Hailed as "one of France's best minds" by Martin Heidegger, Georges Bataille has become a pivotal figure in American thought, influencing thinkers like Barthes, Foucault, Derrida, and Kristeva. For the first time in English, this volume is the final part of Bataille's significant work, The Atheological Summa, which includes Inner Experience and Guilty. Originally published in 1945, it represents Bataille's closest attempt to formulate his own system—an "atheology." Nietzsche profoundly impacted Bataille's life, leading him to abandon Catholicism for a unique form of godless mysticism after a personal crisis. In this work, Bataille extends Nietzsche's exploration of spirituality beyond religion, addressing how one can lead a spiritual life without traditional faith. He critiques fascist interpretations of Nietzsche, discusses Nietzsche's conflicts with Richard Wagner, and condemns German anti-Semitism, portraying Nietzsche as a prophet of "the crude German fate." The text serves as a journal that intertwines observations with fragments, aphorisms, poems, and myths against the backdrop of war and occupation. Bataille transitions seamlessly between abstraction and confession, connecting his internal struggles with the external chaos of his time. This volume reaffirms Michel Foucault's assertion that Bataille "broke with traditional narrative to tell us what has never been told before."
