Evelyn Underhill, Theologian and Mystic (1875-1941)

"'The Spiritual Life’ is a dangerously ambiguous term; indeed, it would be interesting to know what meaning any one reader at the present moment is giving to those three words. Many, I am afraid, would really be found to mean ‘the life of my own inside’: and a further section, to mean very holy, difficult, and peculiar—a sort of honors course in personal religion—to which they did not intend to aspire.” -Evelyn Underhill, “The Spiritual Life, 1936 

“Spiritual but not religious.” It’s a common descriptor, especially on Internet dating sites. People can claim they have a foot in the spiritual world without being a member of “organized religion,” a phrase almost guaranteed to scare away potential mates. But before blithely accepting the “SBNR” label, those with a spiritual bent would do well to consult the works of Evelyn Underhill, the English writer who almost single-handedly put “spirituality” into the common parlance. Underhill, whose feast day is June 15, understood that the spiritual life, without the discipline of religion, too often becomes centered on the self. “Any spiritual view which focuses attention on ourselves, and puts the human creature with its small ideas and adventures in the center foreground, is dangerous till we recognize its absurdity.”

Religion, she reminds us, is about “this adherence to God.” (the Spiritual Life) Evelyn Underhill wasn’t an abbess or a martyr, but the daughter of a London barrister and the wife of another, who had an inquisitive mind and the advantage of a university education. She began her writing career as poet and novelist, but gravitated toward the study of mystics and mysticism. Her monumental work. “Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness” (1911), defined mysticism as “active and practical, focused on the “changeless One,” based in reality, and leads to the “complete remaking of character.” In “Practical Mysticism” (1914), she demystifies mysticism for the general reader, defining it as “the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree, or who aims at or believes in such attainment.” 

Underhill was strongly attracted to Roman Catholicism and may have converted if it had not been for the objections of her husband, Hubert Stuart Moore, an Anglican Protestant. After years of attending Catholic Mass without receiving the Sacrament, she reconciled with the Church of England in 1921. In 1937, she published her last major study, “Worship,” in which she reminds her readers that “the worshiping life of the Christian, while profoundly personal, is essentially that of a person who is a member of a group.” Once again, she warns against spirituality without discipline. 

 While Underhill’s work is voluminous, a fine introduction is “Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings,” edited by Emilie Griffin (Orbis Books, 2003). And with June 15 marking the 80th anniversary of Underhill’s death, the Evelyn Underhill Association will hold a virtual celebration of her life, including an address by former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, June 14-18. For further information, see http://evelynunderhill.org/

Image: Icon of Evelyn Underhill by Suzanne Schleck (schleckicons.com)