Was Mother Teresa an atheist?

[Ban my account ffs!]

Mother Teresa was a Catholic.  She was never a self professed atheist, even in the letters that she wrote where she admitted she had questioned her faith.

The person that created this thread blows the letters out of proportion and asks "Was Mother Teresa an Atheist?"

I think it is silly and completely baseless to use these letters to come to any kind of conclusion about her faith up to 50 years after they were written.

Many Catholics believe in showing their faith by doing good works for others.  It was mentioned in the Time article by someone that knew Mother Teresa, that they believed that her good works in her life only showed how strong her faith was, even if she questioned it.

"I believe she showed her strong faith through her good works"  is not in any way equal to "Atheists can't do good works because they are Atheists."  If you dug that crap out of what I wrote, then I'm sorry.. but it certainly was a bit reactionary on your part.

And I kind of agree with Straha... who cares? 

[Gabu]

"I believe she showed her strong faith through her good works"  is not in any way equal to "Atheists can't do good works because they are Atheists."  If you dug that crap out of what I wrote, then I'm sorry.. but it certainly was a bit reactionary on your part.

It's not really that big of a stretch, actually, if you read what was said in this part:

It would be a perversion of Mother Theresa's charity and good will to pretend that she was an atheist because she had reservations about her faith and certain points in her life.

The obvious question is this: "Why it is a perversion of someone's charity and good will to assert that that person was an atheist?"  The only answer I really can see is that it is being asserted that charity and good will don't mean as much or are not as significant if the person doing them does not have religious faith.

Now, this probably isn't the intended message.  But purely from the text of the message, it's not an unreasonable conclusion to make.

[Alcon]

Mother Teresa was a Catholic.  She was never a self professed atheist, even in the letters that she wrote where she admitted she had questioned her faith.

The person that created this thread blows the letters out of proportion and asks "Was Mother Teresa an Atheist?"

You can hardly blame the author for quoting a Time article.

I think it is silly and completely baseless to use these letters to come to any kind of conclusion about her faith up to 50 years after they were written.

But you can, as you do later here, use the quote of a friend who wasn't necessarily party to any of this information?  And, as a person of devoted faith, probably would rather not admit if she did lose her faith.

Many Catholics believe in showing their faith by doing good works for others.  It was mentioned in the Time article by someone that knew Mother Teresa, that they believed that her good works in her life only showed how strong her faith was, even if she questioned it.

"I believe she showed her strong faith through her good works"  is not in any way equal to "Atheists can't do good works because they are Atheists."  If you dug that crap out of what I wrote, then I'm sorry.. but it certainly was a bit reactionary on your part.

Many Catholics may see good works as a way of expressing their faith, but you can't solely use good works as an indication of the presence of faith - just of humanism.  The sentence "I believe she showered her strong faith through her good works" could be easily misinterpreted exactly as I did, especially when followed up with "to try and twist those good deeds into something else..."  If she was an atheist, what would that be twisting good deeds into?  How else was I supposed to interpret that part?  Your text implied to a reasonable reader that her being an atheist would make them not be good deeds.  I was not being "reactionary."

And I kind of agree with Straha... who cares? 

You don't find studying some of the most intriguing figures of humanitarian interesting?  No, not productive, but this is the internet.

[nlm]

From the article

"The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book's compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist."

That absence seems to have started at almost precisely the time she began tending the poor and dying in Calcutta, and — except for a five-week break in 1959 — never abated. Although perpetually cheery in public, the Teresa of the letters lived in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain. In more than 40 communications, many of which have never before been published, she bemoans the "dryness," "darkness," "loneliness" and "torture" she is undergoing."

And later

"Come Be My Light is that rare thing, a posthumous autobiography that could cause a wholesale reconsideration of a major public figure — one way or another. It raises questions about God and faith, the engine behind great achievement, and the persistence of love, divine and human. "

Certainly, this is a mature topic. But the questions asked here a very interesting.

As I noted before, what really struck me was the persistence of Mother Terasa's love and care for those suffering in India juxtaposed against her inner feelings that "God" didn't love or care for those same people.

There is certainly nothing perverse in a person doing good deeds and there is nothing perverse in wishing to understand what motivate a person such as Terasa to do the wonderful things that she did.

Given the lack of good deeds that most people do (Catholic or otherwise), it is certainly an interesting question.

[MODU]

No, she wasn't an atheist.  She was having struggles in her faith.  Two vastly different things.

[nlm]

No, she wasn't an atheist.  She was having struggles in her faith.  Two vastly different things.

As I said before - I don't pretend to have an answer to the question of Mother Terasa's faith or lack there of (though it would seem that plenty of people here do believe they know for sure). Her letters seem to indicate that she didn't fall into any cookie cutter classifications. She certainly wasn't a "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so" sort - but that doesn't make her an atheist, nor does the fact that she didn't feel God in her life or around her for most of the part of her life that made her famous.

It's the juxtapostion of her feeling abandoned for so long and her continuation of good deeds that makes these letters so interesting and the question of what drives people in general (and Mother Terasa specifically) to do such wonderous works. I don't know that the specific answer for Mother Terasa will ever be known, but the answer to the general question is certainly interesting to ponder.

[Flying Dog]

Mother Teresa is a saint for the 21st century especially now that we are aware of her long term spiritual struggles. She gives hope to many people today who are going through a similar crises of faith. She becomes very human in our eyes instead of a lofty, perfectly saintly figure that was always serenely secure in her faith. To know that in all the long years she spent helping the poor she experienced her own persistent "dark night of the soul", yet remained true to the God she thought had abandoned her. Very impressive.

[nlm]

Mother Teresa is a saint for the 21st century especially now that we are aware of her long term spiritual struggles. She gives hope to many people today who are going through a similar crises of faith. She becomes very human in our eyes instead of a lofty, perfectly saintly figure that was always serenely secure in her faith. To know that in all the long years she spent helping the poor she experienced her own persistent "dark night of the soul", yet remained true to the God she thought had abandoned her. Very impressive.

I guess that is one way to look at it. I guess it depends upon what you mean by "remained true".

For some, faith in the existence of God seems to be the only measure of remaining true.

Passages like....

"The Child of your Love — and now become as the most hated one — the one — You have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want — and there is no One to answer — no One on Whom I can cling — no, No One. — Alone ... Where is my Faith — even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness — My God — how painful is this unknown pain — I have no Faith — I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart..."

... seem to at least call that aspect of remaining true into question.

Certainly she remained true to doing good deeds, but that by itself has nothing to do with the current form of the religion.

She seems to have remained true in other senses as well - such as she kept on trying to have faith (even though she didn't seem to be able to accomplish that, and that seems to have taken a great toll on her).

It's all very interesting - and I doubt any sort of hard and fast answer would apply to her spirituality.

However, I will agree that her actions in life were impressive.