Lisa Ortega, age 15, of Nashua, N.H., for her question:
WHO WAS ALBERT SCHWEITZER?
Albert Schweitzer was a French Protestant clergyman, philosopher, musicologist, medical missionary and Nobel laureate. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his outstanding work in Africa.
Schweitzer was born in Germany in 1875 and studied at the universities of Strasbourg, Paris and Berlin. He was ordained as the curate of the church of Saint Nicholas in Strasbourg in 1900 and a year later became principal of the theological seminary there.
In music Schweitzer soon gained fame as an organist and authority on organ construction. His best known musicological work, "Johann Sebastian Bach," was published in French in 1905 and rewritten in German in 1908. An English translation appeared in 1911.
Schweitzer established his reputation as a theologian with "The Quest of the Historical Jesus" (1906), in which he interpreted the life of Jesus in the light of Jesus' beliefs. In another study, "The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle," (1930) Schweitzer examined the New Testament from the eschatological viewpoint of its reputed authors.
From 1905 until 1913 Schweitzer studied medicine and surgery at the University of Strasbourg. He was determined to become a physician and surgeon.
In 1913, with a new medical degree, Schweitzer went to Lambarene, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon). He decided to become a medical missionary and set up a hospital. There he cared for some 2,000 patients during his first year of work.
In 1917 18 Schweitzer, as a German national, was interned in France. He wrote two volumes of a projected philosophical study of civilization, "The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization," during that period of time.
Schweitzer remained in Europe after World War I until 1924, but then he returned to Africa to do additional work for the natives.
In spite of floods, pestilence and the lack of trained assistants, Schweitzer built a new hospital equipped to provide care for thousands of natives, including 300 lepers. He returned frequently thereafter to Europe to lecture and give organ recitals.
In 1949 Schweitzer visited the United States.
Schweitzer's other works include "Civilization and Ethics" (1923). The medical missionary contended that modern civilization is in decay because it lacks the will to love. He suggested that people should develop a philosophy based on what he termed "reverence for life," or the inspiration to love and embrace with compassion all forms of life.
He also wrote "Indian Thought and its Development" (1935), "The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity" (1937) and the autobiographical "Out of My Life and Thought" (1931).
Schweitzer's variety of interests was unified largely by the profound religious meaning he found in the natural world as well as in all of the accomplishments of humankind.
Schweitzer died in 1965.