This Incredible Need to Believe

by Julia Kristeva, Beverley Bie Brahic (Translator)

Overview

In this provocative work, Julia Kristeva analyzes the inexorable push toward faith that lies at the heart of the psyche and the history of society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231562720
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/19/2024
Series:	European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook

About the Author

Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII. A renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist, she has written dozens of books spanning semiotics, political theory, literary criticism, gender and sex, and cultural critique, as well as several novels and autobiographical works, published in English translation by Columbia University Press. Kristeva was the inaugural recipient of the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004 “for innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture, and literature.”

Beverley Bie Brahic is a translator and poet living in Paris and Stanford, California. In addition to the writing of Kristeva, she has translated the works of Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, and Francis Ponge.

Table of Contents

The Big Question Mark (in Guise of a Preface)
This Incredible Need to Believe: Interview with Carmine Donzelli
From Jesus to Mozart: Christianity's Difference?
"Suffering": Lenten Lectures, March 19, 2006
The Genius of Catholicism
Don't Be Afraid of European Culture
Index

Editorial Reviews

Kristeva (Powers of Horror) delivers a focused and insightful discussion of religious belief. With material culled from various interviews, articles and lectures, the book is less a unified argument than a sprawling analysis of religion in major psychological and philosophical literature (e.g., Freud, Arendt, Winnicot), fiction (e.g., Proust) and in private life (Kristeva makes wonderful use of Saint Teresa of Avila's writings) underscored by her claim that “sharable” knowledge of the inner religious experience is possible and could develop into an important field of discourse. Kristeva provides neither an attack on nor a support of religious belief; her interest is in drawing other disciplines into the discussion. She uses psychoanalytic techniques to comprehend religious experience, the “clash of religions,” notions of genius, theories of suffering and sexuality and the debt modern humanism owes to Christianity's emphasis on self-questioning. Compelling and remarkable for its staunch unwillingness to take sides, this book sets forth Kristeva's most sustained treatment of religion in a format that will interest both scholars and anyone looking for an accessible introduction to her methods and preoccupations. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

An impressive . . . crystallization of [Kristeva’s] religious and psychoanalytic thought.

Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature

Readers... will be exposed to an impressive... crystallization of [Kristeva's] religious and psychoanalytic thought.

Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature - Elaine P. Zicker

In this book, Julia Kristeva analyzes various pressing issues of our time, including the crisis in the Middle East, terrorism, depression, anorexia, and addiction, along with a general crisis of meaning. With her customary brilliance, she argues that belief and faith make it possible to speak but also to question. Provocatively, she describes a vein of Christianity and Catholicism that open up rather than close down that infinite questioning, which she maintains is necessary to delay the death drive. Here, Kristeva uses her incisive psychoanalytic acumen to diagnose the 'culture wars' and the 'clash of religions' that threaten world peace.

Kelly Oliver

A helpful commentary and introduction to Kristeva's major work over the last two decades. . . . Recommended.

Choice

Nowhere else does Julia Kristeva provide such a sustained treatment of her views on religion. Kristeva scholars and students will find this book an indispensable text.

Noelle McAfee