Sophia-Image vs. Sophia-Hypostasis: The Features of Reception of the Wisdom of God Concept by Athanasius of Alexandria in the Sophiology of Pavel Florensky

The article considers the problem of Athanasius' concept of Wisdom reception by Pavel Florensky. Athanasius formulated this concept in connection with the reinterpretation of Proverbs 8:22-30: "The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth. <. . .> When He prepared the heavens, I was there <. . .>. When He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him". Athanasius reinterpreted Wisdom, which speaks in this fragment, as Logos, Son of God, by whom God the Father created the whole world. Florensky (as well as some other authors of Vladimir Solo-vyov's circle) has a different understanding of Sophia, although he continues to refer to Athanasius' texts. That is why most researchers have concluded that Florensky depended on Solovyov's sophiology. This problem is solved on the material of the texts, which Athanasius and Florensky devoted to this issue (i.e. The Word Against Arians by Athanasius and the chapter "Sophia" from Florensky's book The Pillar and Affirmation of the Truth). These texts are investigated using comparative, historical, hermeneutic, typological and phenomenological methods. First of all, the author studies the concept of Sophia by Athanasius of Alexandria, then reconstructs the concept of Sophia by Pavel Florensky. In particular, the author not only reconstructs the content, but also establishes the way Florensky works with the text of Athanasius. Finally, the author compares Athanasius' and Florensky's approaches to the issue of Sophia and discovers that the latter ignores the concept of the image in Athanasius' theory. Florensky does not interpret Sophia as Logos, whose image the Wisdom of Proverbs 8:22 in Athanasius is, but as Virgin and virginity (which brings him much closer to Jakob Boehme than to Athanasius). Separating Wisdom from Logos, Florensky endows Her with hypostaticity, which leads him to a separation from the early Byzantine Orthodox tradition of the Wisdom concept interpretation. Thus, Florensky does not perceive the content of Athanasius' thoughts, but only uses his formulas, citing The Second Word against the Arians for his own purposes, namely, to construct his concrete metaphysics. However, with this usage, Athanasius' idea of the image ceased being necessary in Florensky's sophiology and is substituted by the idea of a created hypostasis. Thus, the influence of Solovyov on Florensky was not as significant as some researchers believed. German mystics, especially Boehme's concept, had a much greater influence on him. Also the Byzantine influence appears underestimated, which however was expressed in the appeal to theological formulas rather than in the reception of theological ideas.

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