Books › The Missionary Position
The Missionary Position
First published 1995 · 141 pages
A blistering, unapologetic dismantling of a modern saint's carefully curated mythos.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting in the front row of a masterclass in rhetorical demolition. It is a brisk, fiercely propulsive essay that wastes no time in tearing down the facade of one of the twentieth century's most untouchable icons. The atmosphere is thick with righteous indignation and intellectual confrontation, driven by prose that is as erudite as it is unapologetically scathing. You are swept up in a relentless current of sharp skepticism, forced to confront the uncomfortable intersections of media complicity, institutional hypocrisy, and the romanticization of poverty. It will absolutely delight skeptics, atheists, and anyone who loves a brilliantly argued polemic that refuses to bow to conventional reverence, leaving you both intellectually stimulated and deeply unsettled.
- Mood
- indignant
- confrontational
- intellectually charged
- cynical
- Tone
- scathing
- polemical
- erudite
- unapologetic
- provocative
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- dismantling idols · institutional hypocrisy · the danger of blind faith · media complicity · commodification of charity
- The writing
- Razor-sharp and rhetorically dense, dripping with articulate venom and erudite wit.
- The arc
- Moves from sharp skepticism to a crescendo of blistering, righteous indignation.
- Who it's for
- Skeptics and iconoclasts who relish a fiercely intelligent, no-holds-barred takedown of a universally revered figure.
Content notes
- medical neglect
- descriptions of extreme poverty
- religious extremism
- suffering
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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