With Postscript 1932-1949 by Everett Skillings

This book is a bit hard to categorize. It's definitely biography but Schweitzer spends a great deal of time on his researches into religious thought and the early history of Christianity, his thoughts on philosophy, and his work as a concert organist. Before he became a physician he was known as a theologian and philosopher and was often asked to give concerts and lectures outside of his duties as a professor and vicar. Even after entering medical school at the age of thirty he continued these other studies as much as time would permit. The reason for becoming a medical doctor was his conviction that that was his best way of helping the people of Africa and his decision to go to Africa as a missionary led then to his decision to practice medicine.

In addition to his earned PhD and his M.D., Schweitzer received many honorary degrees in all the fields he worked in as well as the Nobel Peace Prize. He also published a number of books, pamphlets, and articles. This book was first published in 1931 and this particular translation into English was published in 1990 from a German copy in which Schweitzer made his own corrections between 1930 and 1960. Out of My Life and Thought was a somewhat slow read for me as so much of the book was about his thinking on subjects I know little about but it was interesting enough that I did eventually finish.

A great philosopher and mystic argues for rational thought and what he called reverence for life. "I am in complete disagreement with the spirit of our age, because it is filled with contempt for thought." The primary issue of philosophy was to achieve an active ethic, a realistic confrontation with reality. His active ethic was to serve the poor and the sick in West Africa.

"Rational thought boils over into mystical thought. Mysticism is knowledge of the infinite. Mysticism is not the flower on the plant of thought. It is but the stalk; ethics is the flower." A very provocative and quotable book. ( )