Exact Exposition
John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
John of Damascus, monk of Mar Saba
The whole of doctrine, catalogued by a man who had watched his city change hands and kept writing.
- Catch rate
- 20 / 255
- Base research
- 180
- Stat total
- 306
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.
A hundred chapters covering the whole of doctrine, handed on complete. Very little of this book has ever been in doubt, and none of it is lost.
It does not only assert the Trinity — it reasons toward it, from what God must be if he is living and rational at all. An argument that shows its working hits harder.
This became the standard doctrinal textbook of the Greek church and stayed so for centuries. A text that settled is a text that defends.
Enormously influential in the East and much less quoted in the West, so it is not always the first thing recalled.
Cited for this book
Written at Mar Saba, outside Jerusalem, under Muslim rule — John worked in the caliph’s administration before he became a monk. The last chapter of his heresy catalogue is the earliest substantial Christian account of Islam by a named author. On images this game does not follow him: Nicaea II settled that question in a direction the game’s own confession does not take, and says so where that council appears.
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 | Created or Uncreated | Natural Theology | Argument | 70 | 100% | 15 |
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 34 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 36 | The Word and the Spirit | Theology Proper | Argument | 66 | 100% | 15 |
| 39 | God Is Not Wordless | Theology Proper | Argument | 72 | 100% | 10 |
| 42 | The God of Matter | Christology | Argument | 74 | 95% | 10 |
| 45 | Two Perfect Natures | Christology | Argument | 80 | 100% | 10 |