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Sermonette: Evelyn Underhill, Theologian and Mystic
As preached at the midweek outdoor Eucharist at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Glassboro, NJ on the evening of Wednesday, June 16, 2021. As usual when I'm preaching on the life of a historic saint, much of the biography is cribbed from Wikipedia.
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 37:3-6, 32-33
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
John 4:19-24
Evelyn Underhill was born in 1875 and grew up in London. Initially an agnostic, she gradually began to acquire an interest in Neoplatonism and from there was increasingly drawn to Catholicism against the objections of her husband, eventually becoming a prominent Anglo-Catholic. She gained prominence as an Anglican lay leader of spiritual retreats, a spiritual director for hundreds of individuals, guest speaker, radio lecturer and proponent of contemplative prayer. She was the first woman to lecture to the clergy in the Church of England as well as the first woman officially to conduct spiritual retreats for the Church. She was a prolific author and published over 30 books, many on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism.
She was responsible for introducing the forgotten authors of medieval and Catholic spirituality to a largely Protestant audience and the lives of eastern mystics to the English-speaking world. She believed that the mystical life should be accessible to the average person, a view for which she received criticism.
When I became Episcopalian, I wasn’t familiar with Underhill’s work or life. I was familiar with later, male, Roman Catholic theologians interested in mysticism, such as Thomas Merton and Leonardo Boff--the latter of whom Father Todd and I recently read in our Monday night book club, but, speaking as a feminist, an Anglo-Catholic, and someone interested in mysticism, the discovery of Evelyn Underhill was a very pleasant surprise. Indeed, since she came of age at the turn of the twentieth-century, during the Edwardian era (another particular interest of mine), she in many ways paved the way for the later theologians and mystics with which I was already familiar.
It fell to the twentieth-century Christian mystics to describe their own subjective, inner experience within a context which was increasingly willing to write it off as unreal or imaginary--or worse, as the symptom of some kind of psychological disorder. It fell to them to mount an intellectual defense of foregrounding personal religious experience, in conversation not only with theologians but also with secular thinkers including philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists. They also entered into dialogue with mystics and mystical thinkers from non-Christian faiths.
For many of us, I think, we are not Christians so much because we have been convinced by theological arguments or apologetics, but because of the way we have directly experienced the divine, the way God has spoken to our hearts, the ways we have encountered Jesus in our lives. For Underhill,
May we draw upon the faithful service of Evelyn Underhill as we ourselves seek to worship our God in spirit and in truth. Amen.
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 37:3-6, 32-33
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
John 4:19-24
Evelyn Underhill was born in 1875 and grew up in London. Initially an agnostic, she gradually began to acquire an interest in Neoplatonism and from there was increasingly drawn to Catholicism against the objections of her husband, eventually becoming a prominent Anglo-Catholic. She gained prominence as an Anglican lay leader of spiritual retreats, a spiritual director for hundreds of individuals, guest speaker, radio lecturer and proponent of contemplative prayer. She was the first woman to lecture to the clergy in the Church of England as well as the first woman officially to conduct spiritual retreats for the Church. She was a prolific author and published over 30 books, many on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism.
She was responsible for introducing the forgotten authors of medieval and Catholic spirituality to a largely Protestant audience and the lives of eastern mystics to the English-speaking world. She believed that the mystical life should be accessible to the average person, a view for which she received criticism.
When I became Episcopalian, I wasn’t familiar with Underhill’s work or life. I was familiar with later, male, Roman Catholic theologians interested in mysticism, such as Thomas Merton and Leonardo Boff--the latter of whom Father Todd and I recently read in our Monday night book club, but, speaking as a feminist, an Anglo-Catholic, and someone interested in mysticism, the discovery of Evelyn Underhill was a very pleasant surprise. Indeed, since she came of age at the turn of the twentieth-century, during the Edwardian era (another particular interest of mine), she in many ways paved the way for the later theologians and mystics with which I was already familiar.
It fell to the twentieth-century Christian mystics to describe their own subjective, inner experience within a context which was increasingly willing to write it off as unreal or imaginary--or worse, as the symptom of some kind of psychological disorder. It fell to them to mount an intellectual defense of foregrounding personal religious experience, in conversation not only with theologians but also with secular thinkers including philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists. They also entered into dialogue with mystics and mystical thinkers from non-Christian faiths.
For many of us, I think, we are not Christians so much because we have been convinced by theological arguments or apologetics, but because of the way we have directly experienced the divine, the way God has spoken to our hearts, the ways we have encountered Jesus in our lives. For Underhill,
In mysticism that love of truth which [is] the beginning of all philosophy leaves the merely intellectual sphere, and takes on the assured aspect of a personal passion. Where the philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks; and speaks, consequently, the disconcerting language of first-hand experience, not the neat dialectic of the schools. Hence whilst the Absolute of the metaphysicians remains a diagram —impersonal and unattainable—the Absolute of the mystics is lovable, attainable, alive.We owe it to the twentieth-century mystics, and to Underhill in particular, for carving out an understanding of what it means to experience, and to talk about experiencing, the presence of God among a context of doubt, skepticism, and religious pluralism.
May we draw upon the faithful service of Evelyn Underhill as we ourselves seek to worship our God in spirit and in truth. Amen.