Contrary to the opinion of the reviewer below, Mother Teresa's life was marked by a profound conversion and closeness to Jesus Christ --- so close, in fact, that after her initial, remarkable encounters with His presence, she found herself sharing in His passion suffering, as she experienced what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul." She was so close to Christ that unbeknownst to the world, she felt in her heart and soul the same abandonment He felt on the cross when He asked, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" What is truly remarkable about her is that while enduring this cross, she never once ceased loving Christ in the poor, and never once ceased to respond to Christ's cry on the Cross, "I thirst." David Scott tells us about letters that have been hidden for years that describe this inner journey into total abandonment to God. Her love for Him, her will to act and obey all the days of her life despite a lack of emotional "feelings" and "consolations" and fundamentalist-type "experiences" was amazing and profound.
If she isn't a saint, then no one is!
Although "A revolution of love: the meaning of Mother Theresa" is a relatively short biography that is easy to read, the book is difficult to interpret due to its overly myopic Catholic perspective. David Scott starts out the book by describing the qualities of a saint as defined by the Catholic canonization process. Based on Scott's assessment, Mother Theresa has met the requisite criteria and it is simply a matter of time before she is inducted into the Catholic "Hall of Fame." As outlined in the New Testament of the Bible, the requirements for sainthood are much simpler than those described by the Catholic Church - they are simply to 1) repent of your sins, 2) trust Jesus Christ as your savior, and 3), be baptized. A mandate of repentance is conversion, which involves, in gradual or abrupt steps, a turning away from a life that is displeasing to God. On page 4, Scott states that Mother Theresa ".. has no dramatic conversion story." Unfortunately, Scott fails to clarify whether Mother Theresa has any conversion story, and he simply describes her decisions regarding the care of the poor. Although clearly noble in nature, these decisions do not equate to a conversion. In lieu of a substantiated conversion (perhaps due to the scant details of Mother Theresa's early life in this and other biographies), Scott could have chosen to provide evidence for one. Instead, he provides quotes and stories throughout the book that may suggest otherwise.
