- Hardcover: 112 pages
- Publisher: Verso Books (26 Oct 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1859849296
- ISBN-13: 978-1859849293
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 848,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Missionary Position
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Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, feted by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and the House of Windsor, and eulogized throughout the world's media, Mother Teresa of Calcutta has entered that most select of sanctums: the house of living saints. But, as Christopher Hitchens argues, all is not as it seems in the canonization of Saint Teresa. In a searching examination of the Teresa cult, Hitchens recasts our relationship with Mother. He recounts her cosy relations with unsavoury oligarchies throughout the Third World, from the Duvalier dynasty in Haiti to Union Carbide in India. He reports on her consistent mission to the rich, including corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds. He spotlights her role as a propagandist for the most extreme views on abortion and contraception, details her dubious "special relationship" with claims of miraculous and supernatural apparitions, exposes her authoritarian rule over her acolytes, and outlines her megalomaniacal plans to found a new religious order, The Missionary Multinational. Hitchens's concludes that, far from being heaven's agent on Earth, Mother Teresa is one of hell's angels. Christopher Hitchens is the author of "Hostage to History: Cyprus from Ottoman to Kissinger", "Prepared for the Worst", "Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo American Ironies", "International Territory: Official Utopia and the United Nations" (with Adam Bartos) and "For The Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
To consider Agnes Bojaxhiu ('Mother Teresa') in an ethical humanist light is to put focus on three questions in particular:
- to what extent did she actually extend the life of those in her care?
- to what extent did she actually improve the quality of life for those in her care?
- to what extent did she improve life more broadly in the world (where factors include the solace she gave to believers, her political interventions against divorce, contraception and abortion, and her complicity with sectarianism in Albania to name a few)?
In this brave book, now re-issued, Christopher Hitchens opened up these topics and hopefully laid groundwork for further sober assessment of this woman's life works.
One can wish for many things about this book:
- that it was written earlier
- that it was longer and included more detail from the extensive primary sources quoted
- that it revealed how the hundreds of millions raised by the Missionaries of Charity have been spent (or not)
- that it dealt in more detail with the apparent failure of the sisters to improve standards of medical care despite the available means to do so
But one cannot in all conscience wish that it had not been written.
- to what extent did she actually extend the life of those in her care?
- to what extent did she actually improve the quality of life for those in her care?
- to what extent did she improve life more broadly in the world (where factors include the solace she gave to believers, her political interventions against divorce, contraception and abortion, and her complicity with sectarianism in Albania to name a few)?
In this brave book, now re-issued, Christopher Hitchens opened up these topics and hopefully laid groundwork for further sober assessment of this woman's life works.
One can wish for many things about this book:
- that it was written earlier
- that it was longer and included more detail from the extensive primary sources quoted
- that it revealed how the hundreds of millions raised by the Missionaries of Charity have been spent (or not)
- that it dealt in more detail with the apparent failure of the sisters to improve standards of medical care despite the available means to do so
But one cannot in all conscience wish that it had not been written.
167 of 181 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Outstanding work
This is an incredibly important, if difficult book from a Christopher Hitchens.
We project our own hopes and desires on people such as Mother Theresa, and do not... Read more
We project our own hopes and desires on people such as Mother Theresa, and do not... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Robert Sanford
A masterpiece
Christopher writes another masterpiece. A wonderful and insightful expose of Mother Theresa and of the hypocrisy, corruption, endemic abuse and fallacy of religion. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Black
Enlightening!
It's hardly surprising that this book has received so much negative criticism (and not just on Amazon). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mike N
An ethical humanist view of Agnes Bojaxhiu
To consider Agnes Bojaxhiu ('Mother Teresa') in an ethical humanist light is to put focus on three questions in particular:
- to what extent did she actually extend the life... Read more
- to what extent did she actually extend the life... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Devlin Mitchell
Another brilliant masterpiece by legendary Hitchens...
This book is a must-read...highly recommend it, especially to Teresa's apologetics! This book reveals the alliance between the Catholic Church and despots(including the murderous... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Nancy
Would Jesus do that?
'"There is always the DANGER that we may become ONLY SOCIAL WORKERS or just do the work FOR THE SAKE OF THE WORK. IT IS A DANGER. If we forget to whom we are going it. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Martin Jurca
Sadistic Salvation
This book needed to be written and as importantly,it requires reading. It dispels the myth of a kind saintly woman. Read more
Published 8 months ago by The Reader
Illusion v Reality
It is a brave man who takes on the job of examining Mother Teresa's reputation with a critical eye. As Hitchens himself acknowledges in his foreword: "Who would be so base as to... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Marand
An evil woman
If the book is to be believed, and I have no reason to doubt Christopher's evidence, it yet again illustrates the incredible harm that continues to be caused in the World by all... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Bangorgeoff
The other side
Amazing the amount of people who criticise this book but cant rationally argue against the facts it throws up. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Grant Donaghy
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