Theodicy and the Feminine Divine: Thomas Merton’s “Hagia Sophia” in Dialogue with Western Theology

This article looks to Wisdom-Sophia as a lyric name and memory of God who brings hope for human beings and for suffering creation. The irruption of the feminine divine into Thomas Merton’s consciousness is followed by a consideration of witnesses to the divine Presence emerging from Holocaust narratives and Jewish feminist post-Holocaust theology. Building from a poetic and narrative description of theological hope in a sophianic key, the article concludes with implications for spirituality, the theology of God, and discipleship: What would it mean to “live together with Wisdom” in the practices that shape our daily lives in the world and church?