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Book I, Part IV
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Consolation of Philosophy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Classical Philosophy and Medieval Christianity
Wisdom, Fortune, and Happiness
The Problem of Evil
Human Free Will and God’s Foreknowledge
Summary
Analysis
In song, Boethius praises God’s power over the stars and seasons—indeed, over everything except “human acts.” So why, he asks, does God let Fortune rule so much of what happens to humans, and why does He allow innocent people to be punished like criminals? Government is controlled by “corrupted men” who oppress the virtuous. Since God is all-powerful, Boethius thinks, He should put human affairs back in check and bring peace to all the world’s lands.
Boethius’s mention of God is sudden and may be jarring to those who instinctively see reason and faith (especially Greek philosophy and Christianity) as inextricably opposed. And Boethius does draw out the clear tension between the Christian belief that a benevolent, perfect God controls the universe and the clearly unjust and irrational state of the world. However, Boethius was a lifelong Christian and considered his beliefs fully consistent with the teachings of Greek philosophy. Here and particularly in the second half of the Consolation, he seeks to show how reason leads people to the same place as blind faith, and indeed can explain and clarify the workings of God and the universe to an extent that pure adherence to scripture cannot.
Themes
After Boethius finishes reciting his poem, Philosophy turns to him and declares that he has “not simply […] been banished far from home,” but rather has banished himself. The home she speaks of is not Rome, but the realm ruled by God, in which “submitting to His governance and obeying His laws is freedom.” Nobody can leave this place except by their own volition. But the state of Boethius’s mind worries Philosophy—she summarizes back everything he has told her so far, then declares that his mind has “become swollen and calloused” and proposes a “gentle” treatment for his illness, followed by “a sharper medicament” later on.
Boethius has literally been exiled—he is imprisoned somewhere in present-day northern Italy, far from his native Rome—but Philosophy again emphasizes the supremacy of mental over physical realities and argues that he has estranged himself from his rightful home and true nature by turning his back on the truth. Although her message might seem cryptic now, particularly because she sees freedom as requiring submission, it makes much more sense when analyzed in the context of her arguments about the nature of evil: people who turn their backs on God, reason, and wisdom ultimately contract a kind of illness of the soul, and must be treated as sick rather than malicious, even though this sickness is the root of all evil. So Philosophy’s attitude toward Boethius also provides guidance for Boethius’s readers, who may wonder what it means to take an ethical stance toward injustice and its perpetrators.
Themes
