Conceiving the Boethius Institute

by Dr. Andrew Seeley, President and Co-Founder of the Boethius Institute

Following Providence is not easy. Boethius, the 6th century statesman/philosopher/theologian/poet/liberal-artist-extraordinaire, was bitterly convinced by his imprisonment for the sake of righteousness that the “Love by which heaven is ruled” did not rule human affairs. But ruminating over the Philosophy which had led him to serve the conquered Roman empire, he gradually realized how wrong he had been, and he came to believe firmly what St. Paul had written to Romans 5 centuries earlier: ”In everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”

This Institute has come to be in circumstances that bear a faint resemblance to those of Boethius. About this time last year, my wife and I determined that we were being called to leave for a time the wonderful haven of Thomas Aquinas College in California, our home for 30 years, in order to serve more fully the renewal of liberal education that is coming of age today. I had worked in the field for over 15 years as co-founder of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, but the demands of the work had exceeded my ability to keep up with them as a volunteer. 

We decided to accept the risks of leaving a secure and comfortable position to set out into new territory. I looked forward to working closely with my long-time friend and collaborator, Jeff Lehman, as Executive Director of the Arts of Liberty Project, which he had founded years before when he was a fellow Tutor at Thomas Aquinas.  

Last fall came a time when we had to question whether we had rightly discerned the call, when our beginning efforts were crashing down around us. Providentially, at this time I was preparing  paper on Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, for a colloquium of Fellows of the Center for Thomas More Studies at the University of Dallas. I had led discussions on the Consolation on a number of occasions, but I had never taken the time to study it carefully. Boethius’s presentation of Lady Philosophy as the physician of the soul working under the Great Physician deeply impressed me. I saw more clearly how, in the early dawning of Christendom, he planted the seeds for a positive acceptance of ancient learning, seeds which blossomed and bore great fruit in the works of thinkers such as St. Thomas Aquinas.

I believe now that God took away the easier path from us so that we might try something more difficult but with more promise. Inspired by the work of the Arts of Liberty Project and by the experience of fellowship developed by Gerry Wegemer at CTMS, we became determined to found an independent institute for the serious study and promotion of the liberal arts as propaedeutic to wisdom. We have taken Boethius as our patron, who dedicated his life to presenting ancient learning as a light to a darkening civilization. We trust in Providence to bring this work to fruition, according to the Love by which He rules the world.