Scholar's Dream

Moves

Every argument a book can make. Power and accuracy work the way you expect; the type is the method of persuasion, and how well it lands depends on what the other side is arguing from. Click a row for the quotation the move actually puts on the table.

130 of 130
Move ▲TypeCat.PwrAccPPWhat it does
114 Secret SayingsLieArgument50100%20A pile of sayings with no story attached.
"A Different God"LieArgument55100%99
A Name of GodTheology ProperArgument40100%15The prayer names Him — one of the names God gives himself in Scripture, drawn at random. The name chosen sets how hard it lands and what kind of force it carries. (See NAMES_OF_GOD for the pool.)
Aeons of BarbeloAllegoryArgument6085%15Esoterica no fisherman preached.
Allegory of the CaveAllegoryArgument55100%15Shadows on a wall, mistaken for the world.
AnachronismHistoryArgument45100%20The forger’s fingerprints.
Ancestral CustomHistoryArgument55100%99
Ancient Text ExpertiseHistoryArgument60100%15Years among strange manuscripts. Expertise is not endorsement.
Appeal for ConcordEcclesiologyArgument45100%20Clement to Corinth: order and humility. May steady the reader’s own Defend.
Argument from DesignNatural TheologyArgument60100%15Not the stars — the reader. Standing upright, face turned toward the sky rather than the ground, senses gathered at the top like a garrison: a made thing, arguing for its maker.
Arms and the ManHistoryArgument55100%15Rome’s founding, sung backward from Troy.
Athens and JerusalemRationalityArgument60100%15The most misread sentence Tertullian ever wrote. It is not a refusal of reason — he used philosophy constantly — but a refusal to let people who have abandoned the apostles’ teaching call their speculations Christian.
Bitter Water TestHistoryArgument45100%20An embellishment far beyond Luke.
Body and SoulAnthropologyArgument60100%15God made humans body AND soul, and judges the whole person — so the whole person must rise. The book steadies itself in its own integrity (Defend may rise).
Called as WitnessRationalityArgument62100%15Reach past your own authorities for one the room already respects — even one who is no friend of yours — and put him on the stand. Testimony the accuser chose himself cannot be waved away as special pleading, and no rhetorical fog will blur it. Frequently costs the foe its standing to accuse.
Case DismissedRationalityArgument65100%10A property-law manoeuvre, borrowed whole: the church has held these Scriptures since the apostles, so a newcomer with a fresh reading is barred from disputing them at all. Very often strips the foe’s Contend — it is not answering the argument, it is removing its standing.
Catalogue of ShipsHistoryArgument4590%20An exhaustive muster. Exhausting, too.
Catechetical ChargeEthicsArgument60100%15The Didache’s plain moral instruction, pressed home.
Cave NativityAllegoryArgument45100%20Legend loves detail.
Certain Because ImpossibleRationalityArgument9090%5Nobody invents a god who dies ashamed. Tertullian takes the most embarrassing thing in the story and argues that the embarrassment is the evidence — the reasoning Aristotle used, aimed at a cross.
Chapter…BibleScripture——15Tier 2. Choose the chapter that answers THIS error.
Clay SparrowsAllegoryArgument45100%20A child’s wonder-tale told as history.
ContradictionLieArgument50100%20The text undercuts itself. A wild book shrugs this off — in YOUR hands, the wound is yours.
Court the CrowdExperienceType shift——99
Denied MessiahLieArgument55100%15It refutes itself in two languages.
Devout Man OnlyLieArgument60100%99
DiagonalizationBiblical TheologyArgument85100%5The biblical refusal of false opposites: what the world splits in two, Scripture holds together. A method the great books share.
DistortionLieArgument45100%99
EconomyExegesisArgument55100%15Grasp the author’s arrangement of the whole story and a scrambled argument loses its thread. Restore each line to its proper place and the forgery destroys itself. May leave the foe DISTRACTED.
EmbassyHistoryArgument50100%20Athenagoras’ open letter to the emperors: Christians are no atheists — they pray for the state and seek a quiet, obedient life. Rome could ask for no better subjects.
EpicyclesRationalityArgument6090%15Circles upon circles. Wrong about the center; right for a thousand years of predictions.
Evil Is From DemonsPresuppositionArgument55100%15Justin’s diagnosis of persecution: the pagan gods are demons, and it is they who drive the courts and rulers against the Christians.
Exalted CreatureLieArgument55100%99
Expose ContradictionsRationalityStatus—100%15Turn the accusers’ own charges against one another until the argument contradicts itself — and FREEZES, unable to reply. Hard to land; lasting when it does.
Eyewitness AppealHistoryArgument40100%25Public facts, publicly checkable — no rhetorical fog can blur them.
Father of HistoryHistoryArgument50100%20Inquiry — historia — so that great deeds not be forgotten.
Fictional StoryAllegoryStory—100%20A charming legend. Everyone relaxes a little — which helps the teller most.
Fifteen Books Against YouLieArgument6595%99
Give What You CommandSoteriologyArgument75100%10Augustine’s prayer that scandalized Pelagius.
Golden MeanEthicsArgument50100%20Virtue as the middle path between excess and defect.
Half-TruthLieArgument5595%99
"Hatred of Mankind"LieArgument60100%99
"He Only Seemed"LieArgument50100%99
He Truly SufferedChristologyArgument60100%15If he only seemed to suffer, martyrs die for a phantom.
Heard Before CondemnedRationalityArgument60100%15Tertullian asks the governors for one thing before anything else: do not sentence what you have not troubled to hear. A hatred that will not look closer at its object has already told you something about itself.
Hide MeBibleType shift——10Hidden from the conspiracy of the wicked, it is hard to strike. Greatly raises the user’s Defend.
HypothesisExegesisArgument78100%10Irenaeus reads Scripture by its intended structure — the gnostics scramble the mosaic of the King into a fox; hypothesis restores the true portrait.
Imprecatory PsalmBibleArgument30025%5It does not contend with the foe at all — it steps out of the debate and pleads with GOD against it. Rarely answered (25%); devastating when it is.
"Just Your Interpretation"LieArgument50100%99
Kingdom WithinAllegoryArgument45100%20Sounds deep. Means gnosis.
Knowing How Lies Are MadeRationalityArgument55100%15Study the forgery long enough and every forgery shows its seams.
Lived ExperienceExperienceArgument50100%99
Man of Many WaysAllegoryArgument50100%20Cunning wins where strength failed.
Martyr’s ResolveEthicsArgument50100%15"Eighty and six years…" Strikes half again as hard when the book is nearly spent.
Martyr’s WitnessHistoryArgument65100%10Not the book’s own endurance, but the record of those who died rather than recant. Nobody dies for what they know they made up. No rhetorical fog can blur it.
Mischievous SuperstitionLieArgument55100%99
Moses or Jesus?LieArgument60100%99
"My Power, My Power"LieArgument50100%20The Psalm’s cry, swapped for a phantom’s farewell.
Near the SwordChristologyArgument8595%5If Christ only SEEMED to suffer, then Ignatius is only seeming to be eaten. Staked on his own execution — half again as hard when the book is nearly spent.
No Care for the WidowEthicsArgument55100%15Ignatius’ other test: a teaching that denies real flesh ends up with no care for real bodies. Frequently deflates the foe’s Contend.
None But OneRationalityArgument8890%5No one died for Socrates. They die for Christ — and not the learned only, but laborers and the unschooled. The world’s verdict, not the academy’s.
On the ResurrectionEschatologyArgument55100%15The God who made matter from nothing can surely gather it again — dissolved bodies reunited, the dead raised, corruption clothed in incorruption. Hope, argued.
One Actor, Three MasksLieArgument45100%99
One RulerNatural TheologyArgument55100%20The argument from monarchy: every ordered thing in nature answers to one head, and the world is the most ordered thing there is. Octavius reasons up from the hive to the throne of heaven.
Passover FulfilledChristologyArgument55100%15Melito: the type in Egypt, the truth in Christ. The Creator’s own attributes read back as the sentence of his execution.
Plato’s TimaeusRationalityArgument55100%15Justin turns the philosophers’ own Timaeus back on them: world and soul alike live only by a life not their own. May leave the foe grasping (accuracy down).
Possession for All TimeHistoryArgument60100%15Strict evidence, no romance. It holds up.
Praise Waits in ZionBibleRestore——10The whole backpack turns to praise — every status effect on your team is washed away.
Produce the RecordsEcclesiologyArgument70100%10A demand, not an argument: name your bishops back to an apostle. Smyrna can — Polycarp, placed there by John. Rome can — Clement, ordained by Peter. Any book or sect that cannot has just answered the question it was asked.
Prophecy FulfilledBiblical TheologyArgument60100%15Not one prophecy pressed hard, but prophecy after prophecy laid alongside the gospels until the pile is the argument — the town, the mother, the years, the death, the scattering. A shared move: several books make this case in their own words.
Pure Attic DictionRationalityArgument5590%99
Question the PremiseRationalityType shift——10Challenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.
Random VerseBibleArgument10100%30Tier 1. The Bible falls open at random — a genealogy one turn, the gospel itself the next. Never misses; how hard it lands is pure providence. (See RANDOM_VERSES for the pool.)
RecapitulationChristologyArgument80100%10Irenaeus’ great theme: Christ gathers up and restores all of humanity in himself — flesh and all. The answer every escape from the body dreads.
Restless HeartExperienceArgument75100%10Experience, directed toward God at last — what the Coach felt in his gut, Augustine prayed onto papyrus.
Rhetorical FlourishExperienceArgument50100%99
RidiculeRationalityArgument5075%20Hold the thing up and let the room see it. It can be devastating and it convinces nobody who was not already close — the least reliable argument in the book, and the one most worth hearing.
Rule of FaithChristologyArgument55100%15One public tradition, handed down openly in all the churches.
SarcasmRationalityArgument6095%15Say the argument back to it, straight-faced and in full, until the shape of it does the refuting. Often finds the telling stroke — and occasionally goes too far and misses.
Scribal CraftHistoryArgument55100%20Whatever else it is, it is an old text — and old texts train the reader’s eye.
Secret InitiationLieArgument55100%15Hidden knowledge for one insider.
Secret KnowledgeLieArgument55100%99
Seed of the WordRationalityArgument50100%20Justin: whatever is truly said anywhere is ours. Often finds the telling stroke.
Seek Until You FindRationalityArgument60100%15“Seek, and you shall find” was being used as a licence never to arrive. Tertullian points out that the sentence has an end in it: you sought in order to find, and found in order to believe, and you have believed.
SilenceChristologyType shift——10Say nothing. Convinces no one — but the next argument lands harder. Raises the user’s Contend, after the pattern of Christ’s silence before his accusers.
Socratic QuestionRationalityArgument50100%20Question after question until the seams show. Often finds the telling stroke.
Soul of the WorldEthicsArgument50100%20"What the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world."
Sow ConfusionLieStatus—90%99
SteelmanRationalityType shift——10Restate the foe’s position in its strongest form — exposing its true weak point. Lowers the foe’s Defend. Always fair; never a bad move to use.
Table of ChordsRationalityArgument50100%20The first trigonometric table in history — Hipparchus’ own craft.
Talking CrossLieArgument6090%15Its resurrection scene outgrows the witnesses.
Test the TeacherEthicsArgument60100%15The manual’s practical test: does he do what he teaches? Often takes the credibility out from under the foe, lowering its Contend.
"That’s Three Gods"LieArgument45100%99
The Blood Is SeedEthicsArgument65100%10Not the bumper-sticker version — the sentence Tertullian actually wrote, and it is a threat dressed as a concession. Half again as hard when the book is nearly spent.
The Broken BreadEcclesiologyRestore——10The oldest eucharistic prayer we have. What was scattered is gathered into one: clears every status effect from your whole team.
The Common TonguePresuppositionArgument50100%20Listen to how ordinary people talk when they are frightened or grateful. They do not say “the gods.” Frequently deflates the foe’s Contend — it is hard to argue from a position your own mouth keeps leaving.
The Elder FaithHistoryArgument60100%15The charge is that the faith is new, and therefore false. Eusebius answers by going further back than his accusers can: this is the religion of the patriarchs, older than Moses, older than the law, older than the nations bringing the charge.
The Law’s Lesser GodLieArgument60100%99
The Living VoiceHistoryArgument62100%15Papias would rather ask a man who had heard the apostles than read a book about them — so he asked, and Eusebius wrote it down. Testimony taken first-hand often finds the telling detail.
The Loftier MoralityEthicsArgument50100%20Eusebius sets Christ’s moral teaching beside every other teacher’s and lets the comparison stand. An argument that has to concede the point sometimes has nothing at all to say next — the foe may be left FROZEN.
The Miracles of JesusHistoryArgument6595%15Not a claim about what Christ taught but about what he DID — done in public, before witnesses, and never quietly. A shared move: several books make this argument in their own words.
The Oracle of HecateExperienceArgument55100%99
The PleromaLieArgument65100%99
The ThaliaLieArgument7595%99
The True WordRationalityArgument60100%99
The Universal ChurchEcclesiologyType shift——10Not one congregation arguing, but the church wherever Christ is. Raises the user’s Defend. The earliest surviving use of the phrase “the catholic church.”
Their Own PoetsRationalityArgument65100%10Paul on Mars Hill: quote their poets, then preach the risen Christ.
"There Was When He Was Not"LieArgument65100%99
Thirty AeonsAllegoryArgument6085%99
Thirty-Seven VolumesRationalityArgument50100%20Everything the ancients knew — and several things they merely repeated.
Tower VisionAllegoryArgument6080%20The Shepherd’s great image — vivid when it lands, easy to talk past.
TrinitasTheology ProperArgument75100%10Against Praxeas, answered with grammar rather than mystery: in scene after scene of Scripture there is one who speaks, one who is spoken to, and one who is spoken about, and no amount of costume-changing makes those the same person.
Truly Born, Truly AteChristologyArgument40100%25Ignatius’s stubborn adverb: TRULY.
Turn the ChargeEthicsArgument60100%15Tertullian quits playing defense. The people accusing Christians of devouring infants are the people filling the arena — so he hands the charge back, addressed. Frequently drops the foe’s Contend.
Twisting TruthLieArgument65100%15Real truth, bent. Strikes hard — and recoils hard on any honest reader who wields it.
Two WaysEthicsArgument40100%25"There are two ways…" May convict the foe, lowering its Contend.
Unmoved MoverRationalityArgument60100%15Every motion needs a mover; the chain cannot run back forever.
Wait for the LORDBibleType shift——10Patience and trust in a difficult season. Greatly raises the user’s Contend.
Watch the HourEschatologyArgument7095%10Lamps lit, belt fastened, watching. The ready argument catches an unready one off its guard — often finds the telling stroke.
"We Are All Religious"ExperienceArgument50100%99
We Pray for CaesarRationalityArgument55100%20The charge is disloyalty. The answer is that Christians will not burn the pinch of incense — and pray daily for the emperor’s life, his armies, his senate and his peace, to the only God who could actually grant any of it. A shared move: many apologists have made it.
Well-Turned SayingRationalityArgument55100%20A line polished until it glitters. Glitter still isn’t gospel.
What Is Truth?RationalityStat shift—100%15Pilate’s question turned back on the questioner. Lowers accuracy.
"Why Did He Hide?"LieArgument60100%99
"Why Seminary?"ExperienceArgument60100%99
Withering CurseLieArgument55100%15Nothing like the Gospels’ Christ.
Word Made FleshChristologyArgument70100%10From Athanasius: only the Creator can recreate.
Works That RemainHistoryArgument60100%15Quadratus: some whom Christ healed "remained to our own day."
Wrath of AchillesAllegoryArgument55100%20The oldest opening line in Greek literature, still swinging.
"You Skip Our Festivals"EthicsArgument55100%99
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