Rhetorical Adversity in the Consolation of Philosophy and Paradise Lost

Written in 523 and 1674 AD respectively, Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and John Milton’s Paradise Lost are crucial works of Christian prose and poetry. Despite their clear promotion of the Christian faith, the two works rely on the literary and religious elements of classical Greece and Rome to convey their message. In this post, I aim to highlight two similarities between these works regarding their treatment of classical influences and…

The Name of Man: Transformation as Punishment

I find the act of transformation as punishment interesting, because within the Genesis retellings of the Old Testament Narratives, God seems to punish all those who betray him by severely distorting or wholly changing their humanity and physical body. This then presents the idea of sin and being able to avoid it as the definition of being human while sinning in general is, on the other hand, the definition of…

Boethius and Free Will for the Sake of Reason

.aoBoethius, like many other philosophers, feels the need to reason out the existence of free will in Book V of his Consolation of Philosophy. It is a natural question to come up when contemplating matters such the existence of evil amidst God’s providence. In the process though, Boethius and Lady Philosophy stumbled upon a conclusion that I think is worth exploring a bit more: “And human souls are more free…

Boethius, and David R. Slavitt. The Consolation of Philosophy. Harvard University Press, 2010.

Boethius to a College Student, How does Boetheus’s writing read in the 21st century

How does the reasoning in Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, written in 524, hold up to the scrutiny of 21st-century college students? Perhaps there is a fundamental difference between him, the writer, and us, the readers, as a result of the time difference, that leads us to question certain rhetorical choices. Nonetheless, there are possible discrepancies in his arguments that we feel are constructive to discuss.  Lady Philosophy deems the wealth…

Why consider Providence?

Lady Philosophy may be understood to have addressed Boethius’s immediate concerns about the loss of his fortunate position in life in Books I and II through her explanation of the nature of Fortune. This explanation appears to partially succeed in consoling Boethius, as he tells her once she is finished, “You do revive me, so that I am no longer absolutely devastated by the blows of fortune but seem at…

Boethius – The Role of Textual Structure

Boethius in Book 1 has a great deal of self-pity for being scorned by Fortune, placing himself in the lineage of “innocents” like Socrates whose devotion to the truth leads to his misery. Lady Philosophy, a figment of Boethius’s imagination, confirms that Boethius rests in this lineage of great philosophers. Boethius’s narrative structure also makes a statement justifying his place in history. Perhaps one of the most compelling structural aspects…

How does Lyotard’s differend illuminate the project of faith in God’s providence?

One of the throughfares between The Consolation of Philosophy and “The Differend,” is a concern with illegibility.  The Consolation closes on Lady Philosophy’s final argument, in which she asserts that Boethius misinterprets God’s providence as pre-vision because he is bound to the human conception of linear time.  God, whereas, experiences all time at once. To try to comprehend God’s mode of being and experience of time as a human is…

What is the Role of the Wheel of Fortune?

The Consolation of Philosophy deals heavily with the concept of the Wheel of Fortune, illustrating the difficulty of witnessing, at the same time confronting the problem of evil. The Wheel of Fortune represents a seemingly arbitrary dispensation of fortune. Fortune appears to reward, both justly and unjustly. Moreover, fortunes are ever-shifting, rarely perceived to keep people in the same state forever. Philosophy writes, “Who has composed himself in the face…

“They Didn’t Know How to Treat a Lady”: Imagination and “Camp” in Boethius & Prudentius

Medievalist A.W. Strouse rejects academic queer theory as another “tediously” normative tradition, writing instead in a vein of self-described “irresponsible homo-medievalism” that utilizes medieval text as a “technology of self-preservation”. In the introduction of My Gay Middle Ages, he writes:  “First of all, the heroine of the Consolation is this great big fierce diva, whose name is Lady Philosophy. She’s a Lady, and she doesn’t stand for anybody’s crap. At…