Concept
Sophia (wisdom)
Overview
Sophia, or Sofia (Koine Greek: σοφία, sophía—"wisdom") is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, and Gnosticism. Originally carrying a meaning of "cleverness, skill", the later meaning of the term, "sound judgement, intelligence, practical wisdom," is close to the meaning of phronesis ("practical wisdom, intelligence"), and was significantly shaped by the term philosophía ("love of wisdom") as used by Plato.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, the feminine personification of divine wisdom as Holy Wisdom (Ἁγία Σοφία; Hagía Sophía) can refer either to Jesus Christ the Word of God (as in the dedication of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople) or to the Holy Spirit.
References to sophía in Koine Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible are translated from the Hebrew term Chokmah.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Sophia (wisdom) is discussed.
Sophia (wisdom) is very dark, and appears not to be of native growth; the meaning is, touching the motion or stream of things. You must remember that the poets, when they speak of the commencement of any rapid motion, often use the word esuthe (he rushed); and there was a famous Lacedaemonian who was named Sous (Rush), for by this word the…
Plato, Cratylus
states what it is; names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Administration of the princess Sophia. Extraordinary quarrel about religion. A conspiracy. Such were the steps by which the princess Sophia did in effect ascend the throne of Russia, though without being declared czarina; and such the examples that Peter the First had before his eyes. Sophia enjoyed all the honours of a sovereign; her bust was on the public coin; she signed all dispatches, held the first place in…
Voltaire, The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia
names the idea; opens on it
Any sketch of Leibniz's life, however brief, would be imperfect which did not mention the names at least of two remarkable women,--remarkable in themselves, and remarkable in their friendship with Leibniz. These were Sophia, grand-daughter of James I. of England (and thus the link by which the House of Brunswick finally came to rule over Great Britain) and wife of the Duke of Brunswick, and her daughter Sophia…
John Dewey, Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding
names the idea
The Princess Sophia was named in the act of settlement of the 12th and 13th of King William, for a _stock_ and root of _inheritance_ to our kings, and not for her merits as a temporary administratrix of a power which she might not, and in fact did not, herself ever exercise. She was adopted for one reason, and for one only,--because, says the act, "the most excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of…
Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03
names the idea
Where then? At her love of wisdom. Let us see whom she affects, and what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine; also how different she would become if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth and rock which in wild variety…
Plato, The Republic
states what it is; author linked in the graph
Philosophers who discussed Sophia (wisdom)
Related ideas
- Eastern Orthodox Church
- Christian universalism
- Hellenistic philosophy
- Jesus
- Vladimir Lenin
- Monad (Gnosticism)
- Hellenistic Judaism
- First Epistle to the Corinthians
- Athena
- Germany
- Gnosticism
- Gospel of John
- Philosophy
- Holy Spirit
- Ancient Greek
- Republic (Plato)
- Justinian I
- Helena Blavatsky
- Veneration
- Stoicism
- Emanationism
- Philo
- New Testament
- Platonism
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy.