The Consolation of Philosophy

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The most widely read book of the Middle Ages apart from the Bible, The Consolation of Philosophy ranks among the most deeply experienced and profoundly contemplated explorations of the problem of evil ever penned. Stricken by grief at his imprisonment by political enemies, the Roman statesman Boethius writes a mystical dialogue between himself and Lady Philosophy, who comes to console him by driving out his grief and reminding him of his own forgotten wisdom. In a great synthesis of Platonic philosophy read through the Christian tradition, Philosophy teaches Boethius to escape human vanity and its false hopes in worldly fortune by embracing the everlasting benevolence of divine Providence.