Albert Schweitzer

Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer OM (Kaysersberg, Alsace, German Empire, January 14, 1875 – Lambaréné, Moyen-Ogooué, Gabon, September 4, 1965) was a physician, philosopher, and theologian. and Franco-German musician, with initially German and later French citizenship (after the incorporation of Alsace into the French Republic), medical missionary to Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1952, also known for his interpretive life of Jesus and his profound knowledge of the biblical texts.

He was born in the province of Alsace and Lorraine, then part of the German Empire, now part of France. Schweitzer, a Lutheran, challenged both the secular view of Jesus as represented by the historical-critical methodology of his day in certain academic circles, as well as the traditional Christian view. He presented Jesus as someone who literally believed that the end of the world was coming in his own lifetime and believed himself to be a savior.

As a musician, he learned to play the piano from a young age and following the family tradition (his father and grandfather were organists) he studied to play that instrument, being a student of the French composer Charles-Marie Widor. He in turn learned about organ building and advocated keeping the oldest instruments.

Putting his philosophy of "Reverence for Life" It was what earned him the Nobel Prize and world recognition; an attitude he expressed in many ways, most famously his founding and maintaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, now Gabon, west central Africa, then still French Equatorial Africa.

He was the second uncle of the French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre.

Theologian

As a young Protestant theologian, his first important work, for which he gained a great reputation, was the work In Search of the Historical Jesus (1906) in which he showed Jesus Christ with the passion of his own convictions regarding the life of Jesus. He thus manifested his break with the theological liberalism that had prevailed in Germany throughout the 19th century by making Jesus a prophet convinced of the reality of a Kingdom of God that was at hand. He established his reputation as a New Testament scholar through other theological studies, such as The Psychiatric Assessment of Jesus: Presentation and Critique (1913, doctoral dissertation criticizing the then-fashionable questioning of Jesus' mental health) and The mysticism of Pablo Apóstol (1930). In these studies Schweitzer examined the eschatological belief of Saint Paul and his message in the New Testament. Albert Schweitzer is considered the founder of realized eschatology.

Music

He was a famous organist in his day, with fame throughout much of Europe. A significant number of spectators attended his concerts. The money collected from his organ concerts was used exclusively to set up his hospital in Africa. In Spain, after having played the instrument in a crowded place, King Alfonso XIII of Spain requested an interview with him, where the following dialogue arose:

King: "Is it very difficult to touch the organ?"
Schweitzer: "Something like that, as difficult as governing Spain."
King: "You are a brave man."

He always had a great interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He developed a simple playing style that, in his opinion, was closer to what Bach had wanted to compose. He based his interpretation mainly on a reappraisal of the religious intentions in Bach's work. In his book Johann Sebastian Bach , the last version of which he finished in 1908, he advocated this new style, which has had a great influence on the way Bach's music is treated today. His monograph on the Baroque musician sparked a new cult of him in Germany.

He was also a famous organ builder, advocating for maintaining, conserving, and restoring old instruments, and fervently opposed new industrially manufactured organs, arguing that they did not sound as harmonious.

His recordings in which he performs the music of Bach are available on Compact Disc. In 1995, Hughes de Courson and Pierre Akendengué released the album Lambarene - Bach to Africa, where they fuse works by Bach with ethnic music from Gabon as a tribute to Schweitzer.

Philosophy

Schweitzer Statue in Deventer.

Schweitzer's worldview was based on his idea of Reverence for Life, which he believed was his greatest and simplest contribution to humanity. He saw a decline in Western civilization, due to a gradual abandonment of its ethical roots: those of the affirmation of life.

His strongest conviction was that respect for life is the highest principle. In a way similar to the exaltation of life in Friedrich Nietzsche. Schweitzer followed the same line of thought as that of the Russian Leo Tolstoy. In his time, some compared his philosophy with that of Saint Francis of Assisi, a comparison he did not reject.

True philosophy must begin with the most immediate and most understanding fact of meaning: 'I am living and desire to live, in the midst of living beings who want to live'. Life and love in their opinion are based and follow the same principle: respect for every manifestation of life and a personal and spiritual relationship towards the universe.

Ethics, according to Schweitzer, consists of the obligation to demonstrate that one's will to live and that of each being have the same reverence for what is proper. In circumstances where we cannot satisfy this obligation, we must not fall into defeatism, since the will to live is renewed over and over again, as a result of an evolutionary necessity and a phenomenon with a spiritual dimension.

However, as Schweitzer himself pointed out, it is not impossible or difficult to spend a lifetime without following this principle: the history of world philosophies and religions clearly demonstrates many cases of the denial of the principle of reverence for life. He was pointing to the philosophy that prevailed in the Middle Ages in Europe and to the Indian philosophy of Brahmanism. However, this kind of attitude lacks authenticity.

Throughout his life, Schweitzer advocated the concept of reverence for existence. The Enlightenment dwindled and became corrupted, Schweitzer argued, because it was not a deep enough pit for thought, even though he was forced to follow ethics through life. Therefore, he looked for a renewed future and a new and deeper Renaissance and Enlightenment of mankind (an opinion he expressed in the epilogue to his work Out of My Life and Thought ). Albert Schweitzer nurtured the hope of a humanity more deeply aware of his position in the universe. His optimism was based on the "belief in the truth". "The spirit generated by the conception of truth is greater than the force of circumstances." He persistently stressed the need to think, rather than simply following one's own impulses or popular opinions.

Never for a moment put aside our distrust of the ideals established by society and the convictions that are kept by it. We always know that society is full of madness and that will deceive us in regard to the consideration of the meaning of humanity [...] humanity means consideration for the existence and happiness of each human being.

Respect for life, as a result of contemplation on one's own conscious will to live, leads the individual to live at the service of people and every living creature.

Schweitzer was highly respected for putting these theories into practice in his own life, including vegetarianism as a practice of respect for all sentient beings: "My point is that all of us who are pro-animals, let's totally stop eating meat, and also speak out against it. In this way attention can be drawn to the problem that has been raised so late".

Medicine

Albert Schweitzer drawing by Arthur William Heintzelman.

She spent most of her life in Lambaréné (French Equatorial Africa), currently located in the French-speaking Republic of Gabon (Central Africa). After completing his medical studies in 1913, he moved to that country with his wife, where he established a hospital near an existing mission. There he treated and cared for literally thousands of patients. He took charge of hundreds of lepers and treated many victims of the African sleeping sickness.

In 1914, World War I began, and as German citizens on French soil, Schweitzer and his wife were briefly detained and temporarily confined to their home. In 1917 they were interned in Garaison, France, and in 1918 in the town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. There he studied and wrote as much as possible in the preparation, among others, of his famous book Culture and Ethics (published in 1923). In July 1918 he was granted his freedom, and while working as a medical assistant and assistant vicar in Strasbourg, he was able to finish his book. In time, he began to give lectures on his ideas, wherever he was invited. He not only wanted his philosophy of culture and ethics to be widely known; it also served as a means to raise funds for the foundation of a hospital in Lambaréné, for which he did not hesitate to empty his own pockets.

In 1924 he returned to Lambaréné, where he directed the reconstruction of his old hospital, after which he resumed his medical practice. He soon ceased to be the only doctor at the hospital, and whenever possible he traveled to Europe to give lectures at different universities. Little by little, his opinions and concepts were gaining recognition, not only in Europe, but throughout the world.

Timeline

• 1893 — He studied philosophy and theology at the universities of Strasbourg, Berlin and Paris.
• 1900 — Vicar of the Church of St. Nicholas of Strasbourg.
• 1901 — Head of the Theology Seminar in Strasbourg.
• 1905–1913 — He studied medicine and surgery.
• 1913 — Doctor in Lambaréné, Africa.
• 1915 — Develop Your Ethics Reverence for life (Reverence for Life).
• 1917 — He is interned in France.
• 1918 — Assistant physician and assistant vicar in Strasbourg.
• 1919 — First major conference on Reverence for Life University of Upsala, Sweden.
• 1924 — Return to Lambaréné as a doctor; frequent trips to Europe to give lectures.
• 1928 — Goethe Award
• 1939–1948 — Stay in Lambaréné.
• 1949 — Visit USA. U.S.
• 1948–1965 — Travel between Lambaréné and Europe.
• 1953 — Nobel Peace Prize, 1952.
• 1957–1958 — Four conferences against weapons and nuclear tests.

Selected Bibliography

• Jean-Sébastien Bach Le musicien-poèt, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1905 (J.S. Bach: The musician-poet. Buenos Aires: Ricordi Americana, 1955).
• Zwischen Wasser und Urwald, Bern: Paul Haupt, 1921 (Between the water and the virgin forest: Stories and reflections of a doctor in the jungle of equatorial Africa. Madrid: Javier Morata, 1932).
• The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization(1923)
• Das Christentum und die Weltreligionen, München: Beck, 1923 (Christianity and World Religions. Buenos Aires: 20th Century, 1964).
• Civilization and Ethics(1923)
• Souvenirs de mon enfanceLausanne. de la Concorde, 1926 (Records of my remote yesterday, Barcelona: Occitania, 1966).
• The Primeval Forest(1931)
• Aus meinem Leben und Denken, Leipzig: Meiner Verl., 1931 (From my life and my thought, Barcelona: Ayma, 1966) (autobiography; Schweitzer considered him his most important book.)
• Indian Thought and Its Development(1935)
• The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity(publ. 1967)
• Peace or Atomic War(1958)
• The Quest of the Historical Jesus; A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede (The Historical Secret of the Life of Jesus, Buenos Aires: Editions Century XX, 1967).
• Geschichte der Leben Jesu Forschung, Tübingen: Mohr, 1984 (9th edition) (Investigations on the Life of Jesus, Valencia: Edicep, 1990-2002).