Bataille on God, Satan and antinomianism

Found : Bataille on God, Satan and antinomianism

Kojève’s student Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was a sociologist and anthropologist. Drury writes, “In Bataille’s view, the deathlike state of modern life has its source in the undisputed triumph of God and his prohibitions, reason and its calculations, science and its utilitarianism…. The first task at hand is to kill God and replace him with the vanquished Satan, since God represents the prohibitions of civilization. To reject God is to reject transcendence in favor of the ‘immanence’ achieved through intoxication, eroticism, human sacrifice, and poetic effusions. Replacing God with Satan also means replacing prohibition with transgression, order with disorder, and reason with madness.”