Evil as Privation in Boethius and Tolkien’s Works

Few of us would turn to a man on death row for advice about how to live the good life. Still fewer would expect to find goodness by considering the nature of evil. Yet, in his Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius shows there is no better time to consider the end of a human life than when life nears its end, and it is only in comprehending the nature of evil that we can know the good we long to pursue. 

While awaiting execution, Boethius discovered the truest threat to our existence is not in those who can kill the body but not the soul. Rather, it is in abandoning the pursuit of good that we forsake our purpose and defect from existence itself, becoming hollow people who cannot truly create new being or existence. This is the privation theory of evil, which, through the influence of the Consolation upon the medieval world, gained the attention of a twentieth century medievalist: J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Origins of Privation Theory

Though the seeds of privation theory are seen in the work of Plato (427-348 B.C.), it was only with Plotinus (204/5-270 A.D.), regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism, that the theory came into full bloom. In his Enneads, Plotinus taught that “evil by definition is a falling short in good.” He believed all being emanates from the One, but since the One is the source of all goodness, it cannot be the formal cause of evil. “Evil then must be located in non-being, and must, so to speak, be its form, referring to the things that mingle with it, or have some community with it.”

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) was influenced by Neoplatonist thought, but as he incorporated Plotinus’ ideas about evil, he moved from a generic idea of the One to a specific notion of the Christian God in Trinity. As such, Augustine’s explication of privation theory aligns with the rest of his theology, defining evil not only as a lack of good but also as a misalignment of desires.

Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “I inquired what iniquity was, and ascertained it not to be a substance, but a perversion of the will, bent aside from You, O God, the Supreme Substance, towards these lower things”. He would favor this language of substance throughout that work. “So long, therefore, as [things] are, they are good; therefore whatsoever is, is good. That evil, then, which I sought whence it was, is not any substance; for were it a substance, it would be good.”

In The City of God, Augustine spoke less of evil in a bare metaphysical sense and more of an evil will. “For when the will abandons what is above itself, and turns to what is lower, it becomes evil—not because that is evil to which it turns, but because the turning itself is wicked.” Elsewhere in the same work, he wrote, “For defection from that which supremely is, to that which has less of being—this is to begin to have an evil will.” This sense of evil as a perversion or turning harmonizes with Plotinus’ notion of “falling short” of the good while also invoking something more specifically Christian: disloyalty to one’s Creator God.

Soon thereafter, Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite (late 5th-early 6th century A.D.) set forth his version of privation theory in the Divine Names.

“And if all things that have being come from the Good (for it is natural to the Good to produce and preserve the creatures, and natural to evil to corrupt and to destroy them) then nothing in the world cometh of evil. Then evil cannot even in any wise exist, if it act as evil upon itself. And unless it do so act, evil is not wholly evil, but hath some portion of the Good whereby it can exist at all.”

Therefore, the privation theory of evil teaches that, “Evil in itself hath neither being, goodness, productiveness, nor power of creating things which have being and goodness”. Similar to Augustine, Boethius sees disordered desires at the heart of evil: a turning toward that which is below a person rather than above. Share on X

Privation Theory in Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius encountered the privation theory of evil during his extensive studies. P.G. Walsh notes that, “The philosophical scene in Greece up to Boethius’ day was dominated by the new direction in Platonism initiated at Rome by Plotinus in the third century AD, and recorded and extended by his pupil Porphyry.” In his Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius explicated the theory in a way that proved influential throughout the medieval period. He brought it out of the exalted realm of philosophical debate into the harsh realities of human life, framing the conversation in light of his own imprisonment and impending death.

Early in the Consolation, Boethius places a question of Epicurus on Philosophy’s lips: “If God indeed does exist, what is the source of evil?” As usual, Philosophy provides the best answer to her own question. “Now it cannot be denied that the perfect good exists, and that it is, so to say, the source of all goods, for everything said to be imperfect is so described because it is less than perfect.” `

Here again, we see the language of falling short or having less of something. She asserts that “the highest God is totally full of the highest and perfect good,” but that this simplicity becomes fractured in humans. “What in nature is simple and undivided is split by human error, which diverts it from the true and perfect towards the false and imperfect.” Philosophy then concludes that evil is nothing.

“‘Now if someone has power over all things,’ she added, ‘there is nothing that he cannot do?’

‘Nothing at all,’ I said.

‘But God cannot commit evil, can he?’

‘Certainly not,’ I replied.

‘And so evil is a nothing, for there is nothing that he cannot do, but he cannot commit evil.’”

If evil is nothingness in the Consolation, then to be good is to be virtuous. “Now the highest good is the aim of good and evil men alike, but good men seek it by natural exercise of the virtues, whereas evil men try to acquire it through desires of one kind or another, and not through the natural faculty of attaining the good.” Similar to Augustine, Boethius sees disordered desires at the heart of evil: a turning toward that which is below a person rather than above. This is a rebellion against one’s own nature, as explained in a lengthy passage in the Consolation. 

“Do they abandon the good and turn to vice willfully and in full knowledge? If that is the case, they cease not just to be powerful, but to exist at all, for people who abandon the goal which all existing things have in common likewise cease to exist. This claim of ours may perhaps sound surprising to some, that wicked men, who form the majority of mankind, do not exist, but that is the actuality. I am not denying that evil men are evil, but I am claiming that in the pure and simple sense, they do not exist. You could say that a corpse is a dead man, but you could not call it a man pure and simple; in the same way, I grant that corrupt men are wicked, but I refuse to admit that they exist in an absolute sense. Whatever maintains its due order and preserves its nature, exists; if it abandons its nature, it ceases also to exist, for its existence is bound up in its nature.”

To cease pursuing the good is to abandon one’s nature. It is to reject the Creator God who is the source of being and goodness. Such a person is turned in on themselves, robbed of existence in a “pure and simple sense,” though not in an “absolute sense.” The good life is therefore found in remembering one’s telos, pursuing the good, and increasing in virtue. We cannot create goodness but can only receive it.

There is a warning in Tolkien’s depiction of evil: that any of us, when we turn away from the good, can become wraiths ourselves. Share on X

Privation Theory in Tolkien’s Legendarium

J.R.R. Tolkien’s connection with Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy came through his interest in the early development of the English language. King Alfred of England had produced his own translation of the Consolation into what we now call Old English, including original commentary. It was through studying this translation that Tolkien saw Boethius’ work in an Anglo-Saxon context.

As Tolkien pieced together his legendarium—the fictional saga consisting chiefly of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion—he was not just telling an entertaining story. Tolkien weaved elements of his theology into his fictional world, including the privation theory of evil he had received from Boethius and the rest of the Great Tradition. This connection is particularly noted by Tom Shippey in his book The Road to Middle-earth. Shippey writes of the privation theory of evil,

“Corollaries of this belief are that evil cannot itself create, that it was not in itself created (but sprang from a voluntary exercise of free will by Satan, Adam and Eve, to separate themselves from God), that it will in the long run be annulled or eliminated, as the Fall of Man was redressed by the Incarnation and death of Christ. Views like these are strongly present in The Lord of the Rings.”

In Tolkien’s legendarium, evil characters like Sauron or Morgoth cannot create entirely new things, but only twist and pervert those already in existence, mocking the true Creator’s intent. Thus, orcs were originally Elves who were kidnapped and tortured. Similarly, trolls are a mockery of Ents, the tree-like creatures who shepherd the forests. Tolkien often refers to the forces of evil as the Shadow, a significant term, as Shippey explains. 

“Shadows are the absence of light and so don’t exist in themselves, but they are still visible and palpable just as if they did. That is exactly Tolkien’s view of evil. Accordingly Mordor is ‘Black-Land’, ‘where the shadows lie’, or even more ominously ‘where the shadows are’ (my italics)”.

The metaphor of shadow captures the concept of evil as something that exists in a “pure and simple sense” but not an “absolute sense,” to borrow Boethius’ phrasing. This is particularly seen in Tolkien’s depiction of the Nazgûl, kings of men who by turning to evil enter the world of shadow. Their black cloaks take a shape as if they had bodies, but no visible forms lie beneath. Only when Frodo Baggins puts on the One Ring and sees into the shadow realm do the Nazgûl appear to have bodies. These Nazgûl are often called Ringwraiths, a term with origins in Old English.

The word wraith has a similar origin to the word writhe, creating an image of one who is twisted and turned in on themselves. Shippey observes that the Ringwraiths “are in origin ‘bent’ people, and people who have been bent, perhaps, into a perfect self-regarding ‘wreath’, ‘wraith’, or Ring.”  This echoes the sense of false creation as a perverting of being and turning away from existence, which though it may give the appearance of something substantial and good in truth leaves a person in a state of shadow.

There is a warning in Tolkien’s depiction of evil: that any of us, when we turn away from the good, can become wraiths ourselves. Shippey concludes, “Boethius, with his view that evil is above all an absence, and that the first victim of the evil person is himself…might also have noted Tolkien’s occasional suggestion of the ‘wraithing’ process starting even in the most well-intentioned characters”.

Whereas the good life is found in embracing the intent of the Creator, rebellion against that intent leaves us in misery despite the promise of freedom and power.When God draws us to himself, we participate in the life of the holy and undivided Trinity, and God works his virtue in us. Share on X

Toward the Good Life

For Boethius and Tolkien, there is no real difference between being, goodness, and existence. All proceed from the one who is self-existing, the Creator who himself is goodness. When we turn from our Creator, we reject our own nature and existence, becoming the spiritual equivalent of the undead of fiction. But when God draws us to himself, we participate in the life of the holy and undivided Trinity, and God works his virtue in us.

This does not mean we will never encounter evils in life. Suffering is certainly part of the Christian experience. But earthly comforts are no substitute for the eternal, and those who live in harmony with their Creator exist most fully, seeing with eyes of faith the goodness of God in the land of the living. The path to the good life goes directly through God himself.

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