Part One: Faith

Chapter One: Elementary My Dear

1.4 The Word

I feel it is important to focus at this point on the role of language in our ability to conceptualize spirit. It was Language that broke the isolation barrier and allowed us to communicate abstract thoughts with one another in a way that was truly novel. More than just communicating needs and warning of danger, man could now redefine, as it were, his own reality. It was language that, I propose, allowed us to be “in our image, after our likeness” and placed firmly " over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth"¹. (We will look more at language shortly; it's development, physical requirements, and a brief discussion on epistemology².) It allowed information to be passed on from one generation to the next so that knowledge became cumulative. So as methods of tool making, burials, and agriculture were becoming increasingly complex, so were our conceptions of the spirit.

As we consider the almost mystical quality of this single most defining ability (language), it is hard not to be struck by the intense irony of the biblical passage: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."³  How clearly this reveals our early awareness of the awesome power of the spoken word. (I also find it interesting to note that the "W" in "Word" is also capitalized; a grammatical rule usually reserved for deity. It would be interesting to discover whether the original Hebrew or Arabic texts also indicated a deification of the "Word", or was it purely the influence of the later Christians who, under the patronage of King James, translated the documents into English. (an interesting project for the “spirited” student of theology, but I am easily sidetracked as it is to get lost in investigating this issue at this time. Perhaps in revised editions I will provide an answer to my own question...) It was the Word that gave us the power to define spirit, and (I believe) later to define God; the One True Spirit.

For the early Judaic traditions it was God's utterances, his divine pronouncements, that brought fourth the creation itself.  The Word of God or the Logos 

#1 King James Bible: Genesis 1:26   [Back to Text]

#2 epistemology: (Amer. Her. 3rd Ed.) n. The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity. [fr greek: knowledge; to understand] [Back to Text]

#3 King James Bible: John 1:1  [Back to Text]

#4 Logos: (Amer. Her. 3rd Ed.)  n. 1. Philosophy.  a. in pre-Socratic philosophy, the principle governing the cosmos, the source of this principle, or human reasoning about the cosmos.  2. Among the Sophists, the topics of rational argument or the arguments themselves. 3. In Stoicism, the active, material, rational principle of the cosmos; nous. Identified with God, it is the source of all activity and generation and is the power of reason residing in the human soul.  2. Judaism.  a. In biblical Judaism, the word of God, which itself has creative power and is God's medium of communication with the human race.  2. In Hellenistic Judaism, a hypostasis associated with divine wisdom.  3. Theology.  In Saint John's Gospel, especially in the prologue (1:1-14), the creative word of God, which is itself God and incarnate in Jesus. In this sense, also called Word.  [Back to Text]