Besides Worship, at least two other books by Evelyn Underbill deserve consideration as we compile our list. Both her pioneering study Mysticism (1911) and her smaller work Practical Mys-{ 62 } ticism (1914). in which she relates her subject Lo the spiritual development of ordinary men and women, would be worthy candidates.
But the spiritual development of Evelyn Underhill is a fascinating study in itself. Born in 1875 into an irreligious upper-class British family, she was educated well and pursued her interests in botany, archaeology, languages, and Ihe social sciences. As a teenager, she wrote, ״As for religion, I don't quite know. ... I think it better to love and help the poor people round me than to go on saying that I love an abstract Spirit whom 1 have never seen. ... If we are to see God at all it must be through nature and our fellow men.״
She married when she was thirty-two, at a time when she was becoming interested in mysticism and exploring the idea of becoming a Catholic, probably because so many medieval mystics were Catholics. However, her husband was an Anglican, and so she decided not to leave the Church of England. After she wrote her first major theological work, Mysticism, a Roman Catholic philosopher and mystic took her under his wing and urged her not to neglect the person of Jesus Christ and the !New Testament. Following his advice, she became increasingly orthodox theologically.
The mysticism that she taught was not derived from F:astern religions, nor was it monastic (as in Catholicism). Its goal was not a selfish peace of mind but rather a spiritual union with Christ, who is the Christian s only source of inner peace
Underhill was increasingly in demand as a spiritual director and retreat leader. She prayed an hour each day and sought to
"practice the presence of Christ״ as taught by Brother Lawrence.
But she also visited the poor in London three times a week and helped both university professors and cleaning women develop a deeper relationship with God. Thus her writings on mysticism as well as her example broke new ground in the Protestant understanding of the subject.
Yet her book Worship, written when she was sixty-one, is even more significant. The Times (London) Literary Supplement commented, "Miss Underhill has written a masterpiece of the spiritual life, free from all professional partisanship.״
In the book she presents the characteristics of Christian worship, which she calls, "the response of the creature to the Eternal. . . an acknowledgment of Transcendence, ... of our total dependence on the free action of God.״ But Christian worship . understands the incarnation as well, "the self-giving of the 63 * Absolute God.״
After defining and discussing worship in general terms, Underhill delves into various types of worship: Jewish worship, early Christian worship, Catholic worship, Reformed worship,
Free Church worship, and Anglican worship. In her presentation, she does not attempt to he analytical, but merely to explain what they try to do. Or as she puts it, her emphasis is on "the shelter they can offer to many different kinds of adoring souls, not on the shabby hassocks, the crude pictures, or the paper flowers.״
Evelyn Underhill's writings on mysticism predated the emphasis on meditation in the 1960s by thirty years, and her classic work on worship also presaged the rediscovery of that subject in many Protestant churches by a half century. Many modern writers on both subjects have borrowed broadly from her seminal ideas.