We miss them more than ever

This article by Archbishop Basil Krivocheine constitutes a tribute to Vladimir Lossky, twenty years after his death, in the form of a commemorative meditation of a theological nature. The author takes stock of Lossky's growing influence in Catholic, Anglican, Greek and Russian circles, while highlighting the controversies that his work continues to generate, particularly regarding his interpretation of Saint Maximus the Confessor and Palamism. The central idea is that Lossky's absence is felt with particular acuteness in the post-Vatican II context, where the ecumenical dialogue between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism demands precisely the patristic rigour, subtlety and doctrinal firmness that characterised him. The contribution of the article is to define, through this portrait, an ideal of the Orthodox theologian combining piety, intelligence and rootedness in Tradition.