Sophiology is a controversial school of thought in Russian Orthodoxy which holds that Divine Wisdom is to be identified with God's essence, and that the Divine Wisdom is in some way expressed in the world as 'creaturely' wisdom. This notion has often been understood or misunderstood as introducing a feminine "fourth hypostasis" into the Trinity.
Icon, Theotokos as Sophia, the Holy Wisdom, Kiev (1812)
Sophia is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism and Christian theology. Originally carrying a meaning of "cleverness, skill", the later meaning of the term, close to the meaning of phronesis, was significantly shaped by the term philosophía as used by Plato.
Personification of Wisdom (Koinē Greek: Σοφία, Sophía) at the Library of Celsus in Ephesus (second century)
Icon of Divine Wisdom (София Премудрость Божия) from St George Church in Vologda (16th century)
Reconstruction of the Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul (section)
"Wisdom hath built her house" (Премудрость созда Себе дом, Novgorod, 16th century)