VLADIMIR SOLOV′EV IN EGYPT: THE ORIGINS OF THE ‘DIVINE SOPHIA’ IN RUSSIAN RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

The Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solov′ev (1853–1900) visited Egypt twice: first as a student in 1875–76 and again in 1898, by which time he had become a well‐known philosopher and public intellectual. After his 1898 visit, Solov′ev published a poem, Tri svidaniia (‘Three Meetings’), which revealed the image of the ‘Divine Sophia’, a mysterious female spirit the philosopher claimed had appeared to him in his youth and led him to Egypt. Solov′ev's poem suggests that much of his spiritual world‐view, centred on religious ecumenism and a union of humanity with the divine, derived from his youthful journey and his illuminating final vision of the Divine Sophia, in the desert outside Cairo. Examining Solov′ev's correspondence, first‐hand accounts of his visit to Egypt and other studies, this article explores the probable origins of Sophia through the lens of the philosopher's life, thought and work.