Collected Papers Of Evelyn Underhill

Here’s a long, quirky and suitably contemplative Crappy Old Books version:

Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill (1946), edited by Lucy Menzies – Longmans, Green and Co.

Some writers spend their careers explaining what people do.

Evelyn Underhill was rather more interested in what people are doing when they appear to be sitting completely still.

Collected Papers of Evelyn Underhill, edited by Lucy Menzies and published by Longmans, Green and Co. in 1946, brings together essays and writings from one of the most important English voices on mysticism, spirituality and the inner life.

Underhill wrote seriously about subjects that are notoriously difficult to write about without either becoming hopelessly vague or sounding as though one has recently purchased an unusually expensive candle.

She managed to avoid both.

Her work explores prayer, contemplation, worship, religious experience and the long human tradition of attempting to make sense of whatever lies beyond the immediately visible and measurable.

This is not light devotional fluff.

It is thoughtful, disciplined and intellectually serious writing, concerned with the relationship between spiritual experience and ordinary life.

Underhill had a gift for taking ideas associated with mystics, theologians and contemplative traditions and discussing them in a way that remained grounded, humane and recognisably practical.

Which is useful, because mysticism has an unfortunate reputation for involving either clouds, robes or people speaking in riddles.

Underhill’s version is considerably less theatrical.

She was interested in how spiritual awareness actually shapes character, conduct and daily life, rather than merely providing impressive experiences to talk about afterwards.

The papers gathered here offer a valuable cross-section of that thinking.

Because the volume was published in 1946, only a few years after Underhill’s death, it also has the feel of a near-contemporary collection rather than a distant retrospective assembled after decades of academic argument.

That gives the book particular interest for readers of religious history and twentieth-century Christian thought.

There is also something appealingly austere about books of this period.

No glossy branding.

No inspirational pull-quotes.

No promise that reading chapter three will transform your life by Tuesday.

Just serious ideas, printed plainly, and the quiet assumption that the reader is prepared to make an effort.

This copy is in Fair condition, which seems quite appropriate for a book now approaching eighty years old.

It has lived.

It has aged.

It has probably spent a considerable amount of time on shelves belonging to people who owned more theology than furniture.

Collectors looking for a pristine example may prefer something more immaculate, but readers who value content over cosmetic perfection will find plenty to appreciate here.

Ideal for readers interested in Evelyn Underhill, Christian mysticism, theology, spirituality, religious history or the wider intellectual life of the early twentieth century.

Also suitable for anyone who suspects there may be more to existence than invoices, traffic, washing-up and remembering yet another password.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where contemplation is encouraged, silence is occasionally achieved, and even spiritually significant volumes are still expected to fit on the shelf.

ISBN: None
Condition: Fair

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