LOGOS as God’s rationality. Ancient Logos concepts. From Heraclitus to the Hymn of John the Evangelist
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/acr.5501Keywords:
Logos, Reason, Rationality, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Word, God, Philo of AlexandriaAbstract
The article describes the concept of the Logos in the understanding of divine rationality, the rationality of the world, about which ancient philosophers already wrote. The term Logos had many different meanings. Most often it meant word, reason, speech, but it also gained new meanings in Greek philosophy, and then in Judaic and Christian thought. The first to introduce the concept of the Logos into philosophy was Heraclitus of Ephesus. According to him, the Logos is the mind of the world, its law and the cosmic principle. The thought of Heraclitus was taken over by the Stoics who identified the Logos with God, with pneûma, poured out in the structures of reality. Logos in the understanding of the metaphysical principle, the principle that orders reality, was also present in eastern thought and appeared there under the concept of Tao and Brahman. The thought of the ancient Greek philosophers influenced Jewish thinkers, as exemplified by Philo of Alexandria. For Philo, the Logos are the mediator between God and the created world, the world-controlling director, an idea and a model for created reality. The concepts of the Logos were developed by Christian thought, which, referring to Greek thought, recognized Logos as a word, but emphasized that it is the incarnate Word of God and identified it with the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity of God. A specific concept of the Logos is revealed in the Prologue to the Gospel of John. The Logos is recognized there as God in whom all beings have a beginning.
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