Consolation of Modern Philosophy

Boethius is uncommonly known for his book, The Consolation of Philosophy (Oxford World’s Classics), in which Lady Philosophy comforts him and rights his perspective as he suffers unjustly for doing the right thing.

Lady Philosophy challenges him with this idea that the wicked are getting their punishment and the righteous are being rewarded in this life, despite the way that it looks. This is true because those who are righteous are so for one reason: such are righteous due to their true faith that results from rightly knowing God, and rightly knowing God is a result of being made into a new creation by God. For this reason, the wicked are those who do not come to God through Jesus, and the righteous are those who have this faith. This perspective is found in Psalm 73, where the psalmist says,

…they say, ‘How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?’ Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning… But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin… (Psalm 73:11-18, ESV)

Modern philosophy makes the category of good and evil to be relative, and therefore not absolute in relation to God. This is in direct contradiction to the overarching theme and various commands of God throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. In Genesis 1, God distinguishes light and dark. Leviticus shows God’s concern for the distinction between clean and unclean. David so clearly shows God’s love for that which is holy in contrast to all that is unholy. Proverbs tells of wise and foolish. Jesus reveals that it is belief in the Son as distinguished from belief in any other way to the Father that makes the difference between death and life. Hebrews even says that meat (in contrast to milk) of the Word is for those who constantly practice distinguishing good and evil. So, to dismiss this category as irrelevant is to be in defiance to God, while to receive that which is revealed as good and evil is to begin to “use the law lawfully,” as Paul encourages.