The great French Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément was born in the village of Aniane in the Languedoc region of southwestern France to a non-religious family. “I grew up in an environment in which Christianity played no part. I was not baptized, and received no religious instruction.” Attracted first by poetry, especially that of Rainer Maria Rilke, and then by the Bible, he spent his twenties exploring the religious traditions of India.
