Journal index

The purpose of this paper is to present and to sum up the results of a historical and theological research into the use of the Heidelberg Catechism in Transylvania. It focuses on those commentaries on the Heidelberg Catechism which have never been printed because of various reasons, but are still in use for almost two centuries in the schools and pulpits of the Church. Most of the manuscripts mentioned in this study –mainly from 17th-18th century – have never been extensively researched. The current analysis aims to classify the various types of commentaries written in different historical circumstances and based on different argumentations. Moreover, it also gives a taste – as it serves as a basis for a broader research – of the colourful insights into the rightly appreciated Heidelberg Catechism and its explanations.

The first from the altogether three parts essay offers an analysis of the structure and inner logical dynamism of the Heidelberg Catechism, the symbolic document of the Re-formed church. The analysis demonstrates in a series of four concentric circles, how each of these represents a certain historically verifiable perception of the Christian faith.The first and one represents an individualistic approach, understood as the key conceptof the then beginning modernity, based on the soteriological logic of my sin, my salvation and my gratefulness. The second one introduces the essence of the theological “correction” by the Reformation, emphasising grace and faith as the determining factors. The third one is the Apostolic Creed with its clear Trinitarian, ie. theological and ontological structure. The fourth one is a simple presentation of the core of the holy history, the Christ-event. The paper understands the Catechism as a grandiose attempt to lead the individually centred man back to God on a road beginning from the first and outermost circle to the last one, so to say to the feet of Christ.