Wow. Just finished the final Book V, and realized that it covers much more than a simple rationalization and proof of both God’s divine knowledge and man’s free will. Though that be a heavy question, in my own half-ass way, had sort of come to the same conclusions offered by Philosophy, in that first, man cannot comprehend on the same level as a Supreme Being, and that free will might change the course of life, God would as well know somehow that this will happen–so no, you can’t trick Him.
But there’s much more to understand in these final pages; a concept of time as being the ever present, that is, the way God supposedly sees it. This, to be understood clearly,would be in contradiction to our human definition of time, and yet, once comprehendable–even as a possibility–would indeed change man’s perception of life. And, as Philosophy claims, it is an ideal we should aspire to at least in understanding.
There’s too much to post the whole explanation here, so I will be rereading it and bringing out particularly concise points. Much of what Philosophy is saying builds step upon step, and yet the basic premise must be put down in a few statements that I shall seek out, even as I begin to understand the depth to which they reach.
Knowing up front that Boethius was eventually executed, the ending of The Consolation of Philosophy, in its suddenness, makes one see the soldiers marching into his grey, dimly lit cell; he slowly puts down his pen, looks upward, beyond the helmeted heads of his captors, rises from his seat and takes his place between them, and walks calmly and confidently to his death.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology