On Belief

What is the basis of belief in an era when globalization, multiculturalism and big business are the new religion?

Below the surface of our ostensibly secular culture, the structure of faith is still operatative – we all secretly believe. Jacques Lacan was right in his assertion that the phrase »God is unconscious« is the only truly apt formula for atheism. On Belief traces the contours of these unconscious beliefs, which structure our everyday existence: from Gnosticism, which underlies the ideology of Cyberspace, to the different versions of Asian spirituality, which represent the ideal ideological complement to global Capitalism, to the negative theology of Judaism, which has dominated contemporary critical theory from the Frankfurt School to the Deconstructivists. On Belief posits the »rational core« of Christianity as an alternative to these various religious world-views.

Holding up the so-called authenticity of religious belief to critical light, Žižek draws on psychoanalysis, film and philosophy to reveal in startling fashion that nothing could be worse for believers than their beliefs turning out to be true.