C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study (1947)
C. S. Lewis
Dense, exact and quietly amused, like a philosopher who has found a door in the wall.
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.
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
STAMINA — Solid. It is a technical book, and it keeps its argument up from the first chapter to the last.
CONTEND — High. It attacks the ground naturalism stands on, and does not bother with its conclusions.
DEFEND — Solid. The argument from reason has been attacked, and it has survived and been revised.
POPULARITY — Low. It is the least read of the Lewis books that people say they have read.
C. S. Lewis published Miracles in 1947. It is a careful case that if nature is all there is, then nature cannot explain rational thought, or conscience. Roger Nicole calls it a technical vindication of the supernatural. Its central chapter is the Grand Miracle, the incarnation, and it argues that every other miracle reads in its light.
A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.
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 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 1 | The Grand Miracle | Christology | Argument | 86 | 100% | 15 |
| 14 | Affirm | — | Status | — | — | 1 |
| 30 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 42 | The Divine Man Focusing What God Has Done | History | Argument | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| 54 | Nature Cannot Explain Reason | Presupposition | Argument | 92 | 100% | 10 |
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.
“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.
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.
“the Divine Man focusing for us what the God of Nature has already done on a larger scale”
C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study (1947), p. 169, as quoted by Roger Nicole, Ligonier, “God in the Dock: The Apologetics of C. S. Lewis.” Short excerpt from an in-copyright work, used under fair use.in copyright · fair use
In the gameLewis says the miracles of Jesus are not a break in how the world works. They bring into one place, on a small scale, what the God of Nature has already been doing on a large one. Roger Nicole calls the book a technical vindication of the supernatural, and this is where it lands.
