1. SYNOPSIS
Good morning to one and all. I am standing here to share some ideas about my
thesis ‘Encountering God in Humanity: An Anthropological Exploration into the life of
Mother Teresa’. I know that it was a herculean task to narrate something about Mother
Teresa in a philosophical way. When I opt this topic, my friends asked me whether mother
was a philosopher? Then I try to clear my ground by searching about popular
understanding of philosophy. And it ended up in the lecture note ‘Introduction to the
Western Philosophy’ of Fr. Anto Cheranthuruthy. It shared that philosophy is a vision of
life with certain values, plans and purpose. Or it is the sum total of one’s attitude towards
the life. It refers to the way of thinking. On the basis of this conviction I have tried to
elucidate the philosophical views of Mother Teresa, which is counted as the successive
philosophy in the 20th century. She is very well known to the whole world because of her
Spartan life style and the epic accomplishment. She had her own philosophy which was
based on the conviction that to counter the human need with selfless love, hour by hour,
day by day, whether the need is for food, or for care, or for prayer, or for tablets.
In the first chapter, I had tried to travel through the life history of Mother, form
childhood to death. This chapter is divided into two phases and first phase is her religious
vocation and the second is her apostolic call for the poor. Agnes Gonxha was born on 26th
August of 1910, as the third child of Nicholas Bojaxhiu and Drona Bojaxhiu. Her father
Nicholas Bojaxhiu was very sociable and was a member of town council and worked much
for the betterment of Skopje. Agnes was influenced by her mother, Drona Bojaxhiu’s,
attitude towards the poor. When Agnes was in the high school, at the age of 12 she had a
call of God to become a missionary. She left her home on 26th September 1928 and she
preferred sisters of Loreto only because they worked in India as missionaries. Early in the
New Year 1929, Agnes reached Darjeeling. After doing two years of novitiate,
participating in the community rules and practicing spiritually, she took her first and
temporary vow of poverty, chastity and obedience on 25th May 1931.

2. Life becomes beautiful when the creature responds to the inner call. On 10th July 1946, she
was on her way to Darjeeling by train for a spiritual retreat during which she received a
new call, which was known as “a call within the call”. She was convinced that God was
calling her and the message conveyed to her was also clear and that she must leave the
convent to help the poor by living among them. On 18th April 1948 Sr. Teresa wearing a
blue lined white sari with plain sandals, started to fulfill her dream under the direct
supervision of Archbishop of Calcutta. When mother Teresa made her a first visit to the
slums, everyone just stared with lot of questions, later all their questions were answered,
because she loved and respected them, loved being with them, welcomed them just as they
were, with all her heart. True life in the convent was based on a single principle, Love for
God and love for one’s neighbor. The growth of mother’s missionary activities was
astonishing and everyone looked upon her as a social reformer of the 20th century. The
world also honored her by giving the Nobel Prize for peace in 1979, and Padmasree from
India in 1962. She died on September 5th 1997.
In the second chapter I make an attempt to explain the main anthropological views
of Mother Teresa This chapter has three separate parts: her main philosophical views on
human being, human values, and her philosophical background from both the western and
the eastern philosophies. Mother Teresa loved everyone equally and wholeheartedly. Her
main philosophical views on human being were Perfection for All, Universal Brotherhood,
Theology of Poor and Liberation for the Poorest of the Poor. Perfection according to
Mother was both material and spiritual realm harmoniously. Material perfection demands
that everyone had a right to fulfill their physical needs, to be fed, to be cared and to live.
Internal perfection demands that each individual had a right to fulfill their internal needs,
to be loved, to be concerned, to be helped and to be consoled. Her aim was to lead a man in
his absolute perfection.
She considered each individual as a brother or sister thus fostering Universal
Brotherhood. They were hungry for our love. She had a strong conviction that human
being was a child of God and each one had a right to love and to be loved. Mother Teresa
sacrificed herself, for all the least of the society. She realized that the joyful heart is the

3. result of a heart burning with love. In her theology of poor she watches the God’s presence
in each individual. She diverted her love towards her Lord, to the needy, least, lost and last
of the society. The other concept was Liberation for the poorest of the poor and her
activities were towards an integral emancipation of whole man, the body and the soul.
Mother was the liberator of the poorest of the poor not by means of social revolutionist one
who hurt others for his freedom. But she fought for the liberation of the poorest of the poor
by using the weapon of love.
The second portion of this chapter was dealt with human values. She tried to build up a
very good society which gave importance to the values of love, service and peace. Mother
says that “Love has no meaning if it is not sharing”. She loved them with selfless attitudes.
In the modern world the lack of love creates lot of troubles in the mental realm rather than
in the physical. She taught that, we can cure our physical diseases with medicine, but the
only way to cure the loneliness, despair and hopeless is love. Mother’s concept about
service was the fruit of love. She compares the concept service to the ocean and our sincere
participation as a drop of water, and that ocean would be less without the drop. Selfless
service was the best source to communicate with others. The last one was peace and the
supreme aim of all kind of authority was to earn peace. In order to sustain the peace they
practice different methods. She propagated peace through love. Her every work is deeply
concentrated on to the benefit of peace to all people and their peaceful life everywhere.
The final portion of this chapter copes with philosophical background Mother
Teresa. She has been influenced by the other philosophers from both the west and the east,
because she was born as European and completed her academic studies in the west, later
she came to India and lived at the time of the most prominent eastern contemporary
philosophers. Emmanuel Levinas was a French Jewish philosopher who gave emphasis on
interpersonal relationship. Levinas dictum was “to be man is to be a fellowman”. Mother
was trying to become a fellow woman for others and her conviction that charity begins of
the withdrawal of our self from our selfish motives.

4. Martin Buber always believed that the interaction between God and me should be
allied with the relation between me and others. There are some strong similarities between
Mother and Buber. Both affirm the social relationship among the individuals. Gabriel
Marcel’s philosophy was known as the philosophy of communion or the philosophy of
second person. He gave importance to the concepts like selfless love, mutual openness and
availability. Mother practiced the Marceline concept of availability in her life. Mother
spent her time totally for the welfare of others, especially for the poor and the downtrodden
members of the society. Mother Teresa’s mission in Indian soil was profoundly influenced
by the Indian contemporaries of Gandhi and Tagore. She was not their followers, but we
can see some part of their ideologies in Mother’s philosophy. The non-violence of Gandhi
and the love of neighbor of Mother Teresa have the same elements. They meet in their
obligation for the betterment of the world. According to Tagore, nature is the expression of
the absolute power. Each and every creation in nature has a touch of God. Though Tagore
believes in a personal God, mother doesn’t accept what he writes as such. She believes in
both immanent and transcendent characteristic of God.
In the third chapter, I have tried to elaborate the social influences in the present
world. Her contribution to the world will always be counted as something unique because,
no one else before her had done so much for the oppressed one of the earth with such
intensity and dedication. She was a social reformer of the 20th century, and she tried to
build up a new culture in the society. People all over the world were fascinated by the
works of Mother. She was a promoter of peace and service minded culture and one of the
prominent representetor of the inter religious and the inter country dialogues. Mother
Teresa earned the Nobel Peace Prize is the evident example for the promotion of peace in
her life. Mother Teresa indentified herself with the poor in all aspects. She lived together
with them and moved together with them.
She didn’t differentiate in the case of religion or cast or color. Her conversion style
was little bit different and she converts the other to be a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a
better Protestant, and a better Sikh. Mother Teresa was an Albanian woman, lived in India
as an Indian citizen, and had a great possibility to build a relationship between various

5. countries. She was accepted in all countries including the communist atheist countries like
Cuba, China, Russia, etc. Mother Teresa and her service minded culture were largely
influenced by the world especially by the youngsters. She provided a new meaning for
humanity. She gives them a chance to come and touch the poor. Everybody has to
experience that. So many young people give up everything to do just that. The World was
greatly inspired by Mother’s immaculate outlook and caring attitude for every one –poor or
rich, deprived or privileged.
The last portion of this chapter I am trying to narrate the perspective of mother
teresa on ‘isms’ and other social issues. The world always listened to the words of Mother
Teresa. She was not a good orator but her talks were thought provoking. She shares her
ideas upon feminism, communism, politics, media and abortion. Mother believed that the
greatest liberation for a woman is to be a woman, a wife and a mother. A woman would
have all that man has without any difficulty, but a man can never have the love and
compassion that a woman has. Mother was born and grew up in a communist atmosphere
and she earned lot of communist friendships in her life. Even though she had lot of
communist friends, she directly opposed the atheist Marxism and could not have the
personal interest and respect for every person.
Mother Teresa always stayed out of politics. She didn’t like to get involved in any
political matters. She was different from those who could not cease from their social
spiritual work with politics. Mother Teresa was media friendly; as a media savvy person.
Perhaps there is no single human person, but mother Teresa in the 20th century who
dominated all the shades of media, be they electronic, print or celluloid! Indeed she was
the noblest woman in the century. Mother stalwartly opposed abortion and stood for the
infant’s right to live. She spoke in the name of those who cannot speak for themselves.
Mother genuinely stated that we have no right to kill. Mother’s influence upon the world
was unimaginable and everyone required the presence of Mother with them. Whether it
was a capitalist or a communist country, the influence of Mother upon the world was alike.
SHEJINMADATHOTATHIL THANKS