Evelyn Underhill and Spiritual Formation

This talk is the next in our ‘Women as thought leaders’ in theology’ series, featuring Australian theologian Robyn Wrigley-Carr speaking about English Anglo-Catholic spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) and her insights into spiritual formation.

Underhill is not so well known today, but was a significant writer, firstly on mysticism and then later on Christian spirituality, as well as being a pioneering spiritual director and retreat leader. It is intriguing to hear about a woman of her era who published 39 books, lectured at the University of Oxford and was deeply influential in both Catholic and Anglican circles.

Robyn is herself a spiritual director and retreat leader and in this talk we not only hear about Underhill’s spiritual formation, but also Robyn’s own journey. Robyn’s doctorate from the University of St Andrews examined Underhill’s spiritual director, Baron Friedrich von Hügel. As Robyn explored the Spiritual formation of Evelyn Underhill (also the title of one of her books), she also discovered and then published Underhill’s own Prayer Book, which is a beautiful resource of prayers from spiritual writers through the ages.

In a sense, this talk is itself an expression of the very spiritual formation it describes — a living legacy stretching from von Hügel to Evelyn Underhill, through her writings to Robyn, and now reaching us.

There was an extensive Q&A session that followed which is included below.

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