Light - the stuff of creation

            In my life's work and studies, no one thing has dominated more or prefigured my purpose and intent, than the simple but incomprehensibly vast subject of LIGHT. Light powers our planet, invigorates our bodies, illuminates our environment and our understanding, restores our psyche and our soul. Light is both physical and spiritual at the same time. Without it there is no life. It was here from the beginning and will be irreplaceable til the end of time. For the bible in its opening statement clearly establishes its preeminence:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.      _Genesis 1:1-5 (HCSV) 

Although we see the world physically with light we also apprehend truth by it and we know the difference between good and evil by exposing our works to it. As Francis Bacon put it:

“The first creation of God, in the works of the days was the light of sense; the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of the spirit.”

Centuries before Einstein ascertained Light's inextricable link to matter, Robert Grossteste, 13th century theologian and philosopher expounded on their interconnectedness…

“The first corporeal form which some call corporeity is in my opinion Light.”                                                 - From De Luce, by Robert Grossteste  1235 AD

The architect who would be successful must study this critical design element incessently. One of my heroes and guides, Louis Kahn said in an interview in Time Magazine, Jan. 15, 1973…

"We are actually born out of light, you might say. I believe light is the maker of all material. Material is spent light."                                                                      _Louis Kahn

As I noted earlier, Einstein was the scientist who understood light perhaps more than anyone after winning the Nobel Prize for his paper on the Photo Electric effect in 1907 and in the same year published his general theory of Relativity establishing the interwoven relationship of light, matter, energy and time – i.e. the elegant and simple formula “E=MC^2.” It was years later that he finally lamented:

“All the fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no closer to the answer to the question, ‘what are light quanta?’ Of course today every rascal thinks he knows the answer, but he is deluding himself.             - Albert Einstein, 1951

Our ability to consciously apprehend the divine attributes of God cannot fully be expressed without referring to Light. Plato said it most succinctly when he said:

                                               “Light is the shadow of God.”

Then there was Milton who proclaimed:

“Hail! Holy light, offspring of heaven, first born.”

So what does all this mean to 21^st century man, who does not understand any better than Einstein, what is the substance and action of light or what we call electromagnetic energy? It is perhaps in the sacred text of scripture where light is most fully expounded upon and most completely elucidated. In the Hebrew text of the Tenakh - the Torah (teaching or law-the five books of Moses) the Nevi'im (prophets) and K'tuvim (writings) what most of us refer to as the Old Testament, there are eleven different terms used for light and each sheds a unique perspective on its understanding and application. Coincidentally, in the Greek text of the new testament writings, there are also eleven terms used to convey the different aspects of light. In a future post I will explore this a bit further and review all of them.