Did you miss us? We do hope you survived two consecutive days without the opportunity to exercise your right to vote. But we're back and loaded up with another full week of first round matchups. In fact, we're exactly halfway done with the first round -- eight matchups down, eight to go.
In case you missed Friday's result, Margaret of Castello easily defeated Simon Gibbons 70% to 30%. She'll go on to face Eva Lee Matthews in the Saintly Sixteen.
It's not everyday in Lent Madness that we have two saints whose lives overlapped, but that's exactly the situation in today's matchup. James Solomon Russell, born a slave in the American South, was a church planter and cleric. He faces Evelyn Underhill, English mystic, writer, and teacher. Time to vote!
James Solomon Russell
James Solomon Russell—preacher, church planter, teacher, and college president—was born on December 20, 1857, to an enslaved woman named Araminta in Virginia’s Mecklenburg County. His father worked on a plantation just over the North Carolina border.
When the family gained their freedom after the Civil War, they reunited and became sharecroppers in Palmer Springs, Virginia. The young James went to a nearby school, where the schoolmaster believed in his intelligence so much that he accepted tuition in the form of labor and farm produce. The teacher also encouraged James to attend Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. James earned a teaching degree from what is now Hampton University, and then he returned to Palmer Springs and taught at the local school. As part of his daily curriculum, he had the students recite the Apostles’ Creed. This practice impressed the local Episcopal women, who decided to bankroll the school.
It took James four years at Bishop Payne Divinity School (the segregated version of Virginia Theological Seminary) to earn his degree (partially because he had to earn his way through and partially because he was the only student in the school at the time.) He was ordained a deacon in 1882 and sent back to Mecklenburg County as a missionary. The diocese equipped him with a horse and some money to build a church. He was ordained a priest in 1887.
From this inauspicious start, James founded one church but decided that what people really needed was a college. So he started the Saint Paul Normal and Industrial School in 1888 in Lawrenceville. He served as college president while continuing to be a church planter and missionary around south-central Virginia, and when the Diocese of Southern Virginia split in 1893, he was appointed archdeacon.
By the time James retired in 1931, he had founded thirty-seven churches, with more than 2,000 congregants. He had been twice elected as a suffragan bishop but refused (in Arkansas and in North Carolina) because he wanted to stay with church planting and with his college. The year he retired from St. Paul College, enrollment was 800 students.
Collect of James Solomon Russell
O God, the font of resurrected life, draw us into the wilderness and speak tenderly to us, so that we might love and worship you as your servant James Solomon Russell did, in assurance of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) was a writer, novelist, and pioneer of Christian mysticism. Her books were widely read, especially Mysticism, which was published in 1911.
As a child, she had a keen awareness of peaceful stillness breaking into her reality, “like the ‘still desert’ of the mystic—in which there was no multiplicity nor need of explanation.” These experiences inspired a life of writing and exploration of spiritual matters. At first, Underhill was agnostic in her explorations but later became interested in Catholicism and ultimately embraced Anglo-Catholicism. Her mentor, Baron Friedrich von Hügel, encouraged her away from pure intellectualism to a more practical and charitable understanding of the spiritual life.
A child of her romantic Edwardian generation, Underhill believed life and religious experience ought to center in the heart. She sought to make spiritual teaching accessible to those interested in the trends of psychology, scientific advance, the resurgence of the medieval, and spiritualism. As Victorian taboos lifted, a new generation found the Edwardian period liberating in its celebration of sensuousness, the feminine, and the very un-Victorian possibility of personal, ecstatic fulfillment. Underhill became immensely popular, and in the 1920s she led retreats, took on hundreds of spiritual directees, and became a prominent public figure, speaking on the radio and teaching contemplative prayer.
Although Underhill’s family did not share her spiritual interests, she devoted herself to her parents and husband. Her writing did not keep her from her social obligations. She entertained, did charitable works, and kept a strict daily schedule that allowed her also to write, study, pray, and meditate. Underhill believed that the incarnation of Jesus revealed God to be present in the world, making sacred the mundane tasks of everyday, suffusing all moments and endeavors of life with the eternal. It is no wonder that she is among the most beloved spiritual teachers of the modern age.
Collect for Evelyn Underhill
O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all creatures: Grant that your church, taught by your servant Evelyn Underhill, may continually offer to you all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with your saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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124 comments on “James Solomon Russell vs. Evelyn Underhill”
As a communicant at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, I have to vote for my fellow Virginian, but his accomplishments from so challenged a background made the choice easier.
Although I am highly respectful of the work of Underhill, I believe that her work from where she started was far less impressive than Russell's - like comparing two runners in a marathon, one of whom started at the five-mile marker.
If James Solomon Russell wins today, which seems likely, and Friday Harriet Tubman wins, which also seems likely, what a face-off that will bring us! I suspect this was intentional on the part of the SEC -- madness or cruelty? You decide.
Our church is teaching many courses on Contemplative Prayer. Over a period of time, we seem to be more Spirit led in our ministry and outreach. Had to go with the mystic Evelyn Underwood.
I had to go with the guy from my own diocese! Think local.
Strong Mary vs. Martha vibe in today's matchup. I'm going the same way I did last year.
DioSoVA in the house!!! Voting for James. Staying local.
JS Russell has a comeback story just like my grandpa I think I know who I'm voting for today.
Tough decision for me to make today after much contemplation went with James Solomon Russell!
Voting for both unofficially but must limit myself to Evelyn Underhill. A woman with both “authentic spirituality and academic integrity” (thanks, Richard Foster!) makes this irresistible for me. Her own spiritual/academic formation happened in the same furnace of world war as her directees, audiences, and readers, and us today.
i love how she was a teacher and built churches
This is almost a Martha/Mary situation -- one practical and one prayerful. Since I identify with Martha, gotta go with James Solomon Russell.
Living just "just over the border" in NC, I should go for Russell, but it's the mystic lady who gets my vote today.
Gotta love a mystic lady.
Tough decision today. How do you compare a mystic and a down to earth Christian dooer? Both inspired by the Holy Spirit, but such different paths. Perhaps our votes say more about us than them?? Will go with Russell.
As I am drawn to prayer and meditation because they make doing nothing look respectable I had to vote for Evelyn
Thanks for the laugh! I am one for whom prayer and meditation can be difficult (the sitting still part), I voted for Evelyn because of her practical mysticism approach, but Rev. Russell is a true saint in service to the world also. I will be happy with whomever advances today.
Both of today's saints have much to teach us. I voted for Underhill because I treasure her writings and resonate strongly with her childhood mystical experiences.
I voted for Evelyn not just because my name is Evelyn, and my grandmother's name was Evelyn, and my OTHER grandmother's middle name was Evelyn... but because she describes what I aspire to each day. Or should I say "inspire" to: breathe in God, breathe out negativity - in all that I do - even the dishes.
A mystic lady? OMG! Is this probably pretty neat woman and mentor .... an actual saint? I mean in a very pure sense believers in the saving grace of Jesus Christ makes us ... me and you saints.... but that doesn’t put me (or maybe you, gentler Lent Madness fan) in contention with Frank Jagermeister (or whatever his name was) or Dietrich Bonhoeffer or St Mary of Paris. A church mystic, spiritual coach?
What am I missing here? I’m voting for the other guy.
I am so hung up between these two. As a student in England in the ’60s I encountered Evelyn’s writings and the living mystical tradition she had revived. That experience has remained a part of me since then, in the form less of personal devotion than of respect for the tradition, and an enriching regard for the experience of those who continue it. So, like many others, I expected an easy choice between Evelyn and some obscure nonentity, which is how we dismiss people we happen not to have heard of.
Well, Blessed James, you are no longer a nonentity to us of the Lent Madness community who, however we vote, will always revere you and your example to us. Your life may be especially a story for our times as we try to face the historic racism of our church.
(I guess the idea of ordaining black bishops for “colored work” didn’t catch on after James rejected it. It brings to mind the story Bishop Barbara Harris told at my son’s consecration of having been confirmed by a bishop who always wore white gloves when he visited black congregations to confirm.)
I’m not going to vote yet and will take advantage of some of the seventeen hours that are still left for reflection, secure in knowing that in this matchup there can be no wrong choice.
I appreciate the introduction to a mystic I had not known before, since centering prayer is a discipline that I practice. I'll set aside time to read her book, Mysticism, at some point. BUT, I give the vote to our brother James today, because of his birth into slavery and his responsiveness to the need in his community for higher education, to help them advance in life. I am always amazed at the stories of African-Americans who were treated as sub-humans, and yet still strove to give their very best to God and to others. I doubt I would have been as strong in the face of the obstacles they faced. (Remembering the story of Hidden Figures today, and the recent passing into heaven, on February 24th, of Katherine Johnson.)
Thank you for including Evelyn Underhill. Mystical Christianity has been affirming and transforming for me and many others I know. Perhaps it
is one of the reasons I find competitions so difficult. One is not better than the other, both offered the world their true selves wholeheartedly. And I am grateful for this chance to get acquainted with such a great diversity of saints. I voted for Evelyn to honor the significance of her gifts to my life, and am happy that James is being honored for his.
Must add my vote for a fellow graduate of Hampton Institute (University)! Go Russell!
I voted for Evelyn, not because I'm a mystic but because I need to include more interior spiritual practice to my liturgical one--balance!
On the other hand, I am equally happy that James is in the lead.
This was the hardest choice so far, but I had to vote for James. His diligence and commitment during a troubled time in our history for a man of color opened up opportunities for so many. He worked hard for his faith. The life of Evelyn seems privileged in comparison. God bless you James.
Evelyn’s known for her works on the mystic
But her first book was rhymes legalistic:
Courtly love it had none,
And with wordplay and pun
Must have barristers driven ballistic.†
† The Bar-Lamb’s Ballad Book (1902) see http://archive.org/details/abarlambsballad00unkngoog
Evelyn! Not mentioned in the bio (and there are only so many words available) was her influence on The Inklings. She is even referenced in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship, when Frodo goes by the name "Underhill." Without her, the writings of Tolkein, Lewis, Williams et al would be much poorer.
Was Evelyn truly an influence on the Inklings? I did have a thought of Lord of the Rings going through my mind when seeing a gentleman with initials of J.R. go up against the Underhill saint, though it was James' agricultural background that influenced me to give him the nod today.
I love church planters! Also here in New England, the former Bishop of the ELCA New England was Bishop Payne (Margaret) so that also factored into my decision!
Russell today! I have to love a church planter with a high regard for education and doing the work on the ground.
I expected to vote for Evelyn as I did the last time she appeared in the bracket, however I am so moved by the story of Russell who overcame such hardship, was committed to the education of others, and refused to become a bishop out of principle.
I didn't know that VTS has a segregated school (a shameful chapter in the history of the TEC, but that's for another day...). My brother got his M.Div from VTS and is now an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Tokyo, so in honor of that connection to this amazing man who was James Solomon Russell...my vote goes the Virginian!