Evelyn Underhill: Follow Jesus Personally and Corporately

Today we remember the mystic in disguise Evelyn Underhill

When you read the word "mystic" what is the first thing that pops into your head? Someone convulsing in a trance? A monk or a nun fasting and enraptured in a vision of the Almighty? Perhaps it is something even more bizarre? Raise your hand--yes, you at your computer screen, raise your hand--if when you heard the word “mystic” you thought of someone who enjoys yachting, gardening, bookbinding, and travel? That’s what I thought, you definitely did not think of that type of person! Common conceptions of mysticism often lead us to thinking of people that are slightly off, monastics who have been long fasting, individuals rubbing magic crystals, or other people on the fringe of society; however, in the early 20th Century Evelyn Underhill helped many mainstream people in the Church of England to discover that mysticism is an experience of the Divine meant for everyone!

Underhill, on the surface, appeared to be just a normal single child. The daughter of a barrister (lawyer) who was sent off to school to study languages, botany, philosophy, history, but certainly not theology. Her family may have baptized her, as was the almost universal custom in those days, but they did not bring her up in religion. From the age of 16 though Underhill developed one of her greatest talents, writing. For twenty years this gift led Underhill to writing articles and short pieces, but at the age of 36 she blossomed into a spiritual giant with the publication of Mysticism.

At the time mysticism was misunderstood, in much the same way it is now. Underhill through meticulous research and many trips to continental Europe cobbled together 133 different mystic writers throughout various ages to give people a more realistic glimpse of this spiritual experience. In this book, one of her two masterpieces, Underhill laid out four components to demystify mysticism.

First, the practice of mysticism is not voodoo, it’s not even theological, instead it is practical. It is an intense spiritual experience that leads not just to speculation, but to action. Next, mystic practice aims not to solve some problem, but it is instead a spiritual activity unto itself. Third, the way to do mysticism is to love, not like an emotional rollercoaster expression of sentiment, but rather a dedicated, committed love of a doting spouse. Finally, mysticism involves the entire self: heart, mind, body, and spirit; conscious and unconscious. For many people these four defining characteristics shifted how they viewed mysticism. Instead of it being something for a few, it became a practice of the many.

On some small level Evelyn Underhill bringing mysticism to 20th Century England was a big transition away from the past and towards something that we still experience to this day. Even though the Protestant Reformation had begun about 400 years before her life, Underhill shifted some prevailing spiritual practices of the Middle Ages. Most notably, people believed that certain spiritual experiences were meant only for those who lived in a monastery. Underhill continued what other spiritual reformers had begun, she made it possible for the common lay person to understand that their own household could experience something previously confined to a spiritual community. She exemplified that every household is in itself like a microcosmic church or intentional community.

Evelyn Underhill brought the spiritual practice of living mystically into focus for so many Christians in England. And yet, that is not all that she did. She also spent much of the second half of her life connecting contemplative practice to a contemplative life of action. A contemplative practice like centering prayer, silent meditation, or Lectio Divina helps individuals to come in contact with the ever present Spirit of God. Still Underhill’s example showed that life cannot be confined simply to spiritual practice, but it necessarily leads us to an active life in Christ.

One of Underhill’s closest friends and her spiritual director, Baron Friedrich von Hugel challenged her to move from what was most comfortable to her into a space where she might meet Jesus. For Underhill this meant that instead of just staying in the theoretical she was challenged to spend a couple of days each week working in the slums of London. This practical spiritual practice and time spent in community with a local parish led to her second great work Worship. This book focused not on the individual spiritual journey developed in mysticism, but the life-giving spiritual life that overflows from a church’s week-to-week worship and life together.

Underhill inspired so many in both of these works, in her appearance as the first female lecturer at Oxford University, as retreat leader (even to all male clergy retreats), in weekly radio addresses, and in the way that she lived her life. It is through someone like Evelyn Underhill that we remember Jesus’ example of both individual and communal spiritual practices and how they lead us into a deeper realization that God’s presence pervades all things, all people, and all places. Let us follow her example and live both personally and corporately as followers of Jesus devoting our lives to a greater connection with Christ who dwells within, among, and beyond us. Amen.