jckstraw72,
I know my post comes too late for your paper, but I see several terms in these posts, and I just wanted to make a clarification.
We must distinguish between four different but related words;
Logos,
Logoi,
Logiki, and
Logismoi.
Logos, refers to the divine hypostasis of God the Son. When God the Father created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, (as we recite in the Creed), He created them through God the Logos/Son. In the Creed, we recite, "...Through Whom (Logos) all things were made."
Logoi, is a concept popularized by St. Maximos the Confessor (c 580 - 662). The
logoi are God's "thought-forms" or "thought-wills" for every created thing. That is, there is a
logos which is a "blueprint" for each created thing. The closest Western concept is that of the
exemplars. Both concepts were borrowed from Neo-platonism.
But in typical patristic fashion, St. Maximos altered the concept to fit it into a proper Orthodox worldview. In Orthodox theology we make a distinction between God's
essence and His
energies. Whenever created things interact with God--in the act of creation, miracles, conversion, salvation, and so on--they always interact with His energies, never His essence.
The
logoi are contained not in the essence, but in the energies, of God the Logos. They are willed by God into existence. They in turn become the designs from which created things derive their existence and purpose. The goal of all created things is to return to their
logoi, their true purpose. Man is the mediator between material creation and God. By his repentance, he conforms to the Logos/Son, and brings all material things to conformity with their
logoi, which are contained in the will/energy of the Logos.
Logiki, refers to our logical faculty, and our imagination.
Logismoi, refer to our thoughts.
There is an excellent article on the
logoi, with extended quotes from St. Maximus, here:
St. Maximus, Van Til, Aquinas, & Logos/logoi
