The snow melts

This article by Olivier Clément offers a theological meditation on the role of poets as prophets in contemporary and future Christianity. Drawing on a broad constellation of literary, philosophical and patristic references — from Dostoevsky to Pasternak, from Maximus the Confessor to Levinas — the author develops a vision of twenty-first-century Christianity freed from moralism and pietism, grounded in the concept of "divine humanity" inherited from Russian religious philosophers. The central idea is that true poets, by awakening humanity to beauty, death and love, fulfil a prophetic function. The theological contribution lies in the articulation between Christ's descent into hell and the Resurrection: contemporary nihilism is presented not as an obstacle, but as the very place where Resurrection becomes possible, opening the way to a Trinitarian and creative spirituality.