Boethius was born in the year 480 in Rome, Italy. Actually, his real name is Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. The last name indicates that he belonged to the great Anicii family. His father, a consul in Italy, died when Boethius was still very young. That, however, brought him into an even better family, as Symmachus adopted him. This family was considered as one of the richest and most illustrious families in the Roman Empire. Symmachus was the head of the Senate and a pillar of the Catholic Church at that time. He became the personal guard of Boethius. Later Boethius even became his son in law, when he married the daughter of Symmachus. Growing up in the household of Symmachus he gained an excellent education. He was taught in Greek, in Latin, philosophy, and theology. The Greek studies had a big impact on Boethius. Later in his life he had one of the biggest private libraries of that time. He had a passion for learning. As his father was the Roman consul in 487, he also became consul in 510 at the age of 30. His sons became consuls as well, when they were still children, seen as a reward for Boethius.

Even though Boethius’ main writing deals with philosophy, his writings can be divided into four major groups: the mathematic writings, whereas music, astronomy, arithmetic, and also geometry were included in this group (Quadrivium), translations from Greek into Latin and commentaries on logic, theological works, and the earlier mentioned Consolation of Philosophy. Through his early studies Boethius became a magister oficiorum, which was one of the highest state offices in the ancient west. The politics brought Boethius big success in a very short time. However, they made him fall as well in a very short time, as he was involved in the Roman Senate.

The Roman senator Albinus was accused of treason against the ruling east Gothic king Theodoric. As a consequence, the entire senate was charged of treason. Apparently, Boethius tried to protect the senate and put himself in charge of this accuse. During the trial he lost the support from the senate and got in charge of the Gothic King Theodoric.

Finally, Boethius was put to death charged of treason in a trial, which was not worthy to be called one, for he did not have the chance to defend himself. Before he received his penalty he was imprisoned for a long time. Obviously, he had the time and the material to write, because it was in his imprisonment time that he penned his greatest work; the Consolatio Philosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy). This work had a huge influence in the following years and decades and became one of the most read writings in the Middle Ages. Eventually, Boethius had to die. There are not a lot of details known about his death. Symmachus was executed with Boethius at the same time. Their deaths were seen as martyrdom for Christendom and consequently Boethius was recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church later. After his death he became more and more famous.

Rightly, Boethius was acknowledged as the first scholar, since he also wrote on doctrines of the Catholic Church. He was also considered to be the founder of the Middle Age, for his influence was growing incredible during this time. Boethius authored a number of works, which explains why he had such a huge influence. Together with Aristotle and Augustine, Boethius was probably most influencing in Europe. The majority of the people did not know Greek in that time. Thus, even his translations of Greek works written by Aristotle and Porphyry were very significant for scholasticism. However, the most influencing writing is the Consolation of Philosophy. A lot of scholars referred to this work and used it for their own works.

Even though other writings of Boethius became less and less important in the beginning of the second millennium, they were still studied and regarded very well in the earlier Middle Age. They helped establishing twelfth-century thinking. The Consolation, however, enjoyed a longer acceptance in universities and schools even after 1200. This work was to read and study carefully for every scholar. The influence of it was evident throughout the Renaissance and early modernity.

Especially in England and Great Britain Boethius Consolation of Philosophy seemed to have a good reputation among the nation. King Alfred, Queen Elizabeth, and Geoffrey Chaucer translated the Consolation into English, because they were convinced of the significance of this work for everyone. They wanted the English nation to profit from this great work.

Helen M. Barrett tried to explain why his works had such a huge influence especially in the Middle Ages and clarified it best with this statement: “In those troubled centuries, the Dark and Middle Ages, during which the Consolation was most widely read, there were often periods when over great areas chaos and brute force prevailed rather than the ordered ways of civilized life. There must have been, many then to whom the questions which Boethius raised and tried to answer were of no mere academic interest, but came home with the poignancy of direct personal application.” (Barrett, Boethius – Some Aspects of his Times and Work)

The name and person of Boethius underwent great popularity and admiration throughout the Middle Age. However, he lost a lot of his popularity. There is just a minority of people today, who would know about him and his contribution to the process of humanity.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Jesus Christ

Amen

“The Cross of Christ” by John W. Stott,

for another class and I found it a very helpful book for every Christian. It is important to not only understand the cross right, but also to live accordingly. I highly recommend this book! Although it is not strongly connected to the topic of our class, it is definitely a book that you want to read at least once in your lifetime.

The authors start with the pacifistic mindset of the Early Church Fathers and about the change that took place about this issue when Christianity became a religion under Constantine. He also arranged a marriage between the state and the church, which will turn out to be bad. The moment when Pope Urban, as the head of the church and therefore also head of the state, challenged Christians to conquer the Holy Land from the Muslims, is considered to be the low point for Christianity. The time of Invasions, murders and slaughters started and resulted in more than three crusades in the beginning of the second millennium. Later the church even justified the death of heretics. Opponents of the church were not tolerated at all. Instead the most happened consequence for holding different views than the Catholic Church would end in a death by burning at the stake. The authors also describe the relationship of the church to the Jews and notice that it also was not free of violence and maledictions. “Christian Jihad” wants to challenge us to have a critical view on our mostly not known history and warns of the consequences of the question on separation of church and state.

How could such horrible things like the killing of so many people in the name of Jesus Christ happen? This is an often asked question that I want to answer, based on the Research the authors have done.

The most important reason is the situation Christianity and Christian people were at that time. Before the first millennium ended people in Europe were pretty desperate. After a time of moderate conditions for Europeans, it was much easier to find something to look forward to. People were not satisfied with their situation at all; they did not really have purpose they would like to die for. This is the first condition to start something like the crusades. Pope Urban knew very well to take advantage of this situation. He mobilized almost all of Europe to recapture the Holy Land together. He promised them forgiveness of their sins and the assertion of eternal life. Of course, Pope Urban had in mind also the reaffirmation of the papacy, which had lost a little bit of reputation.

As a German, I would like to compare this initial situation of the crusades with the situation in Germany which led to the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. The German people around the thirties were as well a very desperate people. Branded by the consequences of World War 1, the economic crisis, and a political mess people were looking for somebody to put the blame on. Hitler, who was a great orator and like Pope Urban, could unify and mobilize people. They both used their talent to abuse people for their own ideals and motivations. At this point it is important to state that I do not want to trivialize either of these occurrences. However, it could be important for us to see what exactly caused people to join such a cruelty.

It is our responsibility to learn from our past. As Christians we ought to live accordingly in every part of our life.

There are a lot of weird conceptions some people have about Germany and German people. I would like to correct some of these views a little bit right here:
1. We don’t drink as much beer as one drinks water. (although some drink quite a lot..)
2. Not a lot of people wear these clothes you can see on the picture. It is a traditional dressing from Bavaria.
3. Yes, it’s true. German cars are very good (i don’t wanna say they are best, but..)
4. Yes, we don’t like the French, though we got along pretty well in the past 30 years..
5. Interesting: The majority of Germans doesn’t like Americans a lot. George Bush and the recent wars are probably reasons for that.
I like you though..