The study of mysticism and mystical theology requires analyzing texts with standard scientific literary analysis, but mystical literature has distinctive features. First, its language has a unique referent, meaning the connection between signifier and signified is exceptional. Second, mystical literature spans many literary genres, shaped by authors' motives, writing circumstances, and intended readers. Third, these texts often arose in difficult historical and theological contexts, which strongly influences their intertextuality and reception history.
A recurrent theme in contemplative practice is the need for outward solitude, which provides a framework for contemplation that can give way to a suspension of all efforts and a state of inner letting-be. In the Christian tradition, following the Biblical typology of Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38–42), authors such as Clement of Alexandria, Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Gregory the Great interpret the state of 'non-doing' as essentially relational. This relational dimension, in which contemplation and letting-be are understood as a response to the initiative of the divine Other who is 'the origin' (Lat. principium), provides John of Ruusbroec with the basis to explain how action and non-doing (contemplation) can coalesce perfectly.