This blog combines two key thoughts, one from Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore, and the second from Dr. Schweitzer. Fillmore: “We would remember that all life is sacred, it belongs to the one great Life…..”, and Schweitzer: “A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.” Staring with the Fillmore quote, the one great Life is of course

Bob Echols For Our Animal Friends We are nearing the end of this voyage, our voyage to become acquainted with a reverence for life and some of its rudimentary elements. Future voyages will seek ways of proclaiming and applying a reverence for life, but for now let’s be content with learning the basics. Most recent ports of call have reminded us of Dr. Schweitzer’s search for a moral principle that was at once spiritually derived and created, yet perfectly suited to widespread

Dr. Schweitzer’s great quest to discover a grand unified theory of ethics was comprised of two segments; namely, an incontrovertible principle of ethics that was spiritually created and derived, resulting in a terrestrial application that was without bounds, that could be applied, must be applied to every creature found on our shared home. Quite an undertaking, to say the least. Our last blog explored the spiritual portion or foundation for this ethos, a foundation predicat

Let’s start with the spiritual. Dr. Schweitzer’s dream was not unlike the storied quest of so many renowned scientists: the search for the GUT: a grand unified theory that would explain everything. For the scientists the hotly sought-after object was a sole, comprehensive explanation for all known physical phenomena on two levels, macro and micro. For the grand doctor, his holy grail was a theory of ethics that also functioned at two levels, the spiritual and the corporeal, t

Eureka! The long sought-after ethos, a philosophy that would link spiritual formation with temporal application, finally dawned on the great doctor. Actually, according to his recollection it appeared at dusk, but let’s briefly revisit the remarkable milieu where this epiphany took place. Dr. Schweitzer had already spent two days on the Ogooue River in west Africa; the long, laborious, meandering journey from the Atlantic Ocean to his inland river mission. He had spent those

How often in life does the prosaic both mimic and presage the spiritual? With what frequency does the corporeal give rise to the intellectual? Well, at least once for Albert Schweitzer. In our last blog we detailed the arduous intellectual journey Dr. Schweitzer set before himself; namely, the quest for an elemental ethical theory that was of ethereal spiritual origin but of more mundane terrestrial application. A difficult journey indeed, but as you will see, of no more comp

Before becoming our tour guide on the voyage to ethical enlightenment, Dr. Schweitzer had a much more challenging trek facing him; namely, finding an ethical theory that was spiritual in origin yet broadly terrestrial in application. Such a theory could not be man-made, as all such theories, in the view of the great doctor, disintegrated upon close examination. Every attempt failed both to maintain coherence, much less achieve complete applicability to each interaction of man

“The only man in this century who has become famous by being good.” That description of Albert Schweitzer by British journalist James Cameron applies with equal merit in our own 21 st century. Let me cite an article on Dr. Schweitzer from EBSCO Information Services as an excellent short summary of a remarkable existence: “Albert Schweitzer was a multifaceted individual known for his contributions as a theologian, philosopher, musician, and medical missionary. Born in Kaysers

Finis origine pendet. The end depends upon the beginning. Every meaningful journey begins with an explicit destination in mind, a clear concept of what constitutes a successful voyage, the attainment of the contemplated goal. Being able to define and articulate what equates to a triumphant arrival at journey’s end, of what is needed to be able say “mission accomplished,” provides the traveler many benefits, among these are: Clarity of Purpose; and Reflection and growth Our

“Because I said so!” My dear readers, I suspect each of us as children at some point received that cursory response to our favorite question: Why? That four-word conversation ender was especially trotted out when we pushed our parents to justify our having to engage in behavior whose ethical worth, while perfectly clear to them, totally detoured around our perceptions. To some extent such a response is a dismissive power play: the questioner is not accorded the requisite wo

Greetings! This is the first of what will be a series of blogs on the topic: a reverence for life. A reverence for life is the philosophy of love and compassion bequeathed us by the great humanitarian, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. It was his ethos, his philosophy of how we ought to live our lives. My hope and goal with these blogs is two-fold: First to introduce you to this philosophy; and Second, by fleshing it out and providing some examples and explanations, to convince you it i

"Prayer is an exercise to change our thought habits and our living habits, that we may set up a new and better activity, in accord with...