Albert Schweitzer on Peace

Albert Schweitzer

Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (German: 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German-born, French polymath from Alsace.

He was a theologian,

organist,

musicologist,

writer,

humanitarian,

philosopher and

a physician.

As a Lutheran minister, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of the historical Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view.

His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of justification by faith as secondary.

The Problem of Peace

Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1952, accepting the prize with the speech, "The Problem of Peace".

With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné.

From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons withAlbert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell.

In 1957 and 1958, he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo, which were published in Peace or Atomic War.

In 1957, Schweitzer was one of the founders of The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.

On 23 April 1957, Schweitzer made his "Declaration of Conscience" speech; it was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

His speech ended, "The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sun rays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for.

Medicine

At the age of 30, in 1905, Schweitzer answered the call of The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris, which was looking for a physician. The committee of this missionary society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect". He could easily have obtained a place in a German evangelical mission, but wished to follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned from his post and re-entered the university as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of Doctorate in Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude. 

He planned to spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labour of healing, rather than through the verbal process of preaching and believed that this service should be acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching.

Even in his study of medicine and through his clinical course, Schweitzer pursued the ideal of the philosopher-scientist. 

By extreme application and hard work, he completed his studies successfully at the end of 1911. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. Darstellung und Kritik [The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. Description and criticism] (published in English in 1948 as The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. Exposition and Criticism. 

He defended Jesus' mental health in it.

In June 1912, he married Helene Bresslau, municipal inspector for orphans and daughter of the Jewish pan-Germanist historian Harry Bresslau.

In 1912, now armed with a medical degree, Schweitzer made a definite proposal to go as a physician to work at his own expense in the Paris Missionary Society's mission at Lambaréné on the Ogooué river, in what is now Gabon, in Africa (then a French colony). 

He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted.