Question

2. How does Boethius reconcile an omniscient God and human free will? Explain why you find his reasoning persuasive or unpersuasive.

Answer 1

• For any being, which by its nature has the use of reason, must also have the power of judgment by which it can make decisions and, by its own resources, distinguish between things which should be desired and things which should be avoided.Therefore, in rational creatures there is also freedom of desiring and shunning.

• Boethius leads us to the position that the scriptures teach that (a) God possesses infallible foreknowledge or omniscience, (b) we are morally responsible for our actions, and (c) free will is a necessary requisite of moral responsibility. Thus we are obliged to reconcile the concepts of foreknowledge and free will if we are to maintain belief in our own moral responsibility before God.

• The Boethian concept of timelessness presses one to embrace his ideas about the simplicity of divine knowledge. Rather than peering ahead into the future, God knows all events simultaneously.

• And since Boethius has already demonstrated that knowledge of present events is not deterministic, God’s knowledge is simply observation, and in no way causative. In this manner Boethius reconciles divine foreknowledge and human free will, without sacrificing our moral responsibility before God.

• God’s knowledge, argues Boethius, is not due to physical senses, nor to imagination, nor to thought, but is instead the knowledge of pure intelligence which understands the very underpinnings of reality. This is persuasive in nature.The idea that a timeless God can do or be anything that is comprehensible through normal concepts and words is ridiculous.