¹ This point is emphasised by Jan Ross, ‘Das Recht ein Ketzer zu sein: der Unbestechliche Albert Schweitzer und die Theologie’, in Wolfgang E. Müller (ed.), Zwischen Denken und Mystik, Bodenheim 1997, 9.

² See E. Grässer, Albert Schweitzer als Theologe, Tübingen 1979; H. Pleitner, Das Ende der liberalen Hermeneutik am Beispiel Albert Schweitzers, Tübingen 1989; C. Günzler, Albert Schweitzer: Einführung in sein Denken, Munich 2000; and A. Barsam, Reverence for life: Albert Schweitzer's great contribution to ethical thought, New York 2008. There are also two series devoted to Schweitzer: Albert-Schweitzer-Studien (Bern), and Beiträge zur Albert Schweitzer Forschung (Oberhausen).

³ James Brabazon, Albert Schweitzer, 2nd edn, Syracuse 2000. See also the short, but perceptive, biography by H. Seffahn, Schweitzer, Hamburg 1998.

⁴ See Albert Schweitzer: Werke aus dem Nachlass, ed. R. Brüllmann, E. Grässer, B. Kaempf, U. Körtner, U. Luz and J. Zürcher, Munich 1995–2006, of which ten volumes have so far been published. Also significant is the publication of correspondence between Schweitzer and his wife, almost all from before they were married: Albert Schweitzer–Helene Bresslau: die Jahre vor Lambarene: Briefe, 1902–1912, Munich 1992.

⁵ Groos observes that this work and Schweitzer's later biography of 1931 are ‘Erbauungsbücher’: Albert Schweitzer: Grösse und Grenzen, Göttingen 1974, 781.

⁶ Oermann omits to mention either in his bibliography or in his footnotes the important contribution to this discussion of Schweitzer's own nephew, Gustave Woytt: ‘Albert Schweitzer und die Pariser Mission’, in R. Brüllmann (ed.), Albert-Schweitzer-Studien, Berne 1989, 114–221.

⁷ This point was made by the president of West Germany, Theodor Heuss, on the occasion of the presentation of the ‘Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels’ in 1951.

⁸ Schweitzer's decision to write the preface to Rolf Hochhuth's Stellvertreter of 1963, in which Pius xii's actions in the war are criticised, a fact unmentioned by Oermann, possibly betokens a certain sense of guilt.

⁹ See W. Picht The life and thought of Albert Schweitzer, New York 1960, 47: ‘Schweitzer's is not in fact a professorial nature, and, therefore, looking back, we cannot say that Lambarene cost him a university career.’

¹⁰ In a sermon dated 2 July 1911, Schweitzer observes that lectures have become ‘reine Mitteilung von Wissenschaft’, and no longer committed to the communication of ‘menschliche Ideale’: Strassburger Predigten, Munich 2001, 1133.

¹¹ In a letter dated 26 November 1903 Schweitzer notes that people seem only to be concerned that he be more diligent about attending to his academic career, to which he simply responds: ‘Ich will leben’: Albert Schweitzer–Helene Bresslau, 51.

¹² In his letter, dated 7 Mar. 1929, recommending Schweitzer for honorary membership of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Adolf von Harnack wrote that ‘Durch diese Untersuchungen und Darstellungen [his New Testament books] hat er nicht nur einen Schulstrich unter die bisherige Forschung mit Kraft und richtig gezogen, sondern auch, wie allgemein anerkannt ist, den entscheidenden Fingerzeig für zukünftige Forschung gegeben’ (my italics): Albert Schweitzer, Theologischer und philosophischer Briefwechsel, 1900–1965, ed. W. Zager with E. Grässer, Munich 2006, 293. Admittedly, these words were written some time after the beginning of Schweitzer's academic career, and when he had become a much better known character.

¹³ Note words found in a sermon dated 3 December 1905 here talking about what it is to follow Christ: ‘Es ist ein Wollen, eine Kraft, ein Stolz, durch das wir grösser und stärker und freudiger werden’: Strassburger Predigten, 656.

¹⁴ See A. Schweitzer to W. Bremi, 8 Aug. 1963: ‘Schon als Student habe ich meinen Weg darin gesehen, im Gegensatz zu Nietzsche eine ethische Kulturgesinnung zu schaffen’: Briefwechsel, 124.

¹⁵ Schweitzer's stay in Berlin in 1899 to which Oermann refers was probably a very significant time for him. Sadly, the letters that he wrote about his time there were burned by one of his sisters.

¹⁶ On this see Günzler, Einführung, and Barsam, Reverence, 6–10.

¹⁷ See Günzler, Einführing, 59–60.

¹⁸ Note in particular the contrasting uses of the word ‘resignation’. For Schweitzer, resignation is the ethical act in which ‘one affirms one's moral and spiritual self in spite of those elements that conflict with it’, while for Schopenhauer, it is precisely an emancipation from the world and all its misery which leads to submission to fate, that is, the inevitability of suffering: Barsam, Reverence, 19–20.

¹⁹ See Günzler, Einführung, 27f.

²⁰ Oermann makes this point effectively when discussing Schweitzer's Wir Epigonen.

²¹ See H. Kiesel, ‘Aufklärung und neuer Irrationalismus in der Weimarer Republik’, in J. Schmidt (ed.), Aufklärung und Gegenaufklärung in der europäischen Literatur, Philosophie und Politik von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Darmstadt 1989, 497–521, and Günzler, Einführung, 28–9.

²² See Schweitzer to Eduard Spranger, 12 June 1962, where Schweitzer makes the same point: Briefwechsel, 718.

²³ See especially the comments in his preface at p. ix where he notes that his methods remain old-fashioned in that he is setting forth Paul's ideas in their historical context, here clearly alluding to Barth's Römerbrief. Note also places where Schweitzer asserts that Barth's theology reflected the Zeitgeist: ‘Karl Barth ist der moderne Theologe, weil er am meisten im Geiste unserer Zeit lebt und mehr als irgend ein anderer jene Verachtung für das Denken hat, die charackteristisch für unsere Zeit’: appendix to his Hibbert Lecture of October 1934, in Albert Schweitzer: Kultur und Ethik in den Weltreligionen, Munich 2001, 416. Schweitzer comments elsewhere on the dissonance of Barth's theology.

²⁴ Thus he comments that ‘The experience of God within myself differs from the knowledge concerning him which I derive from the world. In the world he appears to me as the mysterious, marvellous, creative force; within me he reveals himself as ethical will’: Christianity and the religions of the world, New York 1923, 76.

²⁵ See O. Kraus, Albert Schweitzer: his work and philosophy, London 1944.

²⁶ Note in particular the two volumes of Nachlass: Die Weltanschauung der Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben, Munich 2000.

²⁷ H. Clark, The ethical mysticism of Albert Schweitzer, Boston 1962, 103–4.

²⁸ On this see Barsam, Reverence, 120–30.

²⁹ The clearest exposition of this view is Groos, Albert Schweitzer, 492–3.

³⁰ See especially Clark, Ethical mysticism, and, picking up on many of his observations, Barsam, Reverence.

³¹ See Schweitzer to Werner Jaeger, 28 May 1946: ‘Mir ist die reine Theologie etwas Unbegreifliches gewesen’: Briefwechsel, 403.

³² ‘Religion und Philosophie sind also nur zwei verschiedene Arten des mit Weltanschauungen beschäftigten Denkens. Die tiefe religiöse Weltanschauung lässt sich auf einen philosophischen Ausdruck bringen, und die tiefe Philosophie nimmt religiösen Charakter an’: Schweitzer, Weltreligionen, 20.

³³ See idem, Christianity, esp. p. 83, where Christianity is described as ‘the most profound religion’.

³⁴ See Schweitzer sermon, 10 Nov. 1901, and his description of Protestantism as ‘das Licht der Welt’: Strassburger Predigten, 340. Many similar sentiments can be found.

³⁵ A. Rössler, ‘Albert Schweitzer und das freie Christentum’, in W. E. Müller (ed.), Zwischen Denken und Mystik: Albert Schweitzers Theologie heute, Bodenheim 1990, 241f.

³⁶ See especially A. Schweitzer, The quest of the historical Jesus, London 2000.

³⁷ Schweitzer did not straightforwardly disparage Christian tradition, regarding it as preserving through the ages elements of religious truth which became apparent when critical thought was applied to it. For this see his Ansprache auf der Tagung der Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft, 1929–32, in Gesammelte Werke, ed. R. Grabs, Munich–Berlin–Zurich, 1974, v. 377.

³⁸ See Pleitner, Hermeneutik.

³⁹ These are highlighted by Rössler, ‘Albert Schweitzer’, 235f.

⁴⁰ The relationships with Martin Werner and Fritz Buri are important in this regard.

⁴¹ A. Schweitzer, Reich Gottes und Christentum, Munich 1995.

⁴² Numerous passages from sermons, letters, exegetical and philosophical works and public lectures could be cited. A number of these are quoted in J. Carleton Paget, ‘The religious authority of Albert Schweitzer's Jesus’, in M. Bockmuehl and A. J. Torrance (eds.), Scripture's doctrine and theology's Bible, Grand Rapids 2008, 78–9.

⁴³ See Schweitzer, Quest, 486.

⁴⁴ See Schweitzer sermon, 28 June 1908, where he gives eloquent voice to the complexities of his views about Jesus, and especially the words, ‘Das Unbegreifliche seiner Persönlichkeit wächst für den, der sich in ihn versenkt’: Strassburger Predigten, 930.

⁴⁵ On this point see Clarke, Ethical mysticism, 104.

⁴⁶ Note Schweitzer's praise for Paul for being the first Christian to connect the person of Christ to redemption: The mysticism of Paul the Apostle, New York 1955, 335. Note also the words ‘It (human thinking) must, no doubt, face all the enigmas of existence which present themselves to thought and harass it, but in the last resort it must leave the incomprehensible uncomprehended, and take the path of seeking to be certified of God as the “Will of Love”, and finding in it both inner peace and springs of action … In Jesus Christ, God is manifested as Will of Love. In union with Christ, union with God is realized in the only form attainable by us’ (p. 379), Note the slippage between God as manifested as will of love and Jesus as will of love.

⁴⁷ It is important to note that Schweitzer made thirteen trips to Africa (one of the many contributions of Oermann's work is a ‘Zeittafel’ of Schweitzer's life where the number of trips and their length are clearly laid out), and between 1913 and his death in 1965 spent about fifteen years in Europe. From 1913 onwards he also corresponded with a number of significant intellectuals and theologians, as is clear from his Briefwechsel which, moreover, is far from being comprehensive. A sense of Schweitzer's ongoing interaction with European thinkers is also seen in his own Nachlass, especially Weltanschauung. Schweitzer also ordered books from publishers like Mohr of Tübingen, and asked friends to send him books. But while there can be little doubt that he was in contact with European thought in the period following 1913, the question arises as to the extent to which, given his hugely busy schedule, and the many calls upon his time even when he was in Europe, he could interact seriously with such thought. I doubt as fully as he would have liked. So, for instance, though there is a copy of Barth's Church dogmatics at Schweitzer's home in Günsbach, I doubt he ever had time to read it; for much of his information about Barth, he probably relied upon friends like Martin Werner.

⁴⁸ See Schweitzer to von Harnack, 4 May 1925, Briefwechsel, 278.

⁴⁹ In a letter to Theodore Heuss of 22 Feb. 1959, Schweitzer writes of his work in these areas as remaining ‘unvollendet’, and elsewhere refers to his philosophical work as a ‘Chaos’: ibid. 360.

⁵⁰ See Picht, Schweitzer, 190: ‘The way to this heart of Schweitzer's activity passes through a heroic landscape dotted as though with erratic boulders … Some of them have never been completed, other have been left to crumble, because the centre of this landscape, the jungle hospital at Lambarene, took up progressively more of his strength and energy.’