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| God as Architect/Geometer, from the frontispiece of French Codex Vindobonensis 2554, ca. 1250. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), the eponym of Thomism. Picture by Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Abstract Colorful Universe Wallpaper - TTdesign (Photo credit: tomt6788) |
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| English: Vishwakarma Community, Mumbai (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Science, and particularly geometry and astronomy, was linked
directly to the divine for most medieval scholars. Since God created the
universe after geometric and harmonic principles, to seek these principles was
therefore to seek and worship God.
The Great Architect of the Universe (also Grand Architect of the Universe or Supreme Architect of the Universe) is a conception of God
discussed by many Christian
theologians and apologists. As a designation
it is used within Freemasonry
to neutrally represent deity
(in whatever form, and by whatever name each member may individually believe
in). It is also a Rosicrucian
conception of God, as expressed by Max Heindel. The concept of
the demiurge as a grand
architect or a great architect also occurs in gnosticism and other
religious and philosophical systems.
The concept of God as the (Great) Architect of the
Universe has been employed many times in Christianity. An illustration of God
as the architect of the universe can be found in a Bible from the Middle Ages[1] and the comparison of God to an
architect has been used by Christian apologists and teachers.
Saint Thomas Aquinas said in
the Summa:
"God, Who is the first principle of all things, may be compared to things
created as the architect is to things designed
(ut artifex ad artificiata)."[2] Commentators have pointed out that
the assertion that the Grand Architect of the Universe is the Christian God
"is not evident on the basis of 'natural theology' alone but requires an
additional 'leap of faith' based on the revelation of the Bible".[3]
John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion
(1536), repeatedly calls the Christian God "the Architect of the
Universe", also referring to his works as "Architecture of the
Universe", and in his commentary on Psalm 19 refers to the Christian God as
the "Great Architect" or "Architect of the Universe".
Masonic historians
such as William Bissey,[4] Gary Leazer (quoting Coil's Masonic Encyclopaedia),[5] and S. Brent Morris,[6] assert that "the Masonic
abbreviation G.A.O.T.U., meaning the Great Architect of the Universe, continues
a long tradition of using an allegorical name for the Deity." They trace
how the name and the abbreviation entered Masonic tradition from the Book of Constitutions written in 1723 by
the Reverend James
Anderson. They also note that Anderson, a Calvinist minister, probably took
the term from Calvin's usage.
Christopher
Haffner's own explanation of how the Masonic concept of a Great Architect of
the Universe, as a placeholder for the Supreme Being of one's choice, is given
in Workman Unashamed:
“
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Now imagine me
standing in lodge with my head bowed in prayer between Brother Mohammed
Bokhary and Brother Arjun Melwani. To neither of them is the Great Architect
of the Universe perceived as the Holy Trinity. To Brother
Bokhary He has been revealed as Allah; to Brother
Melwani He is probably perceived as Vishnu. Since I believe that there is only one God, I
am confronted with three possibilities:
They
are praying to the devil whilst I am
praying to God;
They
are praying to nothing, as their Gods
do not exist;
They
are praying to the same God as I, yet
their understanding of His nature is partly incomplete (as indeed is mine — 1 Cor 13:12)
It is without
hesitation that I accept the third possibility..
|
”
|
—Christopher
Haffner, Workman Unashamed: The Testimony of a Christian Freemason, Lewis
Masonic, 1989, p.39
|
The Great Architect
may also be a metaphor alluding to the godhead potentiality of every
individual. "(God)... That invisible power which all know does exist, but
understood by many different names, such as God, Spirit, Supreme Being,
Intelligence, Mind, Energy, Nature and so forth." [7] In the Hermetic Tradition, each
and every person has the potential to become God, this idea or concept of God
is perceived as internal rather than external. The Great Architect is also an
allusion to the observer created universe. We create our own reality; hence we
are the architect. Another way would to be to say that the mind is the builder.
In Heindel's
exposition, the Great Architect of the Universe is the Supreme Being, who
proceeds from The Absolute, at the dawn of manifestation. For a detailed
discussion, see The
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.
The concept of the
Great Architect of the Universe occurs in gnosticism. The Demiurge is The Great
Architect of the Universe, the God of Old Testament, in opposition to Christ
and Sophia, messengers of Gnosis of the True God. For example: Gnostics such as
the Nasoræans believe the Pira Rabba is the source, origin, and container of
all things, which is filled by the Mânâ Rabbâ, the Great Spirit, from which
emanates the First Life. The First Life prays for companionship and progeny,
whereupon the Second Life, the Ultra Mkayyema or World-constituting Æon, the
Architect of the Universe, comes into being. From this architect come a number
of æons, who erect the
universe under the foremanship of the Mandâ d'Hayye or gnôsis zoês, the
Personified Knowledge of Life.[8]
James Hopwood Jeans,
in his book The Mysterious Universe,
also employs the concept of a Great Architect of the Universe, saying at one
point "Lapsing back again into the crudely anthropomorphic language we
have already used, we may say that we have already considered with disfavour
the possibility of the universe having been planned by a biologist or an
engineer; from the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of
the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician."[9][10] To that Jinarajadasa adds his
observation that the Great Architect is "also a Grand Geometrician. For in
some manner or other, whether obvious or hidden, there seems to be a geometric
basis to every object in the universe."[11]
The concept of the Demiurge as a benevolent great
architect or grand architect of matter occurs in the writings of Plato, including in the Timaeus.[citation needed]
Very helpful indeed ! !
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