"He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”
The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer, (A. C. Black. London: 1911) Page 401
This is such a poignant conclusion. At the end of one of the most thorough, painstaking, and frankly at times tedious books ever written on Jesus, these beautiful words. Hesitant, revealing remarkable intellectual humility, yet the person who wrote this was one of the greatest organists of his generation, a respected professor of philosophy and science, later a medical doctor working in remote parts of French Equatorial Africa, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and much else.
New Testament scholarship has moved on in the century and more since the publication of Schweitzer's Quest. The fourth Quest of the Historical Jesus is currently underway, examining the evidential value of the Gospel of John and its relations to the other Gospels and early Christian documents.
As a first reading in Advent, Schweitzer's words pull us back to those moments in our lives when we too heard the call of Jesus, when we were met by God in ways we still barely comprehend. Sure, Schweitzer's great book has equally great false steps here and there. But the passion of his quest, his belief that Christ moves amongst us as a compelling and commanding presence, still rings true to the experience of many who still come across his words at the end of his most famous book.
My reading of Schweitzer, both his writings (only some of which I have read), and his life as it is told in various biographies, is of a man overloaded with gifts and the great sense of personal responsibility they brought. More than many, (and many of his critics) he exemplified obedience to the categorical imperative of the call of God with radical thoroughness. His medical work was in response to his understanding of Jesus' call to him personally, to leave all and follow Him.
Schweitzer's final sentences of his genuinely epochal book are as much personal testimony as evangelistic pointer to others. When I read them at the start of Advent 2024, I too hear again the echo of that first summons, and the invitation to follow him in the fellowship of that ineffable mystery in which we learn, in our own experience, who He is.
A classic!
Posted by: Paul Anderson | December 03, 2024 at 02:13 AM