Philosophical Writings

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

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as regards Christendom. Logos proceeds to Catholic and Religious philosophy which we will discuss under Logos in Religion.
Philosophical Writings
3. Logos in Religion:
I will now discuss Logos in Christian theology (with reference to West) and in Eastern Mysticism with reference to Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen etc. Let us see, first, Logos in Christianity.
3.1. In Christianity: In the Old Testament we come across a principle called the "Wisdom of God" active in the world. The idea, of the "world of God", equally active in the world, is also a very ancient Hebrew concept. We have already seen how Philo uses Logos as a synthesis between Judaism and Greek thought. In the Fourth Gospel as well as some other books of the New Testament, Logos is discussed with heavy influences from, yet not having the same exactly content as that of, Philo. In the Gospel, the Logos, which is the eternal God, took flesh and became man, in time. "The Logos is Jesus.... The intermediate Logos has been replaced by a Logos that is both God and man".36 While narrating the life of a person historically, John adopted the Philonic idea of Logos: "Its eternal existence, its relation to God, its creative, illuminative and redemptive activity" However, he also made some modifications. The profound modifications of Logos by John in Gospel are; (1) the Logos becomes fully personified, (2) the Spiritual life, resides in the Logos and is communicated by him to men, and (3) the idea of Logos as reason becomes subordinate to the idea of Logos as world, the expression of God's will and power, divine energy, life, love and light. It becomes very clear that the author assumes the familiarity of the idea of Logos in Christian theology and the world. Sufficient references are available to note that the early Christian writers held that Logos or Word emanated from "personified reason", and that the Logos was an emanation from "God, Reason and Truth". God produced his own nature a rational power. His agent in creation, who now became man in Jesus. With Titian, "The Logos is the beginning of the world, the reason that comes into being as the sharer of God's rational power." With