Introduction to the Author:

Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941)

Few women of the twentieth century have done more to further our understanding of the devotional life than Evelyn Underhill. Her scholarly research and writing have helped saints and skeptics alike in the study of religion and spirituality. Her highly praised book Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness has gone through many editions and continues to be a foundational text for all students of spirituality. [A free copy is availabe online via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.]

Underhill was educated at King’s College for Women in London, where she spent much of her time writing and lecturing. She was the Upton lecturer at Manchester College, Oxford, from 1921 to 1922. However, her enduring contribution comes not from her academic achievements but from her personal insights into the devotional life. After a religious conversion at the age of thirty-two, she practiced this devotional life with great intensity.

Underhill’s personal spiritual journey intersected with her intellectual capability, producing the much needed combination of authentic spirituality and academic integrity. As a result, she was a highly sought after spiritual director. In addition, she became well known as the conductor of retreats at various Anglican religious centers.

In the following selection Underhill describes the inner mechanics of prayer, shedding light on the place of the mind, the emotions, and the will in the life of prayer.

EXCERPTS FROM THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM

1. Stretching Out the Tentacles
In the first place, what do we mean by prayer? Surely just this: that part of our conscious life which is deliberately oriented towards, and exclusively responds to, spiritual reality. God is that spiritual reality, and we believe God to be immanent in all things: “He is not far from each one of us: for in him we live and move and have our being.”

“Prayer,” says Walter Hilton, “is nothing else but an ascending or getting up of the desire of the heart into God by withdrawing it from earthly thoughts.” It is “ascent,” says Ruysbroeck, of the Ladder of Love. In the same spirit William Law defines prayer as “the rising of the soul out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity.”

It entails, then, a going up or out from our ordinary circle of earthly interests. Prayer stretches out the tentacles of our consciousness not so much towards that Divine Life which is felt to be enshrined within the striving, changeful world of things; but rather to that “Eternal truth, true Love, and loved Eternity” wherein the world is felt to be enshrined.

2. This Double Situation
The whole of a person’s life consists in a series of balanced responses to this Transcendent-Immanent Reality. Because we live under two orders, we are at once a citizen of Eternity and of Time. Like a pendulum, our consciousness moves perpetually—or should move if it is healthy—between God and our neighbor, between this world and that.

The wholeness, sanity, and balance of our existence depend entirely upon the perfection of our adjustment to this double situation; on the steady alternating beat of our outward adoration, and our homeward-turning swing of charity. Now, it is the outward swing which I want to consider: the powers that may be used in it, and the best way in which these powers may be employed.

3. Three Faculties
First, there are three capacities or faculties which we have under consideration—the thinking faculty, the feeling faculty, and the willing or acting faculty. These practically cover all the ways in which the self can react to other selves and other things. From the combination of these three come all the possibilities of self-expression which are open to us.

In our natural life we need to use all of them. Do we need them in our spiritual life, too? Christians are bound to answer this question in the affirmative. It is the whole person of intellect, of feeling, and of will which finds its only true objective in the Christian God.

4. Work and Rest
Prayer should take up and turn towards the spiritual order all the powers of our mental, emotional, and volitional life. Prayers should be the highest exercise of these powers; for here they are directed to the only adequate object of thought, of love, and of desire. It should, as it were, lift us to the top of our condition, and represent the fullest flowering of our consciousness. For here we breathe the air of the supernatural order, and attain according to our measure that communion with Reality for which we were made.

Prayer will include many different kinds of spiritual work; and also—what is too often forgotten—the priceless gift of spiritual rest. It will include many kinds of intercourse with Reality—adoration, petition, meditation, contemplation—and all the shades and varieties of these which religious writers have named and classified.

As in the natural order the living creature must feed and grow, must suffer and enjoy, must get energy from the world and give it back again if it is to live a whole and healthy life. So, too, in the spiritual order. All these things—the giving and the receiving, the work and the rest—should fall within the circle of prayer.

5. The Transition from Inaction to Action
Now, when we do anything consciously, the transition from inaction to action unfolds itself in a certain order. First, we form a concept of that which we shall do; the idea of it looms up in our minds. Second, we feel that we want to do it, or must do it. Third, we determine that we will do it. These phases may follow on another so swiftly that they seem to be fused into one; but when we analyze the process which lies behind each conscious act, we find that this is the normal sequence of development.

First we think, then we feel, then we will. This little generalization must not be pressed too hard; but it is broadly true, and gives us a starting-point to trace out the way in which the three main powers of the self act in prayer. It is important to know how they act or should act.

6. An Active and Disciplined Intelligence
Prayer, as a rule, should begin with something we usually call an intellectual act, with thinking of what we are going to do. All the great writers on prayer take it as a matter of course that “meditation” comes before “oration” (or spoken prayer). Meditation is simply the art of thinking steadily and methodically about spiritual things. So too, most modern psychologists assure us that instinctive emotion does its best work when it acts in harmony with our reasoning powers.

There are some who believe that when we turn to God we ought to leave our brains behind us. True, they will soon be left behind by necessity if we go far on the road towards God who is above all reason and all knowledge, for the Spirit swiftly overpasses these imperfect instruments. But those whose feet are still firmly planted upon earth gain nothing by anticipating this moment when reason is left behind; they will not attain the depths of prayer by the mere annihilation of their intelligence.

In saying this—in insisting that reason has a well-marked and necessary place in the soul’s approach to God—I am not advocating a religious intellectualism. I am well aware that it is “by love,” as the old mystic said, “God may be gotten and beheld; by thought never.” It is humility and love that are essential for successful prayer. But surely it is a mistake to suppose that these qualities cannot exist side by side with an active and disciplined intelligence.

7. Preparing the Consciousness
Prayer, then, begins by an intellectual adjustment. By thinking of God earnestly and humbly to the exclusion of other objects of thought, by deliberately surrendering the mind to spiritual things, by preparing the consciousness for the inflow of new life.

But having thought of God, the self, if it stops there, is no more in touch with God than it was before. We may think as long as we like, but nothing happens; thought unhelped by feeling ever remains apart from its object. The intellect is an essentially static thing: we cannot think our way along the royal road which leads to heaven.

8. The Industrious Will and the Passionate Heart
Where the office of thought ends, there the office of will and feeling begins: “Where the intellect must stay without,” says Ruysbroeck, “these may enter in.” Desire and intention are the most dynamic of our faculties; they do work. They are the true explorers of the Infinite, the instruments of our ascents to God. Reason comes to the foot of the mountain; it is the industrious will urged by the passionate heart which climbs the slope.

Experience endorses this emphasis on will and desire as central facts of our personality, the part of us which is supremely our own. In turning our will and desire towards Spiritual Reality we are doing all that we can of ourselves, we are selecting and deliberately concentrating upon it our passion and our power.

9. The Very Center and Art of Prayer,
Now, intellect and feeling are not wholly in our control. They fluctuate from day to day, from hour to hour; they are dependent on many delicate adjustments. Sometimes we are mentally dull, sometimes we are emotionally flat. On such occasions it is notoriously useless to try to beat ourselves up to a froth: to make ourselves think more deeply or make ourselves care more intensely.

If the worth of our prayer life depended upon the maintenance of a constant high level of feeling or understanding, we would be in a dangerous place. Though these often seem to fail us, the reigning will remains. Even when our heart is cold and our mind is dim, prayer is still possible to us. “Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.”

The determined fixing of our will upon God, and pressing toward him steadily and without deflection; this is the very center and the art of prayer. The most theological of thoughts soon becomes inadequate; the most spiritual of emotions is only a fairweather breeze. Let the ship take advantage of it by all means, but not rely on it. She must be prepared to beat to windward if she would reach her goal.

BIBLE SELECTION: ACTS 17:22–34
²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he alloted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from. each one of us. ²⁸For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we too are his offspring.’

²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³At that point Paul left them. ³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
The following questions can be used for discussion within a small group, or used for journal reflections by individuals.

1. What are the three faculties that Evelyn Underhill encourages us to use in our times of prayer? Give concrete examples of how these three faculties work in our daily life (see sections 3 and 5).

2. The mind, according to Underhill, should not be left out of the act of prayer, because it is the faculty that prepares the way for prayer. How has your intellect helped or hindered your prayer life?

3. The mind may be dull now and then, and the emotions may be flat at times, but what, according to Underhill, is always under our control? Why is this important in prayer?

4. St. Paul tells the Athenians, “[God] is not far from each one of us.” Do you sometimes feel that God is far from you? When have you felt the closest to God? Who do you believe actually moved in each case, you or God?

5. Underhill stresses that although our reasoning faculties are limited, we do not have to leave our brains behind in the life of prayer. Why do you think there is a tendency to devalue the intellect in the spiritual life?

SUGGESTED EXERCISES
The following exercises can be done by individuals, shared between spiritual friends, or used in the context of a small group. Choose one or more of the following.

1. Use Evelyn Underhill’s three-part movement of prayer this week. Begin in the mind, making space for God by reflecting on spiritual truths; move to the emotions by concentrating on your desire for God; hold yourself in his presence by a deliberate act of your will.

2. Prayer also includes times of rest, writes Underhill. Perhaps you have been pressing too hard in your times of prayer. Allow yourself to experience a little holy leisure this week, knowing that there is a time to work and a time to rest. To deny this is to work against the rhythms of God.

3. Underhill encourages us to think “steadily and methodically about spiritual things.” Make a list of the attributes of God (e.g., God is all-knowing, all-powerful, unchangeable, loving, etc.). Think steadily on these things, making them the object of your contemplation.

4. St. Paul knew that his audience consisted of intellectual types and therefore altered his style without changing the content of his preaching. This week reach out to someone whose faith background is different from yours. Be careful to speak in that person’s language, being mindful of the way he or she sees the world, and yet do not compromise your own convictions about Christ and his gospel.

REFLECTIONS
In these selections Evelyn Underhill gives us substantial help in our understanding of the life of prayer. It is so easy for us to fall into the unexamined assumption that either God gifts us with the spirit of prayer or he doesn’t, and that our contribution to the process is essentially negligible. To be sure, without the active agenting of the Holy Spirit, our prayer work would be so much babble.

We have an important part to play, however, and Underhill stresses our active participation in God’s work. She helps us see how our minds and wills and emotions can all be brought into the service of prayer. How often we fail to enlist our wonderful rational faculties in this holy work! How often we refuse to allow our feelings to lead us higher up and deeper in! How often we lack the will to persevere just when we were on the verge of slipping into the Holy of Holies! How much better to harness all our mental, volitional, and emotional powers for the service of Christ.

Armstrong, Christopher J.R. Evelyn Underhill: An Introduction to Her Life and Writings. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1975. This book places Evelyn Underhill in her own historical setting between the two great wars and assesses her influence. It contains a helpful bibliography of about one hundred of her essays and articles.

Underhill, Evelyn. The Essentials of Mysticism. New York: Dutton, 1960. Underhill has been able to give intellectual and theological underpinnings for the profound but sometimes perplexing tradition of Christian mysticism. In the same genre she has written The Mystic Way (1913), Practical Mysticism (1915), and The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today (1922).

Underhill, Evelyn. Worship. New York: Crossroad, 1982. This book explores the primary realities of our relationship to God, which our devotional action is intended to express.

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