Negative Ecstasies Georges Bataille and the Study of Religion [Hardcover]

Despite Georges Batailles acknowledged influence on major poststructuralist thinkersincluding Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva, Lacan, Baudrillard, and Barthesand his prominence in literary, cultural, and social theory, rarely has he been taken up by scholars of religion, even as issues of the sacred were central to his thinking. Bringing together established scholars and emerging voices, Negative Ecstasies engages Bataille from the perspective of religious studies and theology, forging links with feminist and queer theory, economics, secularism, psychoanalysis, fat studies, and ethics. As these essays demonstrate, Batailles work bears significance to contemporary questions in the academy and vital issues in the world. We continue to ignore him at our peril.Negative Ecstasies discusses the contribution and significance of the work of Georges Bataille to the contemporary study of religion and theology, collecting essays that examine specific case studies and make connections to other significant scholars in the field.Negative Ecstacies provides a welcome appraisal of Bataille's contribution to religious thought and experience in a post-sacred society. With scholarly rigor, this impressive collection extends his provocative ideas to daringly new terrain.This collection makes a significant and timely contribution to the still emergent scholarship on Georges Bataille. The authors have not given in to the temptation to tame the texts, but neither is this an uncritical celebration; rather, the consistently thoughtful essays take up Batailles work seriously and carefully in a range of new approaches and ideas.