Exploring the Divine Feminine: A Journey Through Sophia in Eastern Christianity

By Hadi Fakhoury, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School

Welcome to today’s event, part of our ongoing series on the divine feminine and its discontents. This series, now in its fifth session, is a component of the broader initiative on Transcendence and Transformation launched by the Center for the Study of World Religions. For those interested in our work, we invite you to explore more through our website and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Revisiting the Wisdom of Sophia

In our previous session, we were graced by the presence of Professor Anne Klein, who enlightened us with a lecture on Yeshe Tsogyal, the leading feminine figure in Tibetan Buddhism. The video of this insightful session is available on our website for those who missed it.

Today, we return to the figure of Sophia, or divine wisdom, a theme from last semester’s lecture by Professor Sean McGraw. Professor McGraw examined the evolution of Sophia in the works of Jakob Böhme, the 16th-century mystic, and Friedrich Schelling, the 19th-century philosopher. Today, we delve deeper into Sophia's presence in the Eastern Christian tradition, particularly in Russian Orthodoxy, through the lens of its foremost systematic philosopher, Vladimir Solovyov.

Solovyov: Russia’s Systematic Philosopher

Vladimir Solovyov, often regarded as Russia’s first systematic philosopher, made profound contributions to theology, literature, and philosophy, influencing figures well beyond the Russian-speaking world. His work, heavily rooted in the concept of Sophia, bridges spiritual wisdom with the material world.

Today’s guest, Professor Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, an expert on Solovyov, will guide us through his writings on divine wisdom, drawing from her seminal book, Divine Sophia: The Wisdom Writings of Vladimir Solovyov. Her work remains pivotal to those engaged in our Transcendence and Transformation project, as we seek to understand how Sophia plays a unifying role across diverse traditions and intellectual frameworks.

Professor Kornblatt’s Lecture: Divine Sophia in Russian Orthodoxy

In today’s presentation, Professor Kornblatt will explore Solovyov's unique articulation of Sophia as an energy that unites the multiplicity of existence into an organic whole. Sophia, though often personified as female, is more than just a person. For Solovyov, she embodies the creative energy that transcends binaries and distinctions, a force of unity and transformation.

Professor Kornblatt will also highlight how Solovyov’s personal encounters with Sophia shaped his poetry, plays, and philosophical works. These encounters, often described as mystical visions, reveal a deeply personal relationship between the philosopher and divine wisdom, which he articulated in symbolic language drawn from Christian, Neoplatonic, Gnostic, and Kabbalistic traditions.

The Legacy of Sophia in the 20th Century

Solovyov’s influence on Russian religious and philosophical thought extended well into the 20th century, particularly through the works of his followers. In the spring, our center will be hosting a conference on Henri Corbin, the French theologian who, in many ways, continued Solovyov’s legacy by exploring the intersection of Islamic mysticism and the Sophia tradition. Corbin’s work, like Solovyov’s, emphasized the transformative power of divine wisdom in shaping both individual and collective spiritual experience.

As we engage with these ideas today, we are reminded that the divine feminine, embodied in figures like Sophia, continues to challenge and inspire thinkers across cultures and centuries. We hope today’s event will deepen your understanding of this vital aspect of religious and philosophical thought.

For more details on future events in this series, please visit our website.