- Paperback: 96 pages
- Publisher: Verso Books; Reprint edition (Oct 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 185984054X
- ISBN-13: 978-1859840542
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.4 x 0.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
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- #21 in Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Indian Subcontinent
- #38 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > South East Asia
- #78 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Evangelism > Missions & Missionary Work
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"Who would be so base as to pick on a wizened, shrivelled old lady, well stricken in years, who has consecrated her entire life to the needy and destitute? On the other hand, who would be so incurious as to leave unexamined the influence and motives of a woman who once boasted of operating more than five hundred convents in upwards of 105 countries - "without counting India"? Lone self-sacrificing zealot, or chair of a missionary multinational?" Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, feted by politicians, the Church and the world's media, Mother Teresa of Calcutta appears to be on the fast track to sainthood. But what, asks Christopher Hitchens, makes Mother Teresa so divine? In a frank expose of the Teresa cult, Hitchens details the nature and limits of one woman's mission to the world's poor. He probes the source of the heroic status bestowed upon an Albanian nun whose only declared wish is to serve God. He asks whether Mother Teresa's good works answer any higher purpose than the need of the world's privileged to see someone, somewhere, doing something for the Third World. He unmasks pseudo-miracles, questions Mother Teresa's fitness to adjudicate on matters of sex and reproduction, and reports on a version of saintly ubiquity which affords genial relations with dictators, corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds. How should we relate to Mother? As an essential salve to the conscience of the rich West, or an expert PR machine for the Catholic Church? In its caustic iconoclasm and unsparing wit, The Missionary Position confirms Christopher Hitchens as one of today's most devastating polemicists.
About the Author
Christopher Hitchens is a journalist living in Washington. He writes the 'Cultural Elite' column for Vanity Fair and the 'Minority Report' column for The Nation. His other books include Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies, International Territory: Official Utopia and the United Nations 1945-95 (with Adam Bartos), and For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
144 of 158 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb expose of a deeply hypocritical woman,
By
This review is from: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (Paperback)
During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was as close to canonization as it was possible to get without actually being dead. The front cover of Time magazine called her a "Living Saint". A cult of holiness surrounded her and in the eyes of the media and many politicians she could do no wrong. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded numerous honors in the countries she visited.
The facts however didn't match the illusion and public perception and Christopher Hitchens had the courage to say so. He exposes her revolting attitude towards the dying, namely that they were there to die and to suffer; in that way they became closer to Christ. Care, compassion and alievement of pain were practically non-existent in her `clinics'. Standard clinical procedures and medical diagnosis was also spurned because they were materialistic. Provenance was to be preferred at all times. Hitchens also shows deceit was practiced as a matter of course towards those of other religions who were secretly baptized without their knowledge by sisters who were supposed to be caring for them. Then there is her fawning over politicians, including some of the worst despots of the latter twentieth century. The Duvalier's of Haiti and Hoxha of her native Albania were amongst the most notoriously repressive regimes, yet as Hitchens documents, this living saint was there giving them her blessing. If she could preach her message against abortion and her present advocacy of unlimited population growth at the same time, so much the better. Not so much reducing the suffering in the world as adding to it would appear to be Mother Teresa's legacy. There is also the little matter of money and as Hitchens points out, there is rather a lot of it, that was handed over in the name of charity or humanitarian support. Very little of this ever went to benefit the poor for whom it was intended. Rather it disappeared into unaudited bank accounts. One account in the Bronx had over $50 million dollars, yet Mother Teresa was on record as saying she wouldn't accept altruism. She was quite happy to accept money from fraudsters such as Charles Keating, but ignored a letter from the man investigating Keating's massive thefts requesting its return. It might also be asked where the money came from which allowed Teresa to fly around the world often at short notice. As far as I know, the world's commercial airlines have never operated a policy of free seats to the religious. Hitchens' book does not set out to be a hatchet job but he has not surprisingly received a fair amount of criticism for writing it. However there has never been any convincing explanations put forward by Teresa's apologists to any of Hitchen's criticisms, yet there has been much silence since he former living saint was hoisted to a higher plane following beatification in 2003. For those who are determined to see Mother Teresa as the embodiment of religious holiness nothing will convince them of anything untoward. However, if you do have doubts about the abuse of religious power and the ways in which all manner of lies are justified on the back of adherence to religious dogma, this book will provide a most illuminating window into a highly corrupt world.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important reading for any christian thinker,
By
This review is from: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (Paperback)
As a child I prayed for Mother Theresa and donated money to her without question.
Without malice, but with rational reporting, Hitchens shows how her work is not the saving of the sick, but some bizarre 'worship cult' whereupon the input are the gullible and ill, the process is their suffering and the output is the imaginary concept of humility to god. As an aside, another product of this perversion is many millions of dollars of real cash which cannot today be accounted for.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Agnes Position,
By
This review is from: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (Paperback)
Hitchens' exposition of Agnes Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) as an anti-abortion religious fundamentalist will not surprise anyone who has a passing interest in the machinations of the Catholic Church. Moreover, the accusation that Bojaxhiu cavorted with seedy businessmen, vicious dictators, and unsavoury politicians in pursuit of celebrity and donations does not constitute an entirely unexpected revelation. Therefore, given earlier (and more authoritative) criticism of the Missionaries of Charity and its questionable palliative care practises, it is an axiom that there is little that is unique about the contents of this book: indeed, in both style and substance, Hitchens' essay follows so closely his 1994 Channel 4 documentary, Hell's Angel, as to be virtually indistinguishable.
However, Hitchens' polemic was originally published in 1995 (two years before Bojaxhiu's death) and at the time it was perhaps a solitary abstract of the objections and criticisms levelled at Mother Teresa and her work: given that such criticism was largely ignored by the world's mainstream media and the uncritical and credulous public of the time, the book undoubtedly served a useful purpose when it was published. Nonetheless, despite Hitchens' usual acerbic wit and an almost peerless use of English, the truth is that this book is very much a product of its time and it seems somehow less relevant today. Hitchens' arguments seem vague and confused with the passage of fifteen or more years; unsure as to whether Bojaxhiu was simply a misguided do-gooder or the cynical manipulator of presidents and kings. Doubtless, given the Vatican's unseemly haste to beatify Mother Teresa, the debate about her character and work will endure for years hence: Hitchens can rightly claim to have been one of the instigators of this debate and for that fact alone, this book deserves to be read.
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