Holy Wisdom
Holy Wisdom (Ancient Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, romanized: Hagia Sophia, Latin: Sancta Sapientia) is a concept in Christian theology.
Furthermore, in mystical interpretations forwarded in Russian Orthodoxy, known as Sophiology, Holy Wisdom as a feminine principle came to be identified with the Theotokos (Mother of God) rather than with Christ himself.
The other is the 'wisdom that comes from above': "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."
The identification of Christ with God's Wisdom is ancient, and was explicitly stated by the early Church Fathers, including Justin Martyr and Origen.
[citation needed] In the theology of the Western Latin Church, note Hugh of Saint Victor's allusion to Jesus as Wisdom in Book One of his Didascalicon.
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).
In the "Novgorod type", named for the icon of Holy Wisdom in Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod (16th century), but represented by the older icon in the Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow, dated to the early 15th century, Holy Wisdom is shown as a fiery angel with wings, seated on a throne and flanked by the Theotokos and by Saint Cosmas of Maiuma.
[12] The Christological identification of Christ the Logos with Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) is strongly represented in the iconographic tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Such interpretations became popular in the late 19th to early 20th century, forwarded by authors such as Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Sergei Bulgakov.
Bulgakov's theology, known as "Sophianism", presented Divine Wisdom as co-existent with the Trinity, operating as the feminine aspect of God in concert with the three masculine principles of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[5] John Maximovitch in The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God, discusses at length why the sophianism of Sergius Bulgakov is heresy, attempting the deification of the Theotokos.
[14] The "sophological" approach of introducing Wisdom as a female principle in the Holy Trinity is closely paralleled by certain proposals made in feminist theology in the west.
Thus, Elizabeth Johnson (1993) proposed the "application of Sophiological terminology to the Persons of the Holy Trinity" as a way of "normalizing feminine imagery for God".
[16] Within the Protestant tradition in England, Jane Leade, 17th-century Christian mystic, Universalist, and founder of the Philadelphian Society, wrote copious descriptions of her visions and dialogues with the "Virgin Sophia" who, she said, revealed to her the spiritual workings of the Universe.
[17] Leade was hugely influenced by the theosophical writings of 16th century German Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, who also speaks of the Sophia in works such as The Way to Christ (1624).
[18] Jakob Böhme was very influential to a number of Christian mystics and religious leaders, including George Rapp and the Harmony Society.
