Logos (5): The Incarnate Logos
MurrellB
The term "Cosmic Christ" is a theoretical concept of the Logos.
Historically it applied to a particular person, Jesus of
Nazareth, who some early Christian philosophers declared
the "Incarnation of the Logos." Hence the idea of the Cosmic
Christ began to take shape.
During the Fourth century c.e., Christian philosophers (while
evolving a Christology) pondered upon the ancient pagan
concept of the Logos. They began to apply the title of Logos
to Jesus. This was a profound development according to
the Yale church historian Jaroslav Pelikan:
"For by applying this title to Jesus, the Christian
philosophers...were trying to give an account of who he
was and what he had done, and were enabled to interpret
him as the divine clue to the structure of reality (metaphysics)
and, within metaphysics, to the riddle of being (ontology)--
in a word, as the Cosmic Christ."
[Jaroslav Pelikan, JESUS THROUGH THE CENTURIES, Yale
University Press, 1985, p. 59]
Also these early Christian thinkers looked at the Logos as
the Reason of the Universe, a Reason that structures it into
an orderly cosmos:
"God guides [the Universe] by the Logos, so that by the
direction, providence, and ordering of the Logos, the creation
may be illumined and enabled to abide always securely."
[Athanasius, AGAINST THE HEATHEN, p. 41]
The idea that Jesus as the Incarnate Logos had come to
*illuminate* creation is indeed fascinating!
By becoming incarnate in Jesus, the Logos had enabled human
beings to transcend themselves and, in a pregnant phrase
of the New Testament, "to become partakers in the divine
nature" [2 Pet. 1:4]. The Logos of God has become human,
"so that you might learn from a human being how a human
being may become divine."
[Clement of Alexandria, EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS, 1.8.4]
Indeed, the Logos was "the true light that enlightens
every man!" To quote: "As the Word of God, the Logos has
spoken in creation...in the life and teachings of Jesus. As
the Reason of God, the Logos made sense out of the maddness
of the world and the power of evil. As the structure of the
Cosmos, the Logos held forth the promise that there could
be a *system* and a connection between the disparate elements
of the Universe as it was experienced. As the Savior of the
Cosmos, the Logos had not snatched humanity out of the
goodness of the created order, but had transformed the
created order into a fit setting for a *transformed humanity.*"
[JESUS THROUGH THE CENTURIES, P. 69; and Gregory of Nyssa,
ON THE MAKING OF MAN, 22.5]
Thus pondering over the idea of the Christ as the Incarnate
Logos, perhaps St. Paul sums it up most magnificently:
"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all
Creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions
or principalities or authorities--all things were created
through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him
all things hold together." [Col. 1: 15-19]
Alas, this majestic concept of the Cosmic Christ has seemed
slowly lost to the Church and in particular to general Christianity.
But there was one small current of Christianity that kept alive
Christ, the Incarnate Logos: the great medieval mystic Meister
Eckhart.
Eckhart considered the Incarnate Logos to be the Christ. More
so, he believed that *all of existence* was an expression of
the Word of God. "All creatures are words of God. My mouth
expresses and reveals God but the existence of a stone does
the same and people often recognize more from actions
than from words."
[Matthew Fox, THE COMING OF THE COSMIC CHRIST, Harper & Row,
1988, p. 121]
Beyond this, Eckhart stresses that we have the responsibility
to help this Incarnate Logos, this Christ, to attain his full growth.
Matthew Fox, a priest and commentator of Eckhart, elaborates that
we are all called to "birth the Cosmic Christ in self and society."
[Ibid, p. 137]
Eckhart believed that the Christ, the Incarnate Logos, was the
"Word of God" calling us to be words of God." For him Christ
was the pattern which we were to follow. Fox considered that
this Word, this Logos, is a "power that has nothing at all in
common with anything else." And this power, this Logos, is
in the ground of all our minds. The Cosmic Christ is a blueprint!
[Matthew Fox (commentator), BREAKTHROUGH: MEISTER
ECKHART'S CREATION SPIRITUALITY IN NEW TRANSLATION,
Image Books, 1980, p. 47]
The Logos is the hidden illimination deep in the depths of
the Cosmos. And according to Fox's commentary, the
"making visible is the work of the Word, the work of
revelation." For us this revelation is a breakthrough. When
we finally discover the Logos dwelling within us, it is at
this point that we "not only give birth to the Son of God
but that we, in fact, are reborn as sons of God." Commenting
further, Fox stresses that "through our breakthrough we
learn not only that we are in God the Creator and in God
the Son but also that we are in God the Spirit."
[Ibid, pp. 307 & 310]
Through this breakthrough, too, Fox believes that in a sense
we are divinized--in that "God the Father actually bestows
upon us his own life and being and his Godhead in truth and
entirety."
[Ibid, p. 346]
For both Eckhart and Fox, it is the Logos who is the hidden
Ground of All Creation. It is the Cosmic Christ who is the
Living Word, the Incarnation of the Logos. It is all of
existence, too, which images the Word. The Word is in the
depths of All. The Word is within us. Upon hearing and
recognizing this Word, having this breakthrough, it is *we*
who further the Word as "words." It is *we* who will
sculpt our lives, who will sculpt our Universe, and thus
bring forth the Cosmic Christ unto completion.
"From eternity, in the beginning, he created me,
and for eternity I shall remain...
I am like a vine putting out graceful shoots,
my blossoms bear the fruit of glory and wealth...
[Sirach 24: 9, 17, 19-20]
But how can the Cosmic Christ be transformed into a *universal*
Logos concept, standing far and beyond particular religious
institutions and creeds? Matthew Fox returns to the Cosmic
Christ as Divine Wisdom calling all the children of God together"
"Come, children, drink of my waters which are all common
waters. They are free and available to all my children. Drink
of my wisdom from your own unique well."
[THE COMING OF THE COSMIC CHRIST, pp. 243-244]
Beatrix Murrell <> Murr...@aol.com
Stoa del Sol <> San Diego, CA