I surreptitiously stumbled across an author and a book that has become a nexus point in my spiritual life. The author is Dr. E. Michael Jones and the book is Logos Rising: A History of Ultimate Reality.
What I could find out about the book intrigued me and fortunately, since it would take a while for the book to arrive, I also found a two-part interview with Dr. Jones by Patrick Coffin, as part of his interview series from an orthodox Christian, albeit traditional Roman Catholic perspective. In Part One they examine the Greek word Logos, where it came from and what it means (so much more than our biblical rendering of Word – note I did not say meaning). Woven throughout is the counter argument to atheism that “something cannot from from nothing…nothing comes from nothing” and you can peal that back or as Dr. Jones notes the scholars of Hinduism have attempted to by having turtles all the way down. The problem is somewhere you have to arrive at an eternal something on which all else is built, which is what effectively becomes God. The ground or foundation of all that is. Dr. Jones also explores why the New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek philosophers, using the tools of their language to make the leap from myth to reason and how that prepared the ground for Logos, Jesus Christ, and the revelations of the New Testament.
In Part Two, they discus the first intersection of Christianity and Greek philosophy at the Areopagus in Athens, where in Acts 17 Paul fails, though he later succeeds in Corinth. The also discuss how both the Jews and Islam reject Logos and how that rejection forecasted what they have become. An import revelation to me what the discussion of the discovery of time, initially by St. Augustine in the 4th century. Dr. Jones certainly implies that one way history can be looked at is as the outworking of the rise and suppression of Logos as the underlying spiritual warfare that rages beneath the surface of our existence. Satan and the forces of evil trying to suppress it and God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rising it again to shed its light upon creation and mankind.
One important discussion looks at the difference between the truth of science and the lies of Science, Inc., which the forces of suppression use to claim superiority over religion in general and Christianity specifically.
In the end, according to Dr. Jones, what matters is Logos, its recovery to its proper place within Christianity and Western Christian Civilization so that its light and truth can dispel the lies that rail against it. For me, this was an “aha” moment, where a door opened to something I had never considered, the true meaning of Logos and how that expansive reality permeates not only my life but all of creation and every form of meaning. For me, from this moment on, John 1 will begin: “In the beginning was the LOGOS, and the LOGOS was with God, and the LOGOS was God.” Up until now I realized that I, like darkness, had not comprehended LOGOS at all and like a blinding, blazing light it has pierced my being and I will never be the same.
I am now on a journey, an adventure I invite you to join, to discover the true meaning of that singular word all that it encompasses. Thank you Dr. Jones. I am in your debt.
