ABSTRACT
As the above quotation illustrates, mysticism is a particularly troubling term, and one that tends to elude any simple definition. At the same time, mysticism has given rise to a plethora of theoretical approaches which seek to understand it from theological, philosophical, psychological, socio-historical or deconstructive points of view, and there is considerable controversy between and within these various positions.2 Many contemporary accounts of mysticism insist on the contextuality of mysticism in relation to religious practices and cultural traditions, as opposed to earlier accounts which focused on the unity of all forms of mystical experience regardless of their context. Similarly, the assumption that mystical experience is based on oneness, unity and the presence of God has also been challenged, particularly froma deconstructiveperspective.3 The many contributions to the links between deconstruction or postmodernism and negative theology as a privileged textual expression of mystical experience constitute a scholarly and daunting discourse that threatens to consume mysticism whole without leaving so much as a trace.
