Reply to Smart 183was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it... The true light that enlightens every man was coming into
the world... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace
and truth... And from his fullness have we all received grace upon grace...
( John 1: 1–14)In the space of these few lines the evangelist informs the Greeks and the
Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria that what the philosophers have long
sought after – the logos, or true account of the nature of things – has been
with God from eternity and is that through which all things were made; and
that this very same creative principle (for some Jews the ‘ Wisdom of God’)
came into the world in the person of Jesus to be its teacher and saviour.^9 Thus
thelogos of philosophy and the Messiah of Judaism are identified: Christ (the
‘anointed one’)is the way, the truth and the life. To separate the philo-
sophical theology from the historical claim would diminish each; the text is at
once metaphysical and religious, a synthesis of reason, testimony and faith.
Consider also the following verses from a eucharistic hymn attributed
to St Thomas Aquinas and translated from the Latin by the Jesuit poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins. It begins in contemplation of the consecrated host.
According to Catholic teaching that which was a wafer of unleavened bread
becomes, in the offertory of the mass, the body of Christ.
Godhead here in hiding whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly, or there’s nothing true.^10Various features unite these two texts. First, what is believed of the con-
secrated host rests upon the words of scripture, both in the narratives of the
Last Supper and in statements ascribed to Jesus such as those given in a later
chapter of John: ‘Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this
bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the
world is my flesh’ ( John 6: 47–51). Second, both are testimonies of personal
and ecclesial belief: John and Aquinas write as individuals in union with
religious communities defined by a common history in faith. Third, recogniz-
ing the limitations of the literal, they both use analogical and metaphorical
language: the Word is life and is a truth-giving light; the Godhead is masked