Journal index

In the 19th century, the need to understand the past became increasingly prominent. However, archaeology as an independent science was not yet established. This is important to emphasise because the literature often describes Gábor Téglás as an “enthusiastic dilettante” in archaeology, as there was no such training available at Hungarian colleges, and it was still in its infancy at foreign academies. Flóris Rómer studied humanities, while Henrik Finály studied engineering, mathematics, physics, and ancient literature at the University of Vienna. Arnold Ipolyi also did not start his archaeological work as a trained archaeologist. However, Ipolyi, Rómer and Finály did everything they could to educate themselves as soon as the opportunity arose. Téglás, on the other hand, rigidly refused to do so and did not keep pace with the methodology, scientific results and broader context of discoveries in the now independent science of archaeology. As a result, the new, now professionally trained generation of archaeologists took his work less and less seriously. Téglás made lasting contributions with his geological and mining studies, as he also obtained a qualification in geology alongside his humanities studies. Nevertheless, he contributed to the establishment of Hungarian archaeology with his 355 writings on archaeological subjects.

This paper provides a concise introduction to Korean Buddhism, Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, examining their relationship with Protestant Christianity, which emerged on the Korean Peninsula in the 19th century. Initially, the main aspects of Buddhism are discussed. The paper briefly highlights the contributions of Hungarian, Korean and other international researchers on the topic. It aims to identify the key points through which the relationship between Buddhism and Protestant Christianity can be explored.

In his article, Yohanna Katanacho discusses the relationship between Israeli Jews (both indigenous and settlers) and other indigenous people classified as foreigners. His thoughts focus on the issue of equal ownership of the country. He believes that Jews originally owe their land to God’s covenant, specifically his love and mercy, rather than their military successes. Implicitly, his writing echoes the Deuteronomic declaration that the people received the land from the Lord as a dwelling place. He derives the legal basis for the possession of the land from the Book of Ezekiel (33:23–29). In his argument, he rejects the classification of non- Jewish citizens as second-class citizens, a categorisation imposed by politics. As a reassuring solution, the author proposes the introduction of ethnic and religious multiculturalism.

The mission of our churches is to proclaim the good news of the Bible amidst the belligerent atmosphere of the 21st century. According to the teachings of the New Testament, peace cannot be achieved through diplomatic procedures or military tactics, but only through God’s grace. The author of the Epistle, a disciple of Paul, emphasises both aspects of peace: reconciliation among people and between humanity and God. The author adopts a hymnic form to highlight that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross ended the enmity between the sons of Israel and the Gentiles who had been baptized in the name of Christ.

Between 1920 and 1930, the relationship between Hungary and the Netherlands was extra¬ordinarily intense. Famous are the so-called children’s trains, with which more than 28 000 Hungarian children travelled to the Netherlands to recover for a while in host families from the hardships that the and revolution had brought to the Hungarian people. But there was also help in the theological and ecclesiastical fields. Especially the followers of Abraham Kuyper (1839–1920) waged a fierce struggle. In Hungary it was and still is rumoured that this Kuyper church was bent on splitting the Calvinist church of Hungary. In this article, the author shows that this was not the intention of the Dutch leaders. Jenő Sebestyén, the main ally of the Dutch theologians, was also not out for a schism.

István Téglás (1853–1915) is a well-known and recognised researcher in archaeology, but his work in pedagogy, which was his original profession, has received little attention so far. Using Téglás’s school inspection notes and drawings from Turda-Arieş county, we will focus solely on the situation and condition of the Romanian denominational schools, taking into account the Hungarian educational policies and legislation of that time. In our study, we aim to contribute to the body of Hungarian history of education and minority policy at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries through microhistorical source publication, striving to provide additional qualitative knowledge.

In searching for the core of Heinrich Bullinger’s theology, various approaches have been given, the most appropriate being “communion with God” (Peter Opitz). However, it is better to understand his theology not in a circular model with one core point, but rather as an ellipse with two focal points: God and man, respectively, Christ and the Church, which are related to each other. Therefore, his theology is essentially what I would call a “relational theology”. This, too, manifests in his ecclesiology. The epithets taken from tradition and the biblical metaphors with ecclesial connotations are strictly related to Christ, thus demonstrating the communal and participatory character of his ecclesiology. This is not only evident in relation to the Roman church but also to the Lutheran church. His relational theology is essentially dynamic and pastoral which, therefore, still can be fruitful for the churches standing in the tradition of the Second Helvetic Confession, such as the Hungarian church. 

In the editorial-theological concept of Luke, his message is not always formulated as a finalising conclusion. Often, he reports on certain events as a starting point. Thus, the events described follow one another in a vague or artificial chronological order. These descriptions often also implicitly determine the events and descriptions that follow them in canonical, or even in chronological order. As far as baptism is concerned, Acts 2:38-47 summarises all that was essential for the Church in the apostolic age, since the events that guide it, the mention of baptisms, the integration of the disciples of John describe the situation of the Church. And if it does not raise a particular problem of principle, the mention of baptism remains a mere statement of fact.

The representation and perception of female beauty and ugliness in tale narratives varies depending on the situation. Both phenomena are accompanied by ethical and existential pre-dicates. For centuries, church teachings have determined the peasant perception of beauty and seduction with beauty. The preachers’ exhortations and parables often appear in the parable tales, which fit in with the moral order of the local community.

Theosis or its concept is perhaps less known to the Western Protestant trained theologian. Even to the Transylvanian Reformed theologian and pastor living at the meeting point of East and West it would be of value to get to know this characteristic teaching of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In our study, we describe the formation of the doctrine of deification, its dogmatic background, its development, and some of its elements, whilst searching for the answer to the question of whether there is any connection with the Reformed Church.

In our study, we examined the ancient Greco-Roman liberality-ethos from the Hellenistic to the early imperial period. By examining the terminology of gift-giving and liberality in the ancient Greek world and the New Testament, we can discover quite a lot of analogies between the Greco-Roman philosophical ideals of liberality and the theological basis of giving in the New Testament. But despite the fact that, in terms of principles, we can discover a number of analogies between the Greco-Roman conception of liberalitas or εὐεργεσία and the theological basis of giving in the New Testament, it is the differences that are crucial. It is not the quantitative analogies but the qualitative differences that are decisive. It is particularly significant that liberality (giving) in the Greco-Roman world, respectively in the New Testament have quite different orientations, since they have different target groups in mind. It would therefore be difficult to argue convincingly that Christian liberality (giving) has its origins in the Greco-Roman ethos of liberalitas.

The pastoral training and professional workshop named “Spirituality and Mission in the Church” held its conference titled “Spiritual Hunger 7.0” on March 2, 2023, at the Ráday House in Budapest. The topic of this was the problem of pastoral care. Márton Járay reported on the results of a survey conducted among Lutheran ministers in Hungary in his presentation titled “The Lost Shepherd - Lessons from a Pastoral Research”.

The document presented here is the Ethical Codex formulated in 1786 by the governing body of the College of Kolozsvár (Cluj). The 1780s marked an era defined by the formulation of educational guidelines. It was during this epoch that the ruler of the Habsburg Empire mandated the centralisation of educational institutions. Consequently, the Reformed Church of Transylvania undertook extensive preparations for the reorganization of the college and the advancement of public education. This regulatory framework stands as a distinctive artifact, akin to the spiritual bequest of the noble aristocracy and sovereigns. Noteworthy is its exclusive focus on individuals of noble lineage, rendering it likely that its implementation was never realised.

This paper discusses prosperity theology from the perspective of religious studies, arguably one of the most important aspects regarding the history and role of the Yoido Full Evangelical Church (hereinafter: YFGC) in the South Korean Protestant Christian religious tapestry. The current study aims to explore the history and characteristics of prosperity theology using the book titled “Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel” by Kate Bowler, a Canadian re-searcher with a Protestant theological background. The paper presents the North American context of the formation of prosperity theology from the perspective of spiritual history, history of theology and social history approaches. Furthermore, it maps the ways in which this the-ological tendency reached the Protestant Christian communities of South Korea. Indeed, the encounter of prosperity theology with the traditional Korean religious and cultural context raises many complex theological and religious issues, like the problem of syncretism and heresy. Finally, the study analyses the book of David Yonggi Cho, the leader of the largest charismatic church in South Korea, entitled “The Spiritual World of the Fourth Dimension”.

The Second Epistle of Peter makes an important, and in some ways unconventional con-tribution to our understanding of biblical eschatology. The main message of the Epistle is clear: this world must be destroyed by fire so that “new heavens and a new earth may take its place”. In the New Testament, only Revelation speaks so clearly about the cosmic consequences of the Day of the Lord. However, the statement about the great final conflagration raises literary, text-critical and theological questions. In this study we will approach these questions by considering the context in which the Epistle was written and by exploring the theological thread to which the motif of the final conflagration belongs.

Church history claimed that the somewhat official yearbook of the Reformed Church District of Királyhágómellék was first published in 1927, six years after the formation of the new church district in 1921. It was entitled The Illustrated Calendar of Reformed Orphanages (Református Árvaházi Képes Naptár), published continuously until 1949. However, a recent project of processing and digitalising contemporary press revealed new data on the publication of a yearbook both in 1923 and 1925. Despite both issues being printed in many thousands of copies, none of those calendars were preserved.

Much of the geometric knowledge imparted in our school days was grounded in the realm of Euclidean axioms. Yet, such knowledge proves inadequate for comprehending the full spectrum of laws and structures governing nature. Non-Euclidean geometry emerges as an indispensable tool when grappling with the intricacies of unique curved surfaces. In 1823, János Bolyai, an outstanding student at the Reformed College of Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) in Transylvania, unveiled this innovative form of geometry. His groundbreaking contribution not only liberated the erstwhile axiomatic Euclidean world, ushering in fresh possibilities, but also elevated the realm of universal scientific thought to unprecedented heights.

The communion cup of the Reformed parish of Érkeserű (Cheșereu, Romania) was originally a plate, which was melted down at the beginning of the 19th century and made into a chalice. Its history, which can be traced back to the last third of the 16 th century, is closely linked to the history of the parish and the local landowning families, especially the Suselith-Horváth family. This study corrects and supplements earlier literature by using archival sources and source publications. It shows who were the original owners of the silver chalice, how it came to the later donor and the social background of the donation. It describes the relationship of the family members with the Reformed Church.