The Consolation of Philosophy Summary

The Consolation of Philosophy is a short work of literature, written in the form of a prosimetrical apocalyptic dialogue (i.e. a
dialogue with a mythical, imaginary, or allegorical figure). It contains five Books, which are written in a combination of prose
and verse. The dialogue is between Ancius Boethius, a prominent and learned official of the Roman Empire, and the person
of Philosophy.

The work opens with a scene between Boethius and the (imaginary) Muses of Poetry, who are attending him in his sorrow
while he writes poetry of his woe. They are interrupted by the entrance of a strange and otherwordly-looking lady, Lady
Philosophy. She explains that she has come to him in his hour of need, for he suffers from the sickness of being far too
attached to material and earthly things. While Boethius protests that he is the victim of injustice, Lady Philosophy begins his
"cure" by showing him the error of his ways.

She begins by explaining that the vagaries of Fortune visit everyone, and he is by no means the worst of her victims. Even
though he is imprisoned and due for execution, he has still the faculties of his mind and soul to comfort him. She explains
that the gifts of Fortune were never his at all, but merely lent to him and taken away as easily as they were given. Health,
wealth, honor, and power are things that never truly belong to any human being, and are visited on them by the wheel of
fortune and quickly snatched away. Therefore it is unwise to become attached to any temporal thing.

The "cure" continues as Boethius begins to see the logic of Philosophy's argument. They continue their dialogue and discuss
the nature of earthly goods, and how they are not the path to true happiness. The thing the temporal world considers good,
says Philosophy, are only inferior decorations on the ultimate earthly good, the soul and the intellectual capacity of humanity.

Boethius offers a partial proof for God, a negative one based on the inadequacy of earthly attainments (wealth, power, etc) to
satisfy the desire for perfect happiness ("felicity" - sometimes translated as blessedness). Therefore, since all humanity
desires it, the standard for perfect happiness must exist, and that self-sufficient, powerful, and revered being who has
attained perfect happiness is God.

Evil has no substance, according to Philosophy, because it cannot participate in the ultimate pursuit of mankind: the supreme
good. Therefore people who inflict their wickedness on the good are not truly powerful, since they have no capacity to stop
the good people's attainment of the one thing that matters. God orders the world through Providence, and the order of things
that happen on earth is called Fate. Though people on earth cannot understand the ways of Providence, they must
nevertheless accept whatever Fate sends, for all fortune, good or bad, is good. Bad fortune can instruct the recipient in the
ways of virtue, and, often is better for the soul.

God does not interfere with free will, Philosophy concludes. Though God knows all things past and present, this knowledge
doesn't preclude the freedom of choice of human beings. God's knowledge is not like our knowledge, and doesn't happen
over a period of time. God had one act of knowing the world, and in that act knew all things, including all the free choices of
all the people throughout the entire history of the world.

Finally, Boethius, through this long conversation with Philosophy, has been comforted. Philosophy leaves him with the advice
to cultivate virtue, for the Heavenly Judge sees all things.

The Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius's Impact on Medieval Europe

Two very important English medieval figures - King Alfred and Geoffrey Chaucer - considered Boethius's Consolation of
Philosophy to be a work of the utmost importance. King Alfred, who advanced the cause of English learning to a great extent
during his reign in the ninth century, translated and dispersed copies of the book. He wrote a life of Boethius as a preface to
his translation. Alfred considered the work a companion to the Bible, and its study almost as important as Scripture. During
his life Alfred experienced bouts with a mysterious illness, and during these times he found personal comfort in the
Consolation.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, The Consolation of Philosophy was the most translated and copied secular work. Jean de
Meun translated it in the thirteenth century, and this French version was very influential. It was the equivalent of a centuries-
long medieval bestseller.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of Canterbury Tales and called the father of English literature, translated this work from the
Latin into Middle English in the 14th century, with help from Jean de Meun's version. While his translation is considered by
scholars to be occasionally faulty and awkward, the importance of the Boethius's work on his own and other authors' works is
profound. The concepts of Providence and Felicity were adopted by Chaucer, and appear in his poems Troilus and Crisede
and The Knight's Tale particularly. The work was equally influential outside of England. The Consolation of Philosophy is
directly referred to in Dante's Divine Comedy.

The translation, from the Late Latin (Boethius's work was considered the very last of the philosophical productions of the
Classical world) was undertaken by another monarch of England, Queen Elizabeth I. The story is that she completed the
translation (though the work is short in length, the Latin is dense and erudite) in the astonishingly short period of either
twenty-four or twenty-seven hours. It was considered by her, and the learned people of her court, to be a indispensable text,
and its lack of overt Catholicism made the text accessible to many of the new Protestant religion.

Boethius's influence on medieval thought did not end with The Consolation of Philosophy. He espoused the idea of the
quadrivium, the subjects which were taught in schools and which were considered necessary to make a person learned.
These four subjects, arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry, were taught as a sort of "upper form" or "high school" after
the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These idea of education held sway for hundreds of years, and was only slowly
discarded after the Renaissance. For example, Boethius's text on music De institutione musica libri quinque was used as a
textbook at Cambridge until the 18th century, and used as reference even later than that.

Some scholars have even gone so far as to say that "Boethius saved the thought of the Middle Ages." It is true his
translations of Greek philosophical texts were, for centuries, the only access Medieval Europe had to Classical philosophy.
Boethius's introspective denial of the needs and pleasures of the flesh, and his wholehearted belief in the achievability of
completely spiritual satisfaction for humankind fit well with the monastic and ascetic slant of medieval Christianity, and his
influence on the thought and writing of the Middle Ages was enormous.
The Consolation of Philosophy Themes

Denial of the pleasures of the flesh

During the early books of The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius makes it clear that the pursuits of the flesh - even ones
that would appear to have a spiritual aspect of them, such as aesthetic pleasure of the body - are worthless and
meaningless. Through explaining the wiles of Fortune, and her capricious and unpredictable nature, Lady Philosophy
explains that nothing on earth can give true happiness. Happiness can only be attained through the contemplation of spiritual
or philosophical things. Nothing attainable on earth, such as wealth, power, or prestige, can ever be truly called one's own,
and therefore cannot be the path to true happiness.

Classical references

The poems in The Consolation of Philosophy are thick with references to classical literature and poetry. The epic poems of
Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey, provide a large number of the allusions, especially the image of the "jars of good and
bad" kept in heaven by God, from which all the vicissitudes of Fortune come. The writings of Greek philosophers, especially
Plato and the Neo-Platonist Porphyry, are often quoted, as are Romans such as Cicero, Seneca, and Ovid. The remarkable
thing is that, while writing The Consolation of Philosophy in prison, Boethius had no access to his library, and these
references were composed completely from memory.

In general, the references are used to support Lady Philosophy's points about turning away from earthly distractions. Some
of the references, such as Stymphalus (referring to a lake of mythical birds) in Book IV are obscure, but would have been
immediately meaningful for Boethius's contemporary readers. However, many of the references are easily recognizable
today, such as Phoebus the sun-god, and Odysseus from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Honor of Rusticiana and Symmachus

It is brought up that Rusticiana and Symmachus, Boethius's wife and father-in-law/adoptive father, were the paragons of
virtue in Boethius' life. As a child he was orphaned and brought up in Symmachus' house, and he later married Symmachus'
daughter Rusticiana. In prison, Boethius is comforted by the thought of their virtue, and the fact that they, and his and
Rusticiana's sons, are for the moment safe from harm.

Goodness of the world

The goods of the world, explained fully in Book II, are not really "goods" at all. They are simply inferior goods masquerading
as decoration on what is the highest good on earth, the intellectual capacity and soul of human beings. This idea of all the so-
called goods of the world - even intangible goods like the love of one's family, or the beauty of Nature - are merely temporal
and therefore not able to satisfy the eternal soul, is one of the main "consolations" in the Consolation of Philosophy. The loss
anything material or temporal should not be cause of for sorrow, because the only things of value are within yourself and
eternal, and can never be taken away.

Evil has no substance

Book IV addresses evil in the world, and the argument is that evil has no substance because it doesn't participate in the
pursuit of the supreme good. Because the wicked pursue things that cannot possibly give them what they truly desire they
have no power. Even when wicked people have power over the virtuous, their power is only ever over their bodies or
possessions, never their minds or souls, so in the end it is not really power. Since evil people cannot participate in the
ultimate goal, they have, Boethius says, descended to the level of animals.

God as the attainment of perfect happiness

Book III is taken up with the proof of God's existence based on the inadequacy of human desires to produce true happiness.
The standard by which all humanity judges perfect happiness is innate, and no human beings attain it through earthly goods.
Therefore a being capable of perfect happiness - in fact the source of that perfect happiness - must exist outside of the
earthly realm. This is the overarching theme of the entire book, but the proof of God is not the focus. The emphasis is on the
futility of seeking happiness through earthly desires.

Providence and Happiness (Felicity)

Providence, a difficult concept to understand, is explained roughly as the reason of God ordering the universe. It is the overall
plan that God has for the world, even when Fate (the ordering of events on earth) seems to be disordered. Lady Philosophy
concedes that this is indeed a mystery, for everything takes place simultaneously for God, and we in our temporal world
cannot understand this.

True happiness (in some translations Felicity) is the pursuit of God through intellectual and spiritual means. It is considered
the supreme good by Boethius, and the only good worth pursuing. All earthly goods are false goods, and only our spirit and
intellect can lead us to the true good of the soul: God.
Predestination

Predestination can be understood in many different ways and considering how you define it we can say the simple answer is,
yes, the Catholic Church teaches predestination as part of the doctrine of the Church. But, what exactly does that mean?

A definition of predestination can be taken from the Catechism:

To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of
predestination, he includes in it each persons free response to his grace: In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do
whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God
permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness. CCC, 600

Notice how predestination is defined. God knows all who will accept His gift of saving grace. So, for all time, the knowledge
of God being unlimited, God has known whom would say yes to His grace. This is the plan of salvation offered to us from
the Father, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The confusion about this doctrine arises when theologians
attempt to explain how the mystery of free will, grace, and the fore-knowledge of God all fit together. There are several
options for Catholics to choose from and we are free to do so. But, there are also some positions the Church rejects.

The first position the Church rejects is one called Pelagianism. This originated from a man called Pelagius who taught we
choose free will apart from Gods grace. In other words, Pelagius taught that we dont need Gods assistance to save
ourselves, it is all an act of our own will. This has always been rejected by the Church, because it makes salvation a work of
man. We certainly cant choose to save ourselves by any act of the will alone, apart from Gods gift of grace first acting on us.

The second position the Church rejects is sometimes called double predestination. This is the position of some who follow
the Calvinist/Reformed tradition. This is the teaching which says God actively chooses some to go to heaven and damns
others to hell. This would mean we have no free will to choose salvation at all, but all the work is from God alone and we
cannot change our destiny, but it is predetermined no matter what. It also means God is the cause damnation, which the
Church has always rejected.

Notice the first error removes God as the prime actor and second removes any cooperation from man. So, where does that
leave us? It leaves us with several options.

The first option is built from both St. Augustine and then St. Thomas Aquinas. Others come from Molina and other scholars. I
wont go into the details here, but let me sum up the positions by saying that the Thomists emphasize grace and the Molinists
emphasize free will. But, neither camp rejects the other side they do not emphasize.

Here are the things the Catholic Church teaches about predestination and the doctrines surrounding it:

- God is the source of all good. God does not create evil (which isnt really a thing, but rather an absence of a good). God
cannot do an evil act.
- God allows humans to choose to do good or evil. We have free will. It is possible to reject Gods grace.
- Gods knowledge is infinite. There is nothing He does not know.
- God wills (desires) that all be saved.
- God always acts first. His grace comes and then we are empowered by it to be able to respond.
Even after saving grace is received, we can reject it later.

Within the framework of this discussion about predestination, a Catholic has the freedom to formulate how it all works out.
Thus the different opinions from Thomists, Molinists, etc.