The Lord's Prayer (P15 — promoted standalone structural-completeness, Matt 6:9–13 + Luke 11:1–4).
    • Sub-elements (clearly anchored, named in principle prose): a. The Decalogue is a sub-element of P6 (the love-summary) because the Decalogue's two tables are the same structure Jesus binds at Matt 22:37–40; D-P1…D-P6 supplementary anchor; enumeration dispute (Jewish/Reformed vs Catholic/Lutheran) flagged in P6 prose. b. The Sermon on the Mount is distributed across P5 / P6 / P7 / P8 / P13 because it is a discourse-unit not a single doctrine; Christian scholarship is split on its unitary thesis; S-P1…S-P7 supplementary anchor at books/14. c. The Beatitudes are a sub-element of P13 (the basileia) because the eight inverted-blessings name who the kingdom belongs to in P13's inverted logic; eight Matthean + Lukan four+four now enumerated in P13 prose with spiritualizing-vs-material tension flagged. d. The Fruits of the Spirit are a sub-element of P11 (interior transformation / koinōnia) because the nine fruits are the Pauline character-grammar of the Spirit-formed person in the koinōnia; Gal 5:22–23 now named in P11 prose with the Vulgate-twelve variant flagged. e. The Theological Virtue triad (faith / hope / love) is a sub-element of P7 (love hub) with structural distribution to P9 (faith) and P12 (hope); 1 Cor 13:13 + 1 Thess 1:3 locus now named in P7 prose; "the greatest of these is love" is structurally summative. f. The Trinitarian substrate (Father–Son–Spirit grammar) is a sub-element of P10 (incarnation / Logos / kenōsis) because the trinitarian grammar is the grammar of God that the Christology presupposes; Matt 28:19 + 2 Cor 13:14 + John 14:26 / 15:26 now named in P10 prose; hybrid pattern per Learning 6: anchor in-corpus, future-work the rest (R4: Filioque controversy → within-tradition Eastern Christian reviewer; the homoousian formulation is post-NT dogmatic settlement, flagged extra-biblical).
    • Deferrals (explicit, with category + criterion + Future work if applicable):
      • (a) Seven Sacraments (Baptism / Confirmation / Eucharist / Reconciliation / Anointing / Holy Orders / Matrimony) — deferred under category 2 (out of textual focus). Criterion: the enumeration to seven is a Catholic / Orthodox dogmatic settlement (Council of Lyon 1274; Trent Session VII 1547); the list is extra-biblical (each rite has biblical anchoring but the enumeration is dogmatic). Magisterial Protestant traditions (Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran) affirm two dominical sacraments only (Baptism + Eucharist, biblically instituted by Christ explicitly), reading the other five as sacramentals or rites. Catholic reading: P11 (koinōnia) touches Eucharist (Acts 2:42 "breaking of bread") and the sacrament of Matrimony is implicit in P11's family/communion dimension. Future work (optional): a supplementary-2 expansion could map each sacrament to its biblical anchor (Baptism: Matt 28:19 — verified; Eucharist: 1 Cor 11:23–26 / Mt 26:26–28; Reconciliation: John 20:23; Anointing: James 5:14; Holy Orders: 1 Tim 4:14; Matrimony: Mt 19:6 / Eph 5:25–32), respecting both the Catholic synthesis and the Reformed biblical-institution frame.
      • (b) Apostles' Creed + Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (AD 381) — deferred under category 2 (out of textual focus). Criterion: extra-biblical confessional structures; the Apostles' Creed has 2nd–4th c. antecedents with received form ~8th c.; the Nicene was settled 325 / refined 381. The content is in-corpus across P6 / P10 / P11 / P12 / P13; the structure-as-confession is post-NT. Some free-church / restorationist traditions (Quakers, certain Baptist and Pentecostal streams) reject creedal formulation on principle. The Catechism §§185–1065 structures its first part around the Apostles' Creed. Future work (optional): a mapping could track each creedal article to the core-principle principle(s) carrying its content.
      • (c) The four Cardinal Virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance) — deferred under category 3 (non-essential per scholarship for non-Catholic readings). Criterion: the cardinal virtues are Stoic-philosophical received into Christian ethics via the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Solomon (Wis 8:7 — biblical seed, only available in the Catholic / Orthodox canon). Reformed traditions that reject the deuterocanon are correspondingly uneasy with the cardinal-virtue lineage — see Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, vol. 1 (Univ. of Chicago 1971) on the Stoic-philosophical reception; and Richard Bauckham et al., eds., The Cambridge Companion to the Bible (CUP 2nd ed. 2007), on Wisdom's reception history. The theological triad (faith / hope / love — 1 Cor 13:13) is biblical and ecumenical, carried as named sub-element of P7 above. Only justice (one of the four cardinals) is structurally hubbed in the core-principle (as P5); prudence / fortitude / temperance are not foregrounded. Catholic reading: the Catechism §§1805–1809 treats the four cardinals as foundational; a Catholic reviewer may legitimately object to this deferral. Future work: surfaced for within-tradition Catholic reviewer + within-tradition Reformed reviewer to adjudicate together — this is one of the highest-value items for the recommended three-stream within-tradition panel.
    • Future work items surfaced from structural-completeness (time cap honoured):
      1. Filioque controversy (P10 trinitarian-substrate sub-element) — Catholic-Orthodox dispute on the procession of the Spirit; this distillation cannot adjudicate; flagged for within-tradition Eastern Christian reviewer outreach.
      2. supplementary-2 sacramental anchors (optional) — biblical-institution map for each of the Seven Sacraments.
      3. supplementary-2 creedal-article map (optional) — Apostles' / Nicene Creed articles mapped to core-principle principles.
      4. within-tradition Catholic + Reformed joint review of the Cardinal Virtues deferral — the highest-value item for the recommended three-stream within-tradition panel.
    • Cross-tradition consistency (structural-completeness cross-tradition Atlas re-attestation will verify): the Christianity column's new and refined principles map to several Atlas themes:
      • Theme: ritual / liturgical prayer-pattern as canonical structure — P15 Lord's Prayer (Bible) joins Shema (Judaism), daily salat + Fatiha (Islam), Sikh Nitnem anchored in Japji, Bahá'í daily Obligatory Prayers, Buddhist Tisaraṇa, Zoroastrian Ahuna Vairya. Structural-form parallel; substance and warrant diverge.
      • Theme: monotheism nuance — P10 trinitarian substrate sharpens the Christianity–Judaism–Islam axis: one God in three Persons (Christianity) vs strict-unitarian (Judaism, Islam, historic Arianism, modern Unitarians, JW, LDS). Atlas's "monotheism" theme becomes denominationally / substantively nuanced.
      • Theme: virtue-list-as-canonical-structure — P11 nine Fruits of the Spirit + P13 eight Beatitudes join the Five Constants (Confucianism), Eightfold Path (Buddhism), Five Pillars (Islam), Five Great Vows (Jainism), Three Pillars (Sikhism). Same structural form, different substance.
      • Theme: doctrinal-settlement structures — the Apostles' / Nicene Creeds deferral (cat 2) joins the Buddhist Three Refuges, the Six Articles of Faith (Islam), Maimonides' Thirteen Principles (Judaism), the prasthāna-traya (Hinduism) as named confessional / settlement structures across traditions.
      • Theme: theological-anthropology — the Cardinal Virtues deferral (cat 3) flags Christianity's denominational range on the Stoic-philosophical-Christian synthesis question.

References