Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 3.djvu/43

. The revelation of this abyss of Being, of this hidden God, is defined as self-contemplation, reflection into self, concrete determination in general; self-contemplation begets, it is, in fact, the begetting of the Only-begotten; this represents the fact that the Eternal is in process of being comprehended, because here we get the length of determination.

This Second, Other-Being or object, determination, action in short as shown in self-determination, is the most general determination, as it appears in the form of the λόγος, the activity which determines itself after the manner of reason, known also as the Word. The Word is this simple self-expression which does not make any hard and fast distinction, and does not become a hard and fast distinction, but is taken in an immediate sense, and which being thus immediate is taken up into the inner life of the Eternal, and returns to its original source. It is further expressed by the word σοφία, Wisdom, the original Man in the absolute purity of his Being, something which actually exists, and is other than that first universality—in short, a particular something with a definite character. God is the Creator, and He is this in His specific character as the Logos, as the self-externalising, self-expressing Word, as the ὅρασις, the vision of God.

This Second came to be further defined as the archetype of Man, Adam Kadmon, the Only-begotten. This does not describe some accidental characteristic, but, on the contrary, eternal action, which is not confined simply to one time. In God there is only one birth, activity in the form of eternal activity, a characteristic which essentially belongs to the Universal itself.

Here we have the true differentiation or distinction which has reference to the quality of both, but this quality is only one and the same Substance, and the difference is accordingly merely superficial as yet even when defined as a person.

The essential point is that this σοφία, the