André Scrima: Orality and Writing

Most if not all of André Scrima’s texts are responses to di!erent requests: academic or spiritual, public or private. Many of them issued from his speeches that di!erent interlocutors or auditors recorded and transcribed. He even confessed that he never produced a text as an “author” who autonomously deals with a subject. His creativity turned into discourse only in relationship with the other, solicited by the other, in front of the other. What function or meaning did André Scrima attribute to his orality, which incidentally he never failed to mention in the published version of his texts? “Event of speech” arising from profound meditation on spiritual matters? Detachment of a spiritual traveller from the position of “author” and its production? Model of sharing the spiritual knowledge? Perhaps a model of tradition? My paper tries to analyse these possibilities.