A Christian in Toga

Boethius is apparently the first Christian writer who was not engaged in dogmatic and theological problems from an ecclesiastical point of view. Boethius hadn't any ecclesiastical office, but was engaged in politics under King Theoderic in Italy, and from his youth he had devoted himself to Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy. Some of his medieval commentators noticed the unchristian, simply Platonic character of his philosophy. Claudio Moreschini, on the basis of Boethius’ Opuscula Theologica and Consolatio Philosophiae, shows how he combined Christian faith and philosophy in order to solve theological issues, most notably the Christological debates of his time or the question of the Trinity, and examines Boethius’ work from the point of view of Latin Platonism, highlighting the aims of his poetry and his philosophical tenets.