saint and scholar

usually when we think of "saint and scholar" we think of Thomas More.

But in my studies about history and the history of ideas, I found Boethius was influential for over a thousand years. Both King Alfred the great and Queen Elizabeth made translations of his "consolations of philosophy".

Yet it wasn't until later I found he was a saint. LINK

a lot of "secular" writes insist that his most famous work is that of a pagan, but they miss the point: That medieval scholarship did not see pagan philosophy as the enemy, but as something to be admired, and even as a precursor to Christian belief.

we see a similar argument against Tolkien's work, which incorportates a lot of "pagan" ideas and doesn't include much about God. Some books/articles even critique him as ignoring his christian beliefs.

Shippey's book on Tolkien notes his approach to evil is both Boethian ( that all things work for the good when seen through the eyes of eternity) yet also includes the idea that we are part of the fight against evil, and our choices matter quite a bit.

yet the background is Catholicism, that accepts all that is good in every belief system, not a narrowminded "you're wrong in some things so I won't admit you have some good ideas".

for a long discussion of Tolkien's works, LINK

for Boethius, check out the lectures at Kreeft's site, but I really don't remember which lectures he mentions the value of Boethius to open the eyes of our clueless modern students.