The Myth of Sophia in the Context of the Transition Era

Abstract

The article dwells on the “Myth of Sophia”, created by the “transitional” culture of the Russian Spiritual Renaissance, and analyzes the particularities of connotations of the Myth of Sofia in the cultural space of the transition era. The author notes that the Sophiological topics are caused by the feeling of borderline, which makes central the issues of timeless foundations of life and the link between time and the Eternity. The article represents the creative work of Vladimir Solovyov as a kind of “program of ideas” for the Russian Sophiology, developed in two directions: the religious philosophy, which does not coincide with the official churchliness (Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky), and the religious mysticism (Vyacheslav Ivanov, Andrei Bely, Alexander Blok). There are also identified the Sophiological perspective and interpretation of the Eternal Feminine in the religious philosophies and aesthetics of the Symbolists. The article reviews the Myth of Sophia as a multidimensional “text” presented by the works of Russian religious philosophy and the world of art, as well as a product of the fundamentally syncretic culture of the Russian Spiritual Renaissance, created basing on the religious revival and “new religious consciousness”.