Bataille’s Word: ‘Dieu soit mort’ (God be Dead)
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Alan Watt
Abstract
In this chapter, I attempt a reading of Bataille on Nietzsche and religion, concentrating in particular on Inner Experience, and consider how Bataille’s approach contrasts with other ‘religious’ readings of Nietzsche. Bataille, first, understands ‘God is dead’ in terms of sacrifice-we kill him and want to kill him (‘Dieu soit mort’)-which immediately gives it a religious character.Whereas many religious readings of Nietzsche have been upbeat, bringers of glad tidings about ‘affirmation and grace’ (Altizer) or an ‘elemental Yes’ (Roberts), Bataille’s God-sacrificer is anguished: trembling, laughter, even megalomania and madness are likely accompaniments of the sacrifice. For Bataille, sacred life involves the inescapable laceration of individual integrity. After completing a presentation of Bataille’s sense of God-be-dead experience, I turn to the question of how Nietzschean all this is. After all, Bataille himself never posed as a ‘true exegete’. Yet although one can hardly ‘demonstrate the correctness’ of his way of reading Nietzsche, there are important resonances, notably in The Madman, Zarathustra’s Prologue, and in aspects of Nietzsche’s figuring of Dionysus, that in my view make Bataille’s ‘dice-throw’ still a luckier hit than many ostensibly more careful readings.
Abstract
In this chapter, I attempt a reading of Bataille on Nietzsche and religion, concentrating in particular on Inner Experience, and consider how Bataille’s approach contrasts with other ‘religious’ readings of Nietzsche. Bataille, first, understands ‘God is dead’ in terms of sacrifice-we kill him and want to kill him (‘Dieu soit mort’)-which immediately gives it a religious character.Whereas many religious readings of Nietzsche have been upbeat, bringers of glad tidings about ‘affirmation and grace’ (Altizer) or an ‘elemental Yes’ (Roberts), Bataille’s God-sacrificer is anguished: trembling, laughter, even megalomania and madness are likely accompaniments of the sacrifice. For Bataille, sacred life involves the inescapable laceration of individual integrity. After completing a presentation of Bataille’s sense of God-be-dead experience, I turn to the question of how Nietzschean all this is. After all, Bataille himself never posed as a ‘true exegete’. Yet although one can hardly ‘demonstrate the correctness’ of his way of reading Nietzsche, there are important resonances, notably in The Madman, Zarathustra’s Prologue, and in aspects of Nietzsche’s figuring of Dionysus, that in my view make Bataille’s ‘dice-throw’ still a luckier hit than many ostensibly more careful readings.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Foreword v
- Table of Contents vii
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Nietzscheʼs Greek Gods
- Nietzsche’s Apollo 5
- The Return of the Epicurean Gods 27
- Friedrich Nietzsche on the Greek Mysteries 51
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Part II: Nietzscheʼs Christianity
- The Apostle Paul’s Conception of Sárx and Nietzsche’s Feeling of Power 75
- Conversion and Convalescence: Matters of Grace 101
- Life-Affirmation and Disgust with Humanity in the Wake of the Death of God 123
- The Concept of ‘Antichrist’: Twilight or Renewal of Atheism 149
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Part III: Nietzscheʼs Theologies
- Nietzsche’s (Experimental) Perspectival Poly-Pantheisms 167
- Intoxication, Ecstasy, Death: Nietzsche on “Divine” States 177
- Religion in the Light of Good Conscience 199
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Part IV: Nietzscheʼs Future Gods
- The Greatest Advantage of Polytheism: Monotheism and Normalization through Truth 221
- The Moderate Man and the Weak God: Nietzsche, Vattimo and Nihilism Today 241
- Bataille’s Word: ‘Dieu soit mort’ (God be Dead) 259
- The Corpse in the Machine: Outlining a Genealogical Approach to the Technological Revolution 275
- Index of Persons and Subjects 293
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Foreword v
- Table of Contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Nietzscheʼs Greek Gods
- Nietzsche’s Apollo 5
- The Return of the Epicurean Gods 27
- Friedrich Nietzsche on the Greek Mysteries 51
-
Part II: Nietzscheʼs Christianity
- The Apostle Paul’s Conception of Sárx and Nietzsche’s Feeling of Power 75
- Conversion and Convalescence: Matters of Grace 101
- Life-Affirmation and Disgust with Humanity in the Wake of the Death of God 123
- The Concept of ‘Antichrist’: Twilight or Renewal of Atheism 149
-
Part III: Nietzscheʼs Theologies
- Nietzsche’s (Experimental) Perspectival Poly-Pantheisms 167
- Intoxication, Ecstasy, Death: Nietzsche on “Divine” States 177
- Religion in the Light of Good Conscience 199
-
Part IV: Nietzscheʼs Future Gods
- The Greatest Advantage of Polytheism: Monotheism and Normalization through Truth 221
- The Moderate Man and the Weak God: Nietzsche, Vattimo and Nihilism Today 241
- Bataille’s Word: ‘Dieu soit mort’ (God be Dead) 259
- The Corpse in the Machine: Outlining a Genealogical Approach to the Technological Revolution 275
- Index of Persons and Subjects 293
