Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis (Miscellanies)
Clement of Alexandria
More about Clement of Alexandria →
A patchwork rug of a book, and the pattern is only visible from a distance.
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.
Seven books entire and an eighth in pieces — a great deal of Clement, on almost everything.
Clement scattered the argument on purpose, so that a lazy reader would give up before a serious one did. It works, and it also means the book will not stand still when you need it to.
Quoted constantly by scholars and almost never from the pulpit.
Clement called these books the Stromateis, patchwork rugs, and left them disordered on purpose so readers would have to dig. His main claim became useful to every Christian scholar after him. Philosophy was a teacher to the Greeks, as the Law was to the Hebrews, leading them toward Christ.
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 | Quote Him In Full | Rationality | Type shift | — | — | 5 |
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 12 | Affirm | — | Status | — | — | 1 |
| 16 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 20 | A Schoolmaster to Christ | Rationality | Argument | 80 | 100% | 10 |
| 24 | A Perennial River | Rationality | Argument | 70 | 100% | 15 |
| 28 | Expose Contradictions | Rationality | Status | — | 100% | 15 |
| 50 | Speak Greek | History | Status | — | 100% | 5 |
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.
“Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring ‘the Hellenic mind,’ as the law, the Hebrews, ‘to Christ.’ Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ.”
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.5 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain), quoting Galatians 3:24.public domain
In the gamePaul calls the Law a schoolmaster that brought Israel to Christ. Clement says Greek philosophy did the same job for the Greeks — real teaching, real preparation, and never the destination.
“The way of truth is therefore one. But into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides.”
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.5 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
In the gameOne way, many streams. Clement says the road to truth is single and then says that everything true the Greeks ever wrote runs into it — which is a claim about where their learning ENDS, not a claim that any road will do.
