Reviews of and Quotes From Books About Dr.
Schweitzer
Here is my review of a book about Dr. Schweitzer. All the books I review
are in English. Many of them are out of print, but generally
can be found by a book search from a good used-book dealer or in softcopy from
the Internet Archive. See
The Albert Schweitzer
Page for links to my reviews of books written by Dr. Schweitzer as
well as other related information.
Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert
Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century
Edited By: Marvin Meyer and Kurt Bergel
Reviewed Edition: Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, 2002
ISBN 0-8156-2977-X
Softcover, 350 pages
Quotes
Table of Contents
This volume is a mix of papers presented at a conference held at
Chapman University in 1999, related papers originally published
elsewhere, excerpts from Schweitzer's writings, and student essays
written during a class on Schweitzer at Chapman University.
Most of the articles are concerned with Schweitzer's Reverence for Life
ethical philosophy, although there is also a short discussion of
Schweitzer's work on the historical Jesus. It includes the work
of 15 authors (plus that of Albert and Helene Schweitzer).
As may be expected in a work incorporating so many authors and sources,
this volume is uneven. Particularly disappointing are Brabazon's
wandering and unconvincing discussion of world finance, and
Mbondobari's analysis of novels that include Schweitzer, which follows
the standards of modern literary criticism (which is to say, it is
totally incomprehensible). I also was unimpressed by Meyer's
"rethinking" of Reverence for Life. He claims that
Schweitzer's ethics includes a strong metaphysical element of a
"unified and universal" will-to-live, which I believe over-emphasizes a
minor portion of Schweitzer's writings and does not sufficiently
emphasize the empathy we have when recognizing the individual
will-to-live in others. Also, he attempts to replace Schweitzer's
concept of guilt due to the harming of others with a more modern
emphasis on responsibility and regret. This is modern in the sense
that modern people expect to be coddled, but it weakens the importance
of actually living as one's philosophy demands, which is what
Schweitzer tried to do throughout his life.
There are, however, much stronger and more interesting articles
included in the book. Barsam's comparison of Schweitzer's views
with those of Jainism is very informative and thoughtful, and is nicely
complemented by Huntington's preceding introduction to the ethics of
Jainism. I also was interested in Lindberg's discussion of
her work teaching Schweitzer and ethics to children. The student
essays are interesting; despite the volume's subtitle, these are the
only sections that directly confront twenty-first century issues such
as animal rights.
About one hundred pages of the book are given to excerpts from
Schweitzer's writings. It may be that the greatest contribution
of this book is its collection in one place of many of Schweitzer's
most important writings on Reverence for Life.
Quotes from Reverence
for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century
[From a letter written by Albert Schweitzer to his future wife
Helene, dated May 1, 1904] "Sometimes it seems to me as if I had
arrived beyond the clouds and the stars, and could see the world in the
most wonderful clarity, and therefore have the right to be a
heretic. To know only Jesus of Nazareth; to continue his work as
the only religion, not to have to bear anymore what Christianity has
absorbed over the years in vulgarity. Not to be afraid of hell,
not to strive for the joys of heaven, not to live in false fear, and
the false submission that has become an essential part of our
religion--and yet to understand the one Great One, and to know that one
is his disciple."
[From an article by Kurt Bergel, originally published in 1946]
"The ethics of reverence for life requires someone to respect and
further life in others as well as in himself. The principle of equality
is thereby founded in ethics. Yet only with a scale of values can
the individual settle conflicting claims: the physician when deciding
whether he should save the child's or the mother's life, a person when
deciding whether he should save his attacker's life or his own.
And what about conflicts between life and truth? Schweitzer does
not give a theory or scale of values. His is an ethics for mature
individuals who can shoulder the responsibility of making
decisions. This strong sense of individual
ethical responsibility which we find Schweitzer is needed today."
[Emphasis in original.]
[By Ara Paul Barsam] "Schweitzer distinguishes Indian and
European thought largely on the basis of world- and life-affirmation
and world- and life-negation philosophies. ... For Schweitzer, the
human body and all living things instinctively affirm life by virtue of
the fact that they will to
stay alive. With every beat of the heart, there is a
(subconscious) affirmation of life within us, what he considered to be
an 'instinctive will-to-live' or an 'instinctive reverence' for one's
own life. The will-to-live, by virtue of the fact that it strives
to maintain life, is an affirmation of life." [Emphasis in
original.]
[By Albert Schweitzer, in Out of My Life and Thought]
"Just as a tree bears the same fruit year after year and at the same
time fruit that is new each year, so must all permanently valuable
ideas be continually created anew in thought. But our age pretends to
make a sterile tree bear fruit by tying fruits of truth onto it
branches."
Table of Contents of Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert
Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century
Albert Schweitzer, frontispiece
Preface by Marvin Meyer
Introduction by Marvin Meyer
- Albert Schweitzer at the Beginning of the Millennium by
James Brabazon
- Affirming Reverence for Life by Marvin Meyer
- Letters, 1902-1905 by Albert Schweitzer and Helene
Bresslau
- First Sermon on Reverence for Life by Albert Schweitzer
- The Philosophy of Civilization
by Albert Schweitzer
- Memoirs of Childhood and Youth
by Albert Schweitzer
- Out of My Life and Thought
by Albert Schweitzer
- The Ethics of Reverence for Life by Albert Schweitzer
- Albert Schweitzer's Reverence for Life by Kurt Bergel
- The Assessment of the Life and Thought of Albert Schweitzer in
Germany and Africa by Sylvere Mbondobari
- The Significance of Reverence for Life Today by Erich
Graber
- Rethinking Reverence for Life by Mike W. Martin
- Jainism and Ethics by Ronald M. Huntington
- Albert Schweitzer, Jainism, and Reverence for Life by Ara
Paul Barsam
- The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer's Quest of the Historical Jesus
by James M. Robinson
- The Sermon on the Mount by Early Followers of Jesus
- Teaching Reverence for Life by Nikki Lindberg
- Student Essays on Albert Schweitzer and Reverence for
Life by Joie Karnes, Maria Tafoya, Timothy Johnson, Marianne
Tardaguila, and Anna Blishak Peschong
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