For Julia Kristeva, religion is not just an illusion and a source of neuroses. Rather, the incredible need to believe precedes any religious construction: people are shaped by this desire for faith, which begins with the expectation of a loving third party, expresses itself in the first act of speech, and continues in the identity search of adolescents, who for Kristeva are believing doubters. In conversations and essays, Kristeva analyzes this need and illustrates her thoughts using texts from Saint Paul, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Karol Wojtyla, Jürgen Habermas, and Joseph Ratzinger. She addresses topics such as the father and mother function, authority, the idealism of youth, and feminism. Her insights illuminate contemporary religious conflicts, even as Kristeva argues that we no longer believe in God.