sermon

In this paper I examine the first collection of sermons of László Ravasz, published by him between 1903–1910 in several journals, such as the Református Szemle, the Protestáns Prédikátori Tár, the Protestáns Szemle, and later in his book entitled Ez ama Jézus. These sermons stage the first steps of Ravasz in the field of homiletics and preaching, being influenced and inspired by well-known Western European preachers, as well as his Transylvanian mentors.

Die Apostelgeschichte ist eine Missionsgeschichte, die sich von Jerusalem ausgehend bis zur Hauptstadt des Römischen Reiches erstreckt. Der Rede des Paulus am Aeropag kommt eine besondere Stellung sowohl in Buch als auch in der Missionstätigkeit des Paulus zu. Es ist bemerkenswert, wie der Apostel auf seine Zuhörer achtet und sich ihnen bis zu einem gewissen Grad anpasst. Er sucht voller Phantasie und findet die Nische in der Denkwelt und Religion der griechischen Philosophie,durch welche das Licht des Evangeliums einziehen kann.

This article presents the Hungarian translation of one of Walter Brueggemann’s sermons with a short analysis. The effectiveness of Brueggemann’s preaching is strongly related with the role that he assigns to preaching: he does not merely explain the word and apply its message to the contemporary world by means of metaphors, but Brueggemann also uses a problematizing type of exposition.

This article intends to present and evaluate the homiletical heritage of the great Hungarian representative of Puritanism, Pál Medgyesi. He wrote the first Hungarian manual on homiletics, entitled: Doce nos orare quin et praedicare. It is argued here that his method of writing a sermon presented in this manual provides a considerable support to improve the preaching of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the 21th century. This improvement is not to be achieved merely copying of his methodology but by the reflectively rethinking his theological-homiletical approach.

This essay applies the method of semantic analysis for biblical metaphors. First it highlights the settled meanings of the lexemes of the metaphors under scrutiny. After establishing the sememes, the analysis focuses on the plain or hidden nominal predicative statement of the metaphor, namely only on the context of the tenor and vehicle, seeking for that conjunctive semes which can help us to understand the chosen metaphor.

Before the Barthian theology questioning the significance of rhetorics for homiletics has come to influence Hungarian Reformed theological thinking, László Ravasz (1882—1975) had emphasised the importance of aesthetical experience in preaching. Decades long the influence of Karl Barth remained one of the most determining factors in the Hungarian Reformed preaching tradition.