Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 34:3 (Summer 2020)
Article: Engaging Women With A Suffering Sophia: Prospects And Pitfalls For Evangelicals
Author: Cristina Richie

PP 34:3 (Summer 2020) p. 15

Engaging Women With A Suffering Sophia: Prospects And Pitfalls For Evangelicals

Cristina Richie

Cristina Richie (PhD, ThM, MDiv) is an assistant professor in the Department of Bioethics and Interdisciplinary Studies at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine. She is the author of Principles of Green Bioethics: Sustainability in Health Care (Michigan State University Press, 2019) and over thirty peer-reviewed articles, including articles in Priscilla Papers, Christian Bioethics, and Theology and Sexuality. Dr. Richie is a co-chair of the Bioethics Consultation of the Evangelical Theological Society and holds a nominated fellow appointment at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University.

Throughout the Scriptures, God is described as acting in the personification of Wisdom, or Sophia.1 This is the basis for Catholic theologian Elizabeth Johnson’s appropriation of the title “God,” replacing it with “Sophia.” Johnson argues that each person of the Trinity is Sophia, just as each person of the Trinity is God. Therefore, according to Johnson, it is accurate to maintain that Father-God, Son-God, and Holy Spirit-God can each be called Sophia. Under this nomenclature, theologians may speak of God-Sophia, Logos-Sophia, and Spirit-Sophia. Naming God as “Sophia” critically aligns the Divine with a specifically female concept, while also expanding the theological understanding of the character and attributes of God-Sophia.

This article will explore the ways in which God-Sophia, and specifically the person of Logos-Sophia, engages women in Johnson’s theology. First, I will describe Johnson’s suffering Sophia through her two-fold process of deconstructing male language for God and reconstructing female language for God. Second, I will enumerate the ways Logos-Sophia suffers in a manner women can identify with, according to Johnson. Third, I will sketch Johnson’s view on the suffering Sophia in the deteriorating natural environment. Fourth, I will offer a critical analysis of Johnson’s Trinitarian theology, particularly for evangelicals driven by concerns of sex-equality and eco-destruction, which are often intertwined. After these pitfalls have been identified, my conclusion will offer prospects for evangelicals to utilize the theology of a suffering Sophia.

Sophia Suffering And Women

Before Sophia can be connected to women, it is necessary to clear away the conceptual weeds of a male-described God. Johnson notes that the male-dominated language historically used to describe God—in English and in the biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—is damaging to women on several fronts. Following from this observation, t...