Evdokimov’s understanding of his role as a witness for the universal Church brought Clément into contact with ecumenical endeavour and the evolving thought of the Catholic Church expressed at Vatican II, where both Evdokimov and Georges Florovsky represented the Orthodox Church as observers.
Evdokimov and Clément’s ecclesiology stems from their acceptance of the self- identification of the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Early Christian Church, that in spite of errors which have occurred within its ecclesial ministry and
portrayal of identity during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, it yet holds on to the true apostolic faith. The two theologians became part of the re-articulation of the Patristic renewal and ressourcement,367 which enriched Christian Churches during the twentieth century and fostered a real and new spirit of ecumenism between Christian Churches. Paul Evdokimov was committed to working especially at first with Reformed Christians,368 but after being invited to attend Vatican II as an observer, his contacts and collaboration with the Catholic Church increased, especially with the monastic contemplative orders.Evdokimov sees that modern man needs rest, ‘the discipline of regular periods of calm and silence’, rather than severe fasts and mortifications; the fast could then be his renunciation of the superfluous, his sharing with the poor and his smiling equilibrium.
Clément discerns there is no longer a place today for a Church that dominates. The Christian presence must essentially be a witness to the life that is lived in Christ; it is the face of the person that radiates this truth and light. In Clément’s judgement John Paul II had such a presence.369 The Church must remind people that Christian tradition formed our sense of personhood; the person in communion is the fundamental Christian theme, a theme of hope. Clément devoted his
Christian life and corpus of work to a ‘renewed understanding of the human person in the light of our relationship to God’,370
and a life-long endeavour not only to further and encourage dialogue between Eastern and Western Christians, but with all cultures and peoples. Like Clément’s contemporary and compatriot
367
Clément, Sources.
368 Jillions, ‘Orthodox Christianity in the West’, p. 287. 369 Clément, Petite boussole, p. 122.
Simone Weil, Evdokimov calls for a saintliness that is both ‘kenotic and creative, humble but capable of radiating life into all the complexity of history.’371
Evdokimov discerns, humility does not consist of becoming this or that, but of being, in the exact measure proposed by God. In Clément’s view, Evdokimov expresses the fruitful creativeness of the Russian Diaspora in its meeting with a both Christian and atheistic West. He concludes his Preface to Orthodoxie with this assessment: Evdokimov ‘appeals to the ecumenism of the contemplatives, of people of prayer, of all who desire not accommodation between churches, whether diplomatic or whatever people are willing to settle for, but “the centre where the lines converge”. Today this appeal still shows us the way.’372
371 Clément, ‘Preface’, in Evdokimov’s Orthodoxie, p. 13. 372 Clément, ‘Preface’, p. 13
CHAPTER1.4
Olivier Clément: Orthodox Theological Thought and Ecclesiology in the West
My son, I give you this commandment: let mercy always prevail in your balance, till the moment when you feel within yourself the mercy
that God shows towards the world.’373
St Isaac the Syrian
1.4.i Introduction
As a French European, Clément wrote from a unique historical and geographical position on matters of contemporary relevance and interest to thinkers and theologians of Western European cultures. He added significantly to the great corpus of creative œuvres that flowed from Russian pioneers of the Orthodox renewal in France. His understanding of Christianity broadened and matured throughout his life and his thought continues to make its mark in the twenty-first century; he is now recognised as a Contemporary Church Father, between East and West.374 Clément’s French roots and geographical locus uniquely equip him as an Orthodox Christian thinker to make his distinctive and significant
contribution as author, poet, compassionate literary critic and observer of
humankind and culture. He loved Mediterranean France and the Orthodox world of the Mediterranean countries, especially Greece, the Lebanon, and also Italy375 which he regarded as his second home. He believed that the future unity of Orthodoxy and Catholicism was possible without the loss of identity of either.376 To situate Clément’s contribution to Orthodox theological and ecclesiological thought in the West, it is necessary to consider the historical legacy of Orthodoxy before and during the Russian diaspora.
373 Concerning prayer for universal salvation: Clément, On Human Being, p. 58. 374
Arjakovsky, Olivier Clément, Un maître pour l’Église du XXI siècle.
375See Anthony O’Mahony on the important Eastern Christian presence in the Southern Italian
Peninsula and Sicily, in “‘Between Rome and Constantinople”: the Italian-Albanian Church: a study in Eastern Catholic history and ecclesiology’, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 8 (2008), 232-251:’Benedict XVI, conscious that the future of Christianity in the new emerging Europe will depend upon rapprochement between Eastern and Western
Churches [...] would be open to a new Eastern Catholic structure in Italy which might help to build bridges with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, a key relationship in the religious leadership of Europe.’ P. 247.
376This new encounter between Orthodoxy and the West raised awareness of the need ‘to possess
what is “one’s own” in order to benefit from what is “the other’s”‘; see Basil Zenkovsky, quoted by H Bos, ‘Orthodox youth and Orthodox culture: the genesis of Syndesmos, 1923-1953, in Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology, p. 18.