This volume brings the unconventional theorizing of Georges Bataille, whose impact has been felt in other areas of the humanities for the last fifty years, into the study of religion, where his thought has had only a limited influence through the writings of scholars like Amy Hollywood and Michael Taussig. To remedy this tardy and sporadic reception, the authors gathered here have used Bataille's work to “do” as well as “undo” religious studies. Not only do the collected essays utilize Bataille's ideas about the sacred, economy, sacrifice, sovereignty, and transgression to explicate religious phenomena like mystical experiences and esoteric sexual rites, they also enact those ideas in order to “disrupt” religious studies and treat disciplinary boundaries as “so many occasions for transgression.” Here, we have Hugh Urban and Jeffrey J. Kripal respectively using Bataille to examine sexual difference in the Assamese cult of the Tantric goddess Kāmākhyā and the role of trauma in mysticism across cultures alongside David Chidester, Kent Brintnall, and Paul Hegarty exploring the religious dimensions of World Cup football, unprotected anal sex between men, and electronic noise music. Bataille's utility (a word he would surely despise) in interpreting aspects of religion that overlap with his areas of interest (sex, violence, excess) is in evidence alongside the destabilizing effects of his ideas when they are accepted, “bareback,” as it were, into existing theoretical models. Along with an excellent brief introduction to Bataille for religionists, there are essays that compare Bataille with Kristeva, Foucault, and Teilhard de Chardin, others that use his ideas to understand the connected religions or pseudo-religions of neoliberalism and free market capitalism, and an exploration of Bataille and dreams. Especially welcome is Stephen Bush's essay drawing out some of the often-overlooked ambiguities in Bataille's writings as well as the potentially troubling nature of his meditations on cruelty. The essays collected in Negative Ecstasies bear the marks of being carefully selected and thoughtfully commissioned from a wide array of scholars. This book is highly recommended for those with interests in continental philosophy of religion, theoretical approaches to the study of religion, popular culture, and the genealogy of religious studies.