The Prisoner's Philosophy

“Going beyond the stance that the Consolation has merely some latent religious convictions, Relihan argues that Boethius is using the resources of Menippean satire to show the limits of pagan philosophy and the need to turn to prayer instead… The present volume is a masterful re-thinking of a classic text that rightfully has an honored place in the philosophical canon. Its thesis is carefully argued and richly deserves a scholarly hearing.” —Journal of the History of Philosophy

“Relihan develops the innovative interpretation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy that he previously advanced in his Ancient Menippean Satire and elsewhere. . . . Although Relihan's conclusions will be considered radical by many, he offers thoughtful approaches for examining some of the difficulties of the Consolation.” —Choice

“Relihan contends that the Consolation is a Menippean satire, which explains its failure in achieving its surface goals, and that the true intention of the work is to temper the arguments of philosophy with Christian sentiments, expressed in biblical allusions at crucial junctures, with liturgical language, and with an emotional and devotional stance.” —Research Book News

“. . . a detailed, comprehensive, yet approachable synthesis of the broader philosophical, literary, and historical sources and context of Boethius’s most well-known work. It argues that the Consolation belongs decisively to the genre of Menippean satire, a genre whose primary function, Relihan argues, is to uncover the limits of theoretical knowledge.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“Professor Relihan’s The Prisoner’s Philosophy: Life and Death in Boethius’s Consolation has two central theses. The first is that Boethius’s swan song is an important, coherent, complex, and misunderstood philosophical work. The second is that the Consolation is the work of a Christian philosopher, who writes as a Christian.” —American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

“Relihan’s book argues that the Consolation is Menippean satire, a parody of both philosophy and the form of consolation. There is much to admire in this complex and literarily sophisticated reading. The connections it makes—not just to Job but to Matthew’s gospel, to Plato’s Crito, to the book of Esther, and to the Odyssey—appreciably deepen our understanding of the Consolation.” —Religious Studies Review

“This text will become one of the most important critical sources for study on the Menippean problem. . . . Relihan makes an important and compelling argument for paying attention to the narrative of the Consolation. . . . Relihan does a valuable service to the reading and teaching of the Consolation. He brings a sense of excitement and even suspense to the text.” —Speculum

“Acknowledging that the Consolation of Philosophy is ‘over-familiar and under-read,’ Joel Relihan puts to the side old bromides about the work and instead pays careful attention to the narrative(s) Boethius constructs, grounding his readings in the contexts the work cultivates, especially its Menippean elements. The result is perhaps the first satisfying reading of the Consolation to be produced, a satisfaction felt also in the ways Relihan mirrors Boethius himself in the thoroughness of his scholarship and the elegance of his exposition. No one who studies Boethius will be able to ignore this book.“ —Joseph Pucci, Brown University

"Anyone who has been fascinated, intrigued, or perhaps puzzled by the meaning, structure or argument of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy will find Joel Relihan's new book, The Prisoner's Philosophy: Life and Death in Boethius' Consolation, a welcome addition to the study of this core text of the early medieval world whose influence extends to the present time. Relihan lays out his thesis with scholarly rigor and insight as he argues that the Consolation is a Christian work written to expose the limitations of pagan philosophy but that it is also to be read in the context of the literary genre of the Menippean satire. In other words, the Consolation is philosophic even as it is ironic, erudite even as it is playful. Relihan's study is a tour de force that belongs in the library of all those who appreciate Boethius' depth and subtlety. Fortune's wheel has indeed turned in the favor of those who wish to explore with Relihan the intricacies and brilliance of the Consolation." —Fr. John Fortin, O.S.B., Saint Anselm College

“The Prisoner’s Philosophy is an excellent work both of scholarship and of communication in support of a provocative thesis. Relihan and Heise present the Consolation as a new beginning for philosophy within a Christian context—a beginning only rarely appreciated since it enlists philosophy in aid of human affairs and resists the lure of an other worldly escape. Boethius not only despoiled Cynics, Satirists and Neoplatonists of their gold, but also crafted out of it a new Christian realism. Through a close reading of the text and of its reception, Relihan and Heise attend to the challenge that Boethius’ Christian vision and literary genius posed to rationalist conceptions throughout the Middle Ages.” —Paul LaChance, College of Saint Elizabeth