Exhortation

Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus (Exhortation to the Heathen)

Clement of Alexandria

A Christian who had read everything the Greeks wrote, and did not think he had wasted the time.

Catch rate: 70 / 255
Base research: 148
Stat total: 252

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.

Stamina62

Contend72

Defend58

Popularity60

Total252

Why these numbers

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

Contend 72

Clement argues at the Greeks in Greek, out of Homer, Euripides, Plato and the tragedians, and never once pretends he has not read them. An argument made in the room’s own language hits hard in that room.

Defend 58

The text is secure but the manuscript tradition is narrow — nearly everything of Clement descends from one eleventh-century codex.

Popularity 60

The short, quotable Clement. Where a debate reaches for him, it reaches for this.

Cited for this book

Clement ran the Christian school at Alexandria and taught Origen. His Exhortation is addressed to educated pagans and uses their own stories. He retells the tale of Odysseus tied to the mast so he could hear the Sirens and live, and turns the mast into the cross. He fled Alexandria during the persecution of 202.

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

Exhortation→
Lv 30

Clement’s 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
1	The New Song	Rationality	Argument	66	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
8	Their Own Poets	Rationality	Argument	65	100%	10
13	Seed of the Word	Rationality	Argument	50	100%	20
17	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
19	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
21	Avoid Custom	Anthropology	Argument	72	100%	10
26	Bound to the Wood	Christology	Argument	88	95%	10
50	Speak Greek	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.

“Behold the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners to this song.”
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 1 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain

The New Song

RationalityArgument · power 66 · 100% accurate

In the gameClement opens by listing the Greek singers who moved stones and tamed beasts — Amphion, Arion, Orpheus — and then says the one song that actually did it. He is not sneering at their poetry. He is telling them what it was reaching for.

“As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’”
Acts 17:28 (WEB), Paul before the Areopagus.

Their Own Poets

RationalityArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate

In the gamePaul on Mars Hill: quote their poets, then preach the risen Christ.

Strong against

×2Platoa book · why?

Paul did not argue the Athenians out of their poets. He quoted them, agreed with them, and then said the one thing the poets had never reached.

“Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians.”
Justin Martyr, Second Apology 13 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain

Seed of the Word

RationalityArgument · power 50 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin: whatever is truly said anywhere is ours. Often finds the telling stroke.

Strong against

×2"Why So Late?"an argument · why?

Justin taught that the Word was at work before he came in the flesh. Wherever anyone said something true, they had a share in him. The ages before Christ were not empty of him.

×2Platoa book · why?

Justin’s rule: whatever any philosopher said truly, he said it because the Word who became Christ had already sown it in him. Plato is not the opponent here. He is early evidence.

×2The Declamationan argument · why?

Justin’s rule: whatever is truly said anywhere belongs to Christ. What matters in a sentence is whether it is true, and the church keeps whatever is true, however it is dressed.

×2The True Wordan argument · why?

Justin was a philosopher before he was a Christian. He taught that whatever the philosophers said truly belongs to Christ, so the faith has nothing to fear from an educated room.

“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.

“Let us then avoid custom as we would a dangerous headland, or the threatening Charybdis, or the mythic sirens. It chokes man, turns him away from truth, leads him away from life: custom is a snare, a gulf, a pit, a mischievous winnowing fan.”
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 12 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain

Avoid Custom

AnthropologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe strongest reason for the old gods was not an argument. It was that everyone had always done it. Clement answers the habit, because the habit is what keeps people there.

Strong against

×3Ancestral Customan argument · why?

Clement answers the habit behind the charge. Doing something because everyone always has is not a reason, and custom can lead a whole people away from the truth.

“Sail past the song; it works death. Exert your will only, and you have overcome ruin; bound to the wood of the cross, thou shalt be freed from destruction: the word of God will be thy pilot, and the Holy Spirit will bring thee to anchor in the haven of heaven.”
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 12 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain

Bound to the Wood

ChristologyArgument · power 88 · 95% accurate

In the gameOdysseus had himself lashed to the mast to hear the Sirens and live. Clement takes the picture off Homer and hands it back: there is a mast, it is a cross, and the man tied to it comes home.

Strong against

×3Odysseya book · why?

Clement read this book and kept the picture. There is a mast, and the man tied to it comes home.