(4) Solar Logos

As for Christianity, in due course it also fit into this Continuum
of the Logos. In his gospel, St. John the Evangelist at the very
outset connected Christ with the Logos--by noting that in the
beginning was the "Word." He was the Word of Light and Life!
Some interpreters believe that Christ was the living expression
of the Logos. Other scholars consider the "Word" as a mis-
translation for Logos, the Reason, the Plenum of the universe,
the Godhead that was from the Beginning, One in being with
the Father, begotten not made.

Also the Christian "Fathers," who were the philosophers of
Christology, declared Christ as the "Incarnation of the Logos."
These early Christian scholars were classically trained, hence
most were well aware of the ancient concepts of the Greek
philosophers. They saw the phenomenon of the Christ as
an extension of the Logos concept. In other words, the Logos
had become flesh.

In the gospels, too, the writers put it that Christ declared that he
was the "Light of the World." He had become the Illuminator.
Then there was the Transfiguration, when Christ and his garments
became as bright as the sun!

In Christian art Christ took on physical aspects of the Sol Invictus.
He was depicted with a halo or solar rays around his head. His
day of worship was on Sun Day, and his birthday revolved around
the birth day of the Sol Invictus Mithras. And the earliest
"Pantocrator," an artistic expression of Christ as the Lord, the
Logos, of the universe was discovered in an ancient Christian
monastery in Egypt. The Pantocrator became a venerated figure
in Orthodox Christianity; and, eventually, it was followed as the
"Christ in Majesty" in the West.

At this point I felt that perhaps I might have come to the end of the
line when it came to this conceptual Continuum of the Solar
Logos. Over the centuries Christianity had cooled down, moving
into the Dark Ages, into strange medieval doctrines that bespoke
of the ignorance that prevailed during this historical period. I had
to wonder whether the Solar Logos had faded into oblivion within
the ranks of Christianity.

After a long hiatus, the Solar Logos jumped back *big time.* Of
all people, a Jesuit priest and scientist-paleontologist restored
the Pantocrator, the Lord of the universe, with his theory of the
"Cosmic Christ." A man of the 20th century, Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin linked the Cosmic Christ, the Alpha unto Omega, with
his sense of Cosmogenesis--which was his christianized theory
of Evolution.

Wow! I had to get into Teilhard's thought, though he was difficult
to read.

According to Teilhard, the universe is no longer to be considered
a static order, but rather a universe in process. And it is a
continuing, upslope trajectory of evolution that Teilhard declares
a cosmogenesis. The process of Teilhard's holistic cosmos
is broken into the following categories: the Without and Within
of things; the evolution of matter, life, consciousness; and
the Omega Point.

The world Without consists of inorganic and organic matter.
But there is a Within in the heart of things! Teilhard specifically
stresses that the Within is used to "denote the psychic fact of that
portion of the stuff of the cosmos enclosed from the beginning
of time within the narrow scope of the early earth." The exterior
world is lined with an interior one!

He links this Within with enfoldment. He notes that the very
individualization of the earth suggests that a "certain mass of
elementary consciousness was originally imprisoned in the
matter of the earth." Teilhard is alluding to a kind of embedded
cosmic intelligence or encoded information.

Teilhard's cosmogenesis involves an evolutionary process,
moving through stages that he identifies as the physical
biosphere and the mental noosphere. However, cosmic
evolution will not cease with the noosphere. Teilhard does not
consider the human species to be the epitome of the universe;
rather, he believes that Nature provides us with yet another
evolutionary opening...that of a "super-soul above our souls."

When I read Teilhard's mention of a "super-soul," I knew that
we were back on track when it comes to the Continuum of
the Solar Logos. Teilhard may have other names for the
Godhead, whether Omega, whether the Cosmic Christ, yet
they all add-up to the Logos!

As for Teilhard's "science," well maybe not correct these days.
Yet he tried to understand, and was regarded with respect--
except by his own church.

But my pilgrimage wasn't about religious institutions. I only
wanted to consider God, or the Logos, from a natural or cosmic
perspective. That seemed my calling when I was in the
grip of Jefferson's "Eye" back in the University of Virginia's
Rotunda.