A decorated bronze censer from the Cathedral in Old Dongola

Author(s): Maciej Wyżgoł / Language(s): English / Issue: XXVI/2017

A bronze censer found in the Church of Brick Pillars in Old Dongola in 1968 provides unique insight into the role of such liturgical vessels in medieval Nubia. In this new study of the iconography and production technique of this vessel, coupled with an epigraphical analysis of the Greek and Old Nubian inscription around the edge, the author suggests that the vessel was crafted by Makurian craftsmen sometime in the first few hundred years after the conversion of the Nubian kingdoms to Christianity (in the 6th or 7th century AD). Seeking sources of inspiration for the Dongolan masters of the metal-working craft, the author looks to the Byzantine Empire, where close parallels for the decoration of the Nubian censer can be found in late antique silver objects. This leads to a discussion of trade relations between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Makuria, and the possible exchange of official gifts.

A Dél-Erdélyi Református Egyházkerületi Rész működésének kezdetei (1940. szeptember–október)

Author(s): Alpár Hankó-Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2007

The study presents the first two months of the existence of the Southern Transylvanian Reformed Church District. This church district is not a historical part of the Hungarian Reformed Church, it was created after the Second Dictate of Vienna, which inorganically tore Transylvania in two. Northern Transylvania has become again part of Hungary, while Southern Transylvania remained under Romanian rule. Together with the country, the Reformed Church in Transylvania also tore in two: the northern part, with Kolozsvár, the center, became part of the Hungarian Reformed Church, but the southern part was left in Romania, without a center, a bishop or a theological institute. Chaos was to be expected in this area of the Reformed Church. Most of the pastors would have taken refuge in North, several congregations would have ceased to exist, schools and churches would have to be closed. Bishop János Vásárhelyi did not want this to happen. Therefore, to maintain the continuity in the southern part of the Transylvanian Reformed Church, he decided to create a provisory committee, with the duty of leading this part of the church. The Committee had its center in Nagyenyed, and the dean of the Gyulafehérvár Diocese, Ferenc Nagy has been appointed vice bishop. The duty of this committee was to keep contact with the Romanian authorities, to supervise the religious and educational activities of the church, and to preserve the Reformed Church with all the means. Creating this provisory committee was the best choice the bishop could made. As it later turned out, the committee had to lead the southern part until April 1945, when the Transylvanian Church has been reunited. The provisory status of the committee had been preserved until 1945, because the Romanian authorities did not allow the creation of a new Church District, and no bishop has been elected. The existence of the committee was crucial in preserving the Reformed Calvinist communities in Southern Transylvania. The following study has three parts. The first part deals with the circumstances of the Second Dictate of Vienna, the second part presents the consequences of the Dictate on the life of the Transylvanian Reformed Church, and the circumstances of the creation of the provisory committee, and the third part is a historical source, the first report of vice bishop Ferenc Nagy to bishop János Vásárhelyi. This source is very important, because it is a true testimony of the struggle that was awaiting the Reformed followers in Southern Transylvania during WW2.

A Dél-Erdélyi Református Egyházkerületi Rész története (1940–1945)

Author(s): Alpár Hankó-Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 5/2010

A dél-erdélyi református közösségek és a romániai ostromállapot-törvények (1940–44)

Author(s): Alpár Hankó-Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2009

The study continues to present the life of the Transylvanian Reformed Church after the Vienna Award (several studies on this topic have been published in this journal in 2008). The laws regarding state of siege were applied on Romania during the whole period of the 2WW. Citizens’ rights to free assembling, traveling or to use their own language were severely restricted in these years. These restrictions have caused the Reformed Church of Transylvania a great disadvantage, because church-life was almost diminished. Only regular sermons and no other types of meetings could beheld, pastors were not allowed to visit their followers, no charity or educational events could be organized, and even administrative meetings were totally banned. Regulations regarding the traveling of citizens resulted that dean could not visit the pastors of their dioceses, and the vicar of the church had also his serious mobility restrictions. Hungarian language has been banned from official and phone conversations, it could not been used in regular mail, or in denomination of localities. The laws regarding state of siege have diminished pluralism and democracy and made place for Antonescu’s fascist dictatorship, which has also affected the Hungarian population of Romania and the Reformed Church.

A diákból jövőkereső felnőtt lesz

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2019

A Felekezetközi Tanács megalapítása és szerepkörei a két világháború között

Author(s): Lóránt László / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 6/2011

After the end of the First World War the leaders of the traditional Hungarian Churches of Transylvania, in response to the new political situation, united their forces to defend their common interests against Romanian state policy. The Interconfessional Committee was officially founded on the 24th of June 1920, at the initiative of Gusztáv Majláth, Roman Catholic bishop of Alba-Iulia. Among the founders there were the leaders of the Reformed, Unitarian and Lutheran Churches. Since the Committee represented at the same time the advisory board of the Hungarian National Party concerning educational issues, it aimed at finding solutions to the problems of confessional education which continued to suffer from extensive censorship,tens of schools being annually closed, especially in the period of so-called liberal governments.In addition to the problem of education, the Committee reached decisions not only regarding economical and cultural but also social issues, which were valid for all signatories. Another role of this organism was that to distribute equitably the secret funds received annually from Hungary, through which, among others, the Hungarian state would help confessional education. In this context it is worth mentioning that under the coordination of the Hungarian National Party, the Committee repeatedly presented various petitions to the League of Nations,through which it protested against the persecution of minorities and of their confessional and secular organizations by the Romanian state.The Interconfessional Committee did not cease its activity after the Vienna Treaty in 1944 and during the first years after the war, but when confessional schools were nationalised in 1948, the Committee lost its influence and importance.

A forradalom és a szabadságharc mellett vagy ellen (2.)

Author(s): Zsolt-József Tamási / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 10/2020

A forradalom recepciója az erdélyi katolikus egyházmegyében és a jogharmonizációs problémák. Megoldatlan anyagi problémák

Author(s): Zsolt-József Tamási / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 07/2019

A fugyivásárhelyi Szent Jeromos pálos kolostor

Author(s): Tamás-János Bélfenyéri / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2016

A Genfi Káté fordításai és a kátéhoz csatolt konfirmációi kérdések

Author(s): János Hermán M. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 5/2015

Calvin wished to change the structure of his first catechism (1537/1538), which explained the Ten Commandments before the Apostles’ Cred. Having recognised that his first catechism was too difficult for children, Calvin rewrote his text. He arranged the Geneva Catechism (1542) in questions and answers in an effort to simplify doctrinal complexities. His second Catechism displaced all other Reformed catechisms until 1563, the year when the Heidelberg Catechism appeared. In 1563 the bishop of Debrecen, Péter Méliusz, translated the Confession of Geneva into Hungarian. The text was also translated into Italian (1551 and 1556), Spanish (1550), English (1556), German, Dutch, Greek and Hebrew. The second Hungarian translation was made by István Zilahi in 1695 and was edited by Miklós Misztótfalusi Kis. Finally, in 1907 Sándor Czeglédy prepared a new translation of its text. The La maniere d’interroger les enfants qu’on veut recevoir a la Cene de notre Seigneur Jésus Christ and Das Genfer Konfirmationsformular von 1553 are very important catechetical instruments.

A gregorián a római katolikus liturgiában

Author(s): Emese-Zsuzsanna Páll / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 03/2020

A Gyimes-völgyi katolikusok vallásos életének története

Author(s): Emőke Tankó / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 05/2017

A Györgyfalvi Menekültek Közművelődési Egyesülete

Csekefalvi Tamás Béláné feljegyzései. Forrásközlés

Author(s): János Hermán M. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

Mrs. Csekefalvi Tamás Béláné recorded some valuable data concerning the pastoral care of hundreds of Reformed and Catholic people who became refugees in 1940, when they left their village Györgyfalva and fled to the nearby city of Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca. This Christian lady was also involved in cultural and social work which she pursued together with others, and so she organised the “Cultural Association for Refugees from Györgyfalva”. The Association took up the education and cultural entertainment of the younger refugees, and the high standards of these activities were also applied to the cultivation of the rich traditions of the people of village Györgyfalva. The committee members – a list of their names was preserved –, helped the refugees to find work, and assisted those sent to court-martial to gain back their freedom. During the communist era in Romania it was not possible to share these stories of personal or communal suffering.

A gyulafehérvári székeskáptalan működése a 20. században

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

Le Chapitre d’Alba Iulia en 1918 selon Codex Iuris Canonici a joué un rol important dans la vie de gouvernement de Dioceze Catholique d’Alba Iulia. Il était le plus important conseilleur de l’Eveque actuel et de l’Office Ecclésiastique. Le Chapitre a conseillé l’eveque en ce qui concerne tous les choses ecclésiastiques, déquelles ont écrit des processes verbales. Ces écritures constituent des documents tres valeureux. A l’occasion de débats il y avait des désaccords, des divergences d’opinion, qui accentuent le valeur de ces documents.

A hadadi lelkipásztorok névsora

Author(s): János Hermán M. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 5/2012

Die Studie behandelt die Kirchen- und allgemeine Geschichte der Gemeinde Hadad (auf Deutsch Kriegsdorf und auf Rumänisch Hodod). Der Verfasser hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Spuren der ersten Presbyterien ans Licht zu bringen.Im zweiten Teil wird vom heutigen, erbärmlichen Zustand des reformierten Kirchengebäudes (1423) gesprochen, welches bei der Errichtung Szent László (Sankt Ladislaus) gewidmet wurde. Im Weiteren wird aber noch die Gründung der deutschsprachigen lutherischen Gemeinde erwähnt. In der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts setzte sich Ferenc Wesselényi für verfolgte protestantische Glaubensbrüder aus Österreich ein, die unter seinem Schutz in Hadad und Tasnád (Tressenberg oder Trestenburg) Zuflucht fanden.Die Liste der Geistlichen und auch die Daten der Teilsynoden (Hadad, 1640) sind nichtvollständig.

A HÁLA SZEREPE LELKI, MENTÁLIS ÉS FIZIKAI EGÉSZSÉGÜNKBEN

Author(s): Andrea Ferenczi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2020

The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual, Mental and Physical Health. Psalm 50 demonstrates complicated requirements of relationships towards both God and our neighbours in terms of gratitude, as well as in the realm of hope for divine libera-tion. Having evolved layers of meaning, in the psalm, the expression “liberation” – the linguistic root “jesa” – seems to have wide collocations. Getting released from an enemy is the immediate equivalent, but the spectrum of meaning covers, among others, escape from exigency, psychological burden, or bodily disease. We started to examine interrelations between gratitude and liberation with psychological means some years ago. Through exploring terrains of gratitude as a construct, we hope to get closer to the understanding of human nature and behaviour. Our results may serve therapeutic intervention by bringing closer those who are engaged in counsel-lor and psychology professionals. My present study wishes to describe the notion of gratitude from the perspec-tives of religious and cultural studies and more broadly, from the aspects of psy-chology. The review of some research results is meant to underline interrelations be-tween gratitude and mental health. Finally, some of our own researches support the idea that gratitude is a capacity you can acquire and improve throughout your life. Experiencing and expressing gratitude may provide room for something new and may afford space for recovery to happen, for willingness to occur, so that liberation could come into being.

A hat legrégebbi Jézus-ábrázolás

Author(s): V. M. Traverso / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2020

A Heidelbergi Káté kéziratos magyarázatai Erdélyben

Author(s): Zoltán Ballai / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2014

The purpose of this paper is to present and to sum up the results of a historical and theological research into the use of the Heidelberg Catechism in Transylvania. It focuses on those commentaries on the Heidelberg Catechism which have never been printed because of various reasons, but are still in use for almost two centuries in the schools and pulpits of the Church. Most of the manuscripts mentioned in this study –mainly from 17th-18th century – have never been extensively researched. The current analysis aims to classify the various types of commentaries written in different historical circumstances and based on different argumentations. Moreover, it also gives a taste – as it serves as a basis for a broader research – of the colourful insights into the rightly appreciated Heidelberg Catechism and its explanations.

A Heltai-nyomda Apokalipszis-kommentárjairól

Author(s): Tamás Túri / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

The study investigates two Apocalypse commentaries from the 17th century, which were printed in Kolozsvár according to the Unitarian bibliographies. On the title page of the Brevis dissertatio… (1625, RMK II, 436) probably written by the Socinian Andreas Voidovius (1565–1622?) the “Claudipoli” is a false place of the printing, because neither the type of the letters nor the tail-piece correspond to the works by Heltai’s printing house. There is no data about the reception on this print in Kolozsvár, but short review of the Brevis dissertatio… is required, because it explains the Rev 13. and 17. similar to the Lutheran historical interpretations and it enriches the reticent Socinian commentaries. The work has a radical place among the Unitarian commentaries, because it prophesised the fall of the Antichrist in ca. 1630. The Explicatio locorum aliquot diffi ciliorum in Apocalypsi (1644) is reviewed by the History of the Unitarian Church, written by János Kénosi Tőzsér (1708–1772) and István Uzoni Fosztó (1729–1778) in the 18th century, although the Explicatio… was not printed in Kolozsvár. This moderate chiliastic commentary was published as an appendix of the Dutch Collegiant Daniel De Breen (1594–1664)’s Amica disputatio adversus Judaeos…, which aimed to convert the Jews. The book had major reception among the Unitarians: it is found in more copies among the Unitarian manuscripts and prints in the Library of Academy in Cluj-Napoca. De Breen’s activity was a part of the spiritual-mystical period of the Collegiant movement, so the emergence of the Amica disputatio… among the Transylvanian Unitarians is appraisable as the Unitarian reception of the spiritualist literature in the 18th century. However, there is no information about its infl uence on the Unitarian writings yet.

A Historical Perspective on Inclusivism as the Prevailing Paradigm in the Christian Theology of Religions

Author(s): Krzysztof Grzelak / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

The article first explains various perspectives on the world religions. Its main focus is on the inclusivist perspective as the most common approach in the debate on religions. Here special attention is given to the development of the Christocentric model in the Catholic Church referring first to the early Church Fathers and afterwards to Logos theology. The analysis shows that the theology of the Logos was always present in Catholic attitudes towards other believers throughout history alongside the exclusivist axiom extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church no salvation). Later, this inclusivist theology was echoed in the „fulfilment theory” of Jean Danielou, „anonymous Christianity” of Karl Rahner, the Second Vatican Council’s stand on other faiths, and in the post-conciliar official Church teaching. The article ends with evaluation of the complexity, challenges and unavoidable shortcomings of the Christocentric approach to other religions.