In Book V of The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius is concerned about the relationship between foreknowledge and free will. He says, “There seems to be a hopeless conflict between divine foreknowledge of all things and freedom of the human will. For if God sees everything in advance and cannot be deceived in any way, whatever his Providence foresees will happen, must happen” (104-05). Thus the initial problem is that whatever God foreknows is something that must happen, and whatever must happen does not happen freely; therefore if God foreknows everything we do, we never act freely.