Boethius Was Successful in His Argument That God Rewards...

‘Boethius was successful in his argument that God rewards and punishes justly.’ Discuss (35) Boethius was a philosopher teaching at the end of the Roman empire, in his 40’s he was arrested for suspected conspiracy with the Eastern Roman Empire and was eventually put to death at the age of about 44/45. Whilst in prison Boethius wrote his book, ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’ where he discusses in great depth with Lady Philosophy issues with God’s omniscience. In his writings, Boethius identifies an issue with God’s foreknowledge, our personal autonomy and the impact of how we are to be judged as when we enter the life after this. He identifies that if God has foreknowledge and knows our future, He then knows what we are going to do which†¦show more content†¦However there is another definition of which Boethius thought was unsuitable. God is eternal and he has no begging or no end, he always has existed and continues to do so. Boethius rejects this as he can’t see how a temporal God can judge someone if he experiences time him self. On the other hand Boethius didn’t consider the flaws of his definition of eternal God; a God that is outside the category of time is one whom cannot be personal, this also means that it doesn’t fit in with the traditional religious view of God who keeps his covenant with his people and sends his son to save us. But it also has its strengths such as it maintains the majority of the attributes of God, such as incorporeal and immutable. Boethius concluded from his characterization of an eternal god that God is like a bird flying over a man walking down the path, the bird can see where the man has been, where he is and where he is about to go all at once. This is a power that God is able to use due to him being outside of time, he can see everyone’s past present and future simultaneously. His knowledge is total however not causal. Boethius expands on his idea of divine foreknowledge and goes onto explain the different types of necessity; simple and contingent. Simple necessity is related to a person’s nature so for example â€Å"man is a rational animal.† Whereas conditional necessity isn’t tied to the objects nature so