"God is Logic"

NOTICE:
This is an outdated and unofficial item. The article was released as a draft/preview to Captive to Reason. For the current and official version of the article, please download the book from the online library.

(The following is an edited email correspondence.)

I am trying to wade through your different books and documents, so please forgive me if I have (1) not gotten to this issue yet or (2) missed it altogether.

I am presently having a discussion about God and logic. One premise has been made that "God = logic" and "logic = God." From your viewpoint, is this a valid premise? Or is it better stated, "God is logical"?

To give a little context, we’re discussing the Trinity and how it is logical — the same for the hypostatic union of Christ.

One person has said, "I would disagree with the statement that God is logic. This is contrary to Biblical revelation. Logic has as its target a truth statement. It is important to recognize that logic is a tool, not truth."

Do you have any thoughts on the matter?

I do say something about this in my books, but I will give you a summary here.

There are different senses in which we may use the word "Logic," and when answering the question, we should specify the meaning.

It is wrong to flatly say that "God is Logic" is contrary to biblical revelation, because John 1:1 says that Christ is the "Logos," which is just as easily translated "Reason" or "Logic" as "Word." In fact, in the context of this verse, which presents Christ as the true "Logos" of Greek philosophy (the principle of rationality that structures, regulates, and upholds all things) — but in the correct and personified sense — it is probably preferable to translate it "Reason" or "Logic" rather than "Word."

Therefore, in this sense, it is true that "God is Logic." However, we are using the word in a personal or personified sense — or in the fullest sense. "Logic" (perhaps "Reason" is the better word) in this sense is a person, and includes intellectual content (all that God knows). The emphasis, then, is on the rationality of Christ the Logos — that all things are consistent in his mind and his works, that his wisdom and power structures, regulates, and upholds all things in accordance with his perfect rationality.

We more often use the word "logic" in a narrower sense — as in the "laws of logic." When we are using the word in this sense, then I would not say that "God is the laws of logic"; rather, the relation between the laws of logic and God is that these laws are descriptions of the way that God thinks and operates. When we are using the word in this sense, then "logic" is indeed void of content; however, they are not mere "tools" — when we think logically (in accordance with the laws of logic), we are not using mere "tools" of thought, as if they are detached and independent from the mind of God, but we are imitating the way God thinks and operates. To call the laws of logic mere tools might convey the idea that they are something that God has merely given or even invented for us to use (which would be false), instead of necessary rules of thought that we must follow in order to imitate God’s pattern of thinking and acting.

The above distinction between the personal and impersonal senses can be expressed simply by capitalizing the words "logic" and "reason" when we are using them in the personal sense. This is why I sometimes use the word "Reason" in my books and articles when referring to Christ the Logos.

Recommended:

Gordon Clark, The Johannine Logos