The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day by Evelyn Underhill

The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day Reviews

• 
  Margie Dorn

  I am enthralled with the consistently balanced outlook of Evelyn Underhill, who, while writing more than a century ago, manages to speak to our lives today. Ideas I myself have slowly been learning and developing over decades, she expresses, cutting through to the heart of things. As an English/Linguistics major, I'm in love with an idea I've been coming to for a while now, that she expressed a hundred years ago, of the metaphor of human religion as spiritual language, that spirituality can never be perfectly expressed, but we use the language of religion to try, and muster as much clarity and humility as we can in its expression. That there needs to be a balance between the filling up via practices of spiritual solitude with the spilling over into physical life in the world. That spiritual solitude needs to be in balance with religious community. Towards the end of the book, when she wrote a chapter about the needs of children, I felt she did "not quite" understand, not having had children or perhaps extensively taught children herself, tho it was not a bad effort. I love her brief reference to and description of a university as "one of the better achievements of civilization," with its "devotion to disinterested learning, its conservation of old beauty and quest of new truth." Just one reference in a whole book, but one that describes my own coming of age with a wonderful group of teachers and co-learners, a view that much of America has sadly and inappropriately discarded over the past couple of decades. I couldn't quite give this book full marks because her antiquated language can be a bit of a slog, and because the last couple chapters weren't quite as exquisite as the earlier ones, but I'm definitely recommending this to friends.
  
  Underhill, Evelyn. The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day (p. 169). . Kindle Edition.
• 
  Vito

  I was introduced to this author/mystic/powerhouse of a religious figure by my spiritual mentor many years ago. Understanding my need to go deeper, seek something further and look beyond what is immediately in front of me, he suggested I read her as a contemporary voice in the field.
  
  Being familiar with many in the mystic tradition and their source books (mainly in the Christian and Jewish strands), I was thrilled to encounter Underhill. The fact she has a dedicated following, but is grossly overlooked, is baffling but not surprising. Women mystics tend to be ignored unless they managed to reach astronomical heights that could not be overlooked.
  
  This book is a look at the spiritual life of a person living in the world today. Today being an operative word for the time it was written, which was close to a century ago, however it still feels relevant to this very day that I write this review. While the language is dated, the thinking is not.
  
  If you're willing to wrestle with the content, do some deep thinking and take your time to contemplate the message she is giving, you will be rewarded. This offers more substance than the glut of "helpful" books out there whether they're related to the spiritual life or general self-help.
  
  Along the way, you will get a better understanding and appreciation for Mysticism: what it is and how to look at it correctly. There's nothing watered down about what she is teaching and it should be approached with a level of respect for that reason.
  
  The digital version was compiled together by a group of volunteers and has been posted online for free through Gutenberg Press.
  
  For something timeless, helpful and free, it's worth the effort to work through.