A modernitás és az unitarizmus. 150 éve született Perczelné Kozma Flóra, a szabadelvű vallásosság „apostolnője”
The Modernity and the Unitarianism. Flóra Perczelné Kozma the “Apostle” of Liberal Religion Th ought Was Born 150 Years Ago

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the story of Flóra Kozma (Mrs Ferenc Perczel) linking her “birth” to a specific turning point, namely her conversion from Calvinist faith to Unitarianism. Through the analysis of her new world interpretation it seeks to answer one single question: how (with what strategy) did a middle-class woman, labeled rather “conservative”, cope with social changes, including the consequences of modernity, the fairly chaotic world at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, as determined by many simultaneous trends. In her lectures and published writings, she put the main emphasis on the explanation and propagation of Unitarianism, this free-spirited religion. She represented this cause in all her public actions. Additionally, she took a stance on numerous social questions, mainly concerning women’s rights and social problems, and regularly put forward her opinion regarding culture, education and the arts. She became actively involved in charitable work, too, as a member of several women’s and social organizations. The most remarkable thing in Flóra Kozma’s life story is how she consistently relied on those spiritual and moral foundations that she considered to be the most advanced and modern, that is, Unitarianism. With its aid she was able to set social problems, as well as technical and lifestyle changes in her system of values. She built up her own identity this way, and thus perhaps the most important element of self-determination for her was the conviction that she belonged among the “most Progressive”, the truly modern. She attributed a prominent role to women in the moral education and improvement of the members of the society and in the spreading of the Unitarian spirit. Even if her activity “of public utility” cannot be considered professional work, it should be understood as a kind of fulfi llment of a vocation, as a particular opportunity of self-realization. In this respect she did not stand alone among her contemporaries. Beginning from the end of the 19th century, social and church work provided a certain form of public life and emancipation for many women – for Flóra Kozma among them.

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