The Trinity is One God Not Three Gods by Boethius with accompanying Commentary by Thomas Aquinas

by Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Paul A. Böer Sr. (Editor)

Contains the complete treatise The Trinity Is One God Not Three Gods by Boethius and the complete Commentary on the same written by St. Thomas Aquinas.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Christian, Medieval

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 524

About the author

Roman mathematician Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, imprisoned on charges of treason, wrote The Consolation of Philosophy , his greatest work, an investigation of destiny and free will, while awaiting his execution.

His ancient and prominent noble family of Anicia included many consuls and Petronius Maximus and Olybrius, emperors. After Odoacer deposed the last western emperor, Flavius Manlius Boethius, his father, served as consul in 487.

Boethius entered public life at a young age and served already as a senator before the age of 25 years in 504. Boethius served as consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths.

In 522, Boethius saw his two sons serve as consuls. Theodoric the Great, king, suspected Boethius of conspiring with the eastern empire eventually. Jailed, Boethius composed his treatise on fortune, death, and other issues. He most popularly influenced the Middle Ages.

People linked Boethius and Rithmomachia, a board game.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short but pretty intense little book by Boethius, arguably the top medieval theologian of early medieval Europe. You can probably guess the subject.

Over the course of six little chapters, Boethius makes that case (against the Arian position that subordinates Christ to God the Father) that the three persons of God are different in their relational attributes, but all united in a single substance without plurality. Whereas people are a messy mix of substance and accidents (which I understood loosely as corresponding to inherent form vs. external characteristics), God is all substance; all form with no matter. This is what makes God one God, but the different persons are differentiated in their relations to each other.

It's a bit of a rough go, but anything written about the theology of the Trinity is going to, by definition, be pretty difficult to understand. Boethius is pretty clear in his reasoning, though, and if you're willing to move slowly it's actually a pretty interesting read.

[Forked Radish]

But the Trinity is three "Gods" i.e. Jesus the tempted (the desert sojourning and Devil tempted Jesus predates the Christian era, as proven by carbon 14 dating), Jesus the Nazarene (the heretical, miracle working, crucified Pentateuch cum Mosaic law renouncer who studied at the library of Alexandria), and Jesus Barabbas, aka Jesus Ben Ananias (who prophesized the destruction of the Temple, was chastised with scourging, then killed by a Roman projectile during the siege). This Trinity was later transformed into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, aka the Holy Spirit in an attempt to mollify a confused laity, probably by Valentinus.