Olivier Clément's engagement with the culture of his time

This article is the transcript of a round table held on 16 January 2010 in Paris, at the close of an international conference devoted to Olivier Clément (1921–2009), a French Orthodox theologian. The gathering, moderated by Jean-Claude Polet, brought together Dominique Ponnau, an art historian, Father Michel Evdokimov, and economist Michel Sollogoub. Through an exchange of personal testimonies, the participants convey Clément's commitment at the intersection of Orthodox faith and contemporary culture. The central idea is that Clément was able to articulate theology, aesthetics, ethics, and civic engagement into a coherent body of thought, nourished by Russian religious philosophy, the literature of Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, and a singular poetic sensibility. The contribution of this article lies in the personal and detailed insight it offers into the way Clément embodied an Orthodoxy open to the secular world, thereby helping to root the patristic tradition within the Western cultural context of the twentieth century.