Vastation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A state of spiritual emptiness or abandonment, especially as described in Christian mystical theology as a dark night of the soul
2. A condition of inner desolation and loss of faith experienced during spiritual trials, leaving the soul feeling forsaken and barren
3. A period of profound spiritual devastation marked by the apparent withdrawal of divine grace and presence from the soul

Etymology: "Vastation" comes from Latin "vastatio," a noun meaning devastation or laying waste, formed from the verb "vastare." That verb grew from "vastus," which meant empty, desolate, or wasted, not the "huge" sense that "vast" carries in modern English. The English word has kept the older sense of destruction. The most distinctive use is theological. The Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg used the term for a spiritual process in which a person's inner evils are stripped away before regeneration. Here the destruction is deliberate and purifying, not simply catastrophic. Swedenborg's writings gave the term its specialized meaning in religious discussion, and it still appears in Swedenborgian writing today.

Synonyms: devastation, destruction, ruin

Antonyms: construction, creation