THE WAY: LITERATURE AND SPIRITUALITY

Abstract

The Way, the Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer’s most known book was published in September of 1939 in Valencia. This article reproduces, with slight variations, a conference pronounced in the commemoration of the 75th Aniversary of its publication in a Universitary Residence of Valencia. The following lines are intended to pro-vide some considerations about the literary characteristics of The Way and its im-plication in the transmission of the spiritual message of the book. Although it is not incorrect to frame The Way into the aphoristic genre, however, the book is not the result of a previous election of a literary gender: it not due to the accurate initial proj-ect of writing a work and, less, a work of a concrete literary genre. The Way came from the needs that the author had in his apostolic work. And in that context, it is possible to see that literary style is subordinated to the transmission of a message. On the other hand, it is important to consider that The Way is not a theological treatise. Certainly it contains plenty of elements to insinuate some lines of that spirituality, but they are not enough.