The video discusses the intricate theological concept found in the statement "In the beginning was the Word" from Christian doctrine. The speakers explore the religious and philosophical significance of 'Word' or 'logos', establishing it as a fundamental aspect of divine creation that isn't merely a sound but is intimately connected with God's own essence. This perspective aligns it with the foundational elements that bring order from chaos and embodies divine relationships and principles such as love and sacrifice.

Viewers might find it intriguing as it delves deeply into the nature of being and consciousness through a theological lens, comparing it with philosophical interpretations. The discussion extends to include Greek philosophy and the symbolic meanings of 'logos' and 'beginning', presenting the notion of ultimate reality as relational rather than substantive. This contrasts with nominalism and opens up new ways of understanding both theological text and existential concepts.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. logos [ˈloʊ.ɡɒs] - (n.) - A principle reason or divine wisdom that is often associated with the creation order and the divine reason implicit in the cosmos. - Synonyms: (reason, principle, word)

May I just add to that in terms of the text, there are two words here that are very difficult to translate into English. And one, of course, is logos, which can mean obviously word, proposition, meaning story.

2. imago [ɪˈmɑːɡoʊ] - (n.) - An image or representation of someone or something. - Synonyms: (image, likeness, representation)

The Father has an imago of himself that we call the Son.

3. trinitarian [ˌtrɪnɪˈtɛriən] - (adj.) - Relating to the doctrine of the Trinity, the three persons of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in Christianity. - Synonyms: (Triune, threefold, relating to a Trinity)

So we would see from the beginning this very text, there's a trinitarian overtone, but it's the word that in a way precedes the word of creation

4. primordial [praɪˈmɔːrdiəl] - (adj.) - Existing at or from the beginning of time; fundamental. - Synonyms: (primeval, ancient, primal)

And think about how profound that is to say that ultimate reality is inherently, ultimately relational, and that therefore our relationship to it has to be primordially a relational

5. sacrificial [ˌsækrɪˈfɪʃəl] - (adj.) - Related to the act of sacrifice, giving up something valuable for the sake of others. - Synonyms: (offering, self-denying, selfless)

And all that upward aim is sacrificial

6. interjection [ˌɪntərˈdʒɛkʃən] - (n.) - An abrupt remark, made especially as an aside or interruption. - Synonyms: (exclamation, burst, commentary)

So one way of looking at this is to say, well, in the Source there was the word. That is to say, the trinitarian reading, although that sounds like an absurd Christian interjection of a much later period, you could see that as making perfect sense with just these initial words.

7. nominalism [ˈnɑːmɪnəlɪzəm] - (n.) - The doctrine that universals or general ideas are mere names without corresponding reality. - Synonyms: (nondescript, nonfactual, particularism)

This is, of course, nominalism. All of that's in our head.

8. axiom [ˈæksɪəm] - (n.) - A statement or proposition which is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true. - Synonyms: (principle, rule, adage)

It seems to me that what John John is establishing a radically extending, a radically non materialist axiom.

9. intelligibility [ɪnˌtɛlɪdʒəˈbɪlɪti] - (n.) - The quality of being understandable or comprehensible. - Synonyms: (clarity, comprehensibility, lucidity)

You can't do science without these principles of intelligibility.

10. metaphysical [ˌmɛtəˈfɪzɪkəl] - (adj.) - Relating to metaphysics, the branch of philosophy concerned with the first principles of things. - Synonyms: (abstract, theoretical, philosophical)

And it's the metaphysics of this opening line.

What Is "The Word?" - The Gospels

Can somebody explain to me? Because I admit I've wrestled with this as long as I've studied Christianity. In the beginning was the Word. I've never fully understood that, especially if it hearkens back to Genesis. I don't have an issue with it. Please understand this is truly a question from ignorance. Is the Word when God said, let there be light, is that the word that's being referred to. To. Yes. The idea is to say, I think this is ultimately the Christian understanding, is to say that the God speaking is not created. When God speaks, it's not something else than him. It is in some ways separate from him, but also God. This is coming to love that Bishop Baron was going to talk about that God speaking is his own being, that is speaking into the world. And you would understand this in the Genesis context, is that there's an insistence on something like the primacy of the process that extracts the order that's good out of potential and chaos. And that's the Word. And the Christian insistence is that Christ embodies the pattern of loving sacrifice that characterizes that word.

And so that that idea is something like the foundation of existence itself is the spirit of loving sacrifice. And that's equivalent. It's the same thing as the Word that extracts the order that's good out of potential at the beginning of time. And one way of understanding that, more prosaically, I would say, is that imagine the order that you establish in your family, if that little microcosm of the walled garden, your family, to the degree that you embody the spirit of loving sacrifice as a father, then you'll create out of the potential that's your family relationships, the order that's good and it's sacrifice because, well, that's what you do on behalf of your children, right? You put them first. Not you. You certainly put them first before your whims. You put what's best for them before their whims too. And so there's an upward aim in that. And all that upward aim is sacrificial. And then. Well, then we get to the issue of what constitutes the ultimate sacrifice, which is partly what's explored in the Gospel accounts. It's obviously explored in Abraham because Abraham is called upon to make an ultimate sacrifice.

But this is an extension in a different direction. Christ is a master at using short, mysterious stories. They change the listener who takes them seriously. That you do not think could ever be virtuous. Well, let me show you. This is the person who is fulfilling the law and the prophets. I don't believe in that promise. I'll just be honest at this point. Then it hit me. I saw it. This Jew is very frightened of a post Christian society. The power of love. I don't want to be in a Hallmark card. I tell you, we've got our work cut out for us, gentlemen. I sure hope we're up to the task. One thing I would say in response to your question is the logos being talked about here is. Is the interior word of the Father. So the word of creation is more of a word that goes out, but within the Godhead itself, there's an interior word. The Father has an imago of himself that we call the Son. The Father and Son fall in love with each other. The mutual love is the Holy Spirit. So we would see from the beginning this very text, there's a trinitarian overtone, but it's the word that in a way precedes the word of creation. It's interior to God himself. So the word was God, as it says.

May I just add to that in terms of the text, there are two words here that are very difficult to translate into English. And one, of course, is logos, which can mean obviously word, proposition, meaning story. The resonance of that word is very rich. But also the word that's translated as beginning, the ache, because in the Greek philosophical tradition, that word is used for God. So, and there are reasons why this should be the case. But the ache is a term which has a very powerful theological meaning within the Greek philosophical tradition. It's the first principle. It's the source of all reality. So one way of looking at this is to say, well, in the Source there was the word. That is to say, the trinitarian reading, although that sounds like an absurd Christian interjection of a much later period, you could see that as making perfect sense with just these initial words. John?

Yeah, I want to pick up on the fact that there's actually, I call them the four Ls about God. There's love, agape, there's logos, there's light and life. And these are all the identity claims that are somehow circling. And I'd like to propose we slow down a little bit because the familiarity of those terms to us, I think, is masking something more profound going on here. And if we think about all of these, they're pointing. Well, to me, they're pointing to something very radical here. They're asking us to get out of a normal way in which we think about reality in terms of stable, substantial, independently existing objects. All of these are inherently relational realities. And think about how profound that is to say that ultimate reality is inherently, ultimately relational, and that therefore our relationship to it has to be primordially a relational. And this is very, very hard for our way of thinking because we have got into the mode and for all kinds of historical reasons, we don't need of thinking of that. What there really is are individual things. There's no relationality.

This is, of course, nominalism. All of that's in our head. And then that gives us a dualism because the mind has the patterns, the world. And there's something going on here in the. In this language. And I want to slow down a little bit and get at. Right. These terms are very familiar, and I think that's. I understand why they're there, but their familiarity is actually in some sense problematic because I think it's easy. Like, these are all nouns, and it's easy to think we're talking about four things. These are attempts to disclose. And all four of them, I feel they're playing off against each other. The relation between them is as important as any one of them. And all of them are playing off against each other and trying to call us into a new way of trying to relate to ultimate reality.

And so, like, when I try. And because Jesus makes these claims too, he talks about, I'm the light of the world, abundant life, like all of the. And this to me, if I could hear these words again, I could get to a place where I think the idea could have more real relevance to me. And so we live in metaphor. Metaphors aren't like, we've just begun. But I hope this, you know, this discourse isn't too hard. But I hope we understand it. I hope you see my point. I hope you get what I'm saying, like, try and say anything. Right. Metaphor is not an ornament. It is part of the fundamental grammar of our cognition. And these are more than metaphors. These are metaphors that are trying to transcend themselves, and they're trying to point. And I'd like to also, I mean, I'd like to try and make sure we're not only paying attention to the text, we're paying attention to what is the mental framing. I'm trying to use a very. That we're bringing to this text. I want this text to challenge me. And I assume that's what everybody is doing here. And so what is our stance, our orientation towards it, such that we can be appropriate to it, we can really listen to it very deeply?

It seems to me that what John John is establishing a radically extending, a radically non materialist axiom. He's trying to identify what the core phenomenon of being is. And it's in this story. It's not material, it's being itself. It's. It's very fundamentally associated, I think, with what modern people would call consciousness, which is a complete, opaque mystery in and of itself. Right. John is attempting to characterize the spirit of being itself. And he's making a claim. The claim is it's embodied in Christ. It's the same as the divine principle that generated order at the beginning of time. It's apprehensible, it's foundational, and it's also the fullest expression. This isn't directly in this text, but it emerges. It's the fullest expression of the tradition that's made manifest in the Old Testament and emerges out of our primordial stories and announces itself as the principle of being itself. And it seems to me irrefutable that the principle of sacrifice is the basis of sophisticated psychological integrity and community.

I just can't see how that cannot be true. And that's being pointed to here as well. sacrificial love. It's something like that, but for sure, the light, the life and the word, they are things that make other things exist in the sense that light is that which makes things seen, life is that which makes things move. And word is meaning that makes things happen. And so you can see that the analogies that John is putting together are there to say, like, if you don't understand what the word logos is, then light will bring you a little further. And if you don't know what light is, you know, then life will bring you a little further. And like you said, it's not that one of those is actually describing anything. It's that all of them playing with each other are pointing you to the mystery of the notion that there are. That there are invisible movers that make things move or make things happen, make things exist.

I think that's helpful. But what I'm saying, like, think about what we're saying here. Imagine going into a room of physicists and saying, ultimate reality is love, light, logos, life. Right? They're gonna look at you and they'll either. Well, that's very nice. It's a platitude. And they don't really believe it, right? But they actually get it. But that's the point I want to make. But these things are not. They're not out there metaphors. You can't do science without these principles of intelligibility. Right. They are. They're. They're. Right. And so I'm trying to wake us back up to. John's not making a scientific claim. I'm not saying that that's ridiculous. But he's not saying something that's irrelevant to the scientific worldview. He's making a meta. Scientific claim. Yes. Right. Thanks, James. Exactly.

And also this can be easily trivialized. That's my concern here. This can be. Oh, yes, that's very nice. Light. Yeah, light. Love. Oh, we like love, right? No, this. Like. Imagine. Imagine proposing that relationality is that from which things emerge rather than things are that from which relations emerge. Imagine that. Jump in. I completely agree with what you're saying. And you're very close to Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict xvi. He said trinitarian doctrine turned upside down the classical view and said, substance is primordial. Relationship is accidental, just the opposite. Ultimate reality relationship. Hence the importance of. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.

Then take the next step. Aquinas says this, that a creature is. He says, quaedam relatio. It's a kind of relationship to the Creator. It has to be. If it's coming into being every moment from nothing, the creature is a relationship. Then I'd link it to Jesus ethical teaching. Why do you love even your enemies? Because it's not so much substance against substance, but all of us are, whether we like it or not, connected to each other through God. So I think that's really an absolutely right intuition. And it's the metaphysics of this opening line. I think it dovetails too, in within space and time.

It's very interesting. Douglas, you said that the Word for beginning is God, right? And so this goes into John, you know, the discussion of, well, what is a cup? Right? A cup is. It's designed for a certain purpose. It is also the purpose. And the end of it is also what it's intended to be. And so there's a search in God was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That temporally this is that same fractal thing that's also being expanded across time and space, that the meaning is embedded in the object as it exists. What its use is and what its end is are all simultaneous.

PHILOSOPHY, INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, CHRISTIANITY, THEOLOGY, EXISTENCE, JORDAN B PETERSON