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Underhill, Evelyn.

Constituted as we are, it is inevitable that our spiritual aptitude should fluctuate, as does the rest of our plastic and unstable psychic life.  This limitation ought not to depress us, but it ought to keep us in humility; and humility is the one grace which gives wings to the simplest prayer.

"The Degrees of Prayer,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longman, Green, 1946), p. 50.

FLUCTUATIONS; HUMILITY; PRAYER; PSYCHOLOGY; SPIRITUAL LIFE

20040829

[Worship] is an instinct that finds expression not only in our devotional, but also in our æsthetic life.  The inspiration of the painter, the musician and the poet, and often that of the scientist and explorer too, contains a genuine element of worship.  All that is best of these great human activities is not done for our own sakes; it points right away from us, to something we humbly seek and half-ignorantly adore.  It is offered at the shrine of a beauty or a wisdom that lies beyond the world.

"Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 65.

ARTISTS; BEAUTY; DEVOTIONS; EXPLORERS; MUSICIANS; POETS; QUESTS; SCIENTISTS; SYMBOLISM; WISDOM; WORSHIP

20040919

Human beings have developed through acting together; and unless they do so, a part of their nature fails to expand.  Thus the secret acts of praise, the hidden communion with God, which are the essence of private devotion, can never be enough for full Christian worship.

"Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 67.

CHRISTIANITY; COOPERATION; DEVOTIONS; HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; PRAISE; WORSHIP

20040919

In prayer the soul comes nearest the expression of absolute love: in belief it ascends by means of symbols towards absolute truth.

"Thoughts on Prayer and the Divine Immanence,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 85.

BELIEF; LOVE; PRAYER; SYMBOLS; TRUTH

20040927

Even while it moves within the action of God, to an ever more complete individuation--a discovery and fulfillment of its unique task within the mystical body of praying souls--this life moves also to that profound surrender which places it in action and in contemplation, wholly at the disposal of the living charity of God.

"Thoughts on Prayer and the Divine Immanence,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 93.

ACTIONS; CHRISTIANITY - SERVICE; CHRISTIANS - LIFESTYLES; CHURCH, THE; CONTEMPLATIONS; INDIVIDUATION; PRAYER; SUBMISSION; SURRENDER

20040927

A mystic is not a person who has queer experiences; but a person for whom God is the one reality of life, the supreme Object of love.  He is a / religious realist.

"What is Mysticism?,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), pp. 105-6.

GOD; LOVE; MYSTICS - DEFINITIONS; ODDITY; REALITY

20041003

For every full human life, of course, has two sides:  its relation to the Eternal God, the Changeless Reality on whom it depends; and its relation to the changing world, and especially the changing human beings among whom it is placed.

"The Spiritual Life of a Teacher,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 172.

CHANGE; GOD; MAN; RELATIONSHIPS, SPIRITUAL

20041107

Every person who takes a hand in education is, to that extent, an artist in human life.

"Education and the Spirit of Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 188.

ARTISTS; EDUCATION; HUMANS; LIFE

20041114

For the Christian, all real education is and must be religious from end to end.  It must be filled with the deep reverence for life which alone enables us to interpret life.

"Education and the Spirit of Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 190.

CHRISTIANS; EDUCATION; INTERPRETATION; LIFE; REVERENCE

20041114

Now the very object of education is to interpret life to the child; to bring some order into the confused awakening consciousness, and to put the growing human creature more and more fully in touch with the world in which it finds itself.

"Education and the Spirit of Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 190.

ARTISTS; EDUCATION; HUMANS; LIFE

20041114

The ultimate aim [of education] is to gradually set up a full, true relationship between pupil and environment; and for Christians, the ultimate fact about that environment is, that it is the work of God, indwelt by God, and a means of serving, knowing and glorifying God.

"Education and the Spirit of Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 190.

EDUCATION; EDUCATION, RELIGIOUS; ENVIRONMENT; GOD - CREATOR; STUDENTS

20041114

—nothing distorts reality so much as the utilitarian point of view—

"Education and the Spirit of Worship,"

In:   Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill. (FIUGL, Longmans, Green, 1946), p. 198.

DISTORTION; REALITY; UTILITARIANISM

20041114

Underhill, Evelyn, continued:

...the expression of the innate tendency of the human spirit towards complete harmony with the transcendental order; by whatever the theological formula under which the order is understood.

Mysticism (1955), p. vii;

In:  Margaret Furse, Mysticism:  Window on a World View (FIUGEN, 1977), p. 154.

MYSTICISM - DEFINITIONS

19970106

Underhill, Evelyn, continued:

The spiritual life is not a special career, involving abstraction from the world of things.  It is a part of every man's life; and until he has realised it he is not a complete human being, has not entered into possession of all his powers.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. vii.

ABSTRACT; COMPLETION; MAN; POWERS; SPIRITUAL LIFE; WORLD, MATERIAL

20050528

Mysticism is the art of union with Reality.  The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or lesser degree; or, who aims at and believes in such attainment.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. 2.

MYSTICISM - DEFINITIONS; MYSTICS - DEFINITIONS; REALITY; UNIONS (METAPHYSICAL)

20050917

Shut up with this symbolic picture, you soon drop into the habit of behaving to it as though it were not a representation but a thing.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. 8.

BEHAVIOR;BELIEFS;COSMOLOGY; FACTS; REALITY; REPRESENTATIONS; SYMBOLS

20050924

But the doors of perception are hung with the cobwebs of thought; prejudice, cowardice, sloth.  Eternity is with us, inviting our contemplation perpetually, but we are too frightened, lazy, and suspicious to respond:  too arrogant to still our thought, and let divine sensation have its way.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. 10.

ARROGANCE; CONTEMPLATION; COWARDICE; FEAR; LAZINESS; PERCEPTION; PREJUDICE; SLOTH; STILLNESS; SUSPICION; THOUGHTS

20050924

What is it, then, which distinguishes the outlook of great poets and artists from the arrogant subjectivism of common sense?  Innocence and humility distinguish it....To some extent, their attitude to the universe is that of children:  and because this is so, they participate to that extent in the Heaven of Reality.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. 11.

ARTISTS; ATTITUDES; CHILDREN; COMMON SENSE; HEAVEN; HUMILITY; INNOCENCE; POETS; REALITY; SUBJECTIVISM

20050924

True and complete self-knowledge, indeed, is the privilege of the strongest alone.  Few can bear to contemplate themselves face to face; for the vision is strange and terrible, and brings awe and contrition in its wake.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. 29.

AWE; CONTRITION; SELF-KNOWLEDGE; STRENGTH

20051001

Immediate feeling, so far as it is true, does not oppose but transcends and completes the highest results of thought.

Practical Mysticism (PQ497, Dover, 2000, orig. 1915), p. 40.

EMOTIONS; EXPERIENCE; RATIONAL THOUGHT; TRANSCENDENCE

20051008

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20080523