Much significant work has been written on the life and prolific writing of Evelyn Underhill (certainly one of the most significant writers on the mystical life in the first half of thetwentieth century), but the research done on the impact of Baron Friedrich von Hugel on Underhill has tended to be leaner, thinner, and less developed. The sheer beauty and brilliance of this recent book by Wrigley-Carr on Underhill is the way the close and symbiotic relationship between von Hugel and Underhill is carefully and thoughtfully tracked and traced. The fact that Eugene Peterson wrote a rather lengthy foreword to the book, carefully noting his significant indebtedness to von Hugel, should alert the curious and interested in learning more about von Hugel: Underhill, Peterson, and many others were mentored into greater depths of the faith journey by this multilayered director of sorts.
Robyn Wrigley-Carr, to her well-researched credit (her PhD dissertation was done on von Hugel), does a chapter-by-chapter round dance between von Hugel and Underhill, including photos of both of them, which, like welcoming portals, invite us to see and hear them. This compact and rewarding read of a book is divided into six enticing sections (I read the bounty in two days—hard to turn away from it). As mentioned above, Eugene Peterson did the incisive foreword. Once done, the plane leaves the tarmac.
The first chapter, “Introducing the Baron,” makes for a pleasant overview of von Hugal’s engaged and careful life, a life that modeled a broad and truly catholic vision and vocation. The second chapter, “Introducing Evelyn Underhill,” answers chapter one handsomely, von Hugel having footed it well in the previous chapter. Those with some background in Underhill’s pilgrimage through time will find this lovely refresher material, and for those new to Underhill, it is a fine primer. “The Baron’s Spiritual Formation of Evelyn Underhill” brings the two dancers together in the third chapter, the nature of the eternal dance and steps to be learned and revealed well and wisely.
The book’s fourth chapter, “Motherhood of Souls: Evelyn the Spiritual Director,” ponders how Underhill picked up the torch offered her by von Hugel and rethought and restated many of his insights in a more accessible way and manner. Evelyn Underhill was no uncritical devotee of von Hugel, but as a mother of souls, she internalized the best of him. The fifth chapter, “Motherhood of Souls: Evelyn the Retreat Director,” moves the discussion from Underhill as a prolific writer on mysticism and a directee of von Hugel to the practical matter of her role as a director of regular retreats, something von Hugel never did.
And finally, the finale or afterword of The Spiritual Formation of Evelyn Underhill, brings together (dance steps learned well and wisely) the way Von Hugel, Underhill, and Peterson have formed, in many ways, Wrigley-Carr’s emerging vocation and charism. Included as an ending to the book are a variety of passages from Peterson’s books and emails to Wrigley-Carr from Peterson, Robyn having been a student of Peterson’s when she studied at Regent College in the days when Peterson was there. I might also add that the copious notes and references throughout make this a book worth many meditative reading sessions and inward digesting.
It might have been interesting to ponder, given the years that von Hugel (1852-1925) and Underhill (1875-1941) were alive and active in the English context, how they understood the catholic relationship between contemplation, Church, ecclesial ecumenism and substantive public and political issues that Anglican divines such as F.D. Maurice, Charles Gore, Percy Dearmer and Conrad Noel embodied. I might add that there is a brief but touching correspondence between Underhill and C.S. Lewis initiated by Underhill in her waning years before Lewis had waxed.
I have been fond of Evelyn Underhill for many decades and have read Baron von Hugel also, but this is the best book to date that threads together, in a well-woven tapestry, the impact of von Hugel on Underhill and the way Underhill internalized the best of von Hugel and passed the gift and torch on to others, including C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson, and Robyn Wrigley-Carr. Many thanks to Robyn Wrigley-Carr for such a charmer of a book. Perhaps a fitting adieu to the review might best be summed up by Bob Cratchit’s response to the fine feast his wife prepared for the family Christmas dinner: “A triumph, my dear, another triumph.”
An earlier version of this review was published in Clarion Journal of Spirituality and Justice, and is used by permission.
Ron Dart teaches in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He has authored or coauthored thirty-five books that deal with the interface between literature, spirituality, and politics, including The North American High Tory Tradition (American Anglican Press, 2016) and Christianity and Pluralism (Lexham Press, 2019).