Albert Schweitzer

[homewardangel]

Hi All,

I have a question that I bet someone out there knows the answer to. I have heard bits and pieces of a quote from a friend. When my friend speaks of this quote or “idea” it is in the spiritual life manner. Then this evening I found the exact same quote in one of my books for school - its a financial planning book. This book is the exact opposite of the spiritual context that I had previously heard the quote in.

So what I am wondering is…what is the full context of the quote. You can’t really take one sentence and expect to get the meaning that was intended. Since this quote is in my book for school, I now know that it was Albert Schweitzer who said the line.

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know; the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve”

Does anyone know the context of this quote? Was it a speech or a sermon?? Was it in a book? Do you know the book it came from?

I would love to know your thoughts

Thanks

Terry

 

[Greg27]

Schweitzer was a scholar who did important work into the historical Jesus. His work inspired later scholars such as Bultmann, and also indirectly the appropriation of the historical-critical method of reading scripture by the CC after the ‘modernist’ controversy died down.

I am not sure which work of his that quote is from, but he was someone who mixed contemplation with action (he later became a doctor and travelled to do medical work in Africa) and that is probably the basis of his spirituality.