Origen’s Corpus
The Works of Origen of Alexandria
Origen of Alexandria
Commentaries, homilies, the Hexapla, and an answer to nearly everyone. Condemned three centuries after his death, and quoted by everybody in between.
- Catch rate
- Not found in the wild
- Base research
- 236
- Stat total
- 356
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.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Origen is said to have written more than any other ancient Christian — commentaries, homilies, the six-column Hexapla. What survives is a fraction of it, and the fraction is still enormous.
Eusebius says heretics, philosophers and Christians all sought him out as a teacher. Very few books argue with that kind of reach.
The Second Council of Constantinople condemned him in 553, and a great deal of the Greek did not survive the centuries after. His stature is higher than his transmission, and Defend measures the transmission.
Everybody in the fourth century has read him or has an opinion about him. He takes the floor first almost anywhere.
Cited for this book
Ambrose of Alexandria came to Origen a Valentinian and left orthodox, then spent the rest of his life funding shorthand writers to take down whatever Origen said. Almost everything we have of Origen exists because one convert would not stop paying for scribes.
Development
A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | Quote Him In Full | Rationality | Type shift | — | — | 5 |
| 34 | From What Is Made | Natural Theology | Argument | 62 | 100% | 15 |
| 40 | Emptied, Not Changed | Theology Proper | Argument | 70 | 100% | 10 |