Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Missionary Position cover art

The Missionary Position

By: Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Mallon - foreword
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £8.99

Buy Now for £8.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Portable Atheist cover art
Letters to a Young Contrarian cover art
Letter to a Christian Nation cover art
The Smoke of Satan: How Corrupt and Cowardly Bishops Betrayed Christ, His Church, and the Faithful . . . and What Can Be Done About It cover art
The Blind Watchmaker cover art
Islam and the Future of Tolerance cover art
Christian Child, Atheist Adult cover art
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Witness to Love cover art
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism cover art
Unimaginable cover art
On Faith cover art
Dagger John cover art
The Point of It All cover art
Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All cover art
The Mark of a Giant cover art
The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion, Book One: The Mormons cover art

Summary

"A religious fundamentalist, a political operative, a primitive sermonizer, and an accomplice of worldly secular powers. Her mission has always been of this kind. The irony is that she has never been able to induce anybody to believe her. It is past time that she was duly honored and taken at her word." Among his many books, perhaps none have sparked more outrage than The Missionary Position, Christopher Hitchens's meticulous study of the life and deeds of Mother Teresa.

A Nobel Peace Prize recipient beatified by the Catholic Church in 2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was celebrated by heads of state and adored by millions for her work on behalf of the poor. In his measured critique, Hitchens asks only that Mother Teresa's reputation be judged by her actions-not the other way around.

With characteristic élan and rhetorical dexterity, Hitchens eviscerates the fawning cult of Teresa, recasting the Albanian missionary as a spurious, despotic, and megalomaniacal operative of the wealthy who long opposed measures to end poverty, and fraternized, for financial gain, with tyrants and white-collar criminals throughout the world.

©1995 Christopher Hitchens (P)2012 Audible Ltd

What listeners say about The Missionary Position

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    265
  • 4 Stars
    90
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    215
  • 4 Stars
    90
  • 3 Stars
    24
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    227
  • 4 Stars
    71
  • 3 Stars
    30
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A must for any Christopher Hitchens appreciaters

Well worth your time listening to this impressively constructed, creatively articulated, extensively well researched and superbly narrated piece of polemic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great takedown

Hitch is scalpel like in his dissection of the Catholic Churches untouchables. He ably shows how this woman, should not be venerated and whose actions definitely did nothing but ruin the lives of those in her pastoral care.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

hitchslap

a fascinating exercise in iconoclasm by my favourite contrarian atheist. By God he was good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unmistakably Hitch, shining a light on an untouchable figure and I’m doing so, us as well

I won’t be providing any spillers or insights. It wouldn’t do it justice, 15 words

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Who'd have thought it?

I've always been slightly nauseated by the media 'deification' of Mother Teresa. Now I know why!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great insight

Well researched book making many valid points that we should all be aware of. Too often money is given to causes that does not reach the people in need. Many people in powerful positions have an ulterior and sinister reason for their apparent devotion to duty and Mother Teresa seems to be one such person.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The truth will 'Out'!

There are non so blind who cannot see. Whilst I knew a lot of this I still learnt a lot. Beautiful put together, to the point and easy read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Welcome to reality

I would implore anyone who at all wonders or questions to investigate the world of Mother Teresa. Just as Gandhi put his wife's life into the lap of the gods but took quinine himself when six weeks later he got malaria.
Once you open this door then further investigation will reveal much more of her belief in pain and suffering
at a 1981 press conference in which she was asked: "Do you teach the poor to endure their lot?" She replied: "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Informative and thought provoking

Based on facts and written clearly. It sheds light on things in a common sense and unsentimental manner.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Illuminating (with a not so saintly light)

A brilliant revelation of a bizarre life, and the even more odd strivings of the Catholic church and the deluded to make her a saint, despite all evidence.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful