Theopathy

Theopathy (adj. theopathic/theopathetic, from Greek θεός, god, and πάθος, feeling, emotion, suffering) is a term that was probably first used in 1749 by David Hartley. Merriam Webster defines it as "experience or capacity for experience of the divine illumination, especially: intense absorption in religious devotion." In Hartley's philosophy, the term is used for a stage in human development, after sympathy with others, and before the "moral sense", signifying "annihilation of the self". Research on the influence of Hartley's philosophy on Wordsworth and Coleridge has confirmed a strong but critical reception.

Outside of Hartley's philosophy, the term "theopathic" was used for a mystic unity with god in French psychology. In English psychology, William James is said to have used "theopathy" and "theopathic" in the sense of a pathological excess of devotion. Louis Massignon used it in his works on lslamic sufi mysticism, translating shath as "theopathic locution".