Journal index

Beside his ministry, administrative tasks and teaching activities, Rvd. Dr. Dezső Bustya (February 2, 1935 – July 29, 2019) held lectures for ministers on various occasions. In the lecture published below, he interprets the narrative of judge Jephthah. He presents a historical, theological and exegetical analysis, followed by a summary of the homiletical aspects of this narrative.

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).

In Israel’s theological understanding the idea that YHWH is a God, who makes promises, is a rather central element. Among the numerous promises of YHWH there is none as influential to Israel’s self-understanding as the promise of the occupation of the land of Canaan. The theme of the Promised Land is prominent from the beginning to the end of the Old Testament theological thought. The development of the theology of the Promised Land in the Old Testament – from promise to inheritance and from losing to regaining it – raises the relevant question: In what sense was the promise of the Land fulfilled in the Old Testament? Or to put it another way: In what sense did the ancient Israelites inherit the Promised Land? The purpose of this paper is to study the topic of the promise of the Land from a historical, source-critical point of view, in order to understand the development and changing theological perspectives in this central theological theme of the Old Testament.