Free Republic

Today is the feast day of Neoplatonic philosopher and Christian theologian Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius), author of The Consolation of Philosophy, and according to tradition martyred in 524 or 525, or possibly 526, by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. Well, maybe. We know roughly as much about why Boethius was killed as when or how. We do know that he came from a line of prominent Romans (including a couple of popes back there, depending on who you count as “pope”), was himself consul in 510, and his sons were rather astonishingly joint consuls in 522. At that time he...

St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Gregory the Theologian      The fourth century was one of great Christological and Trinitarian controversy for the holy Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 325 proclaimed the condemnation of the theology and person of the Alexandrian presbyter Arius who taught that the Son and Word of God was but an exalted creature, created ex nihilo by the will of God, and that, therefore, there was a time when He was not. The Synod declared that the Logos is indeed of the same essence (ομοούσιος, homoousios), or consubstantial with...