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The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
 
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The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (Paperback)

by Christopher Hitchens (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
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The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice + God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything + Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer
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  • This item: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens

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"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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The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
92% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (6)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A liberating book on the truth behind Teresa's methods, 29 Oct 1997
By A Customer
This is perhaps one of the most important books to be written in the last ten years about the complicated relationship the rich have with the poor. Far from just an expose on the devious tactics used by Teresa to increase the material wealth and public image of herself and her order, Hitchens also exposes the spiritual fraud exacted on the bodies of the non-Catholic poor on whom the success of her mission (in terms of her spiritual agenda and her own political ambitions) so desperately depends. Keep in mind while reading this book that Hitchens, ostensibly much like Teresa, is crucially concerned with liberating humanity. Unlike Teresa, his idea of liberation is much more in concert with our collective understanding of decency and the possibility of people finding salvation in the world they create.
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98 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Refutation of Religious Nonsense, 29 Jul 1999
By A Customer
What a wonderful and delightfully funny book Christopher Hitchens has written! It debunks all kinds of nonsense put forth by persons who have never taken the time to examine Mother Teresa's ministry the way Hitchens did. He "casts a cold eye" on her work, and the results of his investigation are shocking indeed!

As even a cursory glance of the reviews at this site prove, people will excuse any kind of skullduggery - as long as it is in the name of God! Mind you, I am a highly spiritual person - what I object to is blind obedience to the dictates of a religion, with no consideration of its shortcomings.

Far from dispelling light, as one of the reviewers claims, Hitchens is shining a beacon on the truth about Mother Teresa. Hallelujah! The truth shall set us free, free from the shackles of organized religion.

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83 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening, leaving one wanting explanations, 25 Jul 1999
By A Customer
In discussing this book with my friends and co-workers, I found that they reacted with the same "raised-eyebrow shock" that I did. But what we also shared was the same mis-quided, media driven vision of a person that was suposedly unquestionable. After reading this book, intently I might add, I wanted answers. I want to know where all the donations to Mother Teresa's organiztion has gone because it certainly hasn't gone to the poor. I want to know why Mother Teresa has posed in pictures with the wife of a dictator, with a man claiming to have a higher spiritual consciousness than Jesus himself, and with Charles Keating, the man who financially raped so many. Her actions and her words are not congruent and I am thankful to those who look at a situation and make the hard decisions. Christopher Hitchens is intelligent and courageous for writing this book and I am now a fan. The book was well written with sources that will withstand independant scrutiny. I don't know how anyone, after reading this book, could say that Mother Teresa is a saint.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars ?All is not what it appears to be ?
Arrived on time. Well written and absorbing read. If there is a lesson to be learnt, never take things at face value.
Published 4 days ago by R. Thompson

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational AND fun!
What a great little book - A quick read, written in an entertaining way. Not only that but interesting too, really lifting the lid on another religous facade that we are expected... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Simon

1.0 out of 5 stars Crude and Cheap
The play on words used as the title of this book about says it all. Christopher Hitchens is a well known anti-theist and uses every opportunity that he can to capitalize on his... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. P. D. Mckee

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
I really cannot recommend this enough. The other positive reviews are spot on, the truth is out there now!!!
Published 12 months ago by James Phillips

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb expose of a deeply hypocritical woman
During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was as close to canonization as it was possible to get without actually being dead. Read more
Published 16 months ago by dvimus

1.0 out of 5 stars Dull
There are lots of flaws with this book which others have picked up and argued over. I'd like to add that it's dull.
Published 23 months ago by 404

3.0 out of 5 stars Good fun,but flawed
Well,I suppose somebody had to do it!The 20th century's most sacred of sacred cows subject to something other than hero worship. Read more
Published on 24 Jul 2007 by PygmyTwylyte

5.0 out of 5 stars The superior of all mothers is brought down.
This book is a tremendous indictment of one of the most over praised women in the last hundred years. Read more
Published on 21 Jul 2007 by Ted Thomas

3.0 out of 5 stars where the cash goes
In many places around the globe one runs into the sisters of Mother Teresa's order. With the homeless in the UK, in London, Swansea and I don't know how many other cities, I... Read more
Published on 3 Jul 2004 by John Swan

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what it claims to be
Mr. Hitchens is guilty of intellectual dishonesty, muddle-headedness, or some degree of both in the way he frames his attack on the figure of Mother Theresa. Read more
Published on 30 Jul 1999

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