Philosophical theology of Boethius: the paradigm of identity

The article deals with philosophical theology of Boethius, which I characterize as a “paradigm of identity”. It is shown, in particular, that this paradigm goes back to Aristotle’s theory of simplicity of the Unmoved-mover, which presupposes the identity of essence and action in God. Through Plotinus, Marius Victorinus and St. Augustine this concept had a great influence on Boethius, but if St. Augustine develops the paradigm of identity within the framework of theology, Boethius returns to it ontological significance. On the one hand, development of the paradigm of identity allows Boethius to solve a set of theological and philosophical questions, among which the substantiation of monotheism with the assumption of the hypostatic non-identity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the context of the Arian crisis, this philosophical justification was very significant. On the other hand, this paradigm arise some theoretical differences between the western and eastern branches of Christianity, since the latter adheres to the directly opposite conceptual model, which can be called a “paradigm of difference”