{"product_id":"2940015116991","title":"THE THEOLOGICAL TRACTATES AND THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, of the famous Praenestine family of the\u003cbr\u003eAnicii, was born about 480 A.D. in Rome. His father was an ex-consul; he\u003cbr\u003ehimself was consul under Theodoric the Ostrogoth in 510, and his two sons,\u003cbr\u003echildren of a great grand-daughter of the renowned Q. Aurelius Symmachus,\u003cbr\u003ewere joint consuls in 522. His public career was splendid and honourable,\u003cbr\u003eas befitted a man of his race, attainments, and character. But he fell\u003cbr\u003eunder the displeasure of Theodoric, and was charged with conspiring to\u003cbr\u003edeliver Rome from his rule, and with corresponding treasonably to this end\u003cbr\u003ewith Justin, Emperor of the East. He was thrown into prison at Pavia, where\u003cbr\u003ehe wrote the _Consolation of Philosophy_, and he was brutally put to death\u003cbr\u003ein 524. His brief and busy life was marked by great literary achievement.\u003cbr\u003eHis learning was vast, his industry untiring, his object unattainable--\u003cbr\u003enothing less than the transmission to his countrymen of all the works of\u003cbr\u003ePlato and Aristotle, and the reconciliation of their apparently divergent\u003cbr\u003eviews. To form the idea was a silent judgment on the learning of his day;\u003cbr\u003eto realize it was more than one man could accomplish; but Boethius\u003cbr\u003eaccomplished much. He translated the [Greek: Eisagogae] of Porphyry, and\u003cbr\u003ethe whole of Aristotle's _Organon_. He wrote a double commentary on the\u003cbr\u003e[Greek: Eisagogae] and commentaries on the _Categories_ and the _De\u003cbr\u003eInterpretatione_ of Aristotle, and on the _Topica_ of Cicero. He also\u003cbr\u003ecomposed original treatises on the categorical and hypothetical syllogism,\u003cbr\u003eon Division and on Topical Differences. He adapted the arithmetic of\u003cbr\u003eNicomachus, and his textbook on music, founded on various Greek\u003cbr\u003eauthorities, was in use at Oxford and Cambridge until modern times. His\u003cbr\u003efive theological _Tractates_ are here, together with the _Consolation of\u003cbr\u003ePhilosophy_, to speak for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBoethius was the last of the Roman philosophers, and the first of the\u003cbr\u003escholastic theologians. The present volume serves to prove the truth of\u003cbr\u003eboth these assertions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe _Consolation of Philosophy_ is indeed, as Gibbon called it, \"a golden\u003cbr\u003evolume, not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or of Tully.\" To belittle its\u003cbr\u003eoriginality and sincerity, as is sometimes done, with a view to saving the\u003cbr\u003eChristianity of the writer, is to misunderstand his mind and his method.\u003cbr\u003eThe _Consolatio_ is not, as has been maintained, a mere patchwork of\u003cbr\u003etranslations from Aristotle and the Neoplatonists. Rather it is the supreme\u003cbr\u003eessay of one who throughout his life had found his highest solace in the\u003cbr\u003edry light of reason. His chief source of refreshment, in the dungeon to\u003cbr\u003ewhich his beloved library had not accompanied him, was a memory well\u003cbr\u003estocked with the poetry and thought of former days. The development of the\u003cbr\u003eargument is anything but Neoplatonic; it is all his own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd if the _Consolation of Philosophy_ admits Boethius to the company of\u003cbr\u003eCicero or even of Plato, the theological _Tractates_ mark him as the\u003cbr\u003eforerunner of St. Thomas. It was the habit of a former generation to regard\u003cbr\u003eBoethius as an eclectic, the transmitter of a distorted Aristotelianism, a\u003cbr\u003epagan, or at best a luke-warm Christian, who at the end cast off the faith\u003cbr\u003ewhich he had worn in times of peace, and wrapped himself in the philosophic\u003cbr\u003ecloak which properly belonged to him. The authenticity of the _Tractates_\u003cbr\u003ewas freely denied. We know better now. The discovery by Alfred Holder, and\u003cbr\u003ethe illuminating discussion by Hermann Usener,[1] of a fragment of\u003cbr\u003eCassiodorus are sufficient confirmation of the manuscript tradition, apart\u003cbr\u003efrom the work of scholars who have sought to justify that tradition from\u003cbr\u003einternal evidence. In that fragment Cassiodorus definitely ascribes to his\u003cbr\u003efriend Boethius \"a book on the Trinity, some dogmatic chapters, and a book\u003cbr\u003eagainst Nestorius.\"[2] Boethius was without doubt a Christian, a Doctor and\u003cbr\u003eperhaps a martyr. Nor is it necessary to think that, when in prison, he put\u003cbr\u003eaway his faith. If it is asked why the _Consolation of Philosophy_ contains\u003cbr\u003eno conscious or direct reference to the doctrines which are traced in the\u003cbr\u003e_Tractates_ with so sure a hand, and is, at most, not out of harmony with\u003cbr\u003eChristianity, the answer is simple. In the _Consolation_ he is writing\u003cbr\u003ephilosophy; in the _Tractates_ he is writing theology. He observes what\u003cbr\u003ePascal calls the orders of things. Philosophy belongs to one order,\u003cbr\u003etheology to another. They have different objects. The object of philosophy\u003cbr\u003eis to understand and explain the nature of the world around us; the object\u003cbr\u003eof theology is to understand and explain doctrines delivered by divine\u003cbr\u003erevelation. The scholastics recognized the distinction,[3] and the\u003cbr\u003ecorresponding difference in the function of Faith and Reason.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47157520269552,"sku":"2940015116991","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015116991","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}