Fr Joseph Pallattil

Flavius Magnus Cassiodorus is a historian, statesman, and monk, has a distinctive role in the history of philosophy, not only for helping to save the culture of Rome at a time of awaiting barbarism but for preparing and bounding pagan thought with sacred and Christian wisdom. In this article, we discuss his philosophy of human being which is very well portrayed in his famous de anima, an exemplary work both stylistically and philosophically. This book has simplicity of language as well as clarity and order of ideas.

For the Greek philosophers, the soul is a simple substance, a natural species, distinct from the matter of its own body; but for Christian authors, it is a spiritual and individual substance created by God, capable of vivifying its own body; it is rational and immortal, although inclined to turn either to good or to evil. Cassiodorus highlighted the inadequacy of the pagan definition about the soul, rather upheld the validity of the Christian view. Based on the primary premise, that everything is created by God, Cassiodorus confronted with the utmost seriousness the four fundamental questions of the philosophy of human being.

1) What is the fundamental element of the soul? Cassiodorus’ answer is, “the souls have as their substance a certain light.” This was against some Greek and even some Christian thinkers, who stated that the soul is made up of fire. “The soul is a light because it is the image of God.” “The light of this substance is so penetrating that it even sees things that are absent.” 2) What is the nature of the soul? The soul has a spiritual nature. Cassiodorus uses a variety of arguments to prove soul’s spirituality such as the absence of dimensions (height, width, depth) and spiritual actions of the soul (abstraction, judgement, reasoning). He says, “If the soul were of a corporeal nature, then it would be absolutely incapable with its own thought to think or see spiritual realities.” 3) What is the relation between body and soul? “The body is ontologically extraneous to the soul but, as soon as soul is immersed in the body, it immediately loves its own prison in an ineffable way, it loves not beings free. In every part of the body, the soul is incorporeal in a substantial way.” Body is soul’s companion in the pilgrimage toward God and it is the instrument of soul’s salvation. 4) Fourth question is in relation to the immortality of the soul. In order to state the immortality of the soul, Cassiodorus points out the following concepts. The first one is the doctrine of Imago Dei (“how could the soul be the image and likeness of God if the soul of man ended in death?”). Another is the concept of retribution (the soul must be immortal because it has to receive reward or punishment at the time of judgement based on what it had done in its earthly life).