Scott Kamps
* 1st in a 3-part series
Imagine being an empire’s second most powerful person – in your 30s – enjoying your prosperity with a good wife and two successful sons.
Suddenly, you’re falsely accused of treason by political enemies, condemned without opportunity to defend yourself, exiled and thrown in prison, awaiting a tortuous execution.
Such was the “outrageous fortune” of Boethius (480–524 A.D.), a Roman consul who served the Ostrogoth King Theodoric the Great.
While on death row in prison, Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, a highly-influential book virtually all educated people would’ve read and known until fairly recently. Still, the wisdom of his book is everywhere around us; we just don’t recognize it as coming from him anymore.
If you ever told your child, “it could be worse,” you were dispensing Boethian philosophy. If you’ve ever found yourself “having a bad, bad day,” and thought, “things can only get better from here,” thank Boethius.
Even counting your blessings to feel better has roots in Boethius.
He begins the book describing himself overwhelmed with grief about his situation and responding somewhat pathetically. He considers himself a victim of “random strokes of Fortune” and her wheel (another Boethian concept we are familiar with…at least as a game show). Lady Philosophy visits him and begins slowly mending his soul, guiding him into truth philosophically (beginning with “gentle remedies” before proceeding to sharper instruction).
The philosophy she presents is of ancient Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle. If modern man were to write a book on death row like Boethius, it would probably be more attune to materialists like Epicurus (heavily influenced now by Darwin, Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche): along the lines of the consolation of food, alcohol, sex, or pleasure.
But we’re more than bodies with chemical reactions – we are body and soul; worldly goods are not the ultimate good in the world. The consolation/comfort that can come from philosophy really only occurs inasmuch as the philosophy aligns with truth.
This brings us to Pontius Pilate’s famous question, “What is truth?” Truth is that which corresponds to reality as perceived by God. The last four words of that definition are crucial, because God’s perception of truth/reality is perfect – since He’s omniscient. In contrast, our perception of things is limited (we can’t see our souls) and we often err.
Lady Philosophy taught Boethius his loss wasn’t the result of an “unplanned and chaotic” spin of the wheel of Fortune, but part of “the great plan of the universe.”
Boethius acknowledges, “If God imposes order upon all things, there is no opportunity for random events. It is a true maxim that nothing comes out of nothing,” eventually recognizing, “Not even the blowing winds are random.”
This brings comfort; because without order and rhythm in the cosmos, it’s impossible to find any real beauty in the pain. All pain and suffering would be meaningless.
Instead, there’s reason in the mystery and order in the chaos because of who stands behind it – in control of it all.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.