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Georges Bataille
George Bataille is a French librarian and writer whose essays, novels, and poetry expressed his fascination with eroticism, mysticism, and the irrational. He viewed excess as a way to gain personal sovereignty. After training as an archivist at the school of paleography known as the Ecole des Chartes (School of Charters) in Paris, he worked as a librarian and medieval specialist at the Bibliotheque National in Paris until 1942. In 1951 he became keeper of the Orleans library. He also edited scholarly journals and in 1946 founded an influential literary review, Critique, which he edited until his death.
George Bataille’s “Theory of Religion” is an attempt to sum up religion in as succinct a manner as possible. To be all things to all religions, the book is very vague and difficult to understand. Bataille created a chart or table to explain what he was doing and to give body to the work. ALAS! The chart is not in the book, lost to time. Thus, as it exists, Bataille’s book is a glimpse into the inner workings of a genius mind. It is a colorful attempt to understand “religion,” whatever that is. Further, it is an off-the beaten path romp through the daisies of the study of religion, sweet flowers that often remain unromped.
Theory of Religion brings to philosophy what Bataille’s earlier book, The Accursed Share, brought to anthropology and history; namely, an analysis based on notions of excess and expenditure. Bataille brilliantly defines religion as so many different attempts to respond to the universe’s relentless generosity. Framed within his original theory of generalized economics and based on his masterly reading of archaic religious activity, Theory of Religion constitutes, along with The Accursed Share, the most important articulation of Bataille’s work. Theory of Religion brings to philosophy what...
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