Publisher's Synopsis
Drawing on sources from all over the world, the author provides an in-depth and comprehensive exploration of humanity's mystical experience. It defines mysticism from different perspectives, sets out its characteristics and explains its relationship to psychology, theology and symbolism. It explores the "mystic way", the stages of mystic consciousness from the self to the union with the Absolute. The book also includes a summary of European mysticism. In 1921, Evelyn Underhill was Upton Lecturer on the Philosophy of Religion at Manchester College, Oxford, the first woman to give a series of lectures on theology at Oxford. But, it was her writing that brought her an international reputation and a fellowship at King's College for Women.