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Providence
The temporal events and processes that, together, enact God’s Providence, or His plan for the universe. Whereas Providence exists outside time and is an unchanging order, Fate is the “ever-changing web” of events that unfold in time, and can include the errors and mistakes of beings, like humans, that have free will. However, Philosophy emphasizes that, over and through time, the tumultuous unfolding of Fate eventually brings the universe in line with God’s Providence.
Fate Quotes in The Consolation of Philosophy
The The Consolation of Philosophy quotes below are all either spoken by Fate or refer to Fate. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book IV, Part VI
Quotes
The relationship between the ever-changing course of Fate and the stable simplicity of Providence is like that between reasoning and understanding, between that which is coming into being and that which is, between time and eternity, or between the moving circle and the still point in the middle.
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Fate Term Timeline in The Consolation of Philosophy
The timeline below shows where the term Fate appears in The Consolation of Philosophy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book IV, Part VI
...has “a plan for the multitude of events,” which is also known as “Providence” or “Fate,” depending on the perspective. “Providence” refers to “the divine reason itself,” God’s total plan for...
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As a result of the distinction between Providence and Fate, Philosophy continues, some things are below Providence but above the changing events of Fate. Namely,...
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...want to be better themselves. God knows how to use evil to create good—to use Fate to bring things that stray from Providence back in line with it. While people cannot...
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