Boethius was an interesting and important character of the ancient church, but surprisingly does not receive as much attention as other figures. Boethius, a Roman noble in the 6th century, wrote an extremely influential treatise on an Augustinian formulation¹ of the Trinity which became the academic standard for the church of his day. Apparently, for anyone to be approved to a teaching post, they had to submit a commentary on Boethius’ treatise. Carl Trueman suggests² Boethius “falls between two stools” since he lived between the traditional division of the ancient and medieval churches. If he had been active earlier or later, perhaps he would receive more attention from scholars.

Boethius’ life-long work was the preservation of ancient classical knowledge. His goal was to translate the works of Aristotle and Plato into Latin. If he were successful, the achievement could have significantly altered the course of history. Arabic-speaking cultures received the works of Aristotle and Plato in their native tongue which catapulted them ahead of the West. If Boethius had accomplished his goal, Europe may have had a similar advancement earlier in their history.

Boethius however, was not able to give them Aristotle and Plato in Latin. Theodoric the Great suspected Boethius of conspiring with the Byzantine emperor Justin I and had him imprisoned. While awaiting his eventual execution, Boethius wrote his most well-known work, the Consolation of Philosophy, a dialogue between Boethius himself and the Lady Philosophy. The work is understandably centered around the perennial question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” In the work are several interesting philosophical contributions including linguistics and God’s relation to time.

Boethius’ contributions are many. Those interested in the ancient church and the development of Christian theology should study him. Perhaps in the future he will receive more attention.

1. Thanks to Jeff Waddington who passed on this bit of information.↩
2. November 29, 2007 class lecture.↩