Observations placeholder
Boethius - The Consolation of Philosophy - On Good and Evil and the Great Work
Identifier
022008
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Boethius was a supporter of the emperor who introduced Christianity. This was written in prison after Boethius fell from power on change of leadership. He was a Christian attempting to conform to a set of early Christian moral rules at a time when everyone else was still on the old set of rules, if rules there were…………….
‘Evil’ only exists because of the mental model of the beholder and is only evil when judged against some system. But it does show well the frustration of someone who believes really believes that their system is ‘best’ – that there are absolutes.
Incidentally, the comment of his lady wisdom shows that Boethius knew this but was trying to bring the problem out.
A description of the experience
Boethius – The Consolation of Philosophy
'But the greatest cause of my sadness is really this – the fact that in spite of a good helmsman to guide the world, evil can still exist and even pass unpunished. This fact alone you must think surely of considerable wonder. But here is something even more bewildering. When wickedness rules and flourishes, not only does virtue go unrewarded, it is even trodden underfoot by the wicked and punished in the place of crime. That this can happen in the realm of an omniscient and omnipotent God who wills only good, is beyond perplexity and complaint'
'It would indeed be a matter of infinite wonder' she said 'it would be something more horrible than any outrage if as you reckon, in the well ordered house of so great a father the worthless vessels were looked after at the expense of the precious ones, which grew filthy.