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C. Hitchens As Windbag (II)

He pretends that the word Logos can mean either “the word” or “reason,” which it can in Greek but never does in the Bible, where it is presented as heavenly truth. ~Christopher Hitchens Which is more annoying: someone who doesn’t know enough history to comment intelligently on something, or an atheist telling Christians what the […]

He pretends that the word Logos can mean either “the word” or “reason,” which it can in Greek but never does in the Bible, where it is presented as heavenly truth. ~Christopher Hitchens

Which is more annoying: someone who doesn’t know enough history to comment intelligently on something, or an atheist telling Christians what the Bible “really” says?  It’s something of a toss-up.  I tend to lean towards the former, but both are pretty maddening. 

Of course Logos in the Bible can refer back to reason, and in the Gospel of St. John it refers back precisely to the Stoic universal logos that Hellenistic Judaism had taken up in the time of Philo of Alexandria and which the Johannine Gospel adopted for the famous Prologue.  The identification of universal Reason with God’s word (memra in Hebrew) had already taken place in the first century B.C.–if Hitchens doesn’t like it, he can take it up with the great Jewish philosopher.  There are undoubtedly plenty of places elsewhere in Scripture where logos refers back to God’s word where it means His commandment, but anyone with a rudimentary grasp on patristics would know that when Pope Benedict uses logos in this way he is drawing on the word-play that St. Gregory the Theologian used that incorporated all the different meanings of logos in his homilies and the tradition of Justin Martyr that interprets classical philosophy as a preparation for the Gentiles through the use of reason as a way of participating in Christ the Word.  Indeed, the very basis of Catholic ecumenical theology rests on the similar assumption that anything true or reasonable in other religions represents their participation in the Logos and therefore makes them worthy of a certain respect.  Hitchens probably does not know much of this, since he does not bother to acquaint himself with the finer points of doctrines that he finds inherently offensive and absurd, which is yet another reason why the man ought to remain quiet on topics such as these.

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