Logos

Full Title or Meme

The rational agent in creation of the reality. Or as the controlling principle in the universe.

• The Greek root work for logic, often translated as speech, word or reason. For example the Gospel of John starts, "In the beginning was the word (logos).,"
• Also confused with the plural of logo meaning word or sign representative of some real-world entity, from the same root.
• In Platonism logos was understood as a mediating principle between God and human beings and they viewed it as an agent in creation.
• Stoics considered logos as the intelligible structure immanent in nature or as the rational principle
• Justin Martyr combined the Platonic and Stoic understanding of logos with the Christian element noting its virtue of origin in God and its nature as the rational principle within God.

Greek Roots

• Logos as Rational Order

In ancient Greek thought—especially among Stoics and Heraclitus—the Logos was the rational principle that governs the universe. It was the logic behind natural laws, the symmetry of nature, and the intelligibility of the cosmos. In this view:

Logos is what gives structure to chaos. It binds opposites and explains why reality is ordered rather than arbitrary.

The Stoics even believed that to live virtuously was to live “according to the Logos”—to align one's life with the grain of the universe.

Order is the effect—Logos is the cause. Wherever we find harmony, rationality, or moral coherence, classical and Christian thinkers would say: that’s the fingerprint of the Logos.

Jewish Roots

In Hebrew thought, God’s “Word” (דָּבָר, davar) was not just speech—it was creative power. In Genesis, God speaks the world into existence. The Psalms and Wisdom literature often personify the Word or Wisdom of God as active agents in creation and revelation. John’s opening echoes Genesis 1:1 deliberately: “In the beginning…”