{"id":40,"date":"2014-10-09T19:07:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T19:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boethius101.org\/?page_id=40"},"modified":"2014-12-13T20:40:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-13T20:40:34","slug":"how-does-god-govern-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/?page_id=40","title":{"rendered":"How does God govern the universe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So He orders all things for the good, inasmuch as He orders all things and He is good. \u00a0This is the tiller and the rudder by which the universe is preserved and kept safe. \u00a0<\/em>(III, xii, pg. 100)<\/em><\/p>\n

Previously, Boethius defined God as the being who keeps the universe from bursting apart despite its\u00a0conflicting elements.\u00a0As the being who governs all things, God has authority over the nature of all of creation. Boethius makes the argument that God governs the universe to be good, proposing that\u00a0God is the source of everything,\u00a0God is the\u00a0epitome and ultimate good, and everything is good.<\/p>\n

Everything is from God.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The first part of the argument maintains that God governs all things. \u00a0As happiness itself, God naturally possesses self-sufficiency from which\u00a0we can infer\u00a0that\u00a0He needs no outside help to govern the universe,\u00a0that\u00a0\u201cHe alone orders all things<\/em>\u201d (III, xii, pg. 100). \u00a0Everything on earth comes from God: human beings, animals, grass, water, etc.\u00a0\u00a0His argument completely nullifies the idea of Satan,\u00a0the supposed\u00a0force that brings evil into the world, therefore, evil is nonexistent. \u00a0Because God alone brought everything on the earth into being,\u00a0that which\u00a0He created is necessarily complementary to His own nature.<\/p>\n

God is the epitome of good, the ultimate good<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>As we have seen, God is the highest form, and consequently,\u00a0there is no better thing.\u00a0 As the highest form,\u00a0God must be the highest good.<\/p>\n

Everything is good<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0Since he believes that God is supremely good,\u00a0Boethius\u00a0suggests that God would not create anything to act against His own nature. \u00a0It is natural to order things in accordance with one’s own nature; in relation to God, the epitome of good, all things must be good,\u00a0“so there is nothing that, in the effort to remain true to its nature, would want to try to oppose God<\/em>\u201d (III, xii, pg. 101). \u00a0God created human beings, for example, to be good by nature just as He is good. \u00a0Not only is it God\u2019s will that humans do good and be good, but it is also in the nature of human beings, making the submission to God\u2019s will an entirely voluntary act.<\/p>\n

The logical progression of ideas that Boethius presents in his argument suggests the innate goodness of all things and the complete absence of evil.\u00a0\u00a0As a result, everything that happens on this earth is for good.<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

We can conclude from this section of Boethius that everything is good,\u00a0a comforting thought considering the hardships that we all must face. \u00a0If God created everything, all must\u00a0be good and therefore be for the best. \u00a0We cannot always understand this fact, as it is quite profound, but it is proof that we are not just here. \u00a0We were put on this earth by God to be good; however, this logic raises the question of why bad things happen, which can be answered in the next section.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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So He orders all things for the good, inasmuch as He orders all things and He is good. \u00a0This is the tiller and the rudder by which the universe is preserved and kept safe. \u00a0(III, xii, pg. 100) Previously, Boethius defined God as the being who keeps the universe from bursting apart despite its\u00a0conflicting elements.\u00a0As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-40","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","no-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boethius101.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}