The Conception of Logos in „Poimandres”

The problem of Logos constitutes one of the main motifs of the classical philosophical and theo-logical reflection at the beginning of our era. In the article the author discusses the meaning of Logos in the hermetic treatise „Poimandres”, and compares it with other presentations of this problem (above all in Christianity and Gnosticism). The operation of the hermetic Logos consists in giving sense to existence, thanks to which the world emerges out of chaos. Logos is continually present in the world and as such, it can also be experienced directly, and may therefore have a sensual character. The hermetic Logos has a paradoxical character: it remains concealed throughout the whole time, and at the same time, it is open; it is elusive and incarnate; it is an expression of transcendence and at the same time of immanence. Consequently, the process of getting to know the world, becomes the pro-cess of getting to know Logos, and ultimately – God himself. In Poimandres, all of these issues were described by means of a vivid language of myth. Whereas Gnostic Logos always remains beyond the world and beyond language, becoming revealed exclusively in the inner experience leading to the highest illumination. And it seems that from the point of view of the Christian interpretation of Logos, Poimandres did not play any major role in the classical times, in spite of the many convergences and similarities between the two conceptions. Yet at the threshold of modern times, the logos of this myth once again became an up-to-date interpretation of Logos and as such, it exerted an important influen-ce on the character of the entire European civilization.

The problem of Logos constitutes one of the main motifs of the classical philosophical and theo-logical reflection at the beginning of our era. In the article the author discusses the meaning of Logos in the hermetic treatise „Poimandres”, and compares it with other presentations of this problem (above all in Christianity and Gnosticism). The operation of the hermetic Logos consists in giving sense to existence, thanks to which the world emerges out of chaos. Logos is continually present in the world and as such, it can also be experienced directly, and may therefore have a sensual character. The hermetic Logos has a paradoxical character: it remains concealed throughout the whole time, and at the same time, it is open; it is elusive and incarnate; it is an expression of transcendence and at the same time of immanence. Consequently, the process of getting to know the world, becomes the pro-cess of getting to know Logos, and ultimately – God himself. In Poimandres, all of these issues were described by means of a vivid language of myth. Whereas Gnostic Logos always remains beyond the world and beyond language, becoming revealed exclusively in the inner experience leading to the highest illumination. And it seems that from the point of view of the Christian interpretation of Logos, Poimandres did not play any major role in the classical times, in spite of the many convergences and similarities between the two conceptions. Yet at the threshold of modern times, the logos of this myth once again became an up-to-date interpretation of Logos and as such, it exerted an important influen-ce on the character of the entire European civilization.