Description

This Literature course will be taught by Dr. Anthony Cirilla, and will run from June 30th through August 23rd. 

C.S. Lewis wrote of Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy, “To get a taste for it is almost to become naturalized in the Middle Ages,” placing it on the top ten list of books which most influenced him. Theologians such as Anselm, Aquinas, and Peter Abelard were deeply influenced by Boethius’s work, as was the medieval conception of the seven liberal arts and medieval literature in general. Translated by King Alfred’s circle, by Chaucer into Middle English as well as by two other Middle English writers, and by Queen Elizabeth I, The Consolation of Philosophy also profoundly inspired writers such as Dante, Thomas More, Jean de Meun, and many others.

This course will examine Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy from its theological and liberal arts context and with an eye to the history of its massive theological, philosophical, and literary influence. We will start by reading the Opuscula Sacra, Boethius’s five theological tracts (two on the Trinity, one on Christology, one on the nature of created vs uncreated goodness, and one a general statement of the Christian faith). A brief tour of Boethius’s extensive liberal arts writing will form a bridge between his theological tracts and his magnum opus. We will then spend most of the course reading The Consolation of Philosophy closely, seeing how Boethius’s theological and academic work coalesced into his final production. The last meeting of the course will end with a case study of his vast literary influence, namely with a reading of two Middle English works: Sir Orfeo and Pearl.

Dr. Anthony Cirilla is an Associate Professor of English at College of the Ozarks. He is also associate editor of Carmina Philosophiae, the journal of the International Boethius Society. Originally from Western New York, he lives in Missouri with his wife, Camarie, who writes poetry and fairy tales. Anthony serves as an ordained deacon at St. Joseph Anglican Church in Branson.

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