or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Sell Back Your Copy
For a $0.19 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography [Paperback]

Albert Schweitzer (Author), Antje Bultmann Lemke (Translator, Preface), Rhena Schweitzer Miller (Preface), Jimmy Carter (Foreword), Lachlan Forrow (Foreword)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

List Price: $27.00
Price: $22.81 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.19 (16%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Tuesday, January 31? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Book Description

June 11, 2009

Published to commemorate Albert Schweitzer’s only visit to the United States 60 years ago, this anniversary edition of his autobiography gives 21st-century readers a unique and authoritative account of the man John F. Kennedy called "one of the transcendent moral influences of our century."

Schweitzer is celebrated around the world as a European pioneer of medical service in Africa, a groundbreaking philosopher and musical scholar, and a catalyst of environmental and peace activism. Yet people most revere Schweitzer for his dedication to serving others and his profound and influential ethic of reverence for life. For Schweitzer, reverence for life was not a theory or a philosophy but a discovery—a recognition that the capacity to experience and act on a reverence for all life is a fundamental part of human nature, a characteristic that sets human beings apart from the rest of the natural world.

This anniversary edition coincides with several high profile celebrations of his 1949 visit, as well as the release of a new feature film starring Jeroen Krabbe and Barbara Hershey. In addition to a foreword by Nobel Laureate and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, this edition features a new foreword by Lachlan Forrow, president of The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship.


Frequently Bought Together

Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography + Albert Schweitzer: A Biography (The Albert Schweitzer Library) + Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century
Price For All Three: $54.83

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together
  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Albert Schweitzer: A Biography (The Albert Schweitzer Library) $18.21

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century $13.81

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details



Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Out of My Life and Thought is the autobiography of Albert Schweitzer, the theologian, musician, scientist, and medical missionary who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 (and donated his prize to build a leper colony). Schweitzer's autobiography is a masterful and motley blend of confession, narrative, adventure, and philosophy. The chapters about how he came to write The Quest for the Historical Jesus and The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle are indispensable summaries of and apologies for those books; the chapter called "I Resolve to Become a Jungle Doctor" is a model of Rilke-style life-changing decision; and the chapters on Bach and on organs are full of fascinating historical and mechanical detail. For contemporary readers, Out of My Life and Thought may be most compelling for its epilogue, which describes the ethical mysticism that Schweitzer called "Reverence for Life," which he achieved in his later years. The epilogue is full of stirringly Germanic passages such as the following: "Once man begins to think about the mystery of his life and the links connecting him with the life that fills the world, he cannot but accept, for his own life and all other life that surrounds him, the principle of Reverence for Life. He will act according to this principle of the ethical affirmation of life in everything he does. His life will become in every respect more difficult than if he lived for himself, but at the same time it will be richer, more beautiful, and happier. It will become, instead of mere living, a genuine experience of life." Because Schweitzer believed Christianity implied such world-encompassing reverence, he had the confidence and faith to "demand from Christianity that it reform itself in the spirit of sincerity and with thoughtfulness, so it may become conscious of its true nature." --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Even in our cynical age, the legendary story of jungle doctor Albert Schweitzer, self-sacrificingly devoted to the service of humanity, inspires. Out of print since the early 1970s, his classic autobiography, first published in 1933, speaks directly to modern readers in its searching appraisal of this "period of spiritual decline for mankind," an age in which science, technology and power seem divorced from ethical standards. In earnest prose Schweitzer discusses his research into primitive Christianity and his search for the historical Jesus; his love of Bach, "poet and painter in sound"; his fancy for rebuilding old church organs. His philosophy, which he called "Reverence for Life," blends mysticism and rationalism, with an impulse to release the "active ethic" he sees latent in Christianity. For this fluid new translation, Schweitzer's own corrections made between original publication and 1960 have been incorporated. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 60th Anniversary Edition edition (June 11, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0801894123
  • ISBN-13: 978-0801894121
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Authors

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
I was born on January 14, 1875, at Kaysersberg in Upper Alsace, the second child of Louis Schweitzer, who at that time served as minister for the little flock of Protestants in that Catholic place. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ethical affirmation, ethical acceptance, organ building, modern organs, organ compositions, affirmative attitude, organ builders, old organs
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kingdom of God, Messianic Kingdom, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Son of Man, Paris Missionary Society, Critique of Pure Reason, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, Middle Ages, New Testament, University of Strasbourg, Albert Schweitzer, Jewish Messianic, Marie Jaëll, Collegium Wilhelmitanum, Gospel of Jesus, Old Testament, Orfeó Catalá, Theobald Ziegler, William Wrede, Woytt Collection, Ernest Munch, Lower Alsace, Paris Bach Society, Pastor Knittel, The Flight
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:




What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject