November 2001
Insights That Endure
by Dana Greene
Evelyn Underhill died in June 1941, 60 years ago this year. Her death came when Britain was locked in a battle for its life. A year before her death she left Kensington, a place she had lived her entire life, for the somewhat safer suburb of Hampstead. It was a confusing time for any believer, but particularly for the Christian pacifist. In 1939, Underhill joined a tiny group of English pacifists, most of whom were members of the historic peace churches. She took her stand humbly but resolutely, believing that the pacifist position was a vocational one, but that it followed from the Christian admonition to love one’s enemies. For a woman who was a committed British patriot, and one who witnessed the Blitz, … Read more