[f. THEO- + -PATHY. Cf. Gr. θεοπάθεια the suffering of God.] Sympathetic passive feeling excited by the contemplation of God; susceptibility to this feeling; sensitiveness or responsiveness to divine influence; pious sentiment. Cf. THEOPATHETIC.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iv. § 5. 486. The Pleasures and Pains of Theopathy: under this Class I comprehend all those Pleasures and Pains, which the Contemplation of God and his Attributes, and of our Relation to Him, raises up.
1816. Southey, Ess. (1832), I. 235. In the order of nature, what Hartley calls theopathy, is not, and ought not, to be looked for, as the predominant feeling of youth.
1837. Hallam, Hist. Lit., III. ii. § 73. The writings … of St. Teresa … are … full of a mystical theopathy.
1881. Ch. Q. Rev., 60. The Sufi School, the ‘Methodists of the East,’ as Martyn calls them, in reference to their creedless theopathy.
