Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 63:1 (Mar 2020)
Article: How Boethius Influenced C. S. Lewis
Author: Olli-Pekka Vainio

JETS 63:1 (March 2020) p. 161

How Boethius Influenced C. S. Lewis

Olli-Pekka Vainio

Olli-Pekka Vainio is University Lecturer of Systematic Theology at the University of Helsinki, Yliopistonkatu 4, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: In spite of C. S. Lewis’s clear statement of the influence which Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy had upon him, insufficient attention has been given to it. In this essay, I will highlight ways in which Boethius’s work is reflected in Lewis’s, especially The Great Divorce. Specifically, two similarities are evident: first, the relationship of eternity, our choices, and human knowledge; and second, the role of desire in our attempts to achieve true happiness.

Keywords: C. S. Lewis, Boethius, imagination, knowledge, theological anthropology

When The Christian Century asked C. S. Lewis to name ten books that have influenced him most, number seven was Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy.1 But how did Boethius in fact influence him? Curiously, Boethius is often referred to only in passing in Lewis studies.2 For example, only occasional references to Boethius are made in the recent Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis, and the only substantial point concerns Lewis’s use of Boethius’s solution to divine foreknowledge.3 In this essay, I will sketch out two additional themes that are discussed in The Consolation of Philosophy and that also appear in Lewis’s works: knowledge acquisition, and nothingness and happiness. This shows how Lewis drew from the great Christian tradition and how he reformed Platonic philosophy to make it more in line with the Christian doctrine of the body.

JETS 63:1 (March 2020) p. 162

I. Boethius And Lewis

I begin by noting something about the affinity between Boethius and Lewis. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (a. 480–c. 524) was the last of the Western Church Fathers; often he is said to be “the last of the Romans, and the first of the scholastic philosophers.”4 He stood at the end of the venerable continuum that reached back to ancient Greek schools of philosophy. In his works, he represented the best of early Christian wisdom and learning. On the other hand, he was standing on the border of a new, uncertain world. Barbarians had occupied Rome, and the state was now overseen by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. Due to a conspiracy, Boethius was imprisoned and ...