- Journal Details
- Format
- Journal
- eISSN
- 2284-7308
- First Published
- 20 Sep 2012
- Publication timeframe
- 3 times per year
- Languages
- English
Search
- Open Access
The Ambiguous Beginnings of the Modern Mission Movements in the Reformed Church of Transylvania Between 1895 and 1918
Page range: 3 - 15
Abstract
This study looks at the ways how the Reformed Church encountered the new modern mission movement in Transylvania with the arrival of Dr. Béla Kenessey and Dr. István Kecskeméthy to the newly established Reformed Theological Seminary at Cluj in 1895. By the time being, some theologians expressed grave concerns about the dangers of theological liberalism to the Confessions. The paper argues that these young professors, touched by the mission movement and revival also sought to encompass those who had an evangelistic fervor to reach unbelievers and to serve those people in their personal and social needs. As a result, Christian Covenant was established in 1896, with official recognition in 1903 as the Christian Endeavor. It is hoped to unfold the major shifts regarding the attitudes to mission in the Reformed Church of Hungary and throw lights on ambiguous beginnings of mission movements.
Keywords
- Revival
- Reformed Church of Hungary
- liberal theology
- mission movements
- Open Access
Revivalism, Bible Societies, and Tract Societies in the Kingdom of Hungary: A Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Cultural, and Multi-Denominational Work for Spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ
Page range: 17 - 37
Abstract
The current research paper seeks to investigate how Evangelicals and Pietist, the most fervent of Protestants sought to ‘educate’ the masses outside the educational framework of ecclesiastical and state structures within the Hungarian Kingdom. More specifically the study intends to offer a concise overview of the history of Protestants who spread the gospel through the distribution of affordable Bibles, New Testaments and Christian tracts. It shows how various denominations worked together as well as directs attention to their theological outlook which transcended ethnic boundaries. It is a well-known fact in mission and church history that such undertakings were carried out to stir revivalism. The study also throws light on how influential role the Scottish Mission as well as Archduchess Maria Dorothea played in stirring revivalism through the aforementioned means. The history of these kinds of endeavours, especially that of the most significant ones like the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society and Religious Tract Society has not been treated adequately by historians of religion and education, intellectual historians and social historians. This research output is a contribution to give an account of the multi-ethnic and transdenominational work of Hungarians, Jews, Germans, Slovaks and Romanians working for a common goal.
Keywords
- Revival
- Tract and Bible Societies
- evangelicalism
- mission to the Jews
- Pietists
- liberal theology
- Open Access
The Beginnings of Bible Mission of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Early Nineteenth Century Hungary
Page range: 39 - 47
Abstract
The paper examines the very beginnings of Bible Mission in Hungary within the Habsburg Empire in the first part of the nineteenth century. It divides the first thirty years into two major epochs: the one before Gottlieb August Wimmer, Lutheran pastor of Felsőlövő (Oberschützen) and agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) and the one characterized by his work until the revolution of 1848. In the paper, I summarize the main obstacles of Bible Mission both political and religious as well as the main achievements and formations of policies and practices that still define Bible Mission of the Bible Societies in all around the world. The work of BFBS in Hungary in this period was also intertwined with the formative period of the Budapest Scottish Mission, a topic that I also touch in the paper.
Keywords
- Bible Mission
- Bible Societies
- Gottlieb August Wimmer
- British and Foreign Bible Society
- Christianity in the Habsburg Empire
- Open Access
The Defenders of Faith. The Correspondence Between Ferenc Balogh, Father of the New Orthodoxy Movement, and Eduard Böhl, Reformed Pietist Professor of Dogmatics from Vienna
Page range: 49 - 73
Abstract
The present study examines how two famous professors in Central Europe decided to network together in order to promote traditional Christian faith through New Orthodoxy of Debrecen and Reformed Pietist of Vienna which became the source of renewal in the Reformed Church of Hungary. Their correspondence bears a witness to the endeavour to train, teach and guide young students enabling them to become persons of influence in the church. This research paper examines contents of the exchange of letters between Ferenc Balogh of Debrecen and Eduard Böhl from Vienna with a particular view on how they educated the future generation along the evangelical-pietist faith that both professors adhered to.
Keywords
- Revival
- New Orthodox
- Eduard Böhl
- Ferenc Balogh
- Reformed Pietism
- Open Access
An Encounter and Its Impact: The Visit of John R. Mott in Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár and His Impression Upon László Ravasz
Page range: 75 - 89
Abstract
In this paper I examine one of the effects of László Ravasz’s (1882-1975) theological thinking, former professor of Practical Theology at Protestant Theological Institute, Kolzosvár-Cluj-Napoca, namely the development of his spiritual life and its impact on his theological scientific position. Due to the limitations of the scope of this paper, I could present the less well-known views of Ravasz’s work on the mission. John R. Mott’s lecture in Kolozsvár-Cluj-Napoca provides, among others, the certainty that in the modern theoretical approach of the young Ravasz he approached the tasks of pastoral ministry, preaching, dissemination of the gospel, theological education in a modern and actual way. This notion was not perfect, but it helped to bring about a new impetus for the Hungarian Protestant worldview that was stuck in rationalism and liberalism, and for the value theology to constitute a positive transition to the dialectical theology. Ravasz was an authentic representative of this transition.
Keywords
- mission
- value theology
- spiritual life
- J. R. Mott
- László Ravasz
- Open Access
Bishop Albert Bereczky (1893-1966) and the Revival Movement: Albert Bereczky’s Conversion
Page range: 91 - 100
Abstract
This original research paper discusses Bishop Albert Bereczky’s (1893-1966) first contacts with revivalism, especially his spiritual conversion experience during his adolescent years. Albert Bereczky, Bishop of the Danubian Church District from 1948 to 1958, was one of the most significant, and yet controversial persons of the Reformed Church in Hungary during the 20th Century. From a popular preacher of the Revival Movement of the 1920s, church planter of the 1930s, rescuer of Jews during the War, he became the tool of state interest of the Communist regime in the 1950s. This paper sorts out the origins of his turn to the revival movement, like his troubled childhood, the emotional and financial insecurity of an illegitimate child, his troubled relationship with his biological father, the positive example of his stepfather, and his deviant adolescence behavior. By showing examples of his personal accounts the paper discusses whether Bereczky went through a ‘sudden’ or a ‘gradual’ conversion experience.
Keywords
- Revivalism
- John Mott
- Albert Bereczky
- History of the Reformed Church in Hungary during Communism
- conversion experiences
- Open Access
Academic Relations Between Debrecen and Vienna: Exemplified By Eduard Böhl and Sándor Venetianer
Page range: 101 - 113
Abstract
The study seeks to investigate the relationship between Theological Faculty of Debrecen Reformed College and the Protestant Theological Faculty at University of Vienna. The counter-movements against modern, or so-called liberal theology brought Eduard Böhl from Vienna and Ferenc Balogh into a shared theological camp. The former followed the German-Dutch confessionalist Pietist of Reformed faith the letter became the leading figure of New-Orthodoxy movement of Debrecen. Both professors were keen on educating and training students with a view to respect and love the traditional doctrines, faith expressions of the church. Their endeavoured to put their students into significant jobs where influence could be exerted. This paper shows light on how Böhl sought to manage a former student, Sándor Venetianer’s carreer so as to continue the kind of theology that the famous professor of dogmatics also promoted.
Keywords
- Eduard Böhl
- Sándor Venetianer
- Ferenc Balogh
- Pietism
- new-orthodoxy
- Debrecen and Vienna