A „NAGY FELSÓHAJTÁS ZSOLTÁRA”. A ZSOLT 124 MAGYARÁZATA

Author(s): Zoltán Kustár / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2019

The study examines Psalm 124, one of the greatest gems of the biblical psalm-poetry. After briefly expounding the metre, the genre and the poetic structure, the author dates the poem, analyzes the role of the Psalm in its immediate literary context, and provides linguistic, formal, tradition-historical and theological analysis passage by passage. The author regards the Psalm as one of the post-exilic impressions of the Zion theology along with the collection of Psalms 120–134 which was formed around 400 BCE. Regarding the form of the poem, it is masterfully structured. Traces of later adaptations and additions cannot be proven unequivocally. The theological specialties of the poem are the articulation of the preventive providence of God, the thanksgiving and the consistent trust toward the God of Israel. The Psalm fits in well with the collections of Psalms 123–125 and Psalms 123–130, where the preceding Psalm of lament continues with the themes of thanksgiving and teaching, and goes further toward the theme of salvation of the end times.

A normális nem normális, a nem normális a normális!?

Author(s): Attila Tuzson / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2018

A Polygraph-Assisted Psychological Assessment of Risk of Sexual Harm Posed by a Priest

Author(s): Daniel T. Wilcox / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

A PRÉDIKÁCIÓ A LITURGIÁBAN

Author(s): Szabolcs Szetey / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2019

In the present paper, I examine the relationship between preaching and liturgy. I only focus on preaching in the services on Sundays and feasts. First of all, I offer an overview of Hungarian Reformed theoretical and practical liturgical books, service books, and books of liturgics concerning the relationship between preaching and liturgy from the 16th century to the recent days. The importance of preaching overshadows the liturgical function of the sermon; prayers, church music, hymns, and psalms are consequently losing relevance in the worship. The theoretical and practical books emphasize consistently, that the preaching must be presented and regarded as one of the elements of the liturgy/service. Preaching takes place within the service; the sermon has to be based on and contacted all the liturgical elements of the congregation’s worship. Balance between preaching and liturgy should be discovered, and established in order to worthily celebrate our services.

A profán emberi és a szakrális környezet viszonya az ókortól a középkorig

Author(s): László Havas / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2015

This study investigates how a healthy human environment was preserved in the past, both physically and mentally. The author introduces some famous Greek deities, who were responsible for health. From this varied palette is taken Heracles, who had an important role in creating valuable and safe human surroundings. Romulus and Caesar, two prime figures in the Roman world, are mentioned; they had magic powers over health, although they were mortal persons. The same nature was attributed to the Christian emperors of the Middle Ages, such as Charlemagne, Otto I, Henry II and the first Hungarian king, St. Stephen I. They all wanted to create the Heavenly Jerusalem on earth. One thing in common in these groups of deities, heroes and kings was that, as a thaumaturge and Christus medicus, they could possess healing and purifying abilities to improve their human environment.

A Short Note on the Scientific Attitude, the Religious Attitude and the Surrational

Author(s): Bruno Marchal / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

We explain that the scientific attitude, with a “good understanding” of what is science, might be the most genuinely religious attitude, and that in fact, religion and science are much closer than what we are usually told. Nevertheless they cannot be identified effectively in any terrestrial applications without leading to inconsistency, but are truly, and thus non effectively, identical in the ever guessed true realm.

A structural analysis of deconversion processes in adolescence: The construction of the Adolescent Deconversion Scale

Author(s): Miroslaw Nowosielski,Rafal P. Bartczuk / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

The presence of spiritual and religious changes in adolescence is strongly supported by the existing theory and research. In the present article we propose to apply a deconversion-based approach to the exploration of religious crisis in adolescence. Streib developed the theory of deconversion in the context of the growing interest in atheism and apostasy. In the proposed approach, deconversion processes comprise all changes in personal religiosity that involve a departure from the current ways of manifesting religiosity. Drawing on Streib’s theory, on the basis of research conducted on 323 people, we constructed the Adolescent Deconversion Scale. Analyses revealed the existence of four dimensions, which we interpreted as: (1) abandoning faith, (2) withdrawal from the community, (3) experiencing transcendental emptiness, and (4) moral criticism. The reliability and validity of the new method were assessed and found to be acceptable.

A Study of Begliktash Megalithic Complex

Author(s): Diana Kjurkchieva,Evgeni Stoykov,Sabin Ivanov,Borislav Borisov,Hristo Hristov,Pencho Kyurkchiev,Dimitar Vladev,Irina Nikolova Ivanova / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

The article presents the results of interdisciplinary study of megalithic complex Begliktash conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Shumen. The main conclusion is that Begliktash is a natural phenomenon with interesting stone complex morphology that may have been artificially consolidated and used both to perform rituals and for calendar purposes.

A TANÍTVÁNYSÁG ÁRA

Author(s): Lészai Lehel / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2017

The gospels inform us that following the calling of Jesus, the disciples forsook their trade, their homes, and the members of their families. In brief, they left everything behind, what they lived from and for. Jesus says very clearly that following him is only possible, if the one called denies himself and takes his cross up. On the other hand, he promises that he who forsakes his house, or brothers, or sisters, or parents, or children or fields for him will receive a hundred times as much in this present age, with persecution, and later, eternal life as a reward. In Mt 19,28 (cf. Lk 22,29-30, where they receive the promise of the kingdom too), Jesus promises the twelve disciples that they will sit on thrones and that they will judge Israel. If someone leaves his fortune, but sticks to his trade, he can still hope to regain his possessions. The return to a forsaken trade was difficult (Jn 21,2-3), if possible. After leaving possessions and occupation, the forsaking of one’s family follows. This is more difficult, because it demands the undoing of ties of blood which are deeply rooted in humanity. Jesus does not stop here. He goes even deeper in the question of self-giving and self-denial of the nominees for discipleship. Someone, though with a heavy heart, in difficulties could give up everything and everybody who is outside of him, but Jesus asks the utmost here, the called person’s life. Jesus had two kinds of disciples. On one hand, there were those who obeyed the calling and immediately left everything and followed him. On the other hand, others accepted him as their Master and Saviour, but they stayed at home, in the midst of their families and in possession of their properties. These two groups are called the wandering and the sedentary disciples. For the twelve disciples, following Jesus includes the break with the old connections, with those material or family bonds, because the disciple starts an entirely new relationship with Jesus, as their teacher. In the light of 1Cor 9,5, the questions about a radical break with occupations, possessions and families remains open, since Paul mentions that the apostles and Peter took their wives on their mission trips with them. One possible explanation is that when Jesus called the twelve disciples, they had to break with everything which defined their earlier life and follow him this way. On the other hand, there were disciples who served Jesus and his followers with their material goods. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, a different situation pertained, and then the married apostles carried out their service together with their wives. The fact that when the disciples left their wives and children, they were not the only ones to suffer, but so were their relatives, whom they left on their own for a while (until Easter). Another possible explanation could be formed, if we discuss this question in the light of 1Cor 7,29–31 where Paul speaks of a symbolic break.Jesus calls the disciples, and the Twelve breaks with everything what determined their former lives, and follow their master. Their life is characterized by poverty and wandering, while they experience miracles in the company of Jesus. They continue the mission after the death and resurrection of their master. After a while, it starts a process of becoming petty bourgeoisie, during which the second generation of disciples stop wandering and leaving behind possessions, and they live as sedentary disciples in their families.

A teológia mint „fölfelé nyitott” hittudomány

Author(s): Botond Gaál / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 5/2018

Numerous debates are evoked nowadays based on the disability of establishing an interdisciplinary harmony between Christian thought and exact sciences. It may therefore be necessary to review the main fields of the human intellect, thus sciences, philosophies, arts, religions, and Christian theology. The present study provides an overview of these areas focused on their subjects, methods and views, aiming to clarify its title.

A VALLÁSTANÁR ÖNISMERETIÉS SPIRITUÁLIS KOMPETENCIÁJA

Author(s): Gabriella Márta Gorbai / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

The Self-knowledge and Spiritual Competence of the Religion Teacher. The person and the interpretation of profession of the religion teacher is one of today’s central problems. Theological competence, discussion and dispute competence, developmental psychology-diagnostic competence, and pedagogical competence are all linked to the religion teacher’s competence profile. However, this study only aims at discussing self-knowledge and spiritual competencies. Self-knowledge has two pivotal aspects from the religion teacher’s point of view: on one hand, the teacher’s own development of personality, knowing themselves aids forming a positive relationship with the pupils, which is the bedrock of the effective transfer of information, and on the other hand, by transmitting personality development methods achieved through personal experience, the religion teacher offers a device for developing self-knowledge to the pupils. Discussing the spiritual competence is relevant, because the religion teacher has to be ready for regular introspection in front of God in the personal religious life, and also, for a continuous growth in faith.

A VILÁGKÉP ÉS A VILÁGSZEMLÉLET MEGKÜLÖNBÖZTETÉSE A VALLÁSPEDAGÓGIÁBAN

Author(s): Dávid Németh / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2019

In the field of practical theology from a Christian pedagogical perspective we have to make a clear distinction between world picture (describing empirical reality) and worldview (determining personal affection to the first one). While the science based world picture tends to be as objective representation of our actual world as is could be, the worldview is hermeneutical system based upon principles, ideas and values. In most cases, mixing up these two notions cause tensions between faith and natural science. In order to clarify some points of differentiation and also reference to each other, this study investigates the two notions in the context of religious education.

A ZENE HATÁSA AZ ÉRTELMI ÉS AZ ÉRZELMI INTELLIGENCIÁRA

Author(s): Lajos Király / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2019

This study analyses the effect of music on aesthetic and emotional intelligence. Since creativity also means healing creation at the same time that implies digging deeper and transcendence as well, we would like to talk about the therapeutic effects of music with an intercommunication outlook. Some state that musicality is inborn and coded into our genes, which we call talent that can be further developed and transferred to the following generation. According to others, musicality and the ability to play and sing is not merely a matter of genetics but also the social and cultural background the individual grew up in is very important. We shall see that there are cultures in which music is the sole instrument with which the individual can adapt into the respective culture. Many deem that music is the “peak of human intellect and emotionality”, and that is why many studies were published in the second half of the 20th century about its effects on intellectual and emotional development. In what follows, we shall also talk about the debated Mozart effect, the biological basis of music and the stimulation of logical thinking. By music, the help, the counselor, the attender, the priest have a tool with which they can positively influence cognition, the expression of feelings, the development of creativity, whilst „the effects of the expansive transfer prevails through the intellectual, emotional and motivational changes”. But for all that, we must be familiar with the effects of music on intellectual and emotional intelligence.

ABACS MÁRTON ÉS ZALÁNYI LÁSZLÓ VITÁJA ÉS A HIT ARTIKULUSAI

Author(s): Vilmos József Kolumbán / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

The Dispute between Márton Abacs and Laszló Zalányi and the Principles of Faith. Disputes regarding economic issues, like the one that lasted from spring until the autumn of 1751 was not unique events in the history of the Reformed church in Transylvania. The influential and respected Abacs family had numerous conflicts with their contemporary of church dignitaries. When their personal interests and demands need¬ed, the members of the Abacs family did not take into account anyone or anything. They reached their goals using less legal methods. Abacs Márton junior became a priest of Torda (Turda) taking advantage of the support of the wealthy nobility of Torda (Turda), and as a “devoted brother” he also tried to obtain another congregation of the city for his brother. Besides the economic dispute with Zalányi László, it was also a Reformed dogmatic conflict between the two. Abacs accused Zalányi of apostasy of the Reformed faith, but later, as a former student with theological education gained in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), managed to clarify his religious position. Their dispute reached the Consistory, where they soon remedied their divergences on economic issues. However, in order to investigate Zalanyi’s supposed apostasy, a broader analysis of the Consistory was needed. On this occasion, the Bishop of the Reformed Church emitted an interesting document of dogmatic history, called the Fundamental Articles of Faith. The document clearly demonstrated that in the middle of the 18th century the official position of the Reformed Church was still based on the official doctrines of Orthodox Protestantism. It denied the idea of free will, human goodness, and sustained the idea of original sin.

Advanced Technology (Quantum Mechanics) Applied: The Science Behind Scriptural “Miracles”

Excerpted from Scriptural and Secular Parallels

Author(s): Eloise T. Choice / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

Nanotechnology ( the mechanics of Quantum Theory) is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers (1 billionth of a meter) on the metric scale and involves imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at this length scale (10-9). Therefore, nanotechnology, nanoscience and nanobiology involve the ability to see and to control individual atoms and molecules “the internal movement of matter with a certain external cause” (Tudor 227) at the nanoscale. The focus of this discussion is on the “miracles” described in the Judeo/ Christian Old Testament and the Christian New Testament. This paper postulates that God, Jesus, the heavenly angels, and their human emissaries (Moses, Aaron, Elijah, the disciples/apostles) harnessed and applied similar scientific techniques (albeit far advanced beyond what mankind has done today) to accomplish what are often referred to as “miracles” (secular “magic”). Therefore, what we in the religious communities have long referred to as “miracles” (as are recounted throughout Holy Scripture and non-canonical Scriptures) were actually the result of advanced technologies applied. In the case of most of the Biblical “miracles,” the creation, restructuring and/or replication of physical matter were conducted at the atomic and molecular levels (10 -9). However, one in particular may have been conducted at the giga scale (10 9) when “… the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” (Joshua 10:13). Nonetheless, this discussion proposes that these extraordinary events, manifestations of Divine intervention, were all accomplished in either of two ways: (1) A force of energy – referred to in Scripture as the Holy Spirit -- was tapped, harnessed, calibrated and channeled directly by way of Divine Word – the voices/ commands of God and Jesus -- to the intended target and (2) A force of energy – the Holy Spirit – was tapped, harnessed, calibrated and channeled indirectly by way of conduits such as rods, by way of Divine and human hands and the human body to the intended target. As the reader will come to realize over the discussion of this Theory, the ways in which these supernatural events came about sometimes overlap. Moreover, not all of the Biblical “miracles” will be discussed here.

AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOSITY FROM A CO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE IN THE 1950S AND 60S

Author(s): Péter Gaál Szabó / Language(s): English / Issue: 22/2016

Co-cultural discourse proves fruitful in delineating African American response to white challenges even in the context of religion. The paper attempts to map the nature of the response on the basis of one aspect of this intercultural communication theory, i.e., the communication tactics of assimilation, in speeches and sermons of leaders of the Black Church and the Nation of Islam.

Ali Abdurazik i teorija odvojenosti islama i politike: kritičko vrednovanje

Author(s): Seid Halilovic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 1/2018

A year after Atatürk abolished the institution of the caliphate, Ali Abdel Razek, an Islamic scholar from the traditional al­Azhar University, published a not-too-thick volume entitled Islam and the Foundations of Political Power and initiated a new and dynamic discussion of completely unexpected proportions about the relationship between Islam and politics. Distinguished professors of al-­Azhar had an urgent meeting and made a decision that Abdel Razek should be stripped of his title of an Islamic cleric because of the views he had expounded in his book. However, despite this, in the following decades his book became one of the most popular texts among the contemporary Muslim thinkers in the Egyptian scientific and political circles and beyond. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the contents of this book we notice that Abdel Razek persistently attempts to show that the caliphate did not have any benefit for the Muslims, and that it even was a source of permanent injustice and evil. He concludes that the political power, the state and even the judiciary should not be connected with religion, because they are exclusively political phenomena. He also insists that the Prophet Muhammad was a purely spiritual leader and that he had never contemplated the concepts of political authority or the state. For this reason he explicitly claims that politics and religion are mutually incompatible and warns Muslims that they must follow the latest results of human reason in the field of political science if they wish to consolidate the foundations and structure of the political power in their societies. However, we notice that, due to his frequent and generally objective criticism of the Caliphs and their policies in various historical periods, Abdel Razek ignores the fact that in the Quran and the Islamic tradition there are frequent references to the political power, the judiciary, defense issues, economic control, and the organization of internal and international politics, that is, that both the Quran and the Islamic tradition contain teachings about a different policy that leads one toward eternal bliss. Such policy, the ultimate purpose of which is the enlightenment of man and society, was written about extensively by the representatives of a brilliant political philosophy and political jurisprudence in Islam, who relied on the cognitive credibility of the religious texts and the various categories of theoretical and practical reason.

Altarul Reîntregirii

Frequency: irregular and other / Country: Romania

Altarul Reîntregirii is a tri-annual academic journal of „1st December 1918” University in Alba Iulia. Sponsored by Orthodox Archbishopric of Alba Iulia, Altarul Reîntregirii publishes peer-reviewed papers from religion, theology, bioethics and history domains.

Ambrozjańska krytyka astrologicznej koncepcji fatum Juliusza Firmicjusza Maternusa. Analiza Quaestio CXV

Author(s): Grzegorz Babiarz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2015

The polemic of Ambrosiaster against Julius Firmicus Maternus has been presented in five points. The first point is introduction. The second point describes fate in terms of an act of disbelief because it depreciates the Creator and contributes to portraying him as unjust and tyrannical. The third point presents a method of Astrology used to build a false worship: by rejecting the concept of miracle and prayer. Another point concerns the effects of rationality disorder induced by the logic of fate. The last point shows the destruction of the structure of a person trapped in irrationality. Ambrosiaster proves that he knows the work of Firmicus perfectly. He treats it as a serious threat to Christianity. In addition, Quaestio CXV is a testament to a growing disparity between cultural demonology and the one presented in the revealed teaching. The teaching of this author constitutes a part of a wide socio-religious context of the 4th century. It also opens up the field for discussion about the internal condition of Christianity of the tolerance period and its impact on the development of religious and social behaviours.

AMIKOR (KOLLEKTÍV) BŰN VOLT MAGYARNAK LENNI A FELVIDÉKEN

Author(s): Alfréd Somogyi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2017

After the second world war, the plan was to create a nation-state from the renewed Czechoslovakia. The head of the state, Edvard Beneš’s intention was, to make the Germans and Hungarians, living in the country, disappear. He blamed these two nations, and the German and Hungarian minorities living in Czechoslovakia for the collapse of the country in 1938. The creation of a nation-state was supported by the Great Powers. In 1945, the Red Army liberated the former territories of Czechoslovakia and in the absence of a central government, Edward Beneš started to rule by issuing presidential decrees. He issued 143 decrees, amongst them those proclaiming the collective war crime of Germans and Hungarians, loss of their citizenship, confiscation of their properties, and it sent them to forced labour. This started their expulsion from their homeland. Hungarians were deported to Czech territory, then expelled to Hungary, finally forcefully resettled to Hungary in exchange for Slovaks living in Hungary. The plan was to "shift" 400.000 Hungarians to Hungary. In the end, 90.000 people were deported, out of them 50.000 of reformed religion. This paper deals with the effects of the deportations, resettlements from the reformed church’s point of view.