The theological tractates, with an English translation by H.F. Stewart and E.K.
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~130,000 words · 602 passages
Cite this work
- APABoethius. (n.d.). The theological tractates, with an English translation by H.F. Stewart and E.K.. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/boethius/the-theological-tractates-with-an-english-translation-by-h-f-stewart-and-e-k
- MLABoethius. The theological tractates, with an English translation by H.F. Stewart and E.K.. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/boethius/the-theological-tractates-with-an-english-translation-by-h-f-stewart-and-e-k.
- ChicagoBoethius. The theological tractates, with an English translation by H.F. Stewart and E.K.. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/boethius/the-theological-tractates-with-an-english-translation-by-h-f-stewart-and-e-k.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The five short treatises in which Boethius applies Aristotle's logical method to Christian doctrine, in the Loeb Latin-English facing edition.
Context and history
They are very short and very dense. The most influential is the third, 'De hebdomadibus', which asks how things can be good by the mere fact of being: there appears the distinction between esse and what a thing is, decisive for Thomas Aquinas, who wrote a commentary on this text. The last, 'Against Eutyches and Nestorius', contains the definition of a person — 'an individual substance of a rational nature' — which organised a thousand years of theological and philosophical argument about what a person is. Boethius wrote these tractates before his fall; the 'Consolation of Philosophy', also in the corpus, he wrote in prison awaiting execution, and it notably makes no mention of Christianity.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
of the Christian religion ; but that form of faith is valid and only valid which, both on account of the universal character of the rules and doctrines affirm ing its authority, and because the worship in which * e.y. Aug. De Triu. 5 propterea, quod eius cultus per omnes paene mundi terminos emanauit, catholica uel uniuersalis uocatur. Cuius haec de trinitatis imitate sententia est: " Pater," inquiunt, "deus filius deus spiritus sanctus deus." Igitur pater filius spiritus sanctus unus non tres dii. 10 Cuius coniunctionis ratio est indifferentia. Eos enini differentia comitatur qui uel augent uel minuunt, ut Arriani qui gradibus meritorum trinitatem uariantes distrahunt atque in pluralitatem diducunt. Principium enim pluralitatis alteritas est ; praeter alteritatem 15 enim nee pluralitas quid sit intellegi potest. Trium namque rerum uel quotlibet turn genere turn specie turn numero diuersitas constat ; quotiens enim idem dicitur, totiens diuersum etiam praedicatur. Idem uero dicitur tribus modis : aut genere ut idem homo '20 quod equus, quia his idem genus ut animal ; uel specie ut idem Cato quod Cicero, quia eadem species ut homo ; uel numero ut Tullius et Cicero, quia unus est numero. Quare diuersum etiam uel genere uel specie uel numero dicitur. Sed numero differentiam 25 accidentium uarietas facit. Nam tres homines neque genere neque specie sed suis accideiitibus distant ; nam uel si ammo cuncta ab his accidentia separemus, tamen locus cunctis diuersus est quern unum fingere nullo modo possumus ; duo enim corpora unum locum 30 non obtinebunt, qui est accidens. Atque ideo sunt numero plures, quoniam accidentibus plures fiunt. " The terras differentia, numerus, species, are used expertly, as would be expected of the author of the In Isag. Porph. Commenta. See S. Brandt's edition of that work (in the Vienna Corpus, 1906), s.v. differentia, etc.…