Chapter 1
Evelyn Underhill Seeking
Evelyn Underhill was a seeker for much of her life. The early twentieth century was a moment when the seeker emerged as a significant figure, inside, outside and on the margins of the churches, questing after an authentic spirituality. Those familiar with Underhill’s work may think of her primarily as a devout Anglican, leader of retreats, Christian writer and a prominent laywoman, called upon to serve on multiple church committees. However, only in 1921 when she was in her midforties, did she embrace Anglicanism fully, so it was only in the last two decades of her life, in the 1920s and 30s, before she died aged 65 in 1941, that she was the devout and fullycommitted Anglican that we remember. A decade before Underhill made her definitive turn to the Church of England, her lengthy book, Mysticism, was published (1911). Through that publication and a series of shorter books that followed, Underhill brought mysticism to a broad audience in the early part of the twentieth century. Her work was part of a broad revival of interest in mysticism in the early twentieth century, kick-started by W. R. Inge’s