Wisdom in Christian Tradition: The Patristic Roots of Modern Russian Sophiology

Following a survey of the biblical and classical background, Wisdom in Christian Tradition offers a detailed exploration of the theme of wisdom in patristic, Byzantine, and medieval theology, up to and including Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas in Greek East and Latin West, respectively. Three principal levels of Christian wisdom discourse are distinguished: wisdom as human attainment, wisdom as divine gift, and wisdom as an attribute or quality of God. This journey through Wisdom in Christian Tradition is undertaken in conversation with modern Russian Sophiology, one of the most popular and widely discussed theological movements of our time. Sophiology is characterized by the idea of a primal pre-principle of divine-human unity ('Sophia') manifest in both uncreated and created forms and constituting the very foundation of all that is. Sophiology is a complex phenomenon with multiple sources and inspirations, very much including the Church Fathers. Indeed, fidelity to patristic tradition was to become an ever-increasing feature of its self-understanding and self-articulation, above all in the work of its greatest exponent, Fr Sergius Bulgakov (1871-1944). This 'unmodern turn' (as it is here christened) to patristic sources has, however, long been fiercely contested. This book is the first to evaluate thoroughly the nature and substance of Sophiology's claim to patristic continuity. The final chapter offers a radical re-thinking of Sophiology in line with patristic tradition. This constructive proposal maintains Sophiology's most distinctive insights and most pertinent applications while divesting it of some its more problematic elements.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1: Modern Russian Sophiology and its Discontents 2: Prolegomena 3: Wisdom and Paideia 4: The Golden Age of Patristic Sophiology 5: The Greek East 6: The Latin West 7: Sophiology Revisited

About the Author :
Marcus Plested completed his undergraduate work in Modern History at Merton College, Oxford in 1992 and went on to gain a D.Phil in Theology, again at Merton, graduating in 1999. Between 2000 and 2013 he taught at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge Theological Federation) (serving as Principal and Academic Director) and at the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge (as Research Associate and Affiliated Lecturer). He has held research fellowships at the Center of Theological Inquiry and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. He was appointed to his current position at Marquette University (Milwaukee) in 2013.

Review :
We can be grateful to the author for shedding light on the extent to which Sophiology does, and does not, live up to its claim to represent the best of the patristic tradition. An outstanding book, which will become a standard reference in all future treatments not only of Russian sophiology but also in broader discussions of wisdom in the Christian tradition [...] The study of wisdom on this historical scale has never been undertaken before. Plested's constructive conclusions will be of great interest to systematic theologians. I expect this brilliant work to be widely read and frequently cited for many years. A beautiful and important scholarly monument that manages to be a systematic study of the multiple Patristic theologies of wisdom, a careful evaluation of Russian sophiology's claims to be founded on Patristic teaching, and, perhaps most importantly, in its brief constructive final pages a contemporary synthesis of Patristic sophiology that corrects the doctrinal ambiguity of Russian sophiology [...] a theological and historical gift. Marcus Plested's Wisdom in Christian Tradition is not only a historical tour de force in its meticulous tracing of 'wisdom' traditions, both East and West, from the Bible onward; but it is itself a highly creative piece of constructive Orthodox theology, opening a way forward between and beyond the modern Russian Sophiologists and their detractors by re-engaging the patristic and medieval sources that underlay their debate. In the process the very concept of 'tradition' is richly reconceived. Marcus Plested's book entitled Wisdom in Christian Tradition. The Patristic Roots of Modern Russian Sophiology, published by the Oxford University Press offers a rich synthesis of patristics and invites the reader to rediscover important voices from the first centuries of Christianity, including the Apostolic Fathers, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, thanasius of Alexandria, Maximus the Confessor, Macarius, Dyonisius the Areopagite and many others,...It is not only a monograph, but also a tool that invites the reader to reflect, to consider the meanings of an actual problem, and in the same time to discover an area of the theology that has not been the focus of sufficient contemporary research. In all, I think that this is an immensely learned book of impeccable scholarship. This magnificent book, the fruit of many years of research and reflection. simply extraordinary. Plested's elegantly written book is [...] a worthy sequel to Evdokimov's L'Orthodoxie. I am very pleased with the publication of Plested's book, and I hope that in future we can expect not only historical studies, but also studies on specific philosophical problems within the framework of Sophiology.