The Utopian Vision of Mother Teresa

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The Utopian Vision of Mother Teresa

In August 1948, at the age of 38, Mother Teresa decided to adventure into the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta, India, in order to live out her utopian dream by providing food, care, education, and shelter for the poor. Feeding people the Word of God; clothing them with dignity; educating them with knowledge, peace, truth, justice and love; nursing the mind and spirit; and sheltering them with a heart that understands. ("servants") I believe that a utopian vision is any vision that follows natural law, creates happiness in the community, and is feasible. Mother Teresa's visions are, in fact, effective utopian visions. Mother Teresa's visions included living a simple life, serving the poorest of the poor, treating everyone as equals, suffering cheerfully, and loving all until it hurts. In this paper, the ideas and visions that Mother Teresa cherished will be evaluated and questioned based on my three defined criteria of a utopian vision.

"The theory of natural law is the view that moral values are fixed features of the universe which all humanity can discover through reason."(Fiesner) The Golden rule is an example of natural law. When you do onto others as you would want done onto you, you follow natural law. Equality provides for natural laws to thrive. Mother Teresa always strove for the equality of all people, but many would say that she felt superior to others. It is stated that the greatest flaw in the Mother Teresa's teachings "is the belief that as long as a sister obeys [Mother Teresa] she is doing God's will."(Adams) This is inherently a downfall, but it is only natural for the person who creates something to want to control it. "There was brazen hypocrisy in Tere...

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...Famous", Sept. 13, 1997, http://www.users.bigpond.com/Atheist_Australia/teresa4.htm Accessed 2/14/99

Lev, Michael A. "The Entire World Says 'Goodbye' and 'Godspeed' to Mother Teresa". Chicago Tribune, reprinted by The Providence Sunday Journal, September 14, 1997,

Volume CXI, No. 37, pages A-1, 14. http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1109.cfm Accessed 2/14/99

Muggeridge, Malcolm. Something Beautiful For God. New York: Ballantine Books, 1971.

Roehl, Jayson. "Mother Teresa: Love and Politics" http://www.neopolitique.org/articles/nov97-teresa.html Accessed 2/14/99

"Suffering Servants" http://www.in.net/~servant/servmo-t.htm Accessed 2/14/99

Teresa, Mother. Mother Teresa, A Simple Path. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995.

Teresa, Mother. A gift for God / Mother Teresa of Calcutta &endash; 1st U.S. edition, New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

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