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Albert
Schweitzer (January 14, 1875-September 4, 1965) was born into an
Alsatian family which for generations had been devoted to
religion,
music, and education. His father and maternal grandfather were
ministers; both of his grandfathers were talented organists; many
of his
relatives were persons of scholarly attainments.
Schweitzer entered into his intensive theological studies in 1893
at
the University of Strasbourg where he obtained a doctorate in
philosophy in 1899, with a dissertation on the religious
philosophy of Kant, and received his licentiate in theology in
1900. He began preaching at St. Nicholas Church in Strasbourg in
1899; he served in various high ranking administrative posts from
1901 to 1912 in the Theological College of St.Thomas, the college
he had attended at the University of Strasbourg. In 1906 he
published The Quest of the Historical Jesus, a book on which much
of his fame as a theological scholar rests.
Meanwhile he continued with a distinguished musical career
initiated at
an early age with piano and organ lessons. Only nine when he first
performed in his father's church, he was, from his young manhood
to his
middle eighties, recognized as a concert organist, internationally
known. From his professional engagements he earned funds for his
education, particularly his later medical schooling, and for his
African
hospital. Musicologist as well as performer, Schweitzer wrote a
biography of Bach in 1905 in French, published a book on organ
building
and playing in 1906, and rewrote the Bach book in German in 1908.
Having decided to go to Africa as a medical missionary rather than
as a
pastor, Schweitzer in 1905 began the study of medicine at the
University of Strasbourg. In 1913, having obtained his M.D.
degree, he founded his hospital at Lambaréné in French
Equatorial Africa, but in 1917 he and his wife were sent to a
French internment camp as prisoners of war. Released in
1918, Schweitzer spent the next six years in Europe, preaching in
his old church, giving lectures and concerts, taking medical
courses, writing On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, The Decay and
Restoration of Civilization, Civilization and Ethics, and
Christianity and the Religions of the World.
Schweitzer returned to Lambaréné in 1924 and except for
relatively
short periods of time, spent the remainder of his life there.
With
the
funds earned from his own royalties and personal appearance fees
and
with those donated from all parts of the world, he expanded the
hospital
to seventy buildings which by the early 1960's could take care of
over
500 patients in residence at any one time.
At Lambaréné, Schweitzer was doctor and surgeon in the hospital,
pastor of a congregation, administrator of a village,
superintendent of
buildings and grounds, writer of scholarly books, commentator on
contemporary history, musician, host to countless visitors. The
honors
he received were numerous, including the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt
and
honorary doctorates from many universities emphasizing one or
another of his achievements. The Nobel Peace Prize for 1952,
having been withheld in that year, was given to him on December
10, 1953. With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium
at Lambaréné.
Albert Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965, and was buried at
Lambaréné.
| A
passage from Alan Loy McGinnins' Bringing Out the Best
in People:
In 1875,
a sickly child was born in Upper Alsace who was slow to
read and write and was a poor scholar. But as he
grew up he made himself master subjects that were
particularly difficult, such as Hebrew. In music, he
turned out to be a genuine prodigy, playing the organ at
eight when his legs were scarcely long enough to reach the
pedals. At nine he substituted for the regular
organist in a church service.
His name
was Albert Schweitzer, and everyone knows how by early
manhood he had several professional lives proceeding
concurrently. At the University of Strasbourg he
earned his first Ph.D. in philosophy, then went on to win
doctorates in theology and music theory. By the time
he was 30, he had a flourishing career as a concert
organist and was publishing a stream of books. But
then he abruptly stopped his academic career in order to
study medicine and devote the rest of his life to being a
missionary. This had begun when by chance he read a
magazine article about the Congo. "While we are
preaching to these people about religion," the
article said, "they are suffering and dying before
our eyes from physical maladies."
Schweitzer
had received his calling, and he began to lay plans to go
to Africa. Friends protested: if the
aborigines of Africa needed help, let Schweitzer raise
money for their assistance. He certainly was not
called upon to wash lepers with his own hands.
There
will always be such people who try to tell us to be
realistic, people who seem to find it their calling to
attempt to flatten our dreams and diminish our
lives. But there will always be a few, thankfully,
who will encourage our ideals and gladly join us in our
goals. When Schweitzer fell in love with Helen
Bresslau, the daughter of a Jewish historian, he bluntly
proposed: "I am studying to be a doctor for the
people of Africa. Would you spend the rest of your
life with me--in the jungle?"
And she
answered, "I shall become a nurse. Then how
could you go without me?" And on Good Friday of
1913, the two of them left for French Equatorial
Africa. For more than 50 years he served there,
eventually to become a Nobel laureate and a legend.
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Affirmation
of life is the spiritual act by which people cease
to live
unreflectively and begin to devote themselves to
their lives with reverence in order to raise
them to their
true value. To
affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to
exalt the will-to-live.
Albert
Schweitzer |
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