The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1387 page)

(Gk., ‘word’ or ‘reason’). A term prominent especially in early Christian theology as a title or description of Christ. The Christian use depends on:

(i) the popular Stoic idea (going back to Heraclitus,
c.
500 BCE) of a universal reason governing and permeating the world; and
(ii) the Hebrew conception of God's word (as of his
wisdom
) as having an almost independent existence (e.g. Isaiah 55. 11). The prologue to the gospel of
John
(1. 1–18) identifies the Logos as incarnate in Jesus. To the
apologists
of the 2nd cent. the duality of the term was a welcome means of making
Christology
compatible with popular philosophy. Later on (e.g. by
Athanasius
), it was used to refer generally to the second person of the
Trinity

.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

see
JUSTIN MARTYR, ST
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Lo-han
.

Chin. term
(Jap.,
rakan
) for the Therav
din Buddhist
arhat
, though in Chinese Buddhism they have developed in the direction of minor deities, or (in the case of Ch’an) those who have obtained enlightenment by their effort. They resemble the
Hsien
, the mountain-dwelling, cloud-riding immortals of Taoism. Major cults and iconography developed.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Lo-han Kuei-ch’en
,
also known as Tits’ang
(Jap., Rakan Keijin or Jiz
;

c.
865–
c.
928 CE)
. Ch’an/Zen master, successor (
hassu
) of Hsuan-sha Shih-pei and teacher of
Fa-yen Wen-i
. He is particularly known for his exchanges (
mond
) with Fa-yen.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1857–1940).
French biblical scholar and RC
Modernist
. An enthusiastic exponent of the historico-critical study of the
Bible
, he was dismissed from the Institut Catholique in Paris in 1893. In 1902 he wrote
L’Évangile et l’Église
, a defence of Catholicism against A. von
Harnack
. He denied that Christ founded the Church and established
sacraments
; and he was sceptical about the possibility of recovering the words of Jesus, and about the traditional doctrines of the Church. His
Autour d’un petit livre
(1903) made his divergence from traditional Catholicism still clearer. Several of his books were put on the
Index
in 1903, and Loisy was
excommunicated
in 1908 after publishing a critique of
Lamentabili
. From 1909 to 1930 he was professor of the history of religions at the Collège de France.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search