Upon concluding The Consolation of Philosophy, I would say that its great theme is divine providence.  Unjustly imprisoned and awaiting execution, Boethius reasons his way to the conclusion that an understanding of God’s government of the world is the key to happiness in any situation.  Along the way, as he is explicating the meaning of divine providence, Boethius is drawn into a consideration of how divine foreknowledge and human free will relate.  The flow of thought is thus: human suffering –> theodicy –> exhaustive divine foreknowledge –> human freedom.  This discussion of human freedom in light of divine foreknowledge is…

Some scholars make much of the fact that Boethius, as he is writing The Consolation of Philosophy at the end of his life, frames his book as a dialogue with Lady Philosophy rather than with Christ or God.  Some have even suggested that it represents Boethius’s turn, in his final days as his life is falling part, from Christ to paganism or neo-Platonism.  I don’ think that this is very helpful at all.  For starters, we have to remember that Boethius lived at a time in which philosophy was less clearly distinct from Christianity.  Its easy to dismiss medieval Christians…

I’ve been thinking lately about the difference between a Christian view of love and reason and a naturalistic view of love and reason.  In a Christian worldview, the fundamental reality is the triune God.  Within the being of this one God, love and reason have been going on forever among the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Spirit.  Many theologians have even correlated God the Son to the thought or speech (i.e., reason) of God the Father, and God the Spirit to the love that exists between God the Father and God the Son.  This means that…

In my down time these days I am reading and really enjoying Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy as part of my pre-reformation church history reading project.  Boethius (c. 480-524) was a Christian philosopher and statesman who lived in Italy in the early sixth century right as the classical world was dissolving away and the medieval world was beginning to crystallize.  He is often recognized for his role in transmitting Aristotle’s work on logic into the medieval period (his Latin translations and commentaries were the only Aristotle many a medieval monk ever knew), and for the literary influence of The Consolation,…