Practical theology

“People are not a machines, because if they were, in an emergency situation they would know which button to press or which screw to tighten in order to get their machine working again” – maintains Rolf Theolbold, minister and practical theologian, author of the book. Rolf Theolbold presents the basics and possibilities of short-term pastoral care in a plain language. How “short” is short-term pastoral care? How can it help those longing for a solution to their spiritual problems? This book was written for people who want to help others but often have little time to do so.

Authenticity as a way of being has been considered one of the defining concepts of a minister’s life. The current lecture aims to pinpoint three major issues related to this subject, namely authenticity in a minister’s relation to the Word, to the organization and to himself/herself. This presentation can more appropriately be regarded as a summary of a professional life rather than a full-fledged scientific enquiry. It aims to provide an opportunity to reflect on one’s human and professional credibility.

For centuries, the position of the biblical text in the preaching of the church has been determined by the Reformed principle of Sola Scriptura. Preaching starts with the Bible and ends with it. The theories of Thomas G. Long and Wilfried Engemann point out that it is insufficient and inadequate to limit the biblical preaching of the church to this observation. What is needed are theories that give a contemporary and professional interpretation of biblicism as a homiletical category and that expose the paradigm shifts behind the pathos of Sola Scriptura.

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.

This paper aims to discover the various problems of the term syncretism, and its definition in anthropology, religious studies and theology in relation to the Korean Protestant inter-denominational discourse. Before being able to evaluate any case or accusation of syncretism within the Korean context, we need to realise, that even the term itself is a widely disputed concept.

Fifty years ago a short book on homiletics was published, entitled As One Without Authority, by Fred B. Craddock, which proved to be a milestone in the history of homiletics. The interval of half a century since its publication allows to appreciate the homiletical concept that was built on the narrative paradigm. This evaluation emerges from the Hungarian context, where narrative preaching has always been a faraway guest for the last fifty years.