Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill
Born
6 December 1875(1875-12-06)
Wolverhampton, England
Died
15 June 1941 (aged 65)
England
Occupation Novelist, Writer, Mystic
Genres
Christian Mysticism, Spirituality
Notable
work(s)
Mysticism: A Study in Nature
and Development of Spiritual
Consciousness
Influences
Friedrich von Hügel, Rudolf
Christoph Eucken, Arthur
Machen, Henri Bergson, John of
the Cross
Influenced
C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, T.
S. Eliot
Evelyn Underhill (December 6, 1875 – June
15, 1941) was an English Anglo-Catholic
writer and pacifist known for her numerous
works on religion and spiritual practice, in
particular Christian mysticism.
In the English-speaking world, she was
one of the most widely read writers on such
matters in the first half of the twentieth cen-
tury. No other book of its type—until the ap-
pearance in 1946 of Aldous Huxley’s The Per-
ennial Philosophy—met with success
to
match that of her best-known work, Mysti-
cism, published in 1911.[1]
Biography
Underhill was born in Wolverhampton. She
was a poet and novelist, as well as being a
pacifist and mystic. An only child, her early
mystical insights she described as "abrupt ex-
periences of the peaceful, undifferentiated
plane of reality—like the "still desert" of the
mystic—in which there was no multiplicity
nor need of explanation."[2] The meaning of
these experiences became a lifelong quest
and source of private angst, provoking her to
research and write.
Both her father and her husband were
writers (on the law), London barristers and
yachtsmen. She and her husband, Hubert
Stuart Moore, grew up together and were
married on July 3, 1907. The couple had no
children. She traveled regularly to the contin-
ent, primarily Switzerland, France and Italy
where she pursued her interests in art and
Catholicism, visiting numerous churches and
monasteries. Neither her husband (a Protest-
ant) nor her parents shared her interest in
spiritual matters.
Underhill was called simply "Mrs. Moore"
by many of her friends, but was not without
her detractors. She was a prolific author and
published over thirty books either under her
maiden name Underhill or under the pseud-
onym John Cordelier, as was the case for
the 1912 book The Spiral Way. Initially an ag-
nostic, she gradually began to acquire an in-
terest in Neoplatonism and from there be-
came increasingly drawn to Catholicism
against the objections of her husband, be-
coming eventually a prominent Anglo-Cathol-
ic. Her spiritual mentor from 1921–24 was
Baron Friedrich von Hügel, who was appreci-
ative of her writing, yet concerned with her
focus on mysticism and encouraged her to
adopt a much more Christocentric view as
opposed to the theistic/intellectual one she
had previously held. She described him as
"the most wonderful personality. ..so saintly,
truthful, sane and tolerant," (Cropper, p. 44)
and she was influenced toward more charit-
able, down to earth activities. After his death
in 1925, her writings became more focused
on the Holy Spirit and she became prominent
in the Anglican Church as a lay leader of spir-
itual retreats, a spiritual director for hun-
dreds of individuals, guest speaker, and radio
lecturer/proponent of the power of contem-
plative prayer.
Underhill came of age in the Edwardian
era, at the turn of the century, and like most
of her contemporaries had a decided ro-
mantic bent. The enormous excitement in
those days, was mysteriously compounded of
the psychic, the psychological, the occult, the
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
1
mystical, the medieval, the advance of sci-
ence, the apotheosis of Art, the re-discovery
of the feminine and an unashamedly sensu-
ous and the most ethereally
’spiritual’.
Anglicanism seemed to her out-of-key with
this, her world. She sought centre of life as
she and many of her generation conceived it,
not in the state religion, but in experience
and the heart. This age of ’the soul’, was one
of those periods when a sudden easing of so-
cial taboos brings on a great sense of person-
al emancipation and desire for an El Dorado
despised by an older, more morose and in-
sensitive generation.[1]
As an only child she was devoted to her
parents, and later to her husband. She was
fully engaged in the life of a barrister’s
daughter and wife - the entertainment and
charitable work that entailed - and a daily re-
gimen that included her own writing, re-
search, worship, prayer and meditation. It
was a fundamental axiom of Evelyn Under-
hill, that all of life was sacred - as that was
what "incarnation" was about.
Education
Underhill was educated at home, except for
three years at a private school in Folkestone,
and subsequently read history and botany at
King’s College London. She was conferred
with an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from
Aberdeen University and made a fellow of
King’s College. She was the first woman to
lecture to the clergy in the Church of Eng-
land as well as the first woman to officially
conduct spiritual retreats for the Church. She
was also the first woman to establish ecu-
menical links between churches and one of
the first woman theologians to lecture in
English colleges and universities, as she did
frequently. Underhill was an award-winning
bookbinder,
studying
with
the most
renowned masters of the time. She was
schooled in the classics, well read in Western
spirituality, well
informed (in addition to
theology) in the philosophy, psychology, and
physics of her day, and acquired the prestigi-
ous post as editor of The Spectator.
Early work
Before undertaking many of her better
known expository works on mysticism, she
first published a small book of satirical
poems on legal dilemmas, The Bar-Lamb’s
Ballad Book, which received a favorable
welcome. Underhill then wrote three highly
unconventional though profoundly spiritual
novels. Like Charles Williams and later,
Susan Howatch, Underhill uses her narrat-
ives to explore the sacramental intersection
of the physical with the spiritual. She then
uses that sacramental framework very effect-
ively to illustrate the unfolding of a human
drama. Her novels are entitled The Grey
World (1904), The Lost Word (1907), and The
Column of Dust (1909). In her first novel, The
Grey World, described by one reviewer as an
extremely interesting psychological study,
the hero’s mystical
journey begins with
death, and then moves through reincarna-
tion, beyond the grey world, and into the
choice of a simple life devoted to beauty, re-
flecting Underhill’s own serious perspective
as a young woman.
"It seems so much easier in these
days to live morally than to live
beautifully. Lots of us manage to ex-
ist for years without ever sinning
against society, but we sin against
loveliness every hour of the day."[3]
The Lost Word and The Column of Dust are
also concerned with the problem of living in
two worlds and reflect the writer’s own spir-
itual challenges. In the 1909 novel, her
heroine encounters a rift in the solid stuff of
her universe:
She had seen, abruptly, the insecur-
ity of those defences which protect
our illusions and ward off the hor-
rors of truth. She had found a little
hole in the wall of appearances; and
peeping through, had caught a
glimpse of that seething pot of spir-
itual forces whence, now and then, a
bubble rises to the surface of things.
..[4]
Underhill’s novels suggest that perhaps for
the mystic, two worlds may be better than
one. For her, mystical experience seems in-
separable from some kind of enhancement of
consciousness or expansion of perceptual and
aesthetic horizons—to see things as they are,
in their meanness and insignificance when
viewed in opposition to the divine reality, but
in their luminosity and grandeur when seen
bathed in divine radiance. But at this stage
the mystic’s mind is subject to fear and
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
2
insecurity, its powers undeveloped. The first
novel takes us only to this point. Further
stages demand suffering, because mysticism
is more than merely vision or cultivating a
latent potentiality of the soul in cosy isola-
tion. According to Underhill’s view, the sub-
sequent pain and tension, and final loss of
the private painful ego-centered life for the
sake of regaining one’s true self, has little to
do with the first beatific vision. Her two later
novels are built on the ideal of total self-sur-
render even to the apparent sacrifice of the
vision itself, as necessary for the fullest pos-
sible integration of human life. This was for
her the equivalent of working out within, the
metaphorical intent of the life story of Jesus.
One is reunited with the original vision—no
longer as mere spectator but as part of it.
This dimension of self-loss and resurrection is
worked out in The Lost Word, but there is
some doubt as to its general inevitability. In
The Column of Dust, the heroine’s physical
death reinforces dramatically the mystical
death to which she has already surrendered
to. Two lives are better than one but only on
the condition that a process of painful re-in-
tegration intervenes to re-establish unity
between Self and Reality.[1]
All her characters derive their interest
from the theological meaning and value
which they represent and it is her ingenious
handling of so much difficult symbolic materi-
al that makes her work psychologically inter-
esting as a forerunner of such 20th century
writers as Susan Howatch, whose successful
novels also embody the psychological value
of religious metaphor and the traditions of
Christian mysticism. Her first novel received
critical acclaim, but her last was generally
derided. However her novels give remarkable
insight into what we may assume was her de-
cision to avoid what St. Augustine described
as the temptation of fuga in solitudinem ("the
flight into solitude"), but instead acquiescing
to a loving, positive acceptance of this world.
Not looking back, by this time she was
already working on her magnum opus.
Writings on religion
Mysticism (1911)
Underhill’s greatest book, Mysticism: A
Study of the Nature and Development of
Man’s Spiritual Consciousness, was pub-
lished in 1911, and is distinguished by the
very qualities which make it inappropriate as
a straightforward textbook. The spirit of the
book is romantic, engaged, and theoretical
rather than historical or scientific. Underhill
has little use for theoretical explanations and
the traditional religious experience, formal
classifications or analysis. She dismisses Wil-
liam James’ pioneering study, The Varieties
of Religious Experience (1902), and his "four
marks of the mystic state" (ineffability, noetic
quality, transcience, and passivity). James
had admitted that his own constitution shut
him off almost entirely from the enjoyment of
mystical states thus his treatment was purely
objective. Underhill substituted (1) mysticism
is practical, not theoretical, (2) mysticism is
an entirely spiritual activity, (3) The business
and method of mysticism is love. (4) mysti-
cism entails a definite psychological experi-
ence. Her insistence on the psychological ap-
proach was that it was the glamorous science
of the pre-war period, offering the potential
key to the secrets of human advances in intel-
ligence, creativity, and genius, and already
psychological findings were being applied in
theology (i.e.,William Sanday’s Christologies
Ancient and Modern).[1]
She divided her subject into two parts; the
first an introduction, and the second, a de-
tailed study of the nature and development of
human consciousness. In the first section, in
order to free the subject from confusion and
misapprehension, she approached it from the
point of view of the psychologist (new science
at the time), the symbolist and the theolo-
gian. To separate it from its most dubious
connection she included a chapter on mysti-
cism and magic. At the time, and still today,
the subject is associated with the occult, ma-
gic, secret rites, and fanaticism, while she
knew the mystics throughout history to be
the world’s spiritual pioneers.
She divided her map of "the way" into five
sections; the "Awakening of Self," quoting
Henry Suso (disciple of Meister Eckhart):
"That which the Servitor saw had no
form neither any manner of being;
yet he had of it a joy such as he
might have known in the seeing of
shapes and substances of all joyful
things. His heart was hungry, yet
satisfied, his soul was full of content-
ment and joy: his prayers and his
hopes were fulfilled." (Cropper p.
46)
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Evelyn Underhill
3
Suso’s description of how the abstract truth,
once remembered (related to each soul’s true
nature and purpose), contains the power of
fulfilment was the starting point of Under-
hill’s own path. The second stage she
presents as psychological "purgation of self,"
quoting the Theologia Germanica (14th c. an-
onymous) regarding ego (Underhill’s "little
self") transcendence:
"We must cast all things from us and
strip ourselves of them and refrain
from claiming anything for our own."
The third stage she titles, "Illumination," and
quotes William Law:
"Everything in ...nature, is descen-
ded out that which is eternal, and
stands as a. ..visible outbirth of it, so
when we know how to separate out
the grossness, death, and darkness.
..from it, we find. ..it in its eternal
state."
The fourth stage she describes as the "dark
night of the soul" (which her correspondence
leads us to believe she struggled with
throughout her life) where one is deprived of
all that has been valuable to the lower self,
and quoting Mechthild of Magdeburg:
"...since Thou hast taken from me all
that I had of Thee, yet of Thy grace
leave me the gift which every dog
has by nature: that of being true to
Thee in my distress, when I am de-
prived of all consolation. This I de-
sire more fervently than Thy heav-
enly Kingdom."
And last she devotes a chapter to the unitive
life, the sum of the mystic way:
"When love has carried us above all
things into the Divine Dark, there
we are transformed by the Eternal
Word Who is the image of the Fath-
er; and as the air is penetrated by
the sun, thus we receive in peace
the Incomprehensible Light, enfold-
ing
us,
and
penetrating
us.’
(Ruysbroech)
Where Underhill struck new ground was in
her insistence that this state of union pro-
duced a glorious and fruitful creativeness, so
that the mystic who attains this final perfect-
ness is the most active doer - not the reclus-
ive dreaming lover of God.
We are all the kindred of the mys-
tics. ..Strange and far away from us
though they seem, they are not cut
off from us by some impassable
abyss. They belong to us; the giants,
the heroes of our race. As the
achievement of genius belongs not
to itself only but also to the society
that brought it forth;...the supernal
accomplishment of the mystics is
ours also. ..our guarantee of the end
to which immanent love, the hidden
steersman. ..is moving. ..us on the
path toward the Real. They come
back to us from an encounter with
life’s most august secret. ..filled with
amazing tidings which they can
hardly tell. We, longing for some as-
surance. ..urge them to pass on their
revelation. ..the old demand of the
dim-sighted and incredulous. ..But
they cannot. ..only fragments of the
Symbolic Vision. According to their
strength and passion, these lovers of
the Absolute. ..have not shrunk from
the suffering. ..Beauty and agony
have called. ..have awakened a hero-
ic response. For them the winter is
over. ..Life new, unquenchable and
lovely comes to meet them with the
dawn."(Cropper, p.47)
The book ends with an extremely valuable ap-
pendix, a kind of who’s who of mysticism,
which shows its persistence and interconnec-
tion from century to century.
Ruysbroeck (1914)
A work on the fourteenth century Dutch mys-
tic,
Jan van Ruusbroec or Ruysbroeck
(1293-1381), published in London in 1914.[5]
She had discussed him from several different
perspectives during the course of her earlier
book on Mysticism in 1911.
I. Life. She starts with a biography, drawn
mainly from two works on his life written by
fellow monastics, Pomerius[6] and Gerard Na-
ghel.[7]
His childhood was spent in the village of
Ruysbroeck. [page 7] At eleven he ran away
to Brussels, where he began to life with his
uncle,
John Hinckaert, a Canon at the
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
4
Cathedral of St. Gudule, and a younger Can-
on, Francis van Coudenberg. [10] At twenty-
four he was ordained a priest and became a
prebend at St. Gudule. [12] At his first mass
he envisioned his mother’s spirit released
from Purgatory and entering Heaven. [15]
From age 26 to 50 Ruysbroeck was a cathed-
ral chaplain at St. Gudule. [15] Although he
"seemed a nobody to those who did not know
him," he was developing a strong spiritual
life, "a penetrating intellect, a fearless heart,
deep knowledge of human nature, remark-
able powers of expression". [17] At one point
he wrote strong pamphlets and led a cam-
paign against a heretical group, the Brethren
of the Free Spirit led by Bloemardinne, who
practiced
a
self-indulgent
"mysticality".
[18-20] Later, with the two now elderly Can-
ons, he moved into the countryside at Groen-
endael ("Green Valley"). [21-22] Pomerius
writes that he retired not to hide his light
"but that he might tend it better" [22]. Five
years later their community became a Priory
under the Augustinian Canons. [23]
Many of his works were written during
this period, often drawing lessons from
nature. [24] He had a favorite tree under
which he would sit and write what the ’Spirit’
gave to him. [25] He solemnly affirmed that
his works were composed under the "domina-
tion of an inspiring power," she writes. [26]
Pomerius says that Ruysbroeck could enter a
state of contemplation in which he appeared
surrounded by radiant light. [26-27] Along-
side his spiritual ascent, Naghel says, he cul-
tivated the friendship of those around him,
enriching their lives. [27-28] He also worked
in the garden of the priory, and sought to
help out creatures of the forest. [29-30] He
moved from the senses to the transcendent
without frontiers or cleavage, she writes,
these being for him "but two moods within
the mind of God". [30] He counseled many
who came to him, including Gerard Groot of
the Brothers of the Common Life. [31] His ad-
vice would plumb the "purity and direction"
of the seeker’s will, and love. [32] There, at
Groenendael he finally "leap to a more
abundant life". [34] In The Sparkling Stone
Ruysbroec wrote about coming to know the
love "which giveth more than one can take,
and asketh more than one can pay." [34]
II. Works. Next, she gives a bibliography
of his eleven admittedly authentic works,
providing details concerning each work’s ori-
gin, nature, and contents, as well as their
place in his writings. 1. The Spiritual Taber-
nacle; 2. The Twelve Points of True Faith; 3.
The Book of the Four Temptations; 4. The
Book of the Kingdom of God’s Lovers; 5. The
Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage; 6. The
Mirror of Eternal Salvation or Book of the
Blessed Sacraments; 7. The Seven Cloisters;
8. The Seven Degrees of the Ladder of Love;
9. The Book of the Sparkling Stone; 10. The
Book of the Supreme Truth; 11. The Twelve
Béguines.
III. Doctrine of God. Several types of mys-
tics are described. The first (e.g., St. Teresa)
deals with personal psychological experi-
ences and emotional reactions, leaving the
nature of God to existing theology. [page 52]
The second (e.g., Plotinus) has passion
sprung from the vision of a philosopher; the
intellect often is more active than the heart,
yet like a poet such a mystic strives to sketch
his vision of the Ultimate. [53] The greatest
mystics (e.g., St. Augustine) embrace at once
"the infinite and the intimate" so that "God is
both near and far, and the paradox of
transcendent-immanent Reality is a self-evid-
ent if an inexpressible truth." Such mystics
"give us by turns a subjective and psycholo-
gical, an objective and metaphysical, reading
of spiritual experience." Here is Ruysbroeck.
[53-54]
An apostolic mystic [55] represents hu-
manity in it quest to discern the Divine Real-
ity, being like "the artist extending our uni-
verse, the pioneer cutting our path, the
hunter winning food for our souls." [56] Yet,
although his experience is personal, his lan-
guage is often drawn from tradition, [57] but
the words may "enchant rather than inform
the soul" so ineffable is the nature of God.
[58] Ruysbroeck goes venturing "to hover
over that Abyss which is ’beyong Reason,’
stammering and breaking into wild poetry in
the desperate attempt to seize the unseizable
truth." [55] "[T]he One is ’neither This nor
That’." [61]
"God as known by man" is the Absolute
One who combines and resolves the contra-
dictory natures of time and eternity, becom-
ing and being; who is both transcendent and
immanent, abstract and personal, work and
rest, the unmoved mover and movement it-
self. God is above the storm, yet inspires the
flux. [59-60] The "omnipotent and ever-active
Creator" who is "perpetually breathing forth
His energetic Life in new births of being and
new floods of grace." [60] Yet the soul may
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Evelyn Underhill
5
pierce beyond this fruitful[8] nature to the
simple essence of God. There we humans
would find that "absolute and abiding Reality,
which seems to man Eternal Rest, the ’Deep
Quiet of the Godhead,’ the ’Abyss,’ the ’Dim
Silence’; and which we can taste indeed but
never know. There, ’all lovers lose them-
selves’." [60]
The Trinity, according the Ruysbroeck,
works in living distinctions, "the fruitful
nature of the Persons." [61] Yet the Trinity in
itself is Unity of the Three Persons, which is
the Godhead. [60-61][9] Beyond and within
the Trinity, or the Godhead, then, is the
"fathomless Abyss" [60] that is the "Simple
Being of God" that is "an Eternal Rest of God
and of all created things." [61][10]
The Father is the unconditioned Origin,
Strength and Power, of all things. [62] The
Son is the Eternal Word and Wisdom that
shines forth in the world of conditions. [62]
The Holy Spirit is Love and Generosity eman-
ating from the mutual contemplation of Fath-
er and Son. [62][11] The Three Persons "exist
in an eternal distinction [emphasis added] for
that world of conditions wherein the human
soul is immersed". [63] By the acts of the
Three Persons all created things are born; by
the incarnation and crucifixion we human
souls are adorned with love, and so to be
drawn back to our Source. "This is the circ-
ling course of the Divine life-process." [63]
But beyond and above this eternal distinc-
tion
lies "the superessential world, tran-
scending all
conditions,
inaccessible
to
thought-- ’the measureless solitude of the
Godhead, where God possesses Himself in
joy.’ This is the ultimate world of the mystic."
[63-64] There, she continues, quoting Ruys-
broeck: "we can speak no more of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit nor of any creature; but
only of one Being, which is the very sub-
stance of the Divine Persons. There were we
all one before our creation; for this is our su-
peressence...
. There the Godhead is,
in
simple essence, without activity; Eternal
Rest, Unconditioned Dark, the Nameless Be-
ing, the Superessence of all created things,
and the simple and infinite Bliss of God and
of all the Saints." [64][12] "The simple light of
this Being... embraces the unity of the Divine
Persons" as well as envelopes and irradiates
the ground and fruition of human souls in the
Divine life-process. "And this is the union of
God and the souls that love Him." [64-65][13]
IV. Doctrine of Humankind. For Ruys-
broeck,
"God is
the
’Living Pattern of
Creation’ who has impressed His image on
each soul, and in every adult spirit the char-
acter of that image must be brought from the
hiddenness and realized." [66][14] The pat-
tern is trinitarian; there are three properties
of the human soul. First, resembling the
Father, "the bare, still place to which con-
sciousness retreats in introversion... ." [67]
Second, following the Son, "the power of
knowing Divine things by intuitive compre-
hension: man’s fragmentary share in the
character of the Logos, or Wisdom of God."
[67-68] "The third property we call the spark
of the soul. It is the inward and natural tend-
ency of the soul towards its Source; and here
do we receive the Holy Spirit, the Charity of
God." [68].[15] So will God work within the
human being; in later spiritual development
we may form with God a Union, and eventu-
ally a Unity. [70-71][16]
The mighty force of Love is the ’very self-
hood of God’ in this mysterious communion.
[72, 73] "It is the nature of love," says Ruys-
broeck, "ever to give and to take, to love and
be loved, and these two things meet in whom-
soever loves. Thus the love of Christ is both
avid and generous... as He devours us, so He
would feed us. If He absorbs us utterly into
Himself, in return He gives us His very self
again." [75-76][17] "Hungry love," "generous
love," "stormy love" touches the human soul
with its Divine creative energy and, once we
become conscious of it, evokes in us an an-
swering storm of love. "The whole of our hu-
man growth within the spiritual order is con-
ditioned by the quality of this response; by
the will,
the industry, the courage, with
which [we accept our] part in the Divine give-
and-take." [74] As Ruysbroeck puts it:
"That measureless Love which is
God Himself, dwells in the pure
deeps of our spirit, like a burning
brazier of coal. And it throws forth
brilliant and fiery sparks which stir
and enkindle heart and senses, will
and desire, and all the powers of the
soul, with a fire of love; a storm, a
rage, a measureless fury of love.
These be the weapons with which
we fight against the terrible and im-
mense Love of God, who would con-
sume all loving spirits and swallow
them in Himself. Love arms us with
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Evelyn Underhill
6
its own gifts, and clarifies our reas-
on, and commands, counsels and ad-
vises us to oppose Him, to fight
against Him, and to maintain against
Him our right to love, so long as we
may." [74-75][18]
The drama of this giving and receiving Love
constitutes a single act, for God is as an
"ocean which ebbs and flows" or as an "in-
breathing and outbreathing". [75, 76] "Love
is a unifying power, manifested in motion it-
self, ’an outgoing attraction, which drags us
out of ourselves and calls us to be melted and
naughted in the Unity’." [76][19]
Next, the spiritual development of the soul
is addressed. [76-88] Ruysbroeck adumbrates
how one may progress from the Active life, to
the Interior life, to the Superessential life;
these correspond to the three natural orders
of Becoming, Being, and God, or to the three
rôles of the Servant, the Friend, and the "hid-
den child" of God. [77, 85] The Active life fo-
cuses on ethics, on conforming the self’s
daily life to the Will of God, and takes place
in the world of the senses, "by means". [78]
The Interior life embraces a vision of spiritual
reality, where the self’s contacts with the
Divine take place "without means". [78] The
Superessential life transcends the intellectual
plane, whereby the self does not merely be-
hold, but rather has fruition of the Godhead
in life and in love, at work and at rest, in uni-
on and in bliss. [78, 86, 87][20] The analogy
with the traditional threefold way of Purga-
tion, Illumination, and Union, is not exact.
The Interior life of Ruysbroeck contains as-
pects of the traditional Union also, while the
Superessential life "takes the soul to heights
of fruition which few amongst even the
greatest unitive mystics have attained or de-
scribed." [78-79]
V, VI, VII, VIII. In her last four chapters,
Evelynn Underhill continues the discussion
concerning the Active life [94-114], the In-
terior life [115-163], and the Superessential
or glorious life [164-185].
"The Mysticism of Plotinus"
(1919)
An essay originally
published
in The
Quarterly Review (1919),[21] and later collec-
ted in The Essentials of Mysticism and other
essays
(London:
J.M.Dent
1920)
at
116-140.[22] Underhill
here
addresses
Plotinus (204-270) of Alexandria and later of
Rome.
A neoplatonist as well as a spiritual guide,
Plotinus writes regarding both formal philo-
sophy and hands-on, personal, inner experi-
ence. Underhill makes
the
distinction
between the geographer who draws maps of
the mind, and the seeker who actually travels
in the realms of spirit. [page 118] She ob-
serves that usually mystics do not follow the
mere maps of metaphysicians. [page 117]
In the Enneads Plotinus presents the Div-
ine as an unequal triune, in descending or-
der: a) the One, perfection, having nothing,
seeking nothing, needing nothing, yet it over-
flows creatively, the source of being; [121] b)
the emitted Nous or Spirit, with intelligence,
wisdom, poetic intuition, the "Father and
Companion" of the soul; [121-122] and, c) the
emitted Soul or Life, the vital essence of the
world, which aspires to communion with the
Spirit above, while also directly engaged with
the physical world beneath. [123]
People "come forth from God" and will
find hapiness once re-united, first with the
Nous, later with the One. [125] Such might
be the merely logical outcome for the meta-
physician, yet Plotinus
the seeker also
presents this return to the Divine as a series
of moral purgations and a shedding of irra-
tional delusions, leading eventually to entry
into the intuitively beautiful. [126] This intel-
lectual and moral path toward a life aesthetic
will
progressively
disclose an
invisible
source, the Nous, the forms of Beauty. [127]
Love is the prevailing inspiration, although
the One is impersonal. [128] The mystic will
pass through stages of purification, and of
enlightenment, resulting in a shift in the cen-
ter of our being, "from sense to soul, from
soul to spirit," in preparation for an ultimate
transformation of consciousness. [125, 127]
Upon our arrival, we shall know ectasy and
"no longer sing out of tune, but form a divine
chorus round the One." [129]
St. Augustine (354-430) criticizes such
neoplatonism as neglecting the needs of
struggling and imperfect human beings. The
One of Plotinus may act as a magnet for the
human soul, but it cannot be said to show
mercy, nor to help or love or redeem the indi-
vidual on earth. [130] Other western mystics
writing on the neoplatonists mention this
lack of "mutual attraction" between humanity
and
the unconscious, unknowable One.
[130-131] In this regard Julian of Norwich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
7
(1342-1416) would write, "Our natural will is
to have God, and the good-will of God is to
have us." [130]
Plotinus leaves the problem of evil unre-
solved, but having no place in the blissful life;
here, the social ethical side of religion seems
to be shorted. His philosophy does not in-
clude qualities comparable to the Gospel’s di-
vine "transfiguration of pain" through Jesus.
[131] Plotinus "the self-sufficient sage" does
not teach us charity, writes St. Augustine.
[132]
Nonetheless, Underhill notes, Plotinus and
neoplatonism were very influential among
the mystics of Christianity (and Islam). St.
Augustine the Church Father was himself
deeply affected by Plotinus, and through him
the western Church. [133-135, 137] So, too,
was Dionysius (5th century, Syria), whose
writings would also prove very influential.
[133, 135] As well were, e.g., Erigena [135],
Dante [136], Ruysbroeck [136, 138], Eckhart
[138], and Boehme [139].
Worship (1936)
The chapter headings give an indication of its
contents.
Part I: 1. The Nature of Worship, 2. Ritual
and Symbol, 3. Sacrament and Sacrifice, 4.
The Character of Christian Worship, 5. Prin-
ciples of Corporate Worship, 6. Liturgical
Elements in Worship, 7. The Holy Eucharist:
Its Nature, 8. The Holy Eucharist: Its Signi-
ficance, 9. The Principles of Personal
Worship.
Part II: 10. Jewish Worship, 11. The Begin-
nings of Christian Worship, 12. Catholic Wor-
ship: Western and Eastern, 13. Worship in
the Reformed Churches, 14. Free Church
Worship,
15.
The Anglican
Tradition.
Conclusion.
Influences
Underhill’s life was greatly impacted by her
husband’s resistance to her joining the Cath-
olic Church to which she was powerfully
drawn. At first she believed it to only be a
delay in her decision, but it proved lifelong.
He was, however, a writer himself and was
supportive of her writing both before and
after their marriage in 1907, though he did
not share her spiritual affinities. Her fiction
was written
in
the six years between
1903-1909 and represents her four major
interests of that general period: philosophy
(neoplatonism), theism/mysticism, the Roman
Catholic liturgy, and human love/compas-
sion.[23] In her earlier writings Underhill of-
ten wrote using the terms "mysticism" and
"mystics" but later began to adopt the terms
"spirituality" and "saints" because she felt
they were less threatening; she was often cri-
ticized for believing that the mystical life
should be accessible to the average person.
Her fiction was also influenced by the lit-
erary creed expounded by her close friend
Arthur Machen, mainly his "Hieroglypics" of
1902, summarised by his biographer:
There are certain truths about the
universe and its constitution - as dis-
tinct from the particular things in it
that come before our observation -
which cannot be grasped by human
reason or expressed
in precise
words: but they can be apprehended
by some people at least, in a semi-
mystical experience, called ecstasy,
and a work of art is great insofar as
this experience is caught and ex-
pressed in it. Because, however, the
truths concerned transcend a lan-
guage attuned to the description of
material objects, the expression can
only be through hieroglyphics, and it
is of such hieroglyphics that literat-
ure consists.
In Underhill’s case the quest for psychologic-
al realism is subordinate to larger metaphys-
ical considerations which she shared with Ar-
thur Machen. Incorporating the Holy Grail in-
to their fiction (stimulated perhaps by their
association with Arthur Waite and his affili-
ation with the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn), for Machen the Holy Grail was per-
haps "the" hieroglyph, "the " crystallisation in
one sacred emblem of all man’s transcend-
ental yearning, "the" gateway to vision and
lasting appeasement of his discontents. For
her is was the center of atonement-linked
meanings as pointed out to Margaret Robin-
son in a letter responding to her criticism of
Underhill’s last novel:
"Don’t marvel at your own temerity
in criticising. Why should you? Of
course, this thing wasn’t written for
you - I never write for anyone at all,
except in letters of direction! But, I
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
8
take leave to think the doctrine con-
tained in it is one you’ll have to as-
similate sooner or later and which
won’t do you any harm. It’s not
"mine" you know. You will find it all
in Eckhart.
.. They all know, as
Richard of St Victor said, , that the
Fire of Love "burns." We have not
fulfilled our destiny when we have
sat down at a safe distance from it,
purring like overfed cats, ’suffering
is the ancient law of love’ - and its
highest pleasure into the bargain,
oddly enough. ... A sponge cake and
milk religion is neither true to this
world nor to the next. As for the
Christ being too august a word for
our little hardships - I think it is
truer that it is "so" august as to give
our little hardships a tincture of Roy-
alty once we try them up into it. I
don’t think a Pattern which was
’meek & lowly’ is likely to fail of ap-
plication to very humble and ordin-
ary things. For most of us don’t get
a chance "but" the humble and or-
dinary: and He came that we might
all have life more abundantly, ac-
cording to our measure. There that’s
all![24]
Two contemporary philosophical writers
dominated Underhill’s thinking at the time
she wrote "Mysticism": Rudolf Eucken and
Henri Bergson. While neither displayed an in-
terest in mysticism, both seemed to their dis-
ciples to advance a spiritual explanation of
the universe. Also, she describes the fashion-
able creed of the time as "vitalism" and the
term adequately sums up the prevailing wor-
ship of life in all its exuberance, variety and
limitless possibility which pervaded pre-war
culture and society. For her, Eucken and
Bergson confirmed the deepest intuitions of
the mystics. (Armstrong, "Evelyn Underhill")
Among the mystics, Ruysbroeck, was to
her the most influential and satisfying of all
the medieval mystics, and she found herself
very much at one with him in the years when
he was working as an unknown priest in
Brussels, for she herself had also a hidden
side.
"His career which covers the greater
part of the fourteenth century, that
golden age of Christian Mysticism,
seems to exhibit within the circle of
a single personality, and carry up to
a higher term than ever before, all
the best attainments of the Middle
Ages in the realm of Eternal life. The
central doctrine of the Divine Fath-
erhood, and of the soul’s power to
become the Son of God, it is this
raised to the nth degree of intensity.
..and demonstrated with the ex-
actitude of the mathematician, and
the passion of a poet, which Ruys-
broeck gives us.
..the ninth and
tenth chapters of "The Sparkling
Stone" the high water mark of mys-
tical literature. Nowhere else do we
find such a combination of soaring
vision with the most delicate and in-
timate psychological analysis. The
old Mystic sitting under his tree,
seems here to be gazing at and re-
porting to us the final secrets of that
Eternal World. .." (Cropper, p. 57)
One of her most significant influences and
important collaborations was with the Nobel
Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian
mystic, author, and world traveler. They pub-
lished a major translation of the work of
Kabir ("100 Poems of Kabir") together in
1915, to which she wrote the introduction.
He introduced her to the spiritual genius of
India which she expressed enthusiastically in
a letter:
This is the first time I have had the
privilege of being with one who is a
Master in the things I care so much
about but know so little of as yet: &
I understand now something of what
your writers mean when they insist
on the necessity and value of the
personal teacher and the fact that
he gives
something which
the
learner cannot get in any other way.
It has been like hearing the lan-
guage of which I barely know the al-
phabet, spoken perfectly.(Letters)
They did not keep up their correspondence in
later years, both suffered debilitating ill-
nesses in the last year of life and died in the
summer of 1941, greatly distressed by the
outbreak of World War II.
Evelyn in 1921 was to all outward appear-
ances in an assured and enviable position.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
9
She had been asked by the University of Ox-
ford to give the first of a new series of lec-
tures on Religion, and she was the first wo-
man to have such an honour. She was an au-
thority on her own subject of Mysticism and
respected for her research and scholarship.
Her writing was in demand, she had an inter-
esting and notable set of friends, devoted
readers, happy marriage and affectionate and
loyal parents. At the same time she felt that
her foundations were insecure, that her zeal
for Reality was resting on a basis that was
too fragile.
By 1939, she was a member of the Anglic-
an Pacifist Fellowship, writing a number of
important tracts expressing her anti-war
sentiment.
After returning to the Anglican Church,
and perhaps overwhelmed by her knowledge
of the achievements of the mystics and their
perilous heights, her ten year friendship with
Catholic philosopher and writer, Baron
Friedrich von Hugel, turned into one of spir-
itual direction. Charles Williams wrote in his
introduction to her Letters: ’The equal sway-
ing level of devotion and scepticism (related
to the church) which is, for some souls, as
much the Way as continuous simple faith is
to others, was a distress to her. ..She wanted
to be "sure." Writing to Von Hugel of the
darkness she struggled with:
What ought I to do?...being naturally
self-indulgent and at present unfor-
tunately professionally very prosper-
ous and petted, nothing will get
done unless I make a Rule. Neither
intellectual work nor religion give
me any real discipline because I
have a strong attachment to both.
..it
is useless advising anything
people could notice or that would
look pious. That is beyond me. In my
lucid moments I see only too clearly
that the only possible end of this
road is complete, unconditional self-
consecration, and for this I have not
the nerve, the character or the
depth. There has been some sort of
mistake. My soul is too small for it
and yet it is at bottom the only thing
that I really want. It feels sometimes
as if, whilst still a jumble of conflict-
ing impulses and violent faults I
were being pushed from behind
towards an edge I dare not jump
over."[25]
In a later letter of July 12 the Baron’s practic-
al concerns for signs of strain in Evelyn’s
spiritual state are expressed. His comments
give insight into her struggles:
"I do not at all like this craving for
absolute certainty that this or that
experience of yours, is what it seems
to yourself. And I am assuredly not
going to declare that I am absolutely
certain of the final and evidential
worth of any of those experiences.
They are not articles of faith. .. You
are at times tempted to scepticism
and so you long to have some, if only
one direct
personal
experience
which shall be beyond the reach of
all reasonable doubt. But such an es-
cape. ..would ...possibly be a most
dangerous one, and would only
weaken you, or shrivel you, or puff
you up. By all means. ..believe them,
if and when they humble and yet
brace you, to be probably from God.
But do not build your faith upon
them; do not make them an end
when they exist only to be a means.
..I am not sure that God does want a
marked preponderance of this or
that work or virtue in our life - that
would feed still further your natural
temperament, already too vehement.
(Cropper biography)
Although Underhill continued to struggle to
the end, craving certainty that her beatific
visions were purposeful, suffering as only a
pacifist can from the devastating onslaught
of World War II and the Church’s powerless-
ness to impact events, she may well have
played a powerful part in the survival of her
country through the influence of her words
and the impact of her teachings on thousands
regarding the power of prayer. Surviving the
London Blitz of 1940, her health disinteg-
rated further and she died the following year.
More than any other person, she was re-
sponsible for introducing the forgotten au-
thors of medieval and Catholic spirituality to
a largely Protestant audience and the lives of
eastern mystics to the English speaking
world. As a frequent guest on radio, her 1936
work The Spiritual Life was especially
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
10
influential as transcribed from a series of
broadcasts given as a sequel to those by Dom
Bernard Clements on the subject of prayer.
Fellow theologian Charles Williams wrote the
introduction to her published Letters in 1943,
which reveal much about this prodigious wo-
man. Upon her death, The Times reported
that on the subject of theology, she was "un-
matched by any of the professional teachers
of her day."
Since 2000 the Church of England com-
memorates her liturgically on June 15.
References
[1] ^ Armstrong, C.J.R., "Evelyn Underhill:
An Introduction to Her Life and
Writings", A.R. Mowbray & Co., 1975
[2] Williams, Charles, editor, "The Letters of
Evelyn Underhill", Longmans Green, pp.
122-23
[3] Underhill, E., The Grey World, London:
William Heinemann, 1904
[4] Underhill, E., The Column of Dust,
London: Methuen & Co., 1909
[5] By G. Bell & Sons; since reprinted [no
date, circa 2003] by Kessinger
Publishing.
[6] Canon Henricus Pomerius was prior of
the monastery where Ruysbroeck
resided, but two generations later; he
spoke with several of those who had
known Ruysbroeck well [pages 5-6] and
may have based his history on the work
of a contemporary of Ruysbroek.
[7] Gerard Naghel was a contemporary and
a close friend of Ruysbroeck, as well as
being the neighboring prior; he wrote a
shorter work about his life [6].
[8] "Fruition is one of the master-words of
Ruysbroeck’s thought, she observes.
[page 59] Later she more fully discusses
it, at [89].
[9] Here, she comments, Ruysbroeck
parallels the Hindu mystics, the
Christian Neoplatonists, and Meister
Eckhart. [61]
[10]She quotes from The Twelve Béguines at
cap. xiv.
[11] "[F]or these two Persons are always
hungry for love," she adds, quoting The
Spiritual Marriage, lib. ii at cap. xxxvii.
[12]She gives her source as The Seven
Degrees of Love at cap. xiv.
[13]She quotes from The Kingdom of God’s
Lovers at cap. xxix.
[14]Evelyn Underhill here refers to Julian of
Norwich and quotes her phrase on the
human soul being "made Trinity, like to
the unmade Blessed Trinity." Then our
author makes the comparison of
Ruysbroeck’s uncreated Pattern of
humankind to an archetype, and to a
Platonic Idea. [68].
[15]Here she quotes The Mirror of Eternal
Salvation at cap. viii. Cf., [70].
[16]She quotes Ruysbroeck, The Book of
Truth at cap. xi, "[T]his union is in God,
through grace and our homeward-
tending love. Yet even here does the
creature feel a distinction and otherness
between itself and God in its inward
ground." [71].
[17]Quoting The Mirror of Eternal Salvation
at cap. xvii.
[18]She again quotes from The Mirror of
Eternal Salvation at cap. xvii.
[19]Ruysbroeck, The Sparkling Sone at cap.
x.
[20]Re the Superessential life [86], citing
The Twelve Béguines at cap. xiii; and
[87], The Seven Degrees of Love at cap.
xiv.
[21]QR (1919) at 479-497.
[22]Recently offprinted by Kessinger
Publishing as The Mysticism of Plotinus
(2005), 48 pages.
[23]name="Armstrong, C.J.R."
[24]Armstrong, C.J.R., Evelyn Underhill: An
Introduction to her Life and Writings, pp.
86-87, A.R. Mowbray & Co., 1975
[25]Cropper, Margaret, "Life of Evelyn
Underhill," Harper & Brothers, 1958
Publications
Poetry
• The Bar-Lamb’s Ballad Book (1902).
• Immanence (1916).
• Theophanies (1916).
Novels
• The Grey World (1904). Reprint Kessinger
Publishing, 1942: ISBN 0-7661-0158-4
• The Lost Word (1907).
• The Column of Dust (1909).
Religion (non-fiction)
• Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and
Development of Man’s Spiritual
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
11
Consciousness (1911). reprint 1999, ISBN
1-85168-196-5, online edition
• The Path of Eternal Wisdom. A mystical
commentary on the Way of the Cross
(1912).
• The Spiral Way. Being a meditation on the
fifteen mysteries of the soul’s ascent
(1912).
• The Mystic Way. A psychological study of
Christian origins (1914).
• Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for
Normal People (1914). reprint 1942, ISBN
0-7661-0141-X; Vintage books 2003
reprint (pub. with Abba: Meditations
Based on the Lord’s Prayer): ISBN
0-375-72570-9
• Ruysbroeck (London: Bell 1915).
• "Introduction" (at 5-43) to Songs of Kabir
(1915) translated by Rabindranath
Tagore; reprint Samuel Weiser 1977,
ISBN 0-87728-271-4.
• The Essentials of Mysticism and other
essays (1920); reprint 1999, ISBN
1-85168-195-7
• The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today
(1920).
• The Mystics of the Church (1925).
• Concerning the Inner Life (1927); reprint
1999, ISBN 1-85168-194-9
• Man and the Supernatural. A study in
theism (1927).
• The House of the Soul (1929).
• The Light of Christ (1932).
• The Golden Sequence. A fourfold study of
the spiritual life (1933).
• Worship (1936).
• The Spiritual Life (1936); reprint 1999,
ISBN 1-85168-197-3, online edition
• The Mystery of Sacrifice. A study on the
liturgy (1938).
• Abba. A meditation on the Lord’s Prayer
(1940).
• The Letters of Evelyn Underhill (1943)
editor Charles Williams; reprint Christian
Classics 1989: ISBN 0-87061-172-0
• Shrines and Cities of France and Italy
(1949) edited by L. Menzies.
• Fragments from an inner life. Notebooks
of Evelyn Underhill (1993) edited by D.
Greene.
Anthologies
• Fruits of the Spirit (1942) edited by R. L.
Roberts; reprint 1982, ISBN
0-8192-1314-4
• Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill
(1946) edited by L. Menzies and
introduced by L. Barkway.
• Lent with Evelyn Underhill (1964) edited
by G. P. Mellick Belshaw.
• An Anthology of the Love of God. From the
writings of Evelyn Underhill (1976) edited
by L. Barkway and L. Menzies.
• The Ways of the Spirit (1990) edited by G.
A. Brame; reprint 1993, ISBN
0-8245-1232-4
• Evelyn Underhill. Modern guide to the
ancient quest for the Holy (1988) edited
and introduced by D. Greene.
• Evelyn Underhill. Essential writings
(2003) edited by E. Griffin.
• Radiance: A Spiritual Memoir (2004)
edited by Bernard Bangley, ISBN
1-55725-355-2
Commentary
• Margaret Cropper, The Life of Evelyn
Underhill (New York 1958).
• Christopher J. R. Armstrong, Evelyn
Underhil (1875-1941). An introduction to
her life and writings (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans 1976).
• Michael Ramsey and A. M. Allchin, Evelyn
Underhill. Two centenary essays (Oxford
1977).
• Annice Callahan, Evelyn Underhill:
Spirituality for daily living (University
Press of America 1997).
• Dana Greene, Evelyn Underhill. Artist of
the infinite life (University of Notre Dame
1998).
External links
• Underhill’s writing at the Christian
Classics Ethereal Library
• The Evelyn Underhill Association
• Meet Evelyn Underhill
• The Spiral Way (1922 complete text)
• The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-
day (1922 complete text)
• The Spiritual Life (1936 complete text)
• Evelyn Underhill: Mystic and Teacher
• Works by Evelyn Underhill at Project
Gutenberg
• Mysticism: A Study in Nature and
Development of Spiritual Consciousness
(online text)
• The Column of Dust (online text)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evelyn Underhill
12
• Free audio download of Underhill’s The
Life of the Spirit and the Life of
Today(from Librivox.com)
• Index entry at Poets’ Corner for Evelyn
Underhill
• Evelyn Underhill honored as Interfaith
Hero on ReadTheSpirit.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Underhill"
Categories: 1875 births, 1941 deaths, Anglo-Catholics, Anglican saints, Female saints, Christi-
an mystics, Christian writers, English Anglicans, English novelists, English poets, English spir-
itual writers, English theologians, English women writers, Metaphysics writers, English Chris-
tian pacifists, People from Staffordshire, People from Wolverhampton, Women poets, Women
novelists, Alumni of King's College London, Fellows of King's College London, 20th-century
Christian saints
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Evelyn Underhill
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