SIX centuries after Christ a Roman, with a long name of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, lived a good Christian life while studying the classics. However, politics lured him into the public arena. To his dismay, he failed to find goodness and truth in politics. His opponents brought false accusations against him before the royal court of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. Denied a fair trial Boethius was thrown into prison while awaiting the death penalty.
Instead of getting embittered at his fate, Boethius wrote a classic work entitled The Consolation of Philosophy (De Consolatione Philosophiae). Writing in prison without any reference material, he asked why God, who sees everything from His vantage point of eternity, God who is infinitely good, allows good people to suffer while the evil prosper.
When dealing with humans, God who knows perfectly human nature He created, and how it operates, has to deal with His gift of free will.
Initially, Boethius indicated human reason, saying that knowledge does not prevent a creature to function as it has been created. For example, our knowing that the sun rises at 6 a.m. and sets at 6 p.m. will not change the motion or schedule of the sun.
To the question why God, who knows that a crime will be committed, does not exercise His omnipotence to stop the crime against the innocent, Boethius, like a good thinker that he was, counter questioned, “Should He?” “Has God not given us conscience and grace to avoid evil?”
Beheading ended Boethius’s life in 525 AD, but he looked forward to getting better answers to his questions when facing the Almighty and Wise Lord.