The Essentials of Mysticism, and Other Essays

Evelyn Underhill

Reprinted from an original copy in the collections of the University of Connecticut Library.

From the edition of 1920, London, New York and Toronto.

First AMS edition published 1976
Manufactured in the United States of America
AMS Press, Inc. New York, N.Y.

PREFACE

The essays collected in this volume have been written during the past eight years. They deal with various aspects of the subject of mysticism: the first half dozen with its general theory and practice, and special points arising within it; the rest with its application as seen in the lives and the works of the mystics, from the pagan Plotinus to the Christian contemplatives of our own day. Most of them have already apperared elsewhere, though all have been revised and several completely re-written for the purposes of this book. "The Essentials of Mysticism" and "The Mystic as Creative Artist" were first printed in The Quest; "The Mystic and the Corporate Life", Mysticism and the Doctrine of Atonement", and "The Place of Will, Intellect, and Feeling in Prayer" in The Interpreter; "The Education of the Spirit" in The Parents' Review; "The Mysticism of Plotinus" in The Quarterly Review; "The Mirror of Simple Souls" and "Soeur Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus" (under the title of "A Modern Saint") in The Fortnightly Review; "The Blessed Angela of Foligno" in Franciscan Essays; "Julian of Norwich" in The St Martin's Review; and "Charles Péguy" in The Contemporary Review. All these are now re-published with the kind permission of the editors concerned.

E.U. August 1920

1906 - The Miracles of Our Lady Saint Mary

1911 - Mysticism

1912 - Introduction to The Cloud of Unknowing

1913 - The Mystic Way

1914 - Introduction: Richard Rolle - The Fire of Love

1915 - Practical Mysticism

1915 - Introduction: Songs of Kabir

1916 - Introduction: John of Ruysbroeck

1920 - The Essentials of Mysticism, and other Essays

1922 - The Spiral Way

1922 - The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today (Upton Lectures)

1926 - Concerning the Inner Life

1928 - Man and the Supernatural

1929 - The House of the Soul

1933 - The Golden Sequence

1933 - Mixed Pasture: Twelve Essays

1936 - The Spiritual Life

1943 - Introduction to the Letters of Evelyn Underhill
by Charles Williams

COPYRIGHT

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