Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith

"Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith" David van Biema

. . . one of the great human icons of the past 100 years, whose remarkable deeds seemed inextricably connected to her closeness to God and who was routinely observed in silent and seemingly peaceful prayer by her associates as well as the television camera, was living out a very different spiritual reality privately, an arid landscape from which the deity had disappeared.

. . . A new, innocuously titled book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, consisting primarily of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years, provides the spiritual counterpoint to a life known mostly through its works. The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes . . . reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever . . .

Thoughts?

Sounds dubious to me.

Originally posted by Adam_PoE
Thoughts?

Who doesn't have crises of faith?

Originally posted by Alliance
Who doesn't have crises of faith?

Marchello?

Although I guess the question is, if true, can a crisis of faith really be defined as such if it lasted nearly a "half-century".

Though it begs the question also, if true, how many other hard line members of faith don't "feel" anything yet choose to remain?

If she had doubts about her faith, it only meant that she understood her faith enough to see it for what it was.

She likely stayed because she got fulfillment.

People are simply shocked that you don't need god to do good works.

Originally posted by Alliance
Who doesn't have crises of faith?

Saints.

How do you know this?

Originally posted by Alliance
If she had doubts about her faith, it only meant that she understood her faith enough to see it for what it was.

She likely stayed because she got fulfillment.

Oh, I agree, and I generally I view those who are brave enough to have doubts and face them more favourably then those who live by the "no doubts ever, if I have doubts I must not be a good "whatever" code.

I just meant that the article didn't seem to be indicating she was feeling religiously fulfilled with the whole "no presence of God in half a century", fulfilled as a person certaintly though.

People are simply shocked that you don't need god to do good works.

Exactly.

Maybe she didn't want the religious fulfillment.

I've done most of my charity work thorugh churches. I get zero religious fulfillment out of it. It wasn't the issue for me, maybe it just wasn't for her either.

Originally posted by Alliance
Maybe she didn't want the religious fulfillment.

I've done most of my charity work thorugh churches. I get zero religious fulfillment out of it. It wasn't the issue for me, maybe it just wasn't for her either.

I get what you are saying.

Originally posted by Alliance
Who doesn't have crises of faith?

JIA 🙄

Does JIA actually have faith? Or the shell of what faith should be?

As far as I know, Mother Teresa is a ***** who loves to make people suffer. So if their was a God, and God was good, Mother Teresa was far from him.

One of the more popular ways in which people try to undermine well-known religious (and cultural) figures is by starting rumors of a personal crisis. For non-religious rumor-starters, these figures have a crisis of faith. For the religious, the deathbed coversation is a popular urban myth. The victims include (off the top of my head...the actual list is much longer) Charles Darwin, Thomas Aquinas, Napoleon, now, it seems, Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was a person of great strength. If she didn't believe in something, she would have stated it...as it is, all of her life and her writings suggests that she was a firm believer.

Be careful what you read.

😉

That seems wrong given this scenario.

She simply had crises of faith because she was a woman.

Originally posted by DigiMark007
One of the more popular ways in which people try to undermine well-known religious (and cultural) figures is by starting rumors of a personal crisis. For non-religious rumor-starters, these figures have a crisis of faith. For the religious, the deathbed coversation is a popular urban myth. The victims include (off the top of my head...the actual list is much longer) Charles Darwin, Thomas Aquinas, Napoleon, now, it seems, Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was a person of great strength. If she didn't believe in something, she would have stated it...as it is, all of her life and her writings suggests that she was a firm believer.

Be careful what you read.

😉

Originally posted by Storm
Mother Teresa is often called a living saint, while in reality, she has not been free from controversy.

Famous figures of any sort rarely are. The bevy of evidence for her faith seems irrefutable unless we have such a selective memory and are open to a largely speculative controversy. She doesn't strike me as the lying type....conflicted, perhaps. She's only human, after all....everyone has a crisis of faith at some point. But not to the point of abject nihilism, which is what the article seems to insinuate.

Statement: It is the atheist version of the JesusIsAlive thread about Darwin and madness.

i believe she must have had crisies of faith. more than once. that is the nature of organised relegion.

however, i doubt she would ever have openly announced it. although testimony from peers and associates/friends, IF it is true, might be sumwhat concrete.

Time Magazine has also brought the Crises of Faith in Mother Teresa, her letters to her advisors and clergical superiors, about how she yearned for God to answer her, but she never recieved an answer from him.

She then went on to beleive that her pain was remniscient of Jesus' pain, and considered her personal anguish a blessing. This is when she began to honor suffering as an identity of God, and beleived that Jesus suffers through her.

But Alliance is right. People, in thier massive ignorance, are shocked to see that a person can do great things without knowing or beleiving in God.