Orthodox Wisdom

Julio Cesar Assis

M.A. History of Ideas
University of San Paulo, Brazil
ideashistory@gmail.com

Russian icon of Holy Wisdom, 18121

Is Holy Wisdom an eternal divine being or a creature? This question has an

answer given by Orthodox Christian tradition.

Writing probably in the V century, Dionysius Areopagite considers Wisdom as

one of the Divine Names and dedicates to her the chapter VII of his
homonymous book. “Divine name” is what would be called later the uncreated
energies.2

“For Orthodox thought, the energies signify an exterior manifestation of the

Trinity which cannot be interiorized, introduced, as it were, within the divine
being, as its natural determination. This was the basis of the theological
development of Fr. Bulgakov, and also his fundamental error; for he sought to
see in the energy of Wisdom (Sophia) which he identified with the essence, the
very principle of the Godhead. In fact, God is not determined by any of His
attributes; all determinations are inferior to Him, logically posterior to His being
in itself, in its essence. When we say that God is Wisdom, Life, Truth, Love – we
understand the [eternal] energies, which are [logically not temporally]
subsequent to the essence and are its natural manifestations, but are external
to the very being of the Trinity.”3

Since the world was created by God through his eternal uncreated energies,
Wisdom chants:

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.
From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times
of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were
no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the
hills I was brought forth; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor
the first dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there, when
He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies
above, when the springs of the deep became fixed, when He set for the sea its
boundary, So that the water should not transgress His command, when He
marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was beside Him, as a master
workwoman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing
in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of men.”4

Wisdom is neither a creature nor a divine being, since the only divine being is
the Trinity with its common essence, but as an uncreated energy of the Trinity
she is eternal.
1
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Ikona_SofiyaPremBozhiyaGRM.jpg.
2
Lossky, Vladimir. Orthodox Theology, Crestwood, NY, 1978, p. 48.
3
Lossky, V. The mystical Theology of the eastern Church, Crestwood, NY, 1976, p. 80-81.
4
Proverbs 8:22-31.