The Truth of the Christian Religion

Hugo Grotius, De Veritate Religionis Christianae (1627), trans. Clarke (1743)

Hugo Grotius — Dutch jurist, sentenced to life imprisonment for his politics, smuggled out of Loevestein Castle in a book chest by his own wife

More about Hugo Grotius →

History Rationality

A lawyer’s case, built for a stranger who has never heard the claim before and has every reason to doubt it.

Catch rate: 62 / 255
Base research: 262
Stat total: 358

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.

Stamina88

Contend96

Defend86

Popularity88

Total358

Why these numbers

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

Stamina 88

High. Grotius first wrote it as Dutch verse, for sailors to carry into distant ports, and then rewrote it himself in Latin prose.

Contend 96

Builds the case for the resurrection the way a lawyer builds any case — by calling witnesses, naming them, and asking what they had to gain by lying.

Defend 86

Written from a prison cell and then from exile. A case built under that kind of pressure has had every objection its author could imagine already thrown at it.

Popularity 88

Meant to be handed to a stranger on a dock, read start to finish in an afternoon, and argued with immediately.

Cited for this book

Hugo Grotius first wrote this book as Dutch verse for sailors of the East India Company, so they could explain their faith in distant ports. He later rewrote it in Latin for Europe. It set the pattern for modern apologetics: examine the witnesses to the resurrection as a court would. How many were there, and what did they gain by lying?

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	Five Hundred Witnesses	History	Argument	88	100%	10
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
16	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
34	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
40	Nobody Lies For Nothing	Rationality	Argument	82	100%	15
44	The Hostile Witness	History	Argument	94	95%	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.

“It appears from those books, that they appealed to five hundred witnesses, who saw Jesus… Now, it is not usual for those that speak untruths to appeal to so many witnesses.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)public domain

Five Hundred Witnesses

HistoryArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameNot one man’s word against the world — a named number, most of them alive and askable when the claim was first published, in the very city where checking it was a walk across town.

Strong against

×3A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Grotius notes that Paul appealed to five hundred witnesses of the risen Jesus, most of them still alive. Liars do not invite the public to check their story.

×3An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Grotius notes that Paul appealed to five hundred witnesses of the risen Jesus, most of them still alive. Liars do not invite the public to check their story.

“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.

“Nobody has any ill design for nothing… the very preaching of the gospel exposed them to hardship, to hunger and thirst.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)public domain

Nobody Lies For Nothing

RationalityArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameAsks what the liar was buying. Not honour — that was in the gift of the very people flogging them. Not comfort — the preaching itself bought hunger and thirst. A motive has to exist before it can be a motive.

Strong against

×2A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Grotius asks what the apostles gained by lying. Preaching brought them hunger, beatings and death. Nobody lies for nothing.

×2An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Grotius asks what the apostles gained by lying. Preaching brought them hunger, beatings and death. Nobody lies for nothing.

“Paul, who openly declared that he saw Christ reigning in heaven.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain.public domain

The Hostile Witness

HistoryArgument · power 94 · 95% accurate

In the gamePaul was not a follower who got carried away. He was the prosecution, and he changed his testimony against his own interest. Courts have always weighed that kind of witness heaviest.

Strong against

×4A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Hume rules the verdict in before the witness is called. Grotius calls one anyway — a prosecutor who changed his own testimony against his own interest.

×4An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Hume rules the verdict in before the witness is called. Grotius calls one anyway — a prosecutor who changed his own testimony against his own interest.

Read it: As a Court Would

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Latin.

“It appears from those books, that they appealed to five hundred witnesses, who saw Jesus… Now, it is not usual for those that speak untruths to appeal to so many witnesses.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)

“Nobody has any ill design for nothing… the very preaching of the gospel exposed them to hardship, to hunger and thirst.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)

“Paul, who openly declared that he saw Christ reigning in heaven.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain.

Notes

Grotius wrote it first as Dutch verse, for sailors of the East India Company to carry into ports that had never heard the name of Christ, then translated it himself into Latin prose.

It is the first modern evidential apologetic and still the outline of every one written since: examine the witnesses to the resurrection the way a court would — how many, whether they had anything to gain by lying, whether any had every reason to keep quiet and did not.