Practical Mysticism (Annotated)

By Evelyn Underhill

• This edition includes the following editor's introduction: Introduction to Catholic Mysticism

Originally published in 1915, "Practical Mysticism" is a work by one of the foremost 20th century Christian mystics, Evelyn Underhill. This work is an abridged version of Underhill's theology, and a perfect starting point for immersion into the subject.

In "Practical Mysticism," Evelyn Underhill sets out her belief that spiritual life is part of human nature and as such is available to every human being. Underhill's practical mysticism is secular rather than religious, since "it is a natural human activity."

• Language: English
• Publisher: ePembaBooks
• Release date: Mar 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9791221337914

Book preview

Evelyn Underhill

Practical Mysticism

Table of contents

Introduction to Catholic Mysticism

PRACTICAL MYSTICISM

Preface

Chapter 1 - What is Mysticism?

Chapter 2 - The World of Reality

Chapter 3 - The Preparation of the Mystic

Chapter 4 - Meditation and Recollection

Chapter 5 - Self-Adjustment

Chapter 6 - Love and Will

Chapter 7 - The First Form of Contemplation

Chapter 8 - The Second Form of Contemplation

Chapter 9 - The Third Form of Contemplation

Chapter 10 - The Mystical Life

Introduction to Catholic Mysticism

Evelyn Underhill is recognized as one of the great Anglo- Catholic mystics of the early twentieth century. She divided her activity between writing and devotional life, directing retreats and giving talks and conferences, dedications that would make her one of the most important spiritual teachers of her time. Author of three novels and two books of poems, her works on mysticism and spirituality stand out, among them " Practical Mysticism " (1915). Underhill was a fascinating bridge between the Protestant and Catholic approaches to worship, theology and mysticism.

But what does mysticism mean for Catholicism?

Before explaining what Catholic mysticism is, it is necessary to contextualize some historical and theological aspects, because the ideas that are probably held about it have been a product developed mainly in the West.

It is a fruit that has germinated in the more than 2000 years of Christianity. What we know best about mysticism has come to us from Christianity and its very rich spiritual tradition. But it is a tradition that unfortunately is very unknown and misunderstood in our time, even by many Catholics.

In Christianity the word mysticism has been used in three contexts: in the liturgy, in the reading and interpretation of the Bible, and in everything that refers to a special form of knowledge of God.

In all these contexts the term was used as an adjective to qualify something as mystical; whether they were objects of worship or doctrines. But it is from the 17th-18th centuries onwards that greater importance began to be given to the idea that it is a knowledge of God.

Thus, what many mystics had been repeating centuries before was recovered: mysticism is also a special way of living the faith. This meaning of mysticism as knowledge of God has been present since the beginning of the Catholic tradition.

But it is in the last three centuries that it has acquired more relevance; both in the Catholic Church and in the Orthodox Churches, as well as in culture, given the progressive secularization of Western societies.

Thus, this knowledge of God supposes an encounter, a relationship, and in itself, an experience, referring then to the term mystical experience, very much in use today. It is frequently used both by specialists and by many ordinary people, and I will reflect on it below.

From the 19th century onwards, there began to be a notable increase in studies on mysticism in other disciplines, beyond Christian theology. This research has multiplied profusely from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day.

Mysticism is not exclusive to Christianity

It is thanks to this body of academic research and its valuable contributions that it has been concluded that mysticism is a universal human phenomenon.

It is not a phenomenon exclusive to Christianity, but is also present in other religious traditions and cultures, albeit with important and inalienable differences among them.

Of the three uses of the term mysticism in Christianity, the one that refers to an experiential knowledge of God ended up prevailing. It is not only the one that has been gaining more presence and importance in the social imaginary, but also the one that has become more complex.

This is due to the fact that a tacit consensus has been reached, not always explicit, that mysticism refers only to a form of experience, and from this meaning it has been used to study it in other religious traditions.

However, the complexity and ambiguity that the term has acquired in recent decades is also due to this enormous amount of interdisciplinary research.

These contributions are not negative; on the contrary, they have provided a breadth of knowledge that allows us to better understand the richness of our Catholic faith. But in today's globalized and diverse world, they raise the challenge of arriving at a greater clarity about what mystical experience is.

Catholic mysticism

Having made this previous journey, we can then speak more clearly about mysticism in Christianity, specifically in Catholicism. In the history of the Catholic Church, mysticism has acquired particular ways of being lived and understood.

In Catholicism there is a significant level of theological systematization regarding what mysticism is and all that concerns the practical dimension of the spiritual life, the fruit of 2000 years of uninterrupted tradition.

However, we must avoid the temptation to think that mysticism can be defined in a definitive way. God, in his ineffability, is beyond any definition we can construct, and this is directly reflected in the mystical phenomenon.

It is not in vain that in Catholicism there is such a beautiful variety of styles and ways of living mysticism, which shows that its fundamental aspects are shared by the different schools of theological thought that make up the Church.

Thus, Catholic mysticism refers to those experiences in which a person lives a profound intimacy with God, beyond oneself.

It is a loving union with the Lord, which transcends the everyday or ordinary reality in which we usually move. When it happens, it imbues everything with a completely new and all-encompassing meaning.

It is a knowledge beyond the conceptual

Thus, throughout history, the mystical experience in Catholicism has involved a knowledge of God beyond the merely conceptual. One in which the totality of the person is involved; resembling the experience of love.

As the mystics themselves describe it, it is a loving knowledge of God; an experience that is the fruit of divine gratuitousness. This is indispensable for understanding the proper place of mysticism in Catholicism.

Mysticism is not an end in itself, which coincides with what has been manifested by all mystics throughout history.

Mysticism implies opening oneself to the reality of God's love; it is not about making the individual the end of the spiritual experience.

There is a common temptation to detach it from the historical and religious context of which it is a part, in order to turn it into a product for individual consumption, thus reflecting the frivolity that plagues our societies.

That is why it is common to see books that use the word mysticism to name the hodgepodge of spiritual concepts and practices from various religious traditions.

The Editor, P.C. 2022

PRACTICAL MYSTICISM

Evelyn Underhill

Preface

This little book, written during the last months of peace, goes to press in the first weeks of the great war. Many will feel that in such a time of conflict and horror, when only the most ignorant, disloyal, or apathetic can hope for quietness of mind, a book which deals with that which is called the contemplative attitude to existence is wholly out of place. So obvious, indeed, is this point of view, that I had at first thought of postponing its publication. On the one hand, it seems as though the dreams of a spiritual renaissance, which promised so fairly but a little time ago, had perished in the sudden explosion of brute force. On the other hand, the thoughts of the English race are now turned, and rightly, towards the most concrete forms of action—struggle and endurance, practical sacrifices, difficult and long-continued effort—rather than towards the passive attitude of self-surrender which is all that the practice of mysticism seems, at first sight, to demand. Moreover, that deep conviction of the dependence of all human worth upon eternal values, the immanence of the Divine Spirit within the human soul, which lies at the root of a mystical concept of life, is hard indeed to reconcile with much of the human history now being poured red-hot from the cauldron of war. For all these reasons, we are likely during the present crisis to witness a revolt from those superficially mystical notions which threatened to become too popular during the immediate past.

Yet, the title deliberately chosen for this book—that of Practical Mysticism—means nothing if the attitude and the discipline which it recommends be adapted to fair weather alone: if the principles for which it stands break down when subjected to the pressure of events, and cannot be reconciled with the sterner duties of the national life. To accept this position is to reduce mysticism to the status of a spiritual plaything. On the contrary, if the experiences on which it is based have indeed the transcendent value for humanity which the mystics claim for them—if they reveal to us a world of higher truth and greater reality than the world of concrete happenings in which we seem to be immersed—then that value is increased rather than lessened when confronted by the overwhelming disharmonies and sufferings of the present time. It is significant that many of these experiences are reported to us from periods of war and distress: that the stronger the forces of destruction appeared, the more intense grew the spiritual vision which opposed them. We learn from these records that the mystical consciousness has the power of lifting those who possess it to a plane of reality which no struggle, no cruelty, can disturb: of conferring a certitude which no catastrophe can wreck. Yet it does not wrap its initiates in a selfish and otherworldly calm, isolate them from the pain and effort of the common life. Rather, it gives them renewed vitality; administering to the human spirit not—as some suppose—a soothing draught, but the most powerful of stimulants. Stayed upon eternal realities, that spirit will be far better able to endure and profit by the stern discipline which the race is now called to undergo, than those who are wholly at the