The doctrine of St. Ambrose of Milan on Logos as creative Wisdom and power in the context of ancient and patristic cosmology

The article deals with the doctrine of St. Ambrose of Milan on Logos as creative Wisdom and Power in the context of ancient and Patristic cosmology. It demonstrates that, according to St. Ambrose’s Hexaemeron , the world was not just created “out of nothing” by the omnipotent will of God, but was created “in the Beginning” - that is, in the Son-Christ, who, like God the Father, is considered as “the Beginning of all things”. The author analyzes a classification of the different names of the Son proposed by Origen and St. Ambrose; special emphasis is placed on such key names as “Wisdom”, “Logos” and “Power”, by means of which various cosmological roles or functions of the Logos are reconsidered. Many specific texts show that it is the Son, as the omnipotent Power of God, who created the world out of nothing; as the eternal and omniscient Wisdom of God, He contains the principles and causes of all visible and invisible creatures, endowing each thing with its essence and qualities; as the substantial Word of God, He is present everywhere, divides and distributes all the elements and parts of the world and penetrates everything; finally, He is also the principle of universal connection and harmony of the different parts of the spiritual and material world, governing, preserving and supporting all things in their being. It has been demonstrated that St. Ambrose’s doctrine on the Divine Word closely depends on the previous ancient philosophical and patristic tradition, first of all, on the Stoic concept of the Logos-pneuma as the creative Principle of the world - a concept known to Ambrose in platonized form through Philo of Alexandria and Origen, and also, partly, through St. Athanasius the Great and St. Basil the Great. Nevertheless, unlike Philo, Origen and the Arians, St. Ambrose does not consider the Logos as a kind of instrument in creating the world or as an intermediary between God and the world, subordinated to God and possessing a kind of middle nature. In accordance with the historical context of his time St Ambrose considered the Logos to be the true Son of God and true God, consubstantial with the Father; He is the Co- worker of the Father and the true Creator of the world, who created all things freely and consciously, in the same time being their King and Ruler. The author argues that, despite the dependence of St. Ambrose from the previous tradition, his doctrine remains quite original for his own times and precious for the later Christian tradition - not only Latin, but also Greek.