A Brief Outline of My Current Thoughts on the Cosmos and Its Contents
(Being a Brief Exposition of the Reasons Behind My Belief in Alien Life as
Well as a Quick Glimpse at Sophiology)*
April 13, 1999
I. God is Unity
II. God is Wisdom
III. God is Good
IV. God is Life
V. God is omnipotent
VI. God, being Good, desires to express Himself and have other beings share in His Goodness
VII. God's Goodness is expressed in creation
VIII. In expressing Himself, God creates life.
IX. The existence of one life in creation would be a limited creation, and unworthy of God.
A. The reason it is unworthy of God, is that God is unlimited in the ability of expressing Himself. If God only created one life form, God would not have fully expressed Himself, but would only have done a partial representation of what He is capable of producing.
X. God's unlimited ability to create will seek to establish in His unlimited Goodness the creation of a full exposition of his own internal makeup.
XI. In creation, God fills the cosmos with an abundance of life, since God is Himself Life.
XII. The participation of life alone is inferior to the participation of life with wisdom.
XIII. God, being Wisdom, establishes in the creation of the universe, life which also has wisdom.
A. Those life forms which participate in life and wisdom are thus more of a reflection of God than those which only participate in life. Nonetheless, both are reflections of God, one being a clearer reflection than the other.
XIV. As God is unity, that which participates in unity, will also represent and closer resemble God than that which participates in the multitude.
A. As there are opposites to life, wisdom, goodness, there is also an opposite to unity, which is philosophically called the multitude. The unity of God is an expression of His internal makeup of being One, simple, uncompounded, and not being capable of internal division. Something which participates of a multitude, on the other hand, is unstable, and easily divided.
XV. Hence, God in creating the universe and the multitude in the universe, also created an integrated structure for the universe, and created an integral unity for the universe itself.
XVI. This integral unity in the universe is in the creation the greatest expression of God's character, hence, not only is it an integral unity of all creation, but it has in itself life and wisdom.
XVII. Modern Russian religious philosophy has identified this principle with the name, Sophia. The reason is multifold. They view that the very ousia or essence of God can and should be identified with Wisdom (Sophia); all other aspects of God find itself within this framework of Wisdom. In creation, that which is the greatest representation of God's internal character would be a created form of that character, and hence would be creaturely Wisdom, or created Sophia.
XVIII. God, in His nature, is unknowable by man. However, we can gain the best understanding of God's by looking at that which reflects God's nature, and that is Sophia. We can see that Sophiology, as it explains Sophia and seeks to understand her, provides the way by which man can attain the highest understanding of God's being. It does not provide comprehension, for Sophia only reflects God by being God's glory, but it does provide a suitable level of understanding.
XIX. Likewise, being the most expressive representation of God, Sophia also is considered to be the Bride of God. Christian theology teaches that the Church is designated as the Bride of God. Hence, the Church is Sophia.
XX. As the Church is the Bride of God, so is the Holy Virgin Mary the archetype of the Church, the Bride of God. She is the integral unity of the Church itself, the height of the Church, and hence, the height of creation. Therefore, the Virgin Mary is also identified as Sophia.
XXI. Since Christ took for His Incarnation the flesh from Mary, He became a two-fold representation of Wisdom: being Wise in His divine nature, He also became and took on created Wisdom, that is, created Sophia.
* Brief Note: As this is only an Outline, some of the expressions which might seem new or unusual to the reader are not fully explained in here. I have also not entered into the discussion in this outline a discussion of the fall of the universe. However, for anyone interested in Sophiological discussions, I suggest the following works as an introduction. Both Vladimir Solovyov and Fr. Pavel Florensky have received recognition by Pope John Paul II for their philosophical works.
1. Russia and the Universal Church by Vladimir Solovyov
2. The Wisdom of God: An Outline of Sophiology by Fr. Sergei Bulgakov
3. The Pillar and Ground of Truth by Fr. Pavel Florensky