Peter the great and the russian military campaigns during the final years of the great northern war, 1719-1721, Riedner, Rachel, Associate Professor Of Women`s, Gender, And Sexuality Studies, George Washington University Mahoney, Kevin A. Wells, Susan

The founder of modern Russian philosophy, Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) is widely considered its greatest practitioner. Together with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, he is one of the towering intellectual figures in late-nineteenth-century Russia, and his diverse writings influenced much of the non-Marxist tradition of twentieth-century Russian thought. Philosopher, journalist, poet, and playwright, Solovyov was also a mystic who claimed to have had three visions of Divine Sophia.

This personification of wisdom with golden hair and a radiant aura echoes both the eternal feminine and the world soul. Rooted in Christian and Jewish mysticism, Eastern Orthodox iconography, Greek philosophy, and European romanticism, the Sophiology that suffuses Solovyovs philosophical and artistic works is both intellectually sophisticated and profoundly inspiring. Judith Deutsch Kornblatt brings together key texts from Solovyovs writings about Sophia: poetry, fiction, drama, and philosophy, all extensively annotated and some available in English for the first time (with assistance from the translators Boris Jakim and Laury Magnus).

In the comprehensive introductory essay that encompasses the books first half, Kornblatt establishes the historical, philosophical, religious, and literary context of Solovyovs Sophiology, emphasizing its connection to contemporaneous religious and philosophical thought as well as other social and cultural trends in Europe and the United States—for example, Solovyovs reactions to his changing world ran parallel to and sometimes intersected with those of Darwin, Nietzsche, and William James. Sophiology is once again finding enthusiasts both in Russia and among seekers around the world.

The definitive introduction to Solovyovs wisdom and its profound impact on Russian thought and culture, Divine Sophia makes Solovyovs mystical visions and literary re-visions of Sophia accessible to scholars and lay readers alike. Solovyovs wisdom writings captivated several generations of poets and philosophers during the pre- and postrevolutionary periods in Russia and abroad. In particular, his Sophiology had a profound influence on such major figures of Russias Silver Age as Alexander Blok, Andrei Belyi, Pavel Florensky, and Sergei Bulgakov.