De Trinitate

Boethius, De Trinitate (Opuscula Sacra I)

Boethius (c. 477–524)

The Trinity worked through with Aristotle’s own toolkit, and nothing left over.

Catch rate: 46 / 255
Base research: 150
Stat total: 264

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina52

Contend78

Defend70

Popularity64

Total264

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Contend 78

High. A few pages, and each one asks whether a category Aristotle used for created things can be said of God at all. It wins by being exact.

Defend 70

It is the tractate the schoolmen actually taught from when they taught the Trinity — Gilbert of Poitiers wrote a whole commentary on it. A text that became a set text defends well.

Popularity 64

Short and much-copied. It reaches the table quickly and it does not waste the visit.

Cited for this book

Addressed to his father-in-law Symmachus, who would be executed beside him. Boethius asks how the Persons can be three and the substance one, and answers with the categories: substance holds the Unity, relation makes the Trinity, and a relation divides nothing.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Only by Relation	Theology Proper	Argument	90	100%	10
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
18	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
24	Form Without Matter	Natural Theology	Argument	80	100%	10
28	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
30	Question the Premise	Rationality	Type shift	—	—	10
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“So then, the category of substance preserves the Unity, that of relation brings about the Trinity.”
Boethius, De Trinitate (trans. H. F. Stewart & E. K. Rand, Loeb Classical Library 1918, public domain).public domain

Only by Relation

Theology ProperArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameSay “the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God” and you have said one thing three times, not counted to three. What tells the persons apart is relation — and a relation divides no substance.

Strong against

×2"That’s Three Gods"an argument · why?

Boethius explained it: what they are keeps them one, and how they relate makes them three. Father, Son and Spirit differ only in their relations to each other.

“the Divine Substance is Form without matter, and is therefore One, and is its own essence.”
Boethius, De Trinitate 2 (trans. H. F. Stewart & E. K. Rand, Loeb Classical Library 1918, public domain).public domain

Form Without Matter

Natural TheologyArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameA statue is a statue by its form, not its bronze; earth is earth by dryness and weight, not by bare stuff. Follow that up: the one thing with no matter under it at all is not made of anything. It simply IS what it is.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”
Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.