The term philosophía (φιλοσοφία, lit.'love of wisdom') was primarily used after the time of Plato, following his teacher Socrates, though it has been said that Pythagoras was the first to call himself a philosopher.[citation needed] This understanding of philosophía permeates Plato's dialogues, especially the Republic. In that work, the leaders of the proposed utopia are to be philosopher kings: rulers who are lovers of wisdom. According to Plato in Apology, Socrates himself was dubbed "the wisest [σοφώτατος, sophṓtatos] man of Greece" by the Pythian Oracle. Socrates defends this verdict in Apology to the effect that he, at least, knows that he knows nothing. Socratic skepticism is contrasted with the approach of the sophists, who are attacked in Gorgias for relying merely on eloquence. Cicero in De Oratore later criticized Plato for his separation of wisdom from eloquence.[2]Sophía is named as one of the four cardinal virtues (in place of phrónēsis) in Plato's Protagoras.
Christian theology received the Old Testament personification of Divine Wisdom (SeptuagintSophia, VulgateSapientia). The connection of Divine Wisdom to the concept of the Logos resulted in the interpretation of "Holy Wisdom" (Hagia Sophia) as an aspect of Christ the Logos.[4][5]
The expression Ἁγία Σοφία itself is not found in the New Testament, even though passages in the Pauline epistles equate Christ with the "wisdom of God" (θεοῦ σοφία).[6] The clearest form of the identification of Divine Wisdom with Christ comes in 1 Corinthians 1:17–2:13. In 1 Corinthians 2:7, Paul speaks of the Wisdom of God as a mystery which was "ordained before the world unto our glory".
Christology
Following 1 Corinthians, the Church Fathers named Christ as "Wisdom of God".[7] Therefore, when rebutting claims about Christ's ignorance, Gregory of Nazianzus insisted that, inasmuch as he was divine, Christ knew everything: "How can he be ignorant of anything that is, when he is Wisdom, the maker of the worlds, who brings all things to fulfillment and recreates all things, who is the end of all that has come into being?".[8]Irenaeus represents another, minor patristic tradition which identified the Spirit of God, and not Christ himself, as "Wisdom".[9] He could appeal to Paul's teaching about wisdom being one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8). However, the majority applied to Christ the title/name of "Wisdom".
Constantine the Great set a pattern for Eastern Christians by dedicating a church to Christ as the personification of Divine Wisdom.[4] In Constantinople, under Justinian I, the Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") was rebuilt, consecrated in 538, and became a model for many other Byzantine churches. In the Latin Church, however, "the Word" or Logos came through more clearly than "the Wisdom" of God as a central, high title of Christ.
In the theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Holy Wisdom is understood as the Divine Logos who became incarnate as Jesus;[10] this belief being sometimes also expressed in some Eastern Orthodox icons.[11] In the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church, the exclamation Sophia! or in English Wisdom! will be proclaimed by the deacon or priest at certain moments, especially before the reading of scripture, to draw the congregation's attention to sacred teaching.
There is a hagiographical tradition, dating to the late sixth century,[12] of a Saint Sophia and her three daughters, Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity. This has been taken as the veneration of allegorical figures from an early time, and the group of saints has become popular in Russian Orthodox iconography as such (the names of the daughters rendered as Вѣра, Надежда, Любовь). The veneration of the three saints named for the three theological virtues probably arose in the 6th century.[13]
The Christological identification of Christ the Logos with Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) is strongly represented in the iconographic tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church. A type of icon of the Theotokos is "Wisdom hath builded Her house" (Премудрость созда Себе дом), a quote from Proverbs 9:1 ("Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars") interpreted as prefiguring the incarnation, with the Theotokos being the "house" chosen by the "hypostatic Wisdom" (i.e. "Wisdom" as a person of the Trinity).
In Russian Orthodox mysticism, Sophia became increasingly indistinguishable from the person of the Theotokos (rather than Christ), to the point of the implication of the Theotokos as a "fourth person of the Trinity".
Such interpretations became popular in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, forwarded by authors such as Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Sergei Bulgakov. Bulgakov's theology, known as "Sophianism", presented Divine Wisdom as "consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity", operating as the aspect of consubstantiality (ousia or physis, substantia or natura) or "hypostaticity" of the Trinity of the three hypostases, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, "which safeguards the unity of the Holy Trinity".[14] It was the topic of a highly political controversy in the early 1930s and was condemned by the Russian Orthodox church as heretical in 1935.[10]
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Sophia is not a "goddess" in classical Greek tradition;[citation needed] Greek goddesses associated with wisdom are Metis and Athena (Latin Minerva). By the Roman Empire, it became common to depict the cardinal virtues and other abstract ideals as female allegories. Thus, in the Library of Celsus in Ephesus, built in the 2nd century, there are four statues of female allegories, depicting wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and valour/excellence (Arete). In the same period, Sophia assumes aspects of a goddess or angelic power in Gnosticism.
In Christian iconography, Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia was depicted as a female allegory from the medieval period. In Western (Latin) tradition, she appears as a crowned virgin; in Russian Orthodox tradition, she has a more supernatural aspect of a crowned woman with wings in a glowing red colour.
The virgin martyrs Faith, Hope, and Charity, with their mother Sophia are depicted as three small girls standing in front of their mother in widow's dress.
Allegory of Wisdom and Strength is a painting by Paolo Veronese, created c. 1565 in Venice. It is a large-scale allegorical painting depicting Divine Wisdom personified on the left and Hercules, representing Strength and earthly concerns, on the right.
Modern reception
A goddess Sophia was introduced into Anthroposophy by its founder, Rudolf Steiner, in his book The Goddess: From Natura to Divine Sophia[18] and a later compilation of his writings titled Isis Mary Sophia. Sophia also figures prominently in Theosophy, a spiritual movement which Anthroposophy was closely related to. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, described it in her essay What is Theosophy? as an esoteric wisdom doctrine, and said that the "Wisdom" referred to was "an emanation of the Divine principle" typified by "…some goddesses—Metis, Neitha, Athena, the Gnostic Sophia…"[19]
Since the 1970s, Sophia has also been invoked as a goddess in Dianic Wicca and related currents of feminist spirituality.[20]
The 1979 installation artwork The Dinner Party features a place setting for Sophia.[21]
There is a monumental sculpture of Holy Wisdom depicted as a "goddess" in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria (the city itself is named after Saint Sofia Church).[22] The sculpture was erected in 2000 to replace a statue of Lenin.
^First Epistle to the Corinthians1:24bΧριστὸν θεοῦ δύναμιν καὶ θεοῦ σοφίαν "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God", 1:30ἐξ αὐτοῦ δὲ ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ὃς ἐγενήθη ἡμῖν σοφία ἀπὸ θεοῦ δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμὸς καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption"
^O'Neill, Dennis (2010). Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People. p. 6. Following St. Paul's reference to 'Christ who is the wisdom of God and the power of God', all the rest of the Church Fathers identified Sophia-Wisdom with Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity
^Books relating to the contemporary pagan worship of the goddess Sophia include: Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, by Caitlin Matthews, The Cosmic Shekinah by Sorita d'Este and David Rankine (which includes Sophia as one of the major aspects of the goddess of wisdom), and Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection by Robert A. Johnson.
Bulgakov, Sergeĭ Nikolaevich (1993). Sophia, the Wisdom of God: An Outline of Sophiology. Hudson, N.Y.: Lindisfarne Press. ISBN0-940262-60-6.
Hainthaler, Theresia; Mali, Franz; Emmenegger, Gregor; Ostermann, Manté Lenkaityté, eds. (2017). Sophia: the Wisdom of God – die Weisheit Gottes (in German). Innsbruck, Wien: Tyrolia-Verlag. ISBN978-3-7022-3578-9.
Hunt, Priscilla (2000). "The Novgorod Sophia Icon and 'The Problem of Old Russian Culture' Between Orthodoxy and Sophiology". Symposion: A Journal of Russian Thought. 4–5: 1–41.
Hunt, Priscilla (2006). "Andrei Rublev's Old Testament Trinity Icon in Cultural Context". In Tsurikov, Deacon Vladimir (ed.). The Trinity-Sergius Lavr in Russian History and Culture. Readings in Russian Religious Culture. Vol. 3. Jordanville, N.Y.: Holy Trinity Seminary Press. pp. 99–122.
Hunt, Priscilla (2007). "Confronting the End: The Interpretation of the Last Judgment in a Novgorod Wisdom Icon". Byzantino-Slavica. 65: 275–325.
Hunt, Priscilla (2009). "The Wisdom Iconography of Light: The Genesis, Meaning and Iconographic Realization of a Symbol". Byzantino-slavica. 67.
Schipflinger, Thomas (1998). Sophia-Maria. York Beach, Maine: Weiser Books. ISBN1-57863-022-3..
Versluis, Arthur (1994). Theosophia: hidden dimensions of Christianity. Hudson, N.Y.: Lindisfarne Press. ISBN0-940262-64-9.
Versluis, Arthur (1999). Wisdom's Children: a Christian esoteric tradition. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press. ISBN0-7914-4330-2.
Versluis, Arthur, ed. (2000). Wisdom's Book: the Sophia anthology. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House. ISBN1-55778-783-2.