Református Szemle 118.1 (2025)

In this paper, I examine Nicaea, Constantine and Eusebius through the lens of anti-Judaism – a concept distinct from anti-Semitism. Whilst church historians often distinguish sharply between these phenomena, I argue against completely separating Nazi racial anti-Semitism from traditional Christian anti-Judaism. Such separation risks absolving churches of their complicity in Jewish suffering throughout history. Though antisemitism remains an essential ecumenical concern, and Christian anti-Judaism was indeed anchored at Nicaea, Eusebius’s relationship with Jews cannot be simplistically labelled anti-Judaic. The Nicene Creed itself contains no explicit anti-Judaism, and Constantine’s establishment of Sunday worship in 321 shows little evidence of anti-Jewish motivation. Whilst anti-Jewish sentiments influenced the separation of Easter from Passover, the Council’s primary concern was ecclesiastical unity rather than religious antagonism.

This study examines the emergence and spread of Protestantism in Korea from the late 19th to early 20th century. Christianity, particularly Protestantism, exerted significant influence on Korea’s social and political development, especially in education, healthcare and modernisation. Schools and hospitals established by American and European missionaries contributed substantially to the widespread acceptance of Christianity. During the Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), Protestant communities actively participated in independence movements, whilst Christianity became integral to Korean national identity. This study explores how Protestantism evolved from a religious movement into a defining force in Korean society and politics.

This study provides insight into the life trajectory, pastoral development and ministry of Mihály Basa, a Reformed minister, whilst examining the civil and ecclesiastical conditions of 19th-century Transylvania and the intellectual endeavours of the period. The paper pays tribute to Basa’s unwavering faith and resolute action during the turbulent 1848–1849 revolution and war of independence.

This article examines the establishment and significance of the Reformed Study Fund, which enabled Hungarian students to pursue theological education at the Free University in Amsterdam or the Theological University in Kampen. Established in 1921, this fund continued the tradition of the 1761 Bernardinum Scholarship, which facilitated Hungarian and Palatine students’ studies in Utrecht. The research explores the fund’s initiator, Jenő Sebestyén, an advocate of neo-Calvinist Abraham Kuyper, founder of Amsterdam’s Free University and influential leader within the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands – a denomination emerging from the 1892 schism in the Reformed Church. The paper analyses this ecclesiastical division, the strengthening Dutch-Hungarian relations following the First World War, and the subsequent foundation of the Reformed Study Fund.