The consolation genre of ancient literature was
not designed to comfort but to exhort readers to get on with life rather than
wallow in self-pity. The Consolation of
Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 482-c. 525) is more confrontational
than other works of that genre and “unusual in that the author exhorts himself”
as Boethius is in prison facing execution for a political offense he did not
commit. Most commentators agree that “it is a Neo-Platonic exhortation…to
embrace God as the means to overcome sentimental self-pity.” Its Christian
character is rather less obvious.
Boethius suggests that “perhaps only ill
fortune will capture our attention so that we can focus on the source of true
happiness. Shifting reliance from fortune to God is the wake-up call of the
work.”
“Ill fortune is a blessing in disguise. In
addition to helping us see ourselves more clearly, it enables us better to
distinguish true from false sources of happiness by stripping us of pride in
our cleverness and virtue.”
“True happiness is the realization that only
one “substance” is self-sufficient, powerful, honorable, famous, and even pleasurable.
The good that people seek piecemeal in so many different temporal goods is, it
turns out, one simple “substance”: goodness itself. Those who seek happiness in
wealth, office, reputation, and bodily pleasure are grasping at pieces of
goodness, for wanting them is to desire the good. Seeking the good in objects
rather than activities is misplaced. Happiness can never be attained in this
way because it is not to be had when enjoying any of these goods. The seeker
who looks there confuses the pleasure these objects bring with genuine
happiness that is enjoying goodness itself even when that brings no external
reward and even misfortune.”
“The issue is that we do not know what true happiness
is because we do not know what is truly worth wanting.” Material pleasure is
insufficient, we must acquire divinity. “That is, when we realize that we partake
of the ordered beauty and goodness that is God, enjoying that goodness becomes
the basis on which we enjoy the world and find the power, riches, and wealth
that we were looking for in their material expressions.”
In suffering we must not think of ourselves as “victims
of fate” but “beneficiaries of divine providence.” “The suffering of the just
enables us to discover our strengths and to exercise virtue. They give others
examples to follow, and unjust death brings posthumous renown.”
“Happiness is commonly thought of experientially;
Boethius rejects that notion because experience is unreliable…Happiness is an
outlook arising from a staunch commitment to divine omnipotence and goodness in
the face of contradictory experience…Believing that one’s misfortunes are part
of a larger invisible divine plan for the well-ordered functioning of the
cosmos should enable the sufferer to be content that his suffering is not
pointless or that it damages the divine reputation…Ultimately, happiness is
participating in divine intelligence wherein all makes sense.”
Notes from Ellen
T. Charry, God and the Art of Happiness
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010) who comments further “This is a hard teaching.
Happiness is enjoying being part of the divine plan. While there is nothing in
Boethius’s presentation that departs from Christian theism…the redemptive
dimension of Christian theology that gives hope is missing. His notion of
happiness is tinged with despair about the need to be ever striving for
intellectual perfection and vigilant against feels of dejection, anger, and
defeat. Boethius offers only the power of unremitting strength, unqualified by
relaxed joy…Because Augustine compassionately gave credence to suffering, he
could not take the hard line that Boethius did. Augustine’s future eschatology
offers hope of reward while counseling endurance now. Boethius offers a
realized eschatology, at the expense of succor for the suffering in this life.
That being said, Boethius does believe he is succoring sufferers, only not in
the way they might hope. Succor is the strength not to be brought low by experience
but to rise above it and to exercise one’s dignity by doing so.”
