Catholics understand philosophy (philo: love; and sophia: wisdom) to be the love of wisdom -- wisdom which reaches back, as did St. Thomas Aquinas, to the Greeks (Plato and Aristotle) and rises up through theology to the holy wisdom (or hagia sophia) of God Himself.

In the Old Testament, too, we find the holy wisdom of God, often personified as a great queen who teaches and protects the faithful. (See Proverbs, Sirach, and the Wisdom of Solomon.)

The Virgin Mary has also traditionally been considered a model of holy wisdom grounded in fear of the Lord. This Catholic tradition culminated architecturally in what was for centuries the largest church in Christendom, the formidable Hagia Sophia (the Church of the Holy Wisdom) that still dominates the dramatic skyline of Istanbul.

The name “Sophia” is therefore triply apt for our Press which seeks to publish works of holy wisdom that are faithful to the tradition of the Church.

. . . and of our logo

Our logo is from the statue of Athena Lemnia, the Greek goddess of wisdom, who is also known as Sophia. It serves as a beautiful symbol of the unity between the Greek philosophical and Catholic theological traditions, reminding us that in the natural wisdom of the ancients lies a promise and a foreshadowing of the holy wisdom (Hagia Sophia) that came into the world through the Blessed Virgin Mary in the person of her son Jesus. Our Catholic Faith does not merely complement natural knowledge; it is the culmination and fulfillment of natural knowledge.

In the past decades, a number of time-honored Catholic terms (such as Madonna) have been adopted by persons who mock the Faith. A few years ago, the revered Christian term “Sophia” came under such attack and was used by some radical feminists to distort the clear and perennial teachings of our Catholic Faith.

We rejected their crude efforts and have nothing to do with the promulgation of their errors. When the so-called “Sophia Goddess” movement began, many Catholics urged us to change our name to avoid being confused with these heresies.

We refused. We judged it wrong to abandon yet another venerable Catholic term to these wrong-headed forces. Since those difficult days ten years ago, we have prevailed in the war for the meaning of the word “sophia.“ Through our efforts, it is now once-again primarily associated with the authentic teachings of our holy Catholic Faith. In homes and bookstores across the world, the Catholic orthodoxy of all of our books stands in continuing opposition to the efforts of those who would subvert our Faith.