The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2314 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Solomon, Wisdom of
(book of the Apocrypha):
Soloveichik, Joseph Baer of Volozhin
(1820–92).
Jewish Talmudic expert. Joseph was the son of Isaac Ze’ev, the
rabbi
of Kovno, who was himself the descendant of a line of eminent rabbis. He was the head of the
yeshivah
at Volozhin from 1849, although he fell out with his co-head, Naphtali
Berlin
. His grandson, Isaac Ze’ev ha-Levi Soloveichik (1886–1959), was regarded as a supreme halakhic authority in Jerusalem. Another grandson, Moses (1876–1914), was rosh-yeshivah at
Yeshiva University
; his eldest son, also Joseph Baer (Joseph
Solovei(t)chik
), was a leading figure in the interpretation and application of
halakhah
in the USA. Although various
responsa
of the Soloveichiks have been preserved, there was a family tradition against publication.
Solovei(t)chik, Joseph
(1903–93).
Jewish
Orthodox
rabbi
and
Talmudic
expert. He emigrated from Poland to the USA in 1932, and became Orthodox rabbi in Boston. He established an institute for advanced Talmudic studies, meeting the needs of the flow of refugees from Europe; but he became widely known and revered when he began to teach at Yeshiva University in New York. His commitment to teaching was in line with his view on the importance of halakhah and its oral transmission, and in consequence he did not put his interpretations into published form.
Soloviev, Vladimir
(1853–1900).
Russian poet and philosopher. From 1873 he was a friend of
Dostoevsky
. As a poet, he was a leader of the Symbolists; as a philosopher, he was influenced by German idealism and
gnostic
occultism; as a theologian, he was a proponent of visible unity with Rome, after initial sympathy with the Slavophils. Underlying all was a vision of Sophia (Wisdom), the creative and redemptive feminine principle, providing a fragile coherence increasingly threatened by apocalyptic disaster.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Isayevich
(b. 1918).
Russian novelist. Born in Rostov-on-Don, he studied mathematics at Rostov University. During the Second World War he served in the army. In 1945 he was arrested and spent the next eight years in labour camps. Released on Stalin's death in 1953, he was exiled for three years. On his return he taught and began to write. His first novel,
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
(1962), was an immediate success. After increasing tension with the Soviet authorities, he was expelled in 1974, having received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. His voice is a voice from the Gulags, the labour camps, where he was converted to Christianity: the voice of profound faith in God and in his image in human beings, equally critical of Soviet inhumanity, Western lack of values, and ecclesiastical frailty. He returned to Russia in 1994.

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