Classical Philosophy and Medieval Christianity Theme Analysis

Born in 477 C.E. just after the Roman Empire collapsed, Roman philosopher Boethius lived in an era of profound transformation at the very beginning of the Middle Ages. Christianity had officially displaced Paganism as Rome’s dominant religion, and knowledge of Greek was rapidly disappearing, leading scholars to gradually forget the work of Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. Although Boethius remains best remembered for The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote while awaiting his execution for treason in prison, he actually spent most of his life trying to preserve and revive interest in these Greek philosophers. As a result, Boethius is often considered the link between two philosophical traditions: the philosophy of the classical (Greek and Roman) world and the Christian philosophy of the Middle Ages. As a Christian scholar of Pagan philosophers, Boethius sought to help European Christians remember the influence of their Pagan past, and his Consolation is no exception. Both stylistically and argumentatively, in the Consolation, Boethius tries to combine classical Greek philosophy and medieval Roman Christianity into a unified body of thought in order to show that reason and faith are compatible, and to thereby make the Greek tradition palatable to a Christian audience.

In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius highlights his contemporaries’ neglect of Greek philosophy and makes a concerted effort to rescue it. When he first meets Lady Philosophy at the beginning of Book I, Boethius presents her as mistreated and forgotten. Her dress is embroidered with Greek letters, unquestionably marking her as Greek, but has been neglected and “torn by the hands of marauders,” which represents how Roman scholars forgot and misinterpreted their Greek predecessors. Indeed, even Boethius himself has forgotten them: although he has been Philosophy’s disciple his whole life, he has forgotten her and does not even recognize her when she first visits him. But Philosophy tells him not to fear: “wisdom has been threatened with danger by the forces of evil” repeatedly throughout history, but always fought back by speaking truth to power. Now, facing a death sentence, Boethius has the chance to do precisely that, just as the Greek philosopher Zeno laughed at his executioners, and the more famous Socrates insisted on speaking the truth to the jury that decided to execute him. And Boethius’s arguments in Consolation consistently come from the Greeks, most of all Plato and Aristotle. For instance, his arguments about the weakness of evil and the innateness of knowledge are based on Plato’s dialogues Gorgias and Meno, and his analysis of random chance is based on Aristotle’s Physics. He also explicitly cites Plato’s Timaeus a number of times. Clearly, Ancient Greek philosophy inspires Boethius, who incorporates it into his own work in an effort to revive it.

The Consolation’s eclectic form and style are also important parts of Boethius’s attempt to resuscitate Greek philosophy for his Christian audience. The Consolation’s form closely resembles Plato’s philosophical dialogues, in which a wise teacher reveals the truths of the universe to a curious student. In the second half of the book, Boethius starts actively participating in the process of argument, which shows how he learns through this dialogue (and the dialogues of earlier philosophers). Lady Philosophy also alternates between poetry and prose throughout the book: while she argues that philosophical inquiry leads people to the truth, she thinks that “sweet-tongued rhetoric” can help that truth sink in. In this book, logic and art—the tools of religious worship and philosophical inquiry, respectively—work together to uncover and package the truth about God. Indeed, the book frequently references both the multiple Greek gods and the singular Christian God without contradiction. For example, Philosophy sings about the glories of all-powerful God but also tells stories about Greek gods like Circe, Hermes, and Hades. These references show how Boethius believed the Pagan past and the Christian present could peacefully coexist and be productively combined, without a clean break between the two belief systems.

Finally, Boethius also tries to show how the specific beliefs of Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine are compatible. He focuses on their ontologies (notions of what exists in the universe) and epistemologies (conclusions about how things can be known). Boethius cites philosophical arguments, rather than religious faith, to posit that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and absolutely benevolent—he thinks reason should support faith, rather than working in contradiction to it. Furthermore, he tries to show that both philosophy and Christianity provide a single, consistent picture of the universe: the eternal, foundational, and all-knowing nature of God; the immortal soul’s origin in and eventual return to God; and the nature of learning, which involves the soul recovering forgotten knowledge through reflection on the divine. All of these conclusions are central to both Platonic and Christian understandings of the universe. If Greek and Christian thinkers really believed in the same things, then medieval Christian philosophers should cherish, not ignore, Greek philosophers’ contributions. But Boethius also emphasizes that humans cannot know everything about God: humans are limited to reason, whereas God possesses superior intelligence. Still, since reason is the highest form of understanding that human beings can attain, structured argument (philosophy) is the best way for people to uncover universal truths about the world. But this does not disprove God’s superiority, transcendence, and (to some extent) unfathomability. So, for Boethius, Greek philosophers and Christians are both right about the form and limits of human knowledge.

Just as Boethius was always Philosophy’s disciple but forgot her teachings in his misery over his prison sentence, he thinks Roman society must uncover its own buried memories of Greek philosophy. Some worry that, since Boethius never explicit references Christian doctrine in the Consolation, he abandoned or never truly believed in it; however, all biographical sources indicate that he was a devout Christian until the day of his death. Rather, he likely avoided these topics simply because, in his title, he promised to remain within the bounds of philosophy. But while Philosophy is the one who consoles Boethius, she does so through arguments fully consistent with his Christian faith.