Then May the Senses Fall

Essential for anyone seeking an authenticChristian mysticism that refuses to beconfined by its historical boundary of thecloister. Carl McColman, author ofThe NewBig Book of Christian MysticismThe lost fictionfantasy and horrorof the famous Christian writer.A revered priests horrifying metaphysical secret that is revealed only after his death. A sculptors obsessive desire to craft the horrific face that haunts his dreams and drives him to madness. A journey upriver to an unspoiled realm whose denizens revile anything tainted by humans. The sole survivor of an island shipwreck and the terrifying ancient being he confronts.Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) is best known for her groundbreaking and accessible studies on Christian mysticism: over forty books and hundreds of articles and lectures on spiritual practices, including her most famous work, Mysticism (1911). Yet even the most avid Underhill reader does not know that she spent her youth writing some seriously weird fiction: supernatural short stories that H.P. Lovecraft might have enjoyed. Here for the first time is a collection of short stories, poetry, and an essay written by the foremost Christian mystic of the twentieth century. Furthermore, Underhills brief fiction career represents an important step in her mystical and spiritual development. Understand these stories and you go a long way toward understanding how Underhill became the transformational thinker and mystic the world knows her to be.