This article examines Julia Kristeva's paradoxical concept of a 'mystic atheism'. It
falls into three parts. First, it briefly surveys Kristeva's psychoanalytic account
of Christian theology in Au commencement était l'amour (1985).
Secondly, it assesses Kristeva's analysis of the Christian mystical tradition from
Teresa of Avila to Angela of Foligno in such works as Le féminin et
le sacré (1999) and the three volumes on Le génie
féminin (1999— 2002). For Kristeva, Christian
mysticism represents a key moment in the transition from theology to psychoanalysis:
what she locates within the work of the female mystics is a so-called 'mystic
atheism', that is to say, an affirmation of an other within the subject as
opposed to the divine other that supposedly lies outside it. Finally, the article
offers some critical comments upon Kristeva's own 'mystic atheism': I argue
that—like much negative theology—Kristeva's psychoanalysis
remains ontotheological in form and that this dimension expresses itself in a
problematic tendency to anthropomorphize the other within. In conclusion, I will
suggest that Kristeva's 'mystic atheism' ultimately remains within the theological
tradition it seeks to call into question.
