The Ethiopic account of Anthony Rawḥ martyr-dom and the perception of the Muslim Arab world in Christian Ethiopia

Author(s): Marcin Krawczuk / Language(s): English Issue: 51/2017

The Ethiopic martyrdom of Anthony Rawḥ, attested in two relatively ancient manuscripts is a hagiographical text set in the Muslim Arab world. As such, it is an example of the perception that Christian Ethiopia had of the Muslim world at the time. This article offers some amendments to the printed edition and a few general remarks about the place of this text within the Ge’ez literary tradition.

Viszonyítások és viszonyulások. Ravasz László ifjúkori vallástudományi írásai

Author(s): Árpád Kulcsár / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 6/2020

In this paper I present an in-depth analysis of the writings of László Ravasz from the period 1903–1906. During this period, he graduated from the Protestant Theological Institute, the State University at Kolozsvár/Cluj, and spent a year of PhD research in Berlin. He started publishing in the journal Erdélyi Protestáns Lap mostly in the domain of religious studies. He still adheres to the liberal wing of theology, but in this period, he slowly starts to shift towards the so-called value theology, a much modern way of the long-standing liberalism.

Eduard Böhl (1836–1903) bécsi dogmatikus eszkatológiai gondolkodása

Author(s): Zoltán Juhász / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2020

Eduard Böhl (1836–1903), a scholar of the second half of the nineteenth century, was professor of dogmatics at the Protestant Theological Faculty in Vienna for 35 years. His lifework was his “Dogmatics”, which he wrote for 23 years. In this unfairly forgotten work, he formulates cardinal Reformed beliefs providing the reader with accurate guidance regarding theology, anthropology, soterology, and eschatology. This study analyses Böhl’s teaching based on the last major chapter of his book, concerned with the “End of Times”. In order to gain a better understanding of the theological issues discussed by Böhl, this work parallels Gábor Szeremlei’s chapter on “Eschatology” which can be found in his book of Dogmatics entitled “Christian Religious Science”. A study of this issue provides insights into what theologians of the nineteenth century formulated in relation to this question, and how biblical approaches and ideas emerged within the debates of orthodox and liberal theology.

A humanizmus az igei tudomány szolgálatában (III)

Author(s): Dezső Buzogány / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2020

First and foremost, the Protestantism sought to incorporate the first three disciplines of the seven liberal arts into the methodologies of scholarly theology and the curricula of school education. It also served the purpose of preparing seminary students for preaching the Word in their mother-tongue. Once they mastered the languages of the Two Testaments, dialectics (or logic) aided them in decoding the meaning (or the message) of the passage, while rhetorics guided them in composing a structurally sound sermon. (This threefold unity is still applied today in Hungarian theological education, albeit under a different name.) Dialectics is the foundation for the study of all sciences. Indeed, the potential benefits of certain scientific disciplines cannot be fully achieved without a thorough understanding of its principles. Therefore, as religious sermons are modelled after secular rhetoric, their structural features cannot be correctly assembled without resorting to the laws of philosophical dialectics.

Od redakcji

Author(s): Leszek Poleszak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Editorial "Sympozjum" 1(40) (2021).

PREZENTĂRI BIBLIOGRAFICE

Author(s): Mircea-Gheorghe Abrudan,Sorin Cosma,Sorin Lungoci / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-3/2021

Мирослав Поповић: Фратри и јереси: духовни покрети на Западу дванаестог и тринаестог века

Author(s): Boris Stojkovski / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2013

Проширење хоризонта

Author(s): Zoran Andrić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2013

Историја Реформације као историја идеја

Author(s): Zoran Andrić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 3/2013

The Staining of Feminine Innocence in Ancient Abrahamic Texts

Author(s): Silviu Lupaşcu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Beside the midrashic purpose, the illusory staining of Bathenosh’s and Sarai’s feminine innocence in the Dead Sea Scrolls opened new ground for captatio benevolentiae, as it revisited the archaic history with a new feeling of drama, tragedy and redemption. In On the Origin of the World, the scene which includes the rape of the earthly likeness of Eve by the archons reveals the high intensity of the divine-cosmic-human drama implied by the Gnostic Myth of Light and Darkness, by ontological and Gnostic continuities which permeate the narrative concerning Eve of Zoe or Eve of Life and her earthly likeness with the tragedy of redemptive knowledge, of redemption through gnosis at the core of Gnostic cosmology and anthropology. The tragic blend of light-soul and darkness-body in the structure of human being is thus enframed in the explanation of the origin of evil in the universe, offered by the Gnostic system of thinking. The portrayal of Mary in the Christian Gospel or the Muslim “Gospel” and in the Toledot Yeshu as a Jewish anti-Gospel, as well as the portrayal of Aisha bint Abi Bakr in the Quran and in the defamatory writings authored by the Rafidah, indicate the staining of feminine innocence as a focal topic during the polemical-theological encounters of the Abrahamic religions through counter-history and counter-narratives. From the hermeneutic perspective of counter-history, some of the alpha female characters of the Abrahamic sacred texts may be scape-goated at the crossroads of the Abrahamic religious realms, with the purpose of being identified by various human powers as symbolic lightning-rods of inter-religious hate and revenge, as a consequence of intensifying religious and political conflicts or confrontations opposing the Abrahamic religious communities.

XVIII-wieczne inwentarze kościelne jako przyczynek do badań nad ewangelickimi księgozbiorami parafialnymi w Prusach Ksiązęcych

Author(s): Piotr Birecki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2020

The Geheimes Staatsarchiv in Berlin-Dahlem houses an interesting source material for the studies on the furnishing of Protestant churches and vicarages. This is a mid-18th century inventory comprising information on liturgical vessels, vestments and church bells in possession of 91 Protestant parishes in the former Ducal Prussia. An important part of that inventory make quite meticulously listed Bibles, postills, liturgical and theological books and legal documents found in churches, parish schools and private pastors’ libraries. Almost all the listed items have been recognised, despite often laconic bibliographic notations. This allowed to identify the works by Luther and Melanchton as parts of 16th-century books, 17th- and 18th-century works being part of the theological legacy of both orthodox and Pietistic groups of authors. The titles of postills, hymn books, agendas and historical books have been established. The majority of listed items dated back to the 18th century, which indicates that – as it was noted in one of the parishes – the books had been robbed or destroyed by the Russian armed forces. Some of the book collections could have also fallen prey to the Tatars in the 17th century. The researched inventory presented here makes a good source material for art historians, who have acquired ample evidence of the artists making use of the illustrations and emblems enclosed in Pietistic treatises, postills and hymnals published not only by the most eminent theologians in Königsberg, but also those active in Berlin, Halle or Leipzig.

Recenzje

Author(s): Marcin Hintz,Jerzy Domasłowski,Janusz Małłek,Aneta M. Sokół / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2020

Review of: Aneta M. Sokół - O niepodległości ekumenicznie. Wyznawcy róznych Kościołów dla Rzeczypospolitej (1918-1939), red. nauk. Sabina Bober, Sławomir Jacek śurek, Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II, Lublin 2018, 260 s. Jerzy Domasłowski - Rudolf Bazanowski, Kościoły i parafie Diecezji Mazurskiej. Przeszłość i teraźniejszość. Historia kościołów i parafii ewangelickich w zarysie ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem ich losów po 1945 roku, Olsztyn 2019, t. 1, ss. 416; t. 2, ss. 399. Jerzy Domasłowski - Jan Szturc, współpraca: Aneta Sokół, Karol Długosz, Karol Karski, Działalność Polskiego Towarzystwa Ewangelickiego 1919 – 1983 – 2019, Zarząd Główny Polskiego Towarzystwa Ewangelickiego, Katowice 2019, ss. 408. Janusz Małłek - Manfred Richter, Oh sancta simplicitas! Über Wahrheit, die aus der Geschichte kommt. Ein Essay zum Ökumenismus. LIT Verlag, Theologische Orientierungen. Band 34, Berlin 2018, ss. 478. Jerzy Domasłowski - Rainer Zacharias, Evangelische Kirchengeschichte für die Stadt Marienburg und ihre beiden Werdergebiete an Nogat und Weichsel 1526 bis 1945. Entwicklungsstufen einer Glaubenslandschaft, Münster/Westfalen 2019, ss. 736. Marcin Hintz - Rafał Prostak, Ogród murem oddzielony od pustyni. Relacje Kościół – państwo, wolność sumienia i tolerancja religijna w myśli pierwszych baptystów, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Chrześcijańskiej Akademii Teologicznej w Warszawie, Warszawa 2020, ss. 253.

Miteinander Leben? Reformation und Konfession im Fürstbistum Osnabrück 1500 bis 1700, hrsg. Susanne Tauss, Ulrich Winzer

Author(s): Sławomir Kościelak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

Review of: Sławomir Kościelak - Miteinander Leben? Reformation und Konfession im Fürstbistum Osnabrück 1500 bis 1700, hrsg. Susanne Tauss, Ulrich Winzer, Münster–New York 2017, Waxmann Verlag (Kulturregion Osnabrück Band, Bd. 31), ss. 417

Reformacja w Krakowie (XVI–XVII wiek). Materiały z sesji naukowej 6 maja 2017 roku, red. Zdzisław Noga

Author(s): Henryk Gmiterek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

Review of: Henryk Gmiterek - Reformacja w Krakowie (XVI–XVII wiek). Materiały z sesji naukowej 6 maja 2017 roku, red. Zdzisław Noga, Kraków 2018, Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa (Kraków w Dziejach Narodu, t. 37), ss. 183, [3]

In memoriam: Irena Backus (1950–2019)

Author(s): Valentina Lepri / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

In memoriam: Irena Backus (1950–2019)

O kulturze polemik religijnych i powstaniu świadomości wyznaniowej. Uwagi na marginesie pracy Magdaleny Luszczynskiej, Politics of polemics. Marcin Czechowic on the Jews

Author(s): Maciej Ptaszyński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2020

The article deals with a monograph by Magdalena Luszczynska devoted to Marcin Czechowic, one of the most important anti-Trinitarian theologians of the late sixteenth century. The article sets the book against the backdrop of literature on the anti-Trinitarians in Poland and studies of Czechowic. While criticizing the monograph for its narrow source and methodological basis, it offers a new look at the key aspects of the theologian’s life. The central thesis of the article is that the category of religious awareness allows for a different approach to this Protestant’s conversion.

Contributions to the history of the Reformed legal higher education: The Reformed Law Academy in Kecskemét between 1875 and 1949

Author(s): Árpád Olivér Homicskó / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The legal academies counted as special institutions of the Hungarian legal education. They were higher study institutions that – similarly to the faculties of law of the science universities – dealt with teaching the science of law and state, but they did not have the right of organizing final, comprehensive “jogtudor” examinations (promotion) and to confer the qualification for private lecturers (habilitation). In the 1870’s, thirteen institutions had legal education within the area of the Hungarian Kingdom. The state-funded universities were the science universities of Budapest and Cluj-Napoca, and the legal academies of Bratislava, Győr, Kosice, Oradea and Sibiu. In Eger and Pécs there were Roman catholic law lyceums amongst the ones funded by the churches. In the districts of the Reformed church there were the legal academies of the towns Pápa, Kecskemét, Debrecen, Sárospatak and Sighetu Marmației. The Lutheran Church of Augsburg maintained one institution in Prešov. In Zagreb, which was the capital city of the Croatia-Slavonia belonging to the crown of St. Stephen, the university founded in 1874 also had a faculty of law, as the official language was Croatian, it did not have a huge significance in the Hungarian education. This contribution presents the organisation and the education system of the Reformed Law Academy of Kecskemét that functioned until 1949. This summary was prepared by using the archive sources unrevealed until now. The organisation, education and supervision system of the Hungarian legal academies in the period of dualism evolved in 1874 via state measures. The provisions establishing the reform of the higher education and the legal education – and in several aspects reminiscent of the Austrian era – remained effective until the termination of the legal academies in 1949. The structure and system of the legal academies funded by the state were also applied to the institutions funded by the church and both funded by church and state, so too the Reformed Law Academy of Kecskemét. This contribution offers an overview of the structural order of the period between 1875 and 1948, the regulation of the institution by church and state, and the norms of financial funds. It will be established that the structural conditions of the legal education by the church were provided for, however, the educational institution was only capable of self-preservation by the serious financial funding of the town and the church. In the period examined, the government insisted on transforming the lyceums with different structures and radically diverging levels into complete faculties of law and political science with four years of study. The reforms transforming the contemporary system of the legal higher education resulted in an immense quality change. As the plan was to make the legal academies similar to the universities, the study years were increased to four and, accordingly, the state exam entitled students to doctoral examination. The subjects were uniformed in the same way, thus, the transfer to university was enabled by passing the aptitude exams. Graduation certificates based on types of school were terminated, there was also a possibility to form open student associations, which was an important change so that the college fee basically equalled the university fee. The salary of the professors of state legal academies were aimed at bringing them to the university level, as well. However, these institutions were not allowed to have comprehensive examinations, could not grant doctoral titles, and did not possess the right tohabilitate private lecturers. The degree of the legal academy did not enable the students to enter into the legal professions, as taking the bar exam was only allowed those possessing the legal doctorate title. Thus, the qualification of the legal profession could only be achieved after the university comprehensive examinations. The contribution also examines the study system of the Reformed Law Academy of Kecskemét. The state strived to transfer the legal professional education to the universities, thus, to locate the cultivation and transmission of the science to educational centres at a higher level. The contemporary Hungarian legal colleges were hard to fit into this concept as they were fundamentally specialized on teaching Hungarian law and transmitting practical knowledge. One of the important higher educational reforms after the Reconciliation was, however, the centralization of the legal education, the development of the general study order, and the unified enforcement of the scientific aspects in the study plan. The situation of the Reformed Law Academy of Kecskemét was also special from this point of view. In its maintenance, a significant role was played by the Reformed Church that – referring to the right of protestant churches to maintain schools historically developed and protected by the Constitution – protected its educational traditions developed during the centuries and the institutional autonomy of its study institutions, even against the state. The Reformed church as funder and operator rightfully vindicated the right to display the protestant values within the framework of the secular legal education qualifying to the state service – within the possibilities of the academic freedom. Kecskemét, however, needed the financial support of the city council with a Catholic majority, in order to be able to maintain the legal academy. While in the departments funded by the Reformed church only Reformed lecturers could be chosen, the leaders of the study units operated by the town were nominated regardless of their religion. One of the conclusions of this contribution is the following: when one examines the protestant, or straight Reformed elements of the study plans and educational activity of the legal education in Kecskemét, the uniformizing aspirations of the state and the necessary compromises of the population of the town – because of its religious composition – need to be considered. Act XXXIII of 1948 brought about the secularization of the non-secular schools, which principally closed the history of the Hungarian legal academies. Their assets were secularized, and their personnel became state servants. This contribution wishes to commemorate the contemporary professors of the legal academies, and also strives to prove that the history of the legal academy in Kecskemét is a part of the Central-European legal culture in a broader sense.

Márton Áron élete és munkássága

Author(s): Istvan Csucsuja / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 12/2021

PURITANISM A RETROSPECTIVE APPROACH TO THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION

Author(s): Andreea Popescu / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

The Puritan colonization of America is the landmark for the creation of a new nation, a process during which much of the subsequent American mentality emerged. The colonization identified both with the religious background and the daily existence aimed at surviving in a new and often hostile land. The religious principles belonged both to Calvinism and Lutheranism as they were applied in the epoch of the Reformation. The passengers of the Mayflower, be they intellectuals, merchants or farmers, looked at America as the home offered by fate, the Promised Land in which to build their houses. Gradually, the Pilgrims wondering at the beauty of their new country became a population mastering the land and evolving towards a modern approach to life.

The Confessional Landscape of Roma Communities in Post-Socialist Romania

Author(s): Marin Ilies,Nicolaie Hodor,Gabriela Ilies,Ioana-Julieta Josan,Alexandru Ilies / Language(s): English Issue: Suppl. 1/2021

Post-socialist Romania is experiencing increasing religious tolerance, leading to the diversification of religious choices. Gradually, the banned religions were officially recognized, restructuring the confessional landscape with several ethnically-related specificities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the evolution and features of the Roma communities in Romania, in order to outline the spatial distribution of ethno-confessional groups. Data provided by the official censuses from 1992, 2002 and 2011, processed using spatial analysis at county level, show a certain adherence of Roma communities to the newer churches (especially neo-Protestant rites such as Pentecostal, Baptist, Adventist), alongside the traditional ones (Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim, Protestant), outlining a confessional landscape with a specific social, cultural and demographic behavior.