Albert Schweitzer, (born Jan. 14, 1875, Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Ger. [now in France]—died Sept. 4, 1965, Lambaréné, Gabon), Alsatian-German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor in equatorial Africa, who received the 1952 Nobel Prize for Peace for his efforts in behalf of “the Brotherhood of Nations.”
The eldest son of a Lutheran pastor, Schweitzer studied philosophy and theology at the University of Strasbourg, where he took the doctor’s degree in philosophy in 1899. At the same time, he was also a lecturer in philosophy and a preacher at St. Nicholas’ Church, and the following year he received a doctorate in theology. His book Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906; The Quest of the Historical Jesus) established him as a world figure in theological studies. In this and other works he stressed the eschatological views (concerned with the consummation of history) of Jesus and St. Paul, asserting that their attitudes were formed by expectation of the imminent end of the world.
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