Mysticism (Evelyn Underhill)
Superb Classic Mysticism Text
[My 5-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness” by Evelyn Underhill.]
In The Foundations of Mysticism, author Bernard McGinn, the foremost scholar of Western Christian mysticism, describes Evelyn Underhill’s prose in Mysticism as “florid,” her mode of argument as “loose,” and style as “journalistic” rather than scholarly. In my opinion, the “weaknesses” that McGinn identifies are in fact strengths in Underhill’s classic text. Underhill is such a fluid and artful writer that it would be a pity had her vast knowledge and deep understanding of mysticism been circumscribed by the straitjacket of academic scholarship.
Evelyn Underhill’s book was written a hundred years ago, but it is still the most engaging and most informative general book on mysticism that I have encountered. In my teachings on mysticism, I recommend that students read both Underhill’s book and McGinn’s magnificent The Foundations of Mysticism in order to gain an in-depth intellectual understanding of “the practice of the presence of God.”
In short, Mysticism provides not only an insightful analysis and overview of the Western mystical tradition and the mystical experience, but also passionate and inspiring prose from both Underhill and the mystics she examines. This book is “must” reading for serious students of Christian mysticism.
[My 5-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness” by Evelyn Underhill.]
In The Foundations of Mysticism, author Bernard McGinn, the foremost scholar of Western Christian mysticism, describes Evelyn Underhill’s prose in Mysticism as “florid,” her mode of argument as “loose,” and style as “journalistic” rather than scholarly. In my opinion, the “weaknesses” that McGinn identifies are in fact strengths in Underhill’s classic text. Underhill is such a fluid and artful writer that it would be a pity had her vast knowledge and deep understanding of mysticism been circumscribed by the straitjacket of academic scholarship.
Evelyn Underhill’s book was written a hundred years ago, but it is still the most engaging and most informative general book on mysticism that I have encountered. In my teachings on mysticism, I recommend that students read both Underhill’s book and McGinn’s magnificent The Foundations of Mysticism in order to gain an in-depth intellectual understanding of “the practice of the presence of God.”
In short, Mysticism provides not only an insightful analysis and overview of the Western mystical tradition and the mystical experience, but also passionate and inspiring prose from both Underhill and the mystics she examines. This book is “must” reading for serious students of Christian mysticism.
