Melissa asked:

These questions stem from Georges Bataille's Erotism: Death and Sensuality.

What, for Bataille, is the relation between sex, death and religious experience? How does he
understand Christianity in light of his analyses? What do you think of his position? Does he get close
to what is "religious experience"? What does Bataille mean by "continuous and discontinuous being"?
What concepts and ideas in Bataille parallel Heidegger's notion of the enframing? Which parallel
Heidegger's notion of exstatic Dasein (ex-istence)? Does Bataille think we can get beyond the
Ordering?

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You have certainly asked a composite series of complicated questions concerning Bataille's major
themes and motifs, so let us start with your last one. It has been a very popular activity of many
Bataille scholars as of late to find solid links and parallels between the Heideggerian and Bataillian
project; however, such hasty links compromise the character of Bataille's works. One must remember
that Bataille was writing in a rather oblique tradition away from existentialism and phenomenology.
Although he gained much of his Hegel understanding from his infrequent attendance of Kojeve's
lectures, what we see in Bataille is a promotion of irrationalism more in league with a speculation
beyond Hegel's system and Bergsonism. Bataille's relationship with religion in general is a
complicated affair, for in his more formative years he had planned on joining seminary, to which end
later he renounced his faith and eventually found himself conjoined with Breton and the surrealist
movement. After he left Breton et al., Bataille made his own way to demonstrate his belief in a state of
non-savoir, of our reason going to its limit and "expiring." I will respond in more detail at a later date.

Kane X. Faucher