“The Logos is the universal principle of the self-manifestation of God…”
The Logos is the universal principle of the self-manifestation of God to himself, in himself. That means that whenever God appears, either to himself or outside himself, it is the Logos that appears. The Logos is the first “work” or generation of God as Father.
God the Father is often called eternal mind (nous). The Father, being eternal mind, has the Logos within himself. This means that he has the power of self-manifestation within him. A human analogy would be the fact that there is no mental process going on in a human except in silent words. Likewise, the inner spiritual life of God includes the silent Word within him.
The Logos is a spiritual procession that goes out from God the Father to the created world. It’s the way that God the Father manifests himself to the created world. This procession does not produce separation. The Logos of God is not identical to God; it is the self-manifestation of God. It is like the rays from the sun; it is not the sun, yet it cannot be separated from the sun. If you separate the Logos from God, it becomes empty and without content. As St. Justin Martyr (AD 100–165) says, “The Logos is different from God according to number, but not according to concept.” He is God; he is not the God (the Father), but he is one with God in essence.
The Logos is the principle which gives order the created cosmos. The Logos is the dynamic principle, the providentially working power which directs the natural and moral laws of the universe. It is the natural law to which everything is subject, both matter and living beings.
In the Christian Bible, Logos means both word and reason. In the context of the Old Testament, you would best translate Logos (memra in Aramaic) as word. In New Testament (Greek) terms, you would translate Logos in the more personal sense of reason. This is reason not in the sense of rational, logical “reasoning”, but more in the sense of the meaningful structure of reality. The Logos is present in and permeates throughout all creation; it is ubiquitous in the universe and yet also contains it without being bounded by it.
First Thoughts 
#1 by Tim Mcmonigal on June 28, 2014 - 11:39 PM
Good teaching
Sent from my iPhone
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#2 by Mark Downham on August 21, 2016 - 9:29 AM
“The Logos is a spiritual procession that goes out from God the Father to the created world.”
This is a Platonic reading of John 1:1 – it is like Augustine stating the Holy Spirit is the Bond of Love between the Father and the Son.
The Logos is a spiritual procession deconstructs the Person of the Son and to call the Holy Spirit some form of Energetic Amatory Presence deconstructs His Person.
I realise you are not an Evangelical, but from an Evangelical Perspective the Divine Logs is the Incarnate Person of the Lord Jesus Christ which makes Him more than an energetic spiritual procession….
#3 by Dallas Wolf on August 21, 2016 - 5:42 PM
Indeed, I believe that the Eastern tradition has a much more robust theology of the Holy Trinity than Augustine and the subsequent Western Latin tradition. The concept of “person” (hypostasis) in the Trinity is foundational, especially that of the Son, going back to the Gospel of John, who says of the incarnation, “And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us…”
In the East, the Word (Logos) is not a book, but a Person, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. If I led anyone to think otherwise, the fault is mine! The over-emphasis on the Transcendence of God is a Western innovation. The East never went in that direction.