Reflection

Who's Bo, and why are you telling him to eat this?: An Analysis of Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy"

In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius uses a dialogue between himself and the personification of Philosophy to assuage his sufferings. Philosophy describes the various ways people pursue happiness and how they are incapable of producing true happiness on their own. This opens the door for explaining that the ultimate good comes from God. Although this is not explicitly Christian, and makes no references to scripture, Boethius’ portrayal of Philosophy uses Christian themes. Boethius’ work, The Consolation of Philosophy, can be considered a Christian work because it uses human reason to point to God.

Boethius makes several references to God, which, because of his Christian background, can be interpreted as references to the God of Christianity. For example, he says that “There is one Father of all things; One alone provides for all” (Boethius 47) in Poem 6. This aligns with the Christian belief that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Both indicate that God alone made the universe. He then goes on to reference Plato by saying, “He clothed with bodies the souls he brought from heaven” (Boethius 47). This emphasizes that the human mind also comes from God, as well as being reminiscent of Plato. In the Timaeus, Plato describes the souls as coming from stars and being “implanted” into bodies.  By following a “Biblical” idea by a philosophical idea, Boethius strengthens the connection between Christianity and philosophy.

Boethius also uses philosophy to arrive at Biblical conclusions. From the beginning of Book 3, he discusses how the various ways men attempt to purse happiness are incapable of producing true happiness. They all create needs instead of solving them. The idea that true contentment and happiness comes from God is a common theme among Christian writers. Recall when St. Augustine says, “Because God has made us for himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in him:” (Augustine). Furthermore, Boethius uses the pursuit of happiness as a philosophical avenue to arrive at morals given in the Bible. The grounds given are that the vices cannot produce happiness, or the ultimate good. He then says that for this reason, the pursuits of men often do more harm than good. One example he gives is the pursuit of bodily pleasures. They eventually can produce vices such as gluttony and sexual immorality. Rather than saying outright to avoid these sins because they are abhorred by God, Boethius explains that the overarching theme, pursuit of bodily pleasure, will not produce happiness. Since he sees happiness as stemming from God, it can be determined that obsessively pursuing bodily pleasures is not of God. In a rather roundabout way, he has arrived at conclusions that are similar to the Bible.

This roundabout method was human reason. Since many people happen to regularly employ their reason, it is beneficial if their religious beliefs do not contradict it in several key points. God gave humans brains when he created life; perhaps he intended for humans to use them. If God created reason, then it should follow that reason points back to God. Since Boethius uses reason to arrive at characteristics of God, then The Consolation of Philosophy has a place among other non-scriptural Christian texts.