The Missionary Position

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a columnist for Slate. He was the author of numerous books including works on Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine George Orwell Mother Teresa Henry Kissinger and Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as his international bestseller and National Book Award nominee god Is Not Great. His memoir Hitch-22 which was a Sunday Times bestseller was nominated for the Orwell Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His last book Mortality was published in 2012 by Atlantic Books.|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.|Ten years since the death of the world-renowned and controversial intellectual this stylish edition is one of twelve commemorating Christopher Hitchens' most wry and provocative works.|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.|Hitchens argues his case with consummate style.|Quite possibly the most brilliant journalist of his generation|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.|Hitchens argues his case with consummate style.|Quite possibly the most brilliant journalist of his generation