Софиология

2. Conscious loving thus bears objective power that surrounds Creation in spiritualising nature, and vice versa, in materialising spirit. This is the central idea to Solov′ev′s notion of theurgy, which he did not elaborate into a redefined discourse. For him, theurgy apparently was a self-evident matter, since he made permanent use of it from the beginning without explaining it at any length. His encyclopaedic entry on mysticism (1896, Mistika, Mistit-sizm) explains: "Mysticism describes phenomena and human acts, which independently from the spheres of space, time, and physical causality relate man with mysterious creatures and energies (.) There is prophetic mysticism (.) and practical mysticism that attempts (.) to call forth plastic forms and materialise spiritual creatures, or de-materialise (spiritualise, KB) corporeality and such alike more."[160] 3.) Spiritualisation of nature thus is theurgy, for it unites the spiritual ′I′ with the ′empirical-I′ by means of dematerialisation and / or conscious spiritualisation. 4.) Divine Wisdom (Sophia) descends by virtue of syzygial experience and desirably indwells human consciousness. Co-creative activity springs from this peculiar type of experience that does not need to be rationalised, or exhaustively explained in order to improve personal and social life. As it stands, Christian faith in the trueness of the experienced is the sufficient condition to co-creativity that prepares free theocracy in a first and Sophia, the Universal Church, in second step.

Recalling Solov’ëv′s reading of Genesis I, his metaphysics of history, we remember that the state (symbolised by the moon) rules the dark, whereas the Church (as if the sun on the firmament) is installed in the midst of light. The third now, the multicoloured stars, correspond to prophets brightly lighting the way in the dark.[161] As we have seen, every man potentially is a prophet. Consequently, the Church′s natural allies are prophets, singular personalities who accelerate progress during history′s lengthy seventh day in order to arrive at an eighth when Universal Church, the archetype of God′s Creation, embodies Sophia and brings forth «social trinity.» «Social trinity» denotes another form of All-unity, namely trichotomy of powers in the name of one single principle.[162] Each representative of free theocracy has his own non-interchangeable sphere of action. The brilliant play on words Solov’ëv presented in order to unambiguously clarify the triple actions′ inter-dependence is untranslatable. The Russian word pravliat (to organise) is the fundamental lexical unit. Various prefixes modify the sense of the word: sviashchennik pravliaet (the priest, i.e. the Church governs) and therefore thus constitutes the legislative (KB). Tsar′ upravliaet (the king, viz. the state administers), thus constitutes the executive (KB). Last but not least prorok ispravliaet (the prophet, the people emends), hence constitutes the judicative (KB).[163] The prefixes na-, u-, and is- make the words convey a specific, non-interchangeable meaning while commonality is maintained in each by the word pravliat.′ This play on words mirrors separation of powers in free theocracy and designates «authority» the Church, «might» to the state, and «liberty» to prophets while each sphere arises out of and stays within the same principle.

The prophet is a "representative of future time."[164] Certainly, prophets play a very difficult, even risky role, for they ignite dynamics within the hierarchical body of the Church itself. Mere reproduction of the existing historical Church facing state and people is avoided only if individual religious creativity – irrespective of whether pronounced by members of the clergy or by lay people – is successfully communicated within the hierarchical body of the Church. The Church bears a conservative character by definition. As it stands, Solov’ëv calls for a reconciliation of nature and spirit, and of creativity and conservatism. These are the central forms of co-creativity. The Church must be successful in reconciling the individuals′ religious creativity and the Church′s proper conservatism. This certainly is a standard problem with regard to any «religious politics» and is a task that enjoys immense ecumenical importance in a world that is characterised by multi-cultural societies. These stand in dire need of reconciliation, a problem Solov′ev certainly well understood.