Sophia: The Wisdom of God "We need a true Christian [discipline] in relation to the world, which consists in a struggle with the world out of love for the world. We must discover how we can overcome the secularizing forces...through love for the world... This can only be accomplished through a change in our conception of the world, and through a sophianic perception of the world in the Wisdom of God. This alone can give us strength for new inspiration, for new creativity, for the overcoming of the mechanization of life and of human beings. The future of living Christianity rests with the sophianic interpretation of the world and its destiny." With these words, the eminent Russian Orthodox theologian Sergei Bulgakov introduces his new book, Sophia: The Wisdom of God: An Outline of Sophiology (Esalen Institute/Lindisfarne Press). A champion of the divine feminine, he shows that the feminine is present at the very heart of the Christian understanding not only of God but of human nature and the universe as well. Even if historical Christianity has been guilty of ignoring the feminine aspects of divinity, it has been all the while living a hidden life within it. He presents the evidence to show that the divine Sophia, in whom all things are created, is present in the Holy Trinity itself and how, as the "creaturely Sophia," she works together with her divine counterpart in the world of the Holy Spirit for the redemption of the planet. |