“when I had considered the heaven and the earth, the sun and the moon and the rest, I marvelled at their orderly arrangement… I perceived that the mover and controller is God. For everything which causes motion is stronger than that which is moved, and that which controls is stronger than that which is controlled.”
Aristides, Apology 1 (trans. D. M. Kay from the Syriac, ANF 9, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move The Mover and Controller
Natural TheologyArgument · power 62 · 100% accurate
In the gameThe first sentence of the first complete apology, and it is an argument rather than a greeting: things move, movers are stronger than what they move, so run the chain back and see who is standing at the end of it.
Learned byAristides Frag. (Lv 1)
“they shut them up together in shrines, and worship them, calling them gods, even though they have to guard them securely for fear they should be stolen by robbers. And they did not perceive that anything which acts as guard is greater than that which is guarded, and that he who makes is greater than that which is made.”
Aristides, Apology 3 (trans. D. M. Kay from the Syriac, ANF 9, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Gods Under Guard
RationalityArgument · power 74 · 100% accurate
In the gameAristides walks past a temple and notices the lock. If a god has to be kept safe from thieves, the guard is stronger than the god — and the man who carved it is stronger still. A child can check this argument, which is why it has never worn out.
Learned byAristides Frag. (Lv 11), Aristides’ Apology (Lv 15)
Strong against
×3We Will Make You More Godsan argument · why?
A god that has to be locked up against thieves is weaker than the lock — and weaker than the man who carved him.
“And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food.”
Aristides, Apology 15 (trans. D. M. Kay from the Syriac, ANF 9, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move They Fast Two or Three Days
EthicsArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate
In the gameRome said Christians hated mankind. Aristides answers with a household budget: when there is nothing spare, they go without meals so that somebody else can eat. He is not arguing that the charge is unfair. He is telling the emperor what to go and look at.
Learned byAristides’ Apology (Lv 22)
Strong against
×3"Haters of Mankind"an argument · why?
Aristides answered with a household budget. When Christians had no food to spare, they fasted for two or three days so a poor neighbour could eat. People who hate mankind do not do that.
×3Why Did He Neglect Us?an argument · why?
Aristides described Christians going hungry so that strangers could eat. A God who cared for only one nation would not have taught his people to love every nation.
“And if any righteous man among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God; and they escort his body as if he were setting out from one place to another near.”
Aristides, Apology 15 (trans. D. M. Kay from the Syriac, ANF 9, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move As If Setting Out
EschatologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate
In the gameA funeral, described by a stranger who has been watching. They give thanks, and they walk the body out of town the way you walk a friend to the edge of the village when he is going somewhere near. The resurrection is not stated. It is in how they carry him.
Learned byAristides’ Apology (Lv 26)
“And verily, this is a new people, and there is something divine … in the midst of them.”
Aristides, Apology 16 (trans. D. M. Kay from the Syriac, ANF 9, public domain). The ellipsis marks Kay’s own parenthetical gloss on the Syriac — “(lit: a divine admixture)” — not a cut in Aristides.public domain
How it works in the game: the move A New People
HistoryArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate
In the gameAristides has just spent a chapter describing how Christians live, and this is his verdict on it. He is a philosopher reporting to an emperor, and the report is that something has appeared in the world that was not there before.
Learned byAristides’ Apology (Lv 30)
