The Spirit and Personhood: Rowan Williams's Engagement with Orthodox Theology: Vladimir Lossky and Olivier Clément

Abstract Rowan Williams's engagement with modern Orthodox theology goes back to the very earliest of his publications, and the subject of his doctorate at Oxford. Orthodox theology has, therefore, always been an important influence, though equally often difficult to pinpoint. In looking at what Williams owes to Vladimir Lossky, the subject of his doctorate, and Olivier Clément, Lossky's close friend, even disciple, whom Williams came to know while writing his doctoral dissertation, the central problem is a kind of ‘saturation’ of influence. This article seeks to make its subject manageable by focusing on (in the case of Lossky) Lossky's essay, ‘Tradition and Traditions’, and Williams's lectures, given in various contexts, published as A Margin of Silence , and (in the case of Clément) on a theme, increasingly important to Williams, of ‘liturgical humanism’, which, in a lecture published in various contexts, he explores in relation to several of Clément's works. In both contexts, Williams brings out the way in which immersion in tradition, through experience—including especially liturgical experience—nurtures an openness to the Holy Spirit, engendering a kind of humanism (cf. Maritain's humanisme integral ), constantly under threat in modern Western society.