Together, the three works constitute Bataille's Summa Atheologica, in which he explores the experience of excess, expressed in forms such as laughter, tears, eroticism, death, sacrifice and poetry.

[2] Inner Experience received a negative reception from several authors due to having been published during the Second World War.

Bataille was criticized for this privately by Jules Monnerot, and publicly by Patrick Waldberg.

Boris Souvarine regarded its publication as a sign of Bataille's acceptance of the occupation of France.

Bataille was attacked by surrealists in a pamphlet entitled Nom de Dieu.