LOGOS (Greek X6Yoc, from arty, to speak), word, language, speech in general. Language being peculiar to man as a reason able being, and speech presupposing thought, logos signifies reason, the faculty of thinlcmg in general. Thus logos has the meaning both of thought and utterance. In Christian theol ogy this term, as used in certain passages of the Scriptures, has been the source of continual disputes ever since the 3d century of our era. The passage in the Bible which gives rise to this discussion is the opening of the Gospel of Saint John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and with out Him was not anything made that was made,' etc. In the Greek text the expression here translated "Word' is logos. What is here to be understood by logos, what is its essential character, whether it is a person of the Deity or not, the creative intellect of God, or the Son, through whom He created, or the divine truth which was to be revealed, etc., this is not the proper place to examine, nor will our limits permit us even to enumerate the different opin ions which have been entertained on this inter esting point of Christian metaphysics. We can refer the reader to no better source of informa tion than Neander's 'General History of Chris tianity and the Church.) The generally received doctrine of the logos makes it a person and not a mere name, and maintains that the Word is called God, not by catachresis but in the strict and rigorous mean ing of the term; that the most ancient Fathers of the Church always taught the divinity of the Word and that they derived the idea from the Holy Scriptures alone and not from the Platonic philosophy as many have asserted. On the contrary, it is held that the Hebrew con ception of the logos is of independent origin, though it was natural that in the New Testa ment the Greek word should be adopted to ex press it.
Some of the opinions of modern theolo gians on the meaning of the logos are as fol lows: It is necessary, some say, in order to understand the true meaning of logos, to begin with the examination of 'Wisdom (sophia), which wasprevously used to express the same notion. (Consult the hook of Proverbs, viii, 1, seq., and the book of Wisdom, vii, 22, seq.). The poetical author of the Proverbs does not imagine a person separate from God, but only an interior power of God, because in his time there could be no idea of a being pro ceeding from God, the Jews having borrowed this notion at a later period from the Oriental doctrine of emanations. The author of the book of Sirach (xxiv, 3) first uses "The Word' (logos) of God as equivalent to "Wis dom* (sophia), to signify the almighty power of God. The Word being an act of wisdom gave rise to the symbol. John speaks of the logos in the beginning of his Gospel only, and afterward uses the expression pnetursa tou theou. From his representation, the following positions have been deduced: the logos was (a) from the beginning of all things (comp. Proverbs viii, 22• Sirach xxiv, 9) ; (b) from the beginning with God (comp. Sir. i, 1; Wisd. Sol. x, 16; it, 14; Sir. xxiv, 12). Saint John, therefore says, those who thus interpret him had the same idea of the logos as the apoc ryphal writers; for the circumstance that the latter ascribe to the logos the creation of all things, while Saint John leaves this point unde cided in his en arch? in (in the beginning was), does not amount to a contradiction. Others, particularly the earlier commentators, under stand by logos the Deity himself, that is, the second person of the Deity (according to Saint John viii, 58). But those who adhere to the
former opinion maintain that this is in contra diction to John xiv, 28; xii, 49, 50; v, 19, 20; and that he understood by logos only a power of God, which was communicated to Jesus, on account of which he could claim divine attrib utes and yet call the Father, as the source of this power, greater than himself. Others, as Herder, Paulus, Eckermann, understand by logos the Word of God, which in the Old Tes tament, as the expression of the will of God, is the symbol of his creative power (Gen. i, et seq.). The later Jews represented the divine omnipotence by the Word of God. But it is maintained, on the other hand, from the man ner in which John speaks of the logos, that he understood by it not merely omnipotence, but the Omnipotent. Others following the Fathers of the Church, particularly Eusebius, under stand by logos an independent substance, ex ternal from God, like the nous (intellect) of Plato. But this again, it is said, involves an error, because Plato means by nous only a power of God. Still others, as Mosheim and Schlegel, declare with Irenmus the logos of Saint John to be identical with the logos of the Gnostics; but it is objected that John did not conceive of a plurality like that in the doc trine of eons. Lange considered logos equiva lent to the sophia of the Old Testament, and that to the logos of Philo, and as a distinct per son from God; but, say the others, sophia is not something distinct from God. Paulus, in his Commentary, also identifies the logos of Philo with that of Saint John. But it is said, on the other hand, that John cannot be sup posed to have been acquainted with Philo's notion, as it was not an opinion current at the time, and that the view of the apocryphal writers is more in harmony with his; moreover, that if Saint John means anything more than an original, external power in God, his ((was God) (Saint John i, 1) would imply dualism. Doderlein and Storr translated the word logos by doctrina, the abstract being put for the con crete, doctrine for teacher, as in Gen. xlii, 38; 2 Sam. xxii, 23; Luke iv, 36. According to others, ho logos means ho legomenos (the prom ised). The ancient philosophers often dis tinguish two to of an interior in God or man which merely thinks (logos endiathetos), and an exterior or uttered (logos prophorikos). Consult Aall, (Der Logos' (Leipzig 1896); Allen, A. V. G., 'Continuity of Christian Thought' (London 1907) ; Harnack, 'History of Dogma' (ib. 1894-99) ; Inge, W. R., in 'Dictionary of Religion and Ethics); and 'Personal Idealism and Mysticism' (ib. 1907) ; Mackintosh, 'The Doctrine of the Person of Christ' (London 1912).
LOGROgO, Spain, capital of the province of Logrofio, on the Ebro, 30 miles southeast of Vittoria. It is surrounded by ancient walls and ramparts, has a 12-arch bridge over the Ebro, erected in 1138, an arcaded street, an immense bull-ring seating 11,000 persons, and a very ancient church of Santa Maria de Palacio, dating according to tradition from the time of Constantinus Magnus. Lo grofio has a large wine trade. In pre-Roman times the district belonged to the Berones. From the Romans it received in succession the names of Juliobriga and Lucronius. In the 8th century it fell to the Moors, but they were soon driven out. In 1521 the city was besieged by the French unsuccessfully and from 1808 to 1813 French forces occupied it. The dumb painter, Juan Fernandez Navarrete, was born here in 1526. Pop. 23,900.