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THE DOCTRINE OF LOGOS IN ITS HISTORY

Introduction

The concept of the Logos is connected with Greek philosophy, in which it originated, and with Christian theology, in which it was established. How Christianity has adopted this concept to express its religious idea, and how far it actually corresponds to it, is a historical and philosophical question of the greatest importance to which the present study is devoted. The Greek Enlightenment and Christianity lie at the foundation of all European civilization; What is the inner relationship of these two principles?

In our days, in modern Protestant historiography, one constantly encounters the opinion that early Christian theology, with its teaching on the Logos, is a product of the Hellenization of Christianity, its obscuration by the pagan element, the product of a kind of Greek Orthodox Gnosticism. This opinion is expressed in connection with the negative attitude towards Greek philosophy, in connection with the negative attitude towards speculation in general. And it is expressed in connection with the latest anti-dogmatic view of Christianity, according to which it is a moral teaching par excellence, and the gospel of Christ is only the gospel of perfect morality, embracing man's relationship to God and neighbor.

Is this understanding of Christianity correct? It seems to us that a historical study of the idea of the Logos, which already penetrates into the first and purest expression of Christianity, the New Testament, will help us to illuminate this question. And further, is the negative attitude towards Greek philosophy, towards speculation in general, just? It may be remarked that this is already a question of valuation, which cannot be solved by purely historical research, but must be the subject of an independent

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philosophical discussion. But, as we think, only historical research can provide material and a basis for a correct philosophical assessment. The idea of the Logos, the universal, divine Mind, originated in Greek philosophy.

We must first consider the idea of the Logos in its origin in connection with the development of Greek speculation, and then those most important facts that served as the basis for the Christian teaching about the Logos, i.e., the general history of the Word of God, the history of God-consciousness in the Old and New Testaments. This is our task. But at the same time, in order to carry it out with due care and completeness, in order to understand the Christian idea and Christian teaching in all their originality, in all their differences both from Greek ideas and from national Jewish beliefs and aspirations, we must, first, examine the beginnings of theological thought in the religious philosophy of the Greco-Roman period, especially in the teaching of Philo of Alexandria. who so influenced subsequent patristics and was the first to try to introduce the idea of the Logos into the interpretation of the Old Testament; and secondly, before passing from the Old Testament to the New, we must examine the religious atmosphere of Jewry in the time of the Saviour, examine the messianic aspirations of Jewish apocalypticism and the real beginnings of Gnosticism that we find in it.

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The negative attitude towards speculation, which has replaced the extreme enthusiasm for the abstract philosophy of the first half of our century, is beginning to give way to critical study. But still, in general,