“That is true,” I said, “but it is your
kind office to unravel the causes of hidden matters, and explain reasons now
veiled in darkness; wherefore I beg of you, put forth your decree and expound
all to me, since this wonder most deeply stirs my mind.”
Then said she, smiling, “Your question
calls me to the greatest of all these matters, and a full answer thereto is
well-nigh impossible. For this is its kind: if one doubt be cut away,
innumerable others arise, as the Hydra's heads; and there can be no limit
unless a man restrains them by the most quick fire of the mind.
“For herein lie the questions of the
directness of Providence, the course of Fate, chances which cannot be foreseen,
knowledge, divine predestination, and freedom of judgment. You can judge for
yourself the weight of these questions.
“But since it is a part of your
treatment to know some of these, I will attempt to make some advantage
therefrom, though we are penned in by our narrow space of time. But if you
enjoy the delights of song, you must wait a while for that pleasure, while I
weave together for you the chain of reasons.”
“As you will,” said I.
—from
Book 4, Prose 6
The
scale of these questions will seem so daunting, precisely because we are now
concerned with the most fundamental and ultimate matters, with the beginning
and the end of all things, with the very way the whole of Universe runs its
course. How can a finite human mind, bound to this body, limited in space,
subject to the fluctuations of time, ever ascend to what is infinite and
absolute?
How
might I be expected to suddenly see everything as God sees it? Surely that is
not what I should be aiming at, striving instead to discover some meaning and
order from who I am and from where I am. The confusion will come largely out of
the hastiness of my own thinking, the fear and panic that can so easily grip me
when I am facing something so massive and imposing. Clarity and patience of
mind will be required, not hacking away at everything I see, but focusing in on
what I can manage, one little step at a time.
I will not
come to comprehend it all, but I may just come to comprehend enough.
What is
at stake? A whole span of principles and causes, many of which may at first
seem to be in conflict with one another.
If
Providence is the way the Divine Mind rules and orders all things, am I to
understand that everything is subject to a necessary Fate? If everything is
directed by Providence, and always happens for a purpose, can that still leave
any room for chance?
My own
perception is certainly clouded, and so I do not see the reasons behind so much
of what happens around me. My ignorance of causes may lead to me assume that
things are still open-ended, that there is still contingency at work. Yet while
my mind is quite incomplete, is not the Divine Mind perfectly complete? What
could possibly be unknown to it? And if all is known to it, then doesn’t that
knowledge set in stone what absolutely must happen?
Perhaps
most critically for a sense of my own place in the world, can such design allow
for any human freedom at all? If I have no freedom, am I to simply abandon
myself to what must be, never able to choose how I participate in my own life?
See,
there is that feeling of helplessness, as the Hydra grows back two new heads
for every one I might manage to cut off. How easy it would be to just give up!
I seem
to recall, however, from the version of the story I learned, that Heracles
managed to work something out. He asks his nephew, Iolaus, to help him in the
task of slaying the Hydra. After Heracles chopped off the heads, Iolaus quickly
cauterized each neck before the heads could return.
Sometimes
there are thoughtful solutions to seemingly impossible problems. Lady
Philosophy will now help Boethius work through the problems of Providence,
Fate, and the place of human freedom, in this next part of the text that can be
quite challenging, but is also deeply rewarding.
Written in 11/2015
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