Sophiology (russian: Софиология, by detractors also called ''Sophianism''
or ''Sophism'' ) is a controversial school of thought in
Russian Orthodoxy which holds that Divine Wisdom (or Sophia) is to be identified with God's essence, and that the Divine Wisdom is in some way expressed in the world as 'creaturely' wisdom. This notion has often been understood or misunderstood (depending upon one's point of view) as introducing a feminine "fourth
hypostasis" into the
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
.
History
Antecedents
Personified representations of Holy Wisdom (Ἁγία Σοφία) or the "Wisdom of God" refer in
Orthodox theology to the person of
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, as illustrated in the Acts of the
Seventh Ecumenical Council
The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by the Old Catholics, the Anglican Communion, and ...
(Nicaea II, 787): "Our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, the self-existent Wisdom of God the Father, Who manifested Himself in the flesh, and by His great and divine dispensation (lit. economy) freed us from the snares of idolatry, clothing Himself in our nature, restored it through the cooperation of the Spirit, Who shares His mind…" More recently it has been stated that "From the most ancient times and onwards many Orthodox countries have been consecrating churches to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Wisdom of God."
Origin
Sophiology has its roots in the
early modern period, but as an explicit theological doctrine was first formulated during the 1890s to 1910s by
Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900),
Pavel Florensky
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (also P. A. Florenskiĭ, Florenskii, Florenskij; russian: Па́вел Алекса́ндрович Флоре́нский; hy, Պավել Ֆլորենսկի, Pavel Florenski; – December 8, 1937) was a Russian O ...
(1882–1937) and
Sergei Bulgakov
Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (; russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Булга́ков; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist.
Biography
Early life: 1871–1898
Sergei Nikolaevich B ...
(1871–1944).
Subsequent controversy
In 1935, parts of Sergius Bulgakov's doctrine of Sophia were condemned by the
Patriarch of Moscow
The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' (russian: Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, translit=Patriarkh Moskovskij i vseja Rusi), also known as the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, is the official title of the Bishop of Mo ...
and other Russian Orthodox
hierarchs
An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws.
Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ...
. Although Bulgakov was censured by the aforementioned hierarchs, a committee commissioned by Metropolitan Eulogius to critique Bulgakov's Sophiology found his system questionable, but not heretical, and issued no formal censure (save for a minority report written by two members of the committee,
Georges Florovsky
Georges Vasilievich Florovsky (Russian: Гео́ргий Васи́льевич Флоро́вский; – August 11, 1979) was a Russian Orthodox priest, theologian, and historian.
Born in the Russian Empire, he spent his working life in Pari ...
and
Sergei Ivanovich Chetverikov). For Bulgakov, Theotokos St. Mary was the
world soul and the “Pneumatophoric hypostasis”, a Bulgakov neologism.
Thomas Merton studied the Russian Sophiologists and praised Sophia in his poem titled "Hagia Sophia" (1963). The Roman Catholic
Valentin Tomberg in his magnum opus ''
Meditations on the Tarot'' incorporated many Sophiological insights into his Christian Hermeticism, pairing the Holy Trinity (Father-Son-Holy Spirit) with the Trino-Sophia (Mother-Daughter-Holy Soul), which together he called “The Luminous Holy Trinity”. The book’s 2020 Angelico Press edition includes an introduction written by
Robert Spaemann, a favorite theologian of
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
, while its other editions feature an Afterword by
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905 – 26 June 1988) was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century. He was announced as his choice to become a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, b ...
.
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
elevated von Balthasar to cardinal after having von Balthasar had endorsed this book and the pope himself photographed with Tomberg’s book on his desk and said by Richard Payne, the original English publisher, to have kept a copy on his nightstand.
Johnson
Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...
(1993) and Meehan (1996) noted parallels between the Russian "sophiological" controversy and the
Gender of God
The gender of God can be viewed as a literal or as an allegorical aspect of a deity.
In polytheistic religions, gods often have genders which would enable them to sexually interact with each other, and even with humans.
Abrahamic religions w ...
debate in western
feminist theology
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those reli ...
.
[Elizabeth Johnson, ''She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse'' (1993)
Meehan, Brenda, "Wisdom/Sophia, Russian identity, and Western feminist theology", '' Cross Currents'', 46(2), 1996, pp. 149–68.]
See also
*
Holy Wisdom (iconography)
*
*
*
*
Essence-energies distinction
*
Sophia (wisdom)
Sophia ( grc-koi, σοφία ''sophía'' "wisdom") is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism and Christian theology. Originally carrying a meaning of "cleverness, skill", the later meaning of the term, ...
*
Sophia (Gnosticism)
Sophia ( grc-koi, Σοφíα "Wisdom", cop, ⲧⲥⲟⲫⲓⲁ "the Sophia") is a major theme, along with Knowledge ( ''gnosis'', Coptic ), among many of the early Christian knowledge-theologies grouped by the heresiologist Irenaeus as (), ‘kn ...
References
Sources
*
Sergei Bulgakov
Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (; russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Булга́ков; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist.
Biography
Early life: 1871–1898
Sergei Nikolaevich B ...
, ''Sophia, the Wisdom of God: An Outline of Sophiology (Library of Russian Philosophy)'', Lindisfarne Books, 1993. (, )
* Oleg A. Donskikh, ‘Cultural roots of Russian Sophiology’, ''Sophia'', 34(2), 1995, pp38–57
* Hunt, Priscilla
"The Novgorod Sophia Icon and 'The Problem of Old Russian Culture' Between Orthodoxy and Sophiology" ''Symposion: A Journal of Russian Thought'', vol. 4–5, (2000), 1–41.
* Michael Martin,''The Submerged Reality: Sophiology and the Turn to a Poetic Metaphysics.'' (Kettering, OH: Angelico Press, 2015)
* Brenda Meehan, ‘Wisdom/Sophia, Russian identity, and Western feminist theology’, ''Cross Currents'', 46(2), 1996, pp149–168
* Thomas Schipflinger, ''Sophia-Maria'' (in German: 1988; English translation: York Beach, ME: Samuel Wiser, 1998)
* Mikhail Sergeev, ''Sophiology in Russian Orthodoxy: Solov’ev, Bulgakov, Losskii, Berdiaev'' (
Lewiston, New York
Lewiston is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named after Morgan Lewis, a governor of New York.
The Town of Lewiston is on the western bord ...
:
Edwin Mellen Press, 2007) and {{ISBN, 978-0-7734-5609-9, 248 page
External links
Lilianna Kiejzik on the emergence of the study of Sophia (Sophiology) in Russian philosophynbsp;– in Polish
Jonathan Seiling, ''Kant's Third Antinomy and Spinoza's Substance in the Sophiology of Florenskii and Bulgakov''nbsp;– Presented at Florensky conference in Moscow, September 2005
Alexis Klimoff, On the Sophiological Controversy of the 1930snbsp;– ROCOR Studies, March 25, 2017
Bibliographynbsp;– From Mikhail Sergeev, ''Sophiology in Russian Orthodoxy: Solov’ev, Bulgakov, Losskii and Berdiaev''.
Lewiston, New York
Lewiston is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named after Morgan Lewis, a governor of New York.
The Town of Lewiston is on the western bord ...
:
Edwin Mellen Press, 2006
Divine Wisdom articles compiled by Priscilla Hunt