Audiobook · read by volunteers
Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941)
Read by Joy Chan · 35 chapters · 22 h 03
About the book
What does it mean to seek direct contact with the divine? In Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill sets out to answer with care, clarity and sympathy. She treats the mystical life not as a curiosity but as a serious tradition, one with its own stages and its own vocabulary. The book opens by explaining what mysticism is and what it is not, and then follows the soul's journey toward union with God, drawing on a wide range of saints, writers and visionaries. It is learned without being dry and devout without being naive. Joy Chan reads all thirty-five sections in around twenty-two hours, a long and thoughtful companion for readers interested in the history of Christian spiritual life.
Introduction
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) was an English writer and spiritual guide. Born in the Victorian period, she became one of the most influential English authors on prayer and the interior life. Mysticism, subtitled A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, appeared in 1911 and made her name. It went through many editions, and the recording includes the prefaces she wrote for the first and twelfth.
The book is a survey of Christian mysticism, divided into two broad parts. The first discusses the nature of the subject and the psychological and philosophical ideas that surround it. The second traces what Underhill calls the mystic way, describing the stages of the soul's progress, from awakening and purification to illumination and union. She draws on figures from many centuries and countries, and her approach is that of a sympathetic scholar rather than a detached observer. In later years she turned increasingly to practical devotional writing, and her work continued to shape discussion of spirituality well beyond her own church.
This recording has thirty-five sections and lasts about twenty-two hours. It is read by one LibriVox volunteer, Joy Chan. The text was written more than a century ago and its style reflects that, but it remains a classic introduction to the subject. It will interest anyone who wants to understand how Christian mystics described their experience, or who is curious about the long history of people who sought God not through argument but through contemplation.
Public domain
Evelyn Underhill died in 1941: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text