Sunday 8 July 2012

Eveyln Underhill Mysticism


Lowry alludes to Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism (1911)  in Chapter 3 of Ultramarine during a long internal dialogue by Dana Hilliot as he muses on absolute beauty and truth after his drunken drift through the red light district of Dairen; "Searching, groping all the time for things: for facts, for letters, for dates, for beauty, for love. And never knowing when we have found it. If we will ever find it. Absolute beauty, absolute truth, did they exist?" Pg. 111.


Underhill's Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness, was published in 1911, and is distinguished by the very qualities which make it inappropriate as a straightforward textbook. The spirit of the book is romantic, engaged, and theoretical rather than historical or scientific. Underhill has little use for theoretical explanations and the traditional religious experience, formal classifications or analysis. Read more on Wikipedia

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