Monday, September 4, 2023

It is the 4th of September 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Last summer, I was in Strasbourg and visited the church where Albert Schweitzer preached- much of the Alsace Lorraine is covered in Schweitzer-ania. And as you are listening to this program, I am preparing once again to head to the one-time home of Albert Schweitzer- being that the anniversary of his death is today- the 4th of September in 1965. I had to double-check because I know of his work from the turn of the last century. But it’s true- he lived from 1875 to 1965- one heck of a ninety-year period in terms of world history.

Schweitzer was born in the Alsace Lorraine in 1875 to Lutheran parents- his father was a Lutheran minister, as was his grandfather. The Alsace had recently switched hands and became a German territory- German and Catholic. So, to be a French Lutheran was to be an outsider. Albert initially didn’t do well at school and was keenly aware of the poverty of his surroundings. He eventually turned on to history and decided to study at his father’s alma mater- the Theological College of St. Thomas at the University of Strasbourg.

He would begin preaching at the local St. Nicholas church and took both his Ph.D. in Philosophy and a licentiate in theology by 1900. Between 1901 and 1912, he worked at the college while he preached, played the organ, and wrote. He was considered to be one of the chief interpreters of Bach, wrote a book on Bach and his music, and may well have been known for that if life had not intervened.

His first theological work was The Quest for the Historical Jesus, which would make him famous and infamous. Let me parse this text for a minute. The quest for the historical Jesus had, since the 17th century, divided the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Using what was then considered cutting-edge historical methods, the text of the New Testament and the history of its interpretation were questioned and reconstructed. While Schweitzer was certainly a student of his era and held positions beyond the pale for many, he essentially stopped the quest for the historical Jesus with his text- he criticized the subjectivity of the scholarship, argued for a historical Jesus, and the issue was barely considered until the 1950s.

But the life of a preacher or theologian was not to be. Wanting to be practical and concerned with the plight of Africans in the midst of colonization, he decided to earn his medical degree and become a medical missionary. The  French evangelical society took issue with some of his teachings, but he promised he would raise the money for the mission himself and would not teach what the society believed to be his heterodox views.

Now, with his wife, who was a nurse, they traveled to Lamberene in French Equatorial Africa (that’s just inside the big curve on the western side of the continent). In 1917, being technically German, they were arrested as prisoners of War. They were released at the end of the war and returned to the Alsace. It was then that Albert wrote a number of texts, autobiography, philosophy, and works on civilization. X While dated today, they did mark a man's struggle with the questions of the academy in his day. In 1924 he decided to go back to Lambarene, and he would spend the rest of his life, while traveling to speak, based out of his hospital there. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize- he spent 33,000 in prize money to open a separate hospital in Lambarene for a leper hospital.

Now an international figure, he would speak out against Nuclear proliferation with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. He would speak with President Kennedy in the run-up to the first nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

He is best remembered for his desire to take up his cross and follow Jesus into a place known for suffering and trying to alleviate it. Some of his methods and some of his theology is dated and best left behind- but the spirit of Christian altruism is rightly praised. Born in 1875, Albert Schweitzer was 90 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Revelation 3:

4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of September 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. 

The show is produced by a man who reminds you that while those in Sardis might wear white, this is your last day to do so- Labor Day- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who also reminds you that Emily Post herself suggested it was more about the fabric choice than the color you wear post-Labor Day- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be OK.