Schweitzer, Albert

(1875-1965)

   theologian, philosopher, musician, musicologist, physician, missionary, Nobel laureate

   Born in Kaysersberg, Alsace, Albert Schweitzer studied at the universities of Strasbourg, Paris, and Berlin. He was ordained a curate for the Church of St. Nicolas in Strasbourg (1900) and a year later became principal of its theological seminary. He then undertook medical studies and, in 1913, went to Lambarene, Gabon, to establish a hospital where, as a medical doctor, he would treat thousands of patients each year. He settled there permanently after World War I (1924) and traveled to Europe and America only to give organ concerts. As a theologian, he did research on Jesus and Saint Paul and, as a philosopher, is the author of such works as Philosophie de la culture, Culture et Éthique, and Les Grandes Penseurs de l'Inde. As a musicologist, he wrote a study of Bach (J-S. Bach, le musicien poète, 1905). Concerned always with ethics, Schweitzer put forth a philosophy based on a "reverence for life," embracing compassion for all forms of life. His ideals have had considerable influence in on modern thought and ethics. A world-renowned humanitarian, as well as an ethical philosopher of the modern age, he outlined his own life and thought in À l'orée de la forêt vierge, Ma vie et mes pensées (1960), in which it is apparent that the scope of his interests were unified especially by the profound spiritual meaning that he found in the natural world. Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.