Consolation of Philosophy: On Goodness and Power

One of the first things that any child learns about God is that he created the universe, that he is the most powerful being in the world, and that he loves us very much. He put the world together in seven days, and He created humans to live in it, take care of it, and glorify Him. Ever since the fall of mankind, however, the goal for humans has been slightly different. At first, humans are commanded to follow God as he leads them through trials and prepares them for the coming Messiah, who is to save them from the mistakes they made in the beginning. Once that Messiah, Jesus, comes, he gives humans a new mission: seek and save the lost. He gives them the two greatest commandments, love God and love one another, and they are expected to follow those commandments in all that they do. God is the truest and highest form of love, so to love in any way is to be like God. We often find that we are happiest when we show love to one another in our actions and our words. Boethius, in his book Consolation of Philosophy, discovers the truth of happiness as he is conversing with Philosophy. Philosophy, however, notes that if the truest form of happiness is God, then the truest form of happiness is also power (Boethius 101-102). Anyone who pursues this greatest good and draws nearer to God becomes more powerful, but if anyone tries to pursue it and ends up running away from God, he becomes less powerful.”The highest good, which is available to both the good and the wicked, the good try to get by the exercise of their virtues. But the wicked try to get it by the whims of their desires” (Boethius 111-112). By understanding that God is the highest happiness, Boethius establishes a goal for power that humans cannot reach without God’s help, and he makes it clear that God is the only thing that humans should truly strive for in life.

         Throughout Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius and Philosophy employ logic and reason to discover what is truly valuable in life. They come to the conclusion that all men ultimately strive for happiness, but they also note that most of the things that men pursue never make him truly happy. For example, wealth, status, and power alone can never make a person truly happy. However, Philosophy suggests that if a person had all wealth, fame, status, and power in the world, then he could be happy as well (Boethius 81). Even so, it would stand to reason that no one could be happy with so many things if he had no one to share it with. In this life, we will often find that even the highest measure of material things mean nothing to us if we don’t use those things for good. Power and status as well, if used incorrectly, simply end up deteriorating and we soon find ourselves with nothing. The only way to truly be powerful, and by extension happy, is to be good (Boethius 117). Perhaps Boethius is giving us a new definition of power: rather than power being control over people and things, power is simply the ability to do things. When we draw away from good habits and good practices, we find ourselves losing our wealth, popularity, and status. We then find ourselves losing our happiness.

God, however, is all-powerful, and he created all the wealth in the world. He always has been and always will be the highest and most important being in the universe, so his fame and status are unparalleled as well. He is also incapable of evil, meaning that everything about him is good (Boethius 100). As humans, we are unable to achieve the level of power and goodness that God has. However, the closer we draw to him, the more we become like him, and the more power we have over our situations. We become better people, and we thus become less vulnerable to evil. Evil, in contrast, becomes weak and powerless because it is so far from God. “The good are always powerful while the wicked are abject and weak” (Boethius 107). In essence, good is power and the ability to do, and evil is powerlessness and a lack of ability to do (Boethius 114). With the clear contrasts of good and evil in mind, we find that pursuing the greatest Good, or God, is the only way that we can become more able to face any trials or hardships that we might face. A pursuance of God also makes us more able to accomplish happiness in life, and the happiness that we gain from following him is only multiplied as we share it with others.

         As previously mentioned, Jesus instructed his followers to show everyone the Word and nature of God, and to do everything in their power to bring others closer to Him. We find, after reading Boethius and analyzing his conclusions, that Jesus’ instructions not only bring glory to Him but also bring happiness to us. The closer we become, and the closer we bring others, the more we find ourselves fulfilled and happy as humans and as a creation in God’s image.

         Boethius shows us, through clear logic and reason, that nearness to God is the only source of true happiness, and he gives us something to strive toward as we walk an earth broken by sin and evil. The more that we draw toward God, the more we are able to build up a fallen world. The more that we draw away from God, the more that we find ourselves unable to do anything besides watch the world crumble. “Those who are happy are divine. And that is the reward of good men, which time cannot diminish, no one’s power can lessen, and no wickedness can hide--to become divine” (Boethius 117).




Works Cited

Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy. Translated by David R. Slavitt, Harvard University Press, 2008.

Comments

  1. Adelane StrohNovember 6, 2021 at 10:32 PM

    Edward Burke would disagree with Boethius’ decisions regarding what is most valuable in life: happiness. The main cause of this disagreement would be because Boethius had oversimplified and restricted what brings a human happiness. Boethius states that power and status can never bring happiness, especially if they are not rejoiced in with someone else. However, Burke would argue that fancies such as power and status can bring that happiness. Throughout Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful, Burke is discussing what brings a human happiness and pleasure. He references ideas such as “the passion which belongs to [the] generation” (34) and the sublimity of “some modification of power” (53). A sense of “ambition” and the “satisfaction arising from the contemplation of his excelling his fellows” is also recognized (43). This satisfaction and ambition refer to the qualities of power and status. The passion of the generation refers to happiness and what people strive for and makes hints towards that goal being power. Boethius cuts down the ideas and definitions regarding these two words to only two qualities, but Burke would argue that power and status encompass multiple qualities which could bring a person happiness.

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