ABSTRACT
A systematic theological discussion of the phenomenon of ecstasy in the English mystics lies outside the framework of our philological approach, which is concerned with the rendering of Latin terms, based on imaginative concrete ideas asman’s stepping out of himself and his being violently carried off. Expressions for the becoming one of God and soul which have a formulaic directness about them, are in Latin principally the terms unio, in German mysticism the terms (ver)einunge, vereinen und einekeit, and in the English texts the terms oonhed, oonnes, union, unicion, unite, onyng, unithing and onen or unyen. In Latin mysticism apart from the word extasis we frequently come across the term raptus, and the two terms are often very clearly distinguished from each other. The term commercium, which is frequently found in Latin mysticism, is closely related to the concept of familiaritas.
