Jan 22, 2025
St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius’s book The Consolation
of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison while awaiting
martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most
influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But
Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before
him. Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius’s
dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words
of the Last Roman Philosopher.
Topics discussed include:
- Boethius’s debt to Stoic ethics and how he critiques the Stoic
view of happiness - The influence of neo-Platonist philosophy on Boethius
- Questions about the account of deification given by Lady
Philosophy – is it more Platonist than Christian? - Boethius’s brilliant arguments about how God’s way of knowing
differs from ours
Links
Thomas Ward, After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman
Philosopher
Way of the Fathers episode on Boethius
