Abstract

In Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, the discourses of Elder Zosima lyrically depict a deep beauty and an enchanting mystery that can be apprehended in nature by the pure in heart. Dostoevsky suggests here that for modern humanity, the beauty and goodness and wisdom that in here in the order of creation constitute an especially important path to God. This insight has been eloquently articulated in the tradition of Russian sophiology by figures such as Soloviev, Florensky, and Bulgakov. But despite the appeal of Sophia as the immanence of Divine Wisdom in creation, there are serious philosophical and theological problems with the concept. However, the decline of natural law theory has left a normative vacuum that needs to be filled. It is argued, then, that a series of patristic concepts (such as the notions of divine energies and divine logoi inherent in creation) as they have been developed in the Christian East, can serve both to offer a better lexicon that is offered in sophiology as well as comprehend the divine wisdom in creation better than natural law had done.