admin, Author at The Evelyn Underhill Association

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The Spiritual Life of the World

Day of Quiet Reflection

The 20th Annual Evelyn Underhill Quiet Day, The Call to God, will be held on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Cathedral College on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral. The Day will be guided by Dr. Kathleen Staudt, teacher, author and spiritual director. Registration materials will be available after Easter 2009. For information contact kathleen.staudt@gmail.com

“Mysticism and Social Concern”

At the Evelyn Underhill Quiet Day in June 2008, Rev. Canon Dr. Gerald Loweth presented the following insights:

Evelyn Underhill is well known for her writings on the subject of Christian mysticism. She began her work in the early twentieth century at a time when this tradition was being looked at afresh. Among other writers of her time she was able to describe … Read more

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by Nadia Delicata

“What is it to be holy?” This question fashioned Evelyn Underhill’s life. The young Underhill struggled with lack of intimacy and a disembodied spirituality. Her arduous spiritual searching drove her from pursuing magic, to a meticulous empirical study of the mystics, to facing personal tragedy in the First World War. Her gradual purification and transformation flourished in her encounter with Baron Friedrich von Hiigel, her spiritual mentor. In the process, she rediscovered her Anglican roots, and gave her ultimate assent to Christ. Underhill’s mature witness to the Christian life is revealed in her final “personal little hook” and testament, “The Golden Sequence: A Fourfold Study of the Spiritual Life.”

Nadia Delicata is a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at Regis College, University of Toronto.… Read more

by Martha Gross

In her writings, Evelyn Underhill challenges the reader to go deeper—beyond words, beyond labels, and even beyond dogma—to encounter Living Reality, The Absolute Fact, God. She identifies the human tendency to miss the symbolic or sacramental dimension of things, and to cling to labels as if they are reality itself. She likewise faults Christians for not looking deeply enough and hence not finding the self-disclosure of the Living God in Creed, liturgy, scripture and religious imagery. Throughout her writings Underhill invites us to open ourselves to the sacramentality of life. It is there we can find the Transcendent God – a God who is present, active and communicating in both the secular and religious moments of our lives.

How, one might reasonably ask, can people open themselves to perceiving the Living God in ordinary, secular experiences? Underhill … Read more

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The Spiritual Life of the World

Day of Quiet Reflection

The 2008 Quiet Day will be held on Saturday, June 14th in Cathedral College on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral. The Day will focus on Evelyn Underhill’s blending of personal prayer, corporate worship, and social justice into a coherent life, one accessible to others through her writing.

This year’s Day will be guided by Rev. Canon Dr. Gerald Loweth. In his recent dissertation Canon Loweth examined Underhill’s transition from a focus on private prayer, to worship, to a deeper involvement in the social issues of her time. In his two presentations, Canon Loweth will guide participants in exploring the connection between “personal “ spirituality and social action The Day, which runs from 9-3:30 p.m., will offer opportunities for private prayer and … Read more

by Stephanie Ford

On June 15, 1941, the British spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill, fragile from debilitating asthma, succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage. Meanwhile, a youthful World War II raged outside—her fellow Brits engaged in the feverish struggle to stop the spread of German domination. For Underhill, however, the question of security had been settled long before bombs damaged her beloved home city of London. Some years earlier, the Anglican spiritual guide had gone against the grain of national loyalties: she had become a pacifist. Persuaded by contemplation on the meaning of the cross, Underhill had in her own words, “crossed over to God’s side.” She became convinced that the law of charity alone sufficed.

What were the sources of Underhill’s conversion to a security in love, unfettered by the gut-wrenching fear that must have welled up in anyone who endured … Read more

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November 2006

SOAKED IN LOVE:
The 18th ANNUAL EVELYN UNDERHILL QUIET DAY

Evelyn Underhill described the Retreat House at Pleshey in a letter to her spiritual director Baron Friedrich von Hugel as follows: “The whole house seemed soaked in love and prayer…(the place) cured solitude and gave me at last really the feeling of belonging to the Christian family…I lost here my last bit of separateness and wish for anything of my own and gained a wholly new sense of the realness and almost unbearable beauty of Christian life.” Using slide images of the house and grounds at Pleshey (a village in Essex), participants will reflect on the effect of this place on Underhill’s life and writing, and on their own special places of retreat.

The Quiet Day will be held June 16, … Read more

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January 2006

DAY OF QUIET REFLECTION

The annual Day of Quiet Reflection in honor of Evelyn Underhill will be held on June 17, 2006 in Sayre House, on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral. As usual participants will meet from 9-3:30 p.m. for a day of meditations and periods of quiet, with noon Eucharist at the Cathedral for those who want to participate. This year’s leader will be Carol Poston, professor of English, Xavier University, and editor of a new edition of Underhill’s letters. To receive registration information (probably in April or May) please contact Kathy Staudt at kstaudt@umd.edu.

THE MYSTIC AND THE CHURCH

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) is best known for her pioneering work, Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness. First published in 1911, it … Read more

by Dana Greene

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) is best known for her pioneering work, Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness. First published in 1911, it saw twelve editions and established Underhill as the leading authority on mysticism writing in English. She was a prolific writer, authoring or editing thirty-nine books and hundreds of articles and essays. She came to the subject of mysticism with a bias against institutional religion, but later recognized the human need for participation in some collective expression of worship of the Divine. Her sympathy for the mystical tradition nuanced her understanding of what it meant to participate in the Body of Christ and was the basis for her ongoing critique of the foibles of institutional religion. Her major achievement was a life-long pursuit of the love of God and her … Read more

by Robert Gail Woods

Dr. Woods serves as minister of two United Methodist Churches in Missouri. This article appeared in the Christian Century May 16, 1979, p. 553. Copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

Although most libraries have copies of some of her books—the two celebrated ones are Mysticism and Worship—Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) is but a name to many people, even among the theologically informed. Imagine my consternation a few years ago when, my dissertation on her concept of worship just completed, I talked with an Episcopal bishop who insisted that Evelyn Underhill, a fellow Anglican, was a man! He only tentatively accepted my explanation that in nonliterary circles she was known as … Read more

by Grace Adolphsen Brame

Grace Adolphsen Brame is professor of theology at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania. She recently uncovered a number of Underhill writings, including the letter published at the end, and four retreats published by Crossroad as The Ways of the Spirit. This article appeared in the Christian Century, October 31, 1990 pp. 997-1000, copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www. christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

Of all the themes in Evelyn Underhill’s work, none is more important than “continuing incarnation”: offering one’s life as the channel for God’s continuing work on earth by weaving together the inner and outer life of the spirit. For Underhill the spiritual life was a life “soaked” by a … Read more

Author: admin

Day of Quiet Reflection

“Mysticism and Social Concern”

Day of Quiet Reflection

SOAKED IN LOVE: The 18th ANNUAL EVELYN UNDERHILL QUIET DAY

DAY OF QUIET REFLECTION

THE MYSTIC AND THE CHURCH

SOAKED IN LOVE:
The 18th ANNUAL EVELYN UNDERHILL QUIET DAY