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Pneuma (πνευμα) is Greek for "breath", which metaphorically describes a non-material being or influence.
In Christian theology, pneumatology refers to the study of the Holy Spirit. In mainstream Christian doctrine, the Holy Spirit is the third person of God in the Trinity. Unitarian forms of Christianity deny that the Holy Spirit is personal, although holding that it may, in some sense, influence people.
Philo borrowed also Platonic elements in designating the Logos as the "idea of ideas" and the "archetypal idea" (De Migratione Abrahami, § 18 [i. 452]; De Specialibus Legibus, § 36 [ii. 333]). There are, in addition, Biblical elements: there are Biblical passages in which the word of YHWH is regarded as a power acting independently and existing by itself, as Isaiah lv. 11 (comp. Matthew 10:13; Proverbs 30:4); these ideas were further developed by later JudaismJudaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people and the first recorded monotheistic faith. The tenets and history of Judaism constitute the historical foundation of many other religions, including Christianity and Islam. Star of David, a common s in the doctrines of the Divine Word creating the world, the divine throne-chariot and its cherubA cherub ( Hebrew ; plural cherubim ) is an angelic creature mentioned several times in the Tanakh, or Old Testament, and in the Book of Revelation''. In medieval Catholic theology the Cherubim are one of the highest ranks in the hierarchy of angels, alon, the divine splendor and its shekinah, and the name of God as well as the names of the angels; and Philo borrowed from all these in elaborating his doctrine of the Logos.
Philo calls the Logos the "archangel of many names," "taxiarch" (corps-commander), the "name of God," also the "heavenly Adam" (comp. De Confusione Linguarum, § 11 [i. 411]), the "man, the word of the eternal God." The Logos is also designated as "high priest," in reference to the exalted position which the high priest occupied after the Exile as the real center of the Jewish state. The Logos, like the high priest, is the expiator of sins, and the mediator and advocate for men. From Alexandrian theology Philo borrowed the idea of wisdom as the mediator; he thereby somewhat confused his doctrine of the Logos, regarding wisdom as the higher principle from which the Logos proceeds, and again coordinating it with the latter.
Philo, in connecting his doctrine of the Logos with Scripture, first of all bases on GenesisThis article is about Genesis the first book of the Hebrew Bible. See Genesis (disambiguation) for other usages of the word. Genesis ( Greek: , having the meanings of "birth", "creation", "cause", "beginning", "source" and "origin"; translated from Hebrew 1:27 the relation of the Logos to God. He translates this passage as follows: "He made man after the image of God," concluding therefrom that an image of God existed. This image of God is the type for all other things (the "Archetypal Idea" of PlatoFor the computing technology, see PLATO System. Plato ( Greek: Platon (c. 427 BC c. 347 BC) was an immensely influential classical Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, writer, and founder of the Academy in Athens. Plato, who is be), a seal impressed upon things. The Logos is a kind of shadow cast by God, having the outlines but not the blinding light of the Divine Being.
The relation of the Logos to the divine powers, especially to the two fundamental powers, must now be examined. And here is found a twofold series of exegetic expositions. According to one, the Logos stands higher than the two powers; according to the other, it is in a way the product of the two powers; similarly it occasionally appears as the chief and leader of the innumerable powers proceeding from the primal powers, and again as the aggregate or product of them. In its relation to the world the Logos appears as the Universal substance on which all things depend; and from this point of view the mannaManna (sometimes mistakenly or archaically spelled mana is the name of the food miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of Exodus. Manna ceased to appear when the Israelites first harvested their crops in their new homeland. (as γενικώτατόν τι) becomes a symbol for it.
The Logos, however, is not only the archetype of things, but also the power that produces them, appearing as such especially under the name of the Logos τομεύς ("the divider"). It separates the individual beings of nature from one another according to their characteristics; but, on the other hand, it constitutes the bond connecting the individual creatures, uniting their spiritual and physical attributes. It may be said to have invested itself with the whole world as an indestructible garment. It appears as the director and shepherd of the things in the world in so far as they are in motion. The Logos has a special relation to man. It is the type; man is the copy. The similarity is found in the mind (νοῡς) of man.
For the shaping of his nous, man (earthly man) has the Logos (the "heavenly man") for a pattern. The latter officiates here also as "the divider" (τομεύς), separating and uniting. The Logos as "interpreter" announces God's designs to man, acting in this respect as prophet and priest. As the latter, he softens punishments by making the merciful power stronger than the punitive. The Logos has a special mystic influence upon the human soul, illuminating it and nourishing it with a higher spiritual food, like the manna, of which the smallest piece has the same vitality as the whole.
PNEUMATOLOGY--the science much needed for the 21 Century.
World Book Dictionary points out that PNEUMATOLOGY (study of spiritual, or self consciousness) was a branch of metaphysics widely studied in the 16th. Century, in connection with theology. At one time it was also linked to philosophy. Only much later, with the development of the natural sciences was it replaced by psychology (the study of animal consciousness).
PNEUMA is the Greek for 'spirit'--the human spirit. Contrast this with PSYCHE--animal consciousness, ANIMA, in Latin. The Latin translation of PNEUMA is SPIRITO. Both are related to air, or breath. Hence our word 'pneumatic'--air operated. Interestingly the Hebrew (RUAH), Aramaic (ROOKA) and Arabic (RUH) also refer to breath, air, wind and the like.
Check out the New Testament: In John 3:1 and following, Jesus refers to being "born again of the water (UDATOS, metaphor for the unconscious, whiich is "cleansed" by the washing of baptism) and the Spirit (PNEUMA, metaphor for the conscious). In John 4:24, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well, "PNEUMA O THEOS"--God is Spirit. Notice: It is not A spirit; it is Spirit. This seems to be saying, "God is in and through the very air we breathe". God is in every breath of life itself, not a separate being "out there". Because 'air' in Jesus' day was a metaphor for that which is immaterial, I suspect that were Jesus with us, in the flesh, today, he would use 'space' or 'vacuum'--immaterialities. When we study Spirit, we study God.
Recently (2004) I find it helpful to write the divine name in the same way used by Onthodox Jews: G-d--to indicate the ineffable nature of divine being. Another useful word I use is 'unitheism'--thinking of G-d as that which is total, universal, all encompassing being in which all things exist, and in which we live and move and have our being.
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