Preface Chapter 1

Notes Preface 1. In addition to an unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ron Abrell’s three published works on Schweitzer are “Albert Schweitzer: Educator for a Season,” Contemporary Education XLVI (1) (1974): 28–33; “The School will be the Way,” Humane Education (1978): 10–11; “The Educational Thought of Albert Schweitzer,” The Clearing House 54(7) (1981): 293–96. 2. Alan M. Beck and Anthony G. Rud, Jr., “Kids and Critters in Class Together,” Phi Delta Kappan 82(4) (2000): 313–15. 3. For a discussion of the theory and practice of teacher renewal at NCCAT, see Anthony G. Rud, Jr., and Walter P. Oldendorf, eds., A Place for Teacher Renewal: Challenging the Intellect, Creating Educational Reform (1992; repr., Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2008). 4. The Quaker adage of “let your life speak” is adapted from the words of one of the founders of the Religious Society of Friends, George Fox: “Let your lives preach.” Chapter 1 1. These reflections by Schweitzer come when he is looking back on his youth as a man who is nearly 50 years old. Marvin Meyer notes the difficulty of understanding Schweitzer’s own words: “When reflecting on his childhood, Schweitzer observed that the commandment not to kill and torture impacted him in a powerful way in his childhood and youth, and such may well be the case. It may well be that Schweitzer was predisposed from childhood and influenced by childhood experiences to feel a kinship with other living beings, a feeling that may anticipate his later affirmations of reverence for life. Yet Schweitzer’s reflections, published in his Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, are based upon his sessions in 1923 with the psychologist and pastor Oscar Pfister in Zurich. I suggest that Schweitzer may in fact have projected his values as an ethical thinker in his mid-forties back upon the experiences of his childhood.” Marvin Meyer, “Affirming Reverence for Life,” in Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century, ed. Marvin 144 NOTES Meyer and Kurt Bergel (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002), 24–25. Hereafter Meyer and Bergel, Reverence for Life. 2. James Brabazon starts his book with a portrait of this region, and calls Schweitzer “completely a man of Alsace.” He continues by stating that “[O]ne can begin to understand him better if one begins by understanding this obstinate, friendly, self-reliant little region; a region that can never afford to ignore the march of history but refuses to be impressed by it, that lives close to the soil because the soil is good and profitable and is all that people have.” James Brabazon, Albert Schweitzer: A Biography, second edition (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000), 2. Hereafter Brabazon. 3. “Unitas Fratrum: The Moravian Unity of the World Wide Moravian Church. Origin and Growth of the Unitas Fratrum,” http://www.unitasfratrum.org/ pages/origin_and_growth.html. 4. Albert Schweitzer, Essential Writings. Selected with an Introduction by James Brabazon (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2005), 13. Hereafter EW. 5. Albert Schweitzer, Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, trans. Kurt Bergel and Alice R. Bergel (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 39. Hereafter Memoirs. 6. Ibid., 37. 7. There is a growing literature on this topic. See Mark R. Dadds, “Conduct Problems and Cruelty to Animals in Children: What is the Link?” in The International Handbook of Animal Abuse and Cruelty: Theory, Research, and Application, ed. Frank R. Ascione (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2008), 111–128. 8. Memoirs, 39. 9. See the discussion of motivations for cruelty to animals in Dadds, “Conduct Problems and Cruelty to Animals in Children,” 116. 10. Jerome Hill and Erica Anderson, Albert Schweitzer (Troma Entertainment, 2005.) (Original film produced in 1957). Hereafter Hill and Anderson. 11. Memoirs, 38–39. 12. Ibid., 41. 13. Marc Bekoff proposes that animals do in fact exhibit moral behavior, which is not simply humans anthropomorphizing what animals do. See, in particular, Marc Bekoff, The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy—and Why They Matter (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2007); and Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). 14. EW, 164–165. 15. Memoirs, 49–50. 16. Ibid., 50. 17. Ibid., 53 18. Brabazon, 75–76. 19. Memoirs, 57–58. 20. Ibid., 64–65. 21. Ibid., 66–67. 22. Ibid., 78. NOTES 145 Chapter 2 1. Albert Schweitzer, from “Die Philosophie und die allgemeine Bildung im neunzehnten Jahrhundert,” 68, trans. Charles R. Joy, in Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology, ed. Charles R. Joy (Boston: Beacon, 1967), 305. I thank Jack Fenner for bringing this quotation to my attention. 2. James Brabazon, Albert Schweitzer: A Biography, second edition (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000), 68. Hereafter Brabazon. 3. Kant wrote three “critiques,” of pure reason, practical reason, and aesthetic judgment. The categorical imperative of Kant’s critique of practical reason, like the dictum of Reverence for Life, is an intuitive insight into the core of one’s moral being and guides action in the world. 4. Charles R. Joy, “Introduction,” in Albert Schweitzer, Goethe: Five Studies, trans. Charles R. Joy (Boston: Beacon, 1961), 3. Hereafter, Goethe: Five Studies. 5. Brabazon, 75. 6. Albert Schweitzer, “The One Hundredth Anniversary Memorial Address,” in Goethe: Five Studies, 85. 7. Goethe: Five Studies, 4. 8. Albert Schweitzer, “The One Hundredth Anniversary Memorial Address,” 88–89. 9. Ibid., 81. 10. Ibid., 82. 11. Goethe: Five Studies, 16–17. 12. Ibid., 18. 13. Albert Schweitzer, “Goethe the Philosopher,” in Goethe: Five Studies, 123. 14. Mark E. Jonas, “A(R)evaluation of Nietzsche’s Anti-democratic Pedagogy: The Overman, Perspectivism, and Self-Overcoming,” Studies in Philosophy and Education, 28: 159. 15. Ibid., 164. 16. Ibid., 166. 17. Marvin Meyer, “Affirming Reverence for Life,” in Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century, ed. Marvin Meyer and Kurt Bergel (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002), 28. 18. Jackson Lee Ice, Albert Schweitzer: Sketches for a Portrait (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994), 24. Hereafter Ice. 19. I use this same analysis in making the case for Schweitzer’s educational importance. For instance, the common criticism, made toward the end of his life, of his hospital’s obsolete technology and deficient hygiene, or his colo- nialism or purported racist attitudes, should not detract from his symbolic importance and inspiration to those who carry out the work of educating others. Even as we acknowledge his faults or shortcomings, or attribute them to his own cultural lenses, Schweitzer remains a powerful model for teaching and learning. 20. Henry Clark, The Ethical Mysticism of Albert Schweitzer (Boston: Beacon, 1962), 77, cited in Ice, 24. See also Oskar Kraus, Albert Schweitzer: His Work 146 NOTES and His Philosophy. Introduction by A. D. Lindsay, trans. E. G. McCalman (London: Adams and Charles Black, 1944), 126f. Hereafter Kraus. 21. Quest, quoted in Kraus, 53. 22. Cited by Marvin Meyer in “Affirming Reverence for Life,” 28. 23. Ara Paul Barsam, Reverence for Life: Albert Schweitzer’s Great Contribution to Ethical Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 5. Hereafter Barsam, Reverence for Life. 24. Cited in Ice, 25. Albert Schweitzer, Geschichte der Lebens-Jesu-Forschung (Mohr, Germany: 2nd ed., 1913), 635. 25. Albert Schweitzer, The Primeval Forest (Including On the Edge of the Primeval Forest and More from the Primeval Forest), foreword by William H. Foege (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) (originally published 1931), 11. Hereafter Primeval Forest. 26. Luke 16: 19–31: “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’” 27. Primeval Forest, 11. 28. Kraus, 8–9. 29. See especially Chapter 3, “The Voyage to India,” in Barsam, Reverence for Life, for a critical discussion of how he believed Schweitzer selectively used Indian thought to affirm some of his prejudices. 30. Ara Paul Barsam, “Schweitzer, Jainism, and Reverence for Life,” in Meyer and Bergel, Reverence for Life, 208.

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