Sophiology: Holy Wisdom as the Divine Feminine

Throughout Church history, Orthodox theologians from the Second Council of Nicaea (787) to the 20th century Russian "Sophiologist" Sergei Bulgakov have identified the Divine Feminine in God with "Holy Wisdom" (which is a translation of the feminine Greek term "Hagia Sophia", and the Hebrew term "Hokmah"). Nicaea II states it thus: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, the self-existent Wisdom (Sophia) of God the Father, who manifested Himself in the flesh, and by His great and divine dispensation freed us from the snares of idolatry, clothing Himself in our nature, restored it through the cooperation of the Spirit, who shares God's mind..." In more recent configurations, Divine Wisdom is identified as a personified attribute shared by all the members of the Trinity, yet primarily embodied in Jesus Christ. This has led to charges against Sophiologists that they have made Divine Wisdom into a fourth member of the Trinity, or a kind of separate "Mother Goddess" like Gaia. 

While these charges are not accurate, it is true that sometimes ideas about Divine Wisdom are communicated in a way that feel unnecessarily complex and esoteric. Yet, all the Biblical materials needed for a robust doctrine of Divine Wisdom are fairly well spelled out. First, we find Divine Wisdom as the feminine Architect working “alongside” YHWH and rejoicing in Creation in Proverbs 8. Then a few centuries later, we read a parallel account of Divine Wisdom creating and giving birth to all creation in Wisdom 7. In this account, Wisdom is clearly linked as an aspect of the Divine Spirit or Holy Spirit. 

Earlier in Hebrew revelation, the Spirit of YHWH has already been declared as the power and presence of God, immanent in all creation, sustaining all life in Genesis 1.1-3, Psalm 104, and Psalm 139. When we move to the New Testament, Jesus is born by the power of the Spirit and does all his ministry reliant upon the Spirit. He is the Spirit-filled Savior, who manifests the power of the Spirit in the world for all to experience. Jesus says that the Spirit is the One who brings us to spiritual rebirth in Christ (John 3). And the role of the Spirit in bringing us to this rebirth is alluded to and upheld in places like Romans 8 and Titus 3. 

Put it all together, and Divine Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia, is another Name for the Holy Spirit, who is the Divine Feminine Energy of God, creating all things, sustaining their lives, and bringing about spiritual rebirth. She is the Divine Mother who filled the Virgin Mary with God’s life to make her the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Likewise the Spirit is the One who brings about the birth of the Christ Life in all of us. We are all embraced within the immanent presence of the Holy Spirit, and all of creation is the womb of God, giving birth to countless children of God who bear the Divine image. This seems to be a much more straightforwardly Biblical and explicitly Trinitarian way to affirm Hagia Sophia, with less of a chance of mistaking what is being claimed.