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We are always seeking for the sense of the life, for ourselves and for the place in our family and community. Religion shows a new way to us, according to Jesus Christ’s principles. The son of God not only created a religion, but gave us an example how to live, and sacrifice himself for us. Sándor Karácsony reckons religion as a spiritual behavior, the base of our social contacts. We have to see into our lives and character according to the message of Jesus Christ. The right and appropriate personality can be evolved by individual training.

The views of Sándor Karácsony about religious education can be clearly discerned from his writings. The main task of reformed pedagogy is to activate continuously the divine notions in this continuously changing world. Protestant teachers must accomplish their daily work according to the Gospel of Christ. The Hungarian Reformed Church was a so-called “church of schools” for hundreds of years. This means that even between WWI and WWII it owned more schools than churches. The number of Reformed schools is significant even today. Sándor Karácsony claims that only Reformed people and communities are able to maintain Reformed schools by people who “are ready to serve and sacrifice themselves” for this cause (Karácsony, Sándor: A magyarok Istene. Széphalom Könyvműhely, Budapest 2004, 172).

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.