Dr. Albert Schweitzer's eschatological interpretation of the life of Jesus: an appraisal of its truth and significance

Abstract

To submit a thesis on Albert Schweitzer at the present time may seem ?"ether superfluous. During the past year, three new books dealing with him have appeared. One, Prophet in the Wilderness, by Hennan Hagedorn, tells the story of his life in a popular way. Another, Albert Schweitzer: the Man and his Mind, by George Seaver, aims at being a definitive biography. And the third, Albert Schweitzer, an Anthology, edited by Charles H. Joy, gives the more important excerpts from his works. But none of these deals directly with the subject of this thesis, which aims not to present the story of his life, nor yet to understand the genius of his original thought - he himself does this in My Life and Thought, and so have others - but to study one phase of his work, his eschatological interpretation of the life of Jesus, and to come to conclusions about its validity and value. So far as the writer can discover, nobody has ever attempted the exhaustive treatment which it deserves. This is not to say, of course, that no scholar has ever reached a judgment on Schweitzer's work.

The opposite is the case. No really thorough scholar since his time dares to discuss the life of Jesus without taking into account the eschatological theory. But most are content to do so with a passing reference or at most a few pages on the subject. This thesis has no theory of its own to put forward, but gives its undivided attention to Schweitzer's views and their consequences. This is the original contribution it seeks to make to human knowledge.

If at times it has been found necessary to disagree with Dr. Schweitzer's views, no disrespect is intended to the great personality ·who is such an outstanding example of Christian self-sacrifice. It will be remembered, however, that the Paris Missionary Society, when it authorized him to go to Lambarene, extracted from him the promise to be silent about his views on the life of Jesus, because it believed them to be mistaken and dangerous. His service has been achieved in spite of, rather than because of, the theories with which this thesis deals.