The Goddess is She who simply will not go away ... or perhaps She who will not be denied, and Patriarchal systems down through the ages either dismiss Her entirely or neatly package Her up and put Her to the side. Any thought on the Divine Feminine was just about occluded in the Christian West, whilst in the East, albeit just beyond Europe's borders, Sophiology emerged as a school in the theology of the Russian Orthodox Tradition. There Sophia (σοφία, lit. 'wisdom') is identified with the Divine essence, as spoken of in Proverbs 8:22 "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old".
The relation of Sophia to the Persons of the Holy Trinity has been presented as problematic. In some ways the biblical Sophia is synonymous with Logos, the Second Person, and in others with the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, critics have accused sophiologists of introducing a fourth, feminine, into or alongside the Trinity.
Sophiology emerges in the contemporary world in the works of Russian Orthodox theologians such as Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900), Pavel Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944).
This from He Who Is: A Study in Traditional Theism, (E. L. Mascall, Longmans, Green & Co, 1943, p. 112):
"For him (Bulgakov), the divine ousia and sophia are identical; sophia is the self-revelation of the Godhead and belongs to all three Persons of the Trinity. Sophianity ... is a general metaphysical and theological principle, which provides a particular understanding not only of the doctrine of God, but also of cosmology, anthropology, Christology, pneumatology, Mariology and ecclesiology.
"Bulgakov insists very strongly upon the distinction between God and the world, and upon the fact that the world is not necessary to God; 'The world as such maintains its existence and its identity, distinct from that of God... There is no such ontological necessity for the world as could constrain God himself to create it for the sake of his own development or fulfilment; such an idea would indeed be pure pantheism'. Distinction is made between the uncreated sophia, which is the locus of the divine prototypes of all possible creatures, and the creaturely sophia found in the actual world. "Here we have at once Sophia in both its aspects, divine and creaturely. Sophia unites God with the world as the one common principle, the divine ground of creaturely existence. Remaining one, it exists in two modes, eternal and temporal, divine and creaturely."
This from David Bentley Hart’s Foreword to Justification of the Good: (Vladimir Solovyov, Eerdmans, 2005, p. xxxix-xli)
"The figure of Sophia ... was most definitely not an occult, or pagan, or Gnostic goddess, nor was she a fugitive from some Chaldean mystery cult, nor was she a speculative perversion of the Christian doctrine of God. She was not a fourth hypostasis in the Godhead, nor a fallen fragment of God, nor a literal world-soul, nor an eternal hypostasis who became incarnate as the Mother of God, nor most certainly the 'feminine aspect of deity.' Solovyov possessed too refined a mind to fall prey to the lure of cultic mythologies or childish anthropomorphisms, despite his interest in Gnosticism (or at least in its special pathos); and all such characterizations of the figure of Sophia are the result of misreadings...
"Solovyov’s Sophia stands in the interval between God and world, as an emblem of the nuptial mystery of Christ's love for creation and creation's longing for the Logos. Sophia is the divine Wisdom as residing in the non-divine; she is the mirror of the Logos and the light of the Spirit, reflecting in the created order the rational coherence and transcendent beauty in which all things live, move, and have their being. She is also, therefore, the deep and pervasive Wisdom of the world who, even as that world languishes in bondage to sin, longs to be joined to her maker in an eternal embrace, and arrays herself in every palpable glory and ornament to prepare for his coming, and by her loveliness manifests her insatiable yearning."
"Another way of saying this is that Sophia is creation – and especially human creation – as God eternally intends, sees, loves, and possesses it. The world is created in the Logos and belongs to him, shines with the imperishable beauty of the Father made visible in him, and in the Logos nothing can be found wanting; thus one may say that he, in his transcendence, eternally possesses a world, and that the world, in its immanence, restlessly longs for him. And yet another way of saying this is that Sophia is humankind (which contains within itself all the lower orders of creation) as God eternally chooses it to be his body, the place of his indwelling, and in his eternity this humanity is perfect and sinless, while in our world it is something toward which all finite reality strives, as its eschatological horizon."
"She (Sophia) is not another hypostasis as such, but is the personal and responsive aspect of the concrete unity of a redeemed creation united to – and so 'enhypostatized' by – Christ; or, looked at from below (so to speak), the 'symphonic' totality of created hypostases perfectly joined to Christ. She is thus indeed a kind of intelligence in the created order ... and she is beauty, and order, and eros, but only insofar as she personifies the answer of creation to God's call, the beloved’s response to the lover’s address; far from a kind of Romantic pantheism, what she represents is creation's desire for God, its insufficiency in itself, its eternal vocation to be the vessel of his glory and the tabernacle of his indwelling presence. She is, in other words, a figure for the active longing of creation and for its accomplished rest; she is both passion and repose, ardent expectation and final peace. She is still God's Wisdom, but as mirrored in the intricacy, life, unity, and splendor of created being, and in the unity and love of the Church."
The relation of Sophia to the Persons of the Holy Trinity has been presented as problematic. In some ways the biblical Sophia is synonymous with Logos, the Second Person, and in others with the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, critics have accused sophiologists of introducing a fourth, feminine, into or alongside the Trinity.
Sophiology emerges in the contemporary world in the works of Russian Orthodox theologians such as Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900), Pavel Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944).
This from He Who Is: A Study in Traditional Theism, (E. L. Mascall, Longmans, Green & Co, 1943, p. 112):
"For him (Bulgakov), the divine ousia and sophia are identical; sophia is the self-revelation of the Godhead and belongs to all three Persons of the Trinity. Sophianity ... is a general metaphysical and theological principle, which provides a particular understanding not only of the doctrine of God, but also of cosmology, anthropology, Christology, pneumatology, Mariology and ecclesiology.
"Bulgakov insists very strongly upon the distinction between God and the world, and upon the fact that the world is not necessary to God; 'The world as such maintains its existence and its identity, distinct from that of God... There is no such ontological necessity for the world as could constrain God himself to create it for the sake of his own development or fulfilment; such an idea would indeed be pure pantheism'. Distinction is made between the uncreated sophia, which is the locus of the divine prototypes of all possible creatures, and the creaturely sophia found in the actual world. "Here we have at once Sophia in both its aspects, divine and creaturely. Sophia unites God with the world as the one common principle, the divine ground of creaturely existence. Remaining one, it exists in two modes, eternal and temporal, divine and creaturely."
This from David Bentley Hart’s Foreword to Justification of the Good: (Vladimir Solovyov, Eerdmans, 2005, p. xxxix-xli)
"The figure of Sophia ... was most definitely not an occult, or pagan, or Gnostic goddess, nor was she a fugitive from some Chaldean mystery cult, nor was she a speculative perversion of the Christian doctrine of God. She was not a fourth hypostasis in the Godhead, nor a fallen fragment of God, nor a literal world-soul, nor an eternal hypostasis who became incarnate as the Mother of God, nor most certainly the 'feminine aspect of deity.' Solovyov possessed too refined a mind to fall prey to the lure of cultic mythologies or childish anthropomorphisms, despite his interest in Gnosticism (or at least in its special pathos); and all such characterizations of the figure of Sophia are the result of misreadings...
"Solovyov’s Sophia stands in the interval between God and world, as an emblem of the nuptial mystery of Christ's love for creation and creation's longing for the Logos. Sophia is the divine Wisdom as residing in the non-divine; she is the mirror of the Logos and the light of the Spirit, reflecting in the created order the rational coherence and transcendent beauty in which all things live, move, and have their being. She is also, therefore, the deep and pervasive Wisdom of the world who, even as that world languishes in bondage to sin, longs to be joined to her maker in an eternal embrace, and arrays herself in every palpable glory and ornament to prepare for his coming, and by her loveliness manifests her insatiable yearning."
"Another way of saying this is that Sophia is creation – and especially human creation – as God eternally intends, sees, loves, and possesses it. The world is created in the Logos and belongs to him, shines with the imperishable beauty of the Father made visible in him, and in the Logos nothing can be found wanting; thus one may say that he, in his transcendence, eternally possesses a world, and that the world, in its immanence, restlessly longs for him. And yet another way of saying this is that Sophia is humankind (which contains within itself all the lower orders of creation) as God eternally chooses it to be his body, the place of his indwelling, and in his eternity this humanity is perfect and sinless, while in our world it is something toward which all finite reality strives, as its eschatological horizon."
"She (Sophia) is not another hypostasis as such, but is the personal and responsive aspect of the concrete unity of a redeemed creation united to – and so 'enhypostatized' by – Christ; or, looked at from below (so to speak), the 'symphonic' totality of created hypostases perfectly joined to Christ. She is thus indeed a kind of intelligence in the created order ... and she is beauty, and order, and eros, but only insofar as she personifies the answer of creation to God's call, the beloved’s response to the lover’s address; far from a kind of Romantic pantheism, what she represents is creation's desire for God, its insufficiency in itself, its eternal vocation to be the vessel of his glory and the tabernacle of his indwelling presence. She is, in other words, a figure for the active longing of creation and for its accomplished rest; she is both passion and repose, ardent expectation and final peace. She is still God's Wisdom, but as mirrored in the intricacy, life, unity, and splendor of created being, and in the unity and love of the Church."
