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Christopher Hitchens

The Missionary Position

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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 makes Mother Teresa so divine?
In this frank and damning exposé of the Teresa cult, Hitchens details the nature and limits of one woman's mission to help the world's poor. He probes the source of the heroic status bestowed upon an Albanian nun whose only declared wish was to serve God. He asks whether Mother Teresa's good works answered 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. Is Mother Teresa merely 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 showcases the devastating effect of Hitchens' writing at its polemical best.
A dirty job but someone had to do it. By the end of this elegantly written, brilliantly argued piece of polemic, it is not looking good for Mother Teresa. — Sunday Times
This book is currently unavailable
88 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2012
Publication year
2012
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Impressions

  • Katia Escalanteshared an impression3 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    💡Learnt A Lot
    🎯Worthwhile

    Si eres fan o devoto de la Madre Teresa, NO lo leas.
    No sé qué hayas oído sobre Hitchens, pero los rumores son ciertos. En este libro, analiza la figura y símbolo de la cultura popular en que se ha convertido la Madre Teresa, y la juzga por sus actos y por los hechos, no por su reputación (como él mismo dice).
    Me pareció un libro sensacional para ejercitar la duda y el pensamiento crítico. En estos tiempos, es necesario combatir el fanatismo, la credulidad, la ingenuidad y el pensamiento rígido.

Quotes

  • Katia Escalantehas quoted3 years ago
    Agnes Bojaxhiu knows perfectly well that she is conscripted by people like Ralph Reed, that she is a fund-raising icon for clerical nationalists in the Balkans, that she has furnished PR-type cover for all manner of cultists and shady businessmen (who are often the same thing), that her face is on vast highway billboards urging the state to take on the responsibility of safeguarding the womb. By no word or gesture has she ever repudiated any of these connections or alliances.
  • Katia Escalantehas quoted3 years ago
    gnes Bojaxhiu knows perfectly well that she is conscripted by people like Ralph Reed, that she is a fund-raising icon for clerical nationalists in the Balkans, that she has furnished PR-type cover for all manner of cultists and shady businessmen (who are often the same thing), that her face is on vast highway billboards urging the state to take on the responsibility of safeguarding the womb. By no word or gesture has she ever repudiated any of these connections or alliances.
  • Katia Escalantehas quoted3 years ago
    There should be philosophy and knowledge for the elect, religion and sentimentality for the masses. B

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