Jean Balzon

This article pays tribute to Jean Balzon, co-founder of the journal *Contacts*, who died at the age of 101. It is a necrologial testimony retracing the journey of a prominent figure in French-speaking Orthodoxy. Born in Paris, having served in both World Wars, a lawyer and man of action, Balzon entered the Orthodox Church after the Second World War under the influence of Father Eugraph Kovalevsky. In 1949, he co-founded the journal *Contacts* with Germaine Revault d'Allonnes, which he administered for decades with discretion and dedication. The article highlights Balzon's decisive role in structuring a French-language Orthodoxy, open and independent of any jurisdiction, and recalls his indirect contribution to the creation of the Orthodox Brotherhood of Western Europe.

This article traces the history of the journal *Contacts* from its founding in 1949 until 1975, as an extension of a French-speaking Orthodox parish established in Paris in 1926. Written in the form of a personal account by two of its leading figures, Jean Balzon and Germaine Revault d'Allonnes, the text describes the successive stages of the journal's development: its birth as a newsletter, its transformation into a journal of Orthodox theology and spirituality in 1958, and the evolution of the places and structures that accompanied it. The central idea is that *Contacts* always aimed to foster concrete encounter among Orthodox Christians of various jurisdictions and traditions, as well as with other Christians and non-Christians. The historical contribution lies in the documentation of an original French-speaking Orthodox ecumenical center, rooted in Parisian life and driven by a commitment to open, non-institutionalized dialogue.

This article examines the reception of Vladimir Lossky's thought in the West, and more particularly the influence of his work *The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church* on Western Christians led by this reading to Orthodoxy. The author adopts an analytical and comparative approach, seeking to identify the intellectual and spiritual conditions that made this reception possible. The central idea is that Lossky's success in the West can be explained by a convergence: on one side, the theologian's dual Eastern and Western culture; on the other, a Western Christianity in crisis of rationalism, rediscovering mystical experience, apophatic theology and the personal responsibility of the laity. The contribution of the article is to show that Lossky's theology responds to deep aspirations of Western Christian renewal, thus revealing a common foundation between East and West in the undivided Tradition.