Hagyomány, Identitás, Történelem II. 2 (2025)
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- ItemOpen AccessGulácsy Lajos mint missziós munkás és az élő Ige szolgálója (életútvázlat a lelkipásztorrá történő szenteléséig)(Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar Egyháztörténeti Kutatóintézet, 2025) Szamborovszkyné Nagy Ibolya; II. Rákóczi Ferenc Kárpátaljai Magyar Főiskola (Beregszász)Lajos Gulácsy served as the bishop of the Transcarpathian Reformed Church (TRC) from 1994 to 1998. This period was a time of visible and tangible revitalization for the KRE, making him perhaps the most well-known figure among Transcarpathian clergy within the Reformed Church of the Carpathian Basin, due to his actions, public confessions, and the impact of his work. Meanwhile, very little is known about his activities prior to his ordination as a pastor. The goal of our research lies in this gap, as we aim to systematically and chronologically uncover Lajos Gulácsy’s life journey, from his involvement in missionary work to the beginning of his pastoral ministry in 1978, based on contemporary sources, reminiscences, and documents. We believe that only by understanding the life path of this late pastor, church secretary, and later bishop, can we comprehend his driving motivations. By following his activities throughout his life, we also aim to demonstrate how his multifaceted work contributed to the spread of the living Word. There is not much to be said about the research background of the mentioned period, as only two publications have attempted to outline the full life path of the late bishop. The results were more modest than successful, as they present a notably incomplete and rough picture of the period up to 1978. Since one of these works is authored by the writer of these lines, we have made an effort to fill in this gap. For this reason, we have sought to enrich the sources of the topic by incorporating as many diverse documents and types of sources as possible, including court records from Lajos Gulácsy’s arrest in 1949, interviews with the later pastor, and even his self-published autobiographies. Nevertheless, a common feature of these widely known documents is that they primarily focus on the period after his arrest and conviction, as well as on his activities during the revitalization period of the TRC.
- ItemOpen AccessEgy kettétört barátság története. Viták a Budapesti Református Egyházmegye élén, 1944-ben(Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar Egyháztörténeti Kutatóintézet, 2025) Erdős KristófFor the first dean of the Reformed Presbytery of Budapest, Imre Szabó, the real threat of the Nazi ideology to Christianity had been known since the early 1930s. In his sermons, lectures and newspaper articles, vhe voiced this opinion. In his congregation and in the Presbytery, his lay colleague in leadership was András Tasnádi Nagy, who as Minister of Justice had introduced the second anti-Jewish law (1939). Their political differences came to a head in the summer of 1944, when Tasnádi blocked Szabó’s initiative to have the Presbytery protest the deportation of rural Jews. As a result, their friendship ended. In 1946, Tasnádi was sentenced to death as a war criminal. On the initiative of dean Szabó, the Presbytery submitted a petition for clemency to save his life, which the President of the Republic accepted. Tasnádi’s sentence was changed to life imprisonment and he died in prison in 1956.
- ItemOpen AccessDr. Fónyad Dezső „börtönbibliája” és levelezése(Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar Egyháztörténeti Kutatóintézet, 2025) Bárány Zoltán; Hittudományi Doktori Iskola; KRE - Hittudományi KarThis study presents a historical and theological analysis of Dr. Dezső Fónyad’s “prison Bible” and his prison correspondence during his unjust detention in 1945. A Reformed pastor and public intellectual, Fónyad was accused of war crimes without concrete evidence, becoming a victim of political persecution in the pre-communist era. Despite the ordeal, his annotated Bible and deeply personal letters reflect unwavering Christian faith and moral strength. These sources reveal his spiritual battles, concern for his family, and refusal to betray others under interrogation. His writings show a man enduring psychological and physical suffering, clinging to hope through Scripture and prayer. The prison notes demonstrate his Calvinist worldview and theological interpretation of suffering. Fónyad viewed his trial as a public spectacle and maintained that only divine justice could ultimately prevail. This paper contributes to the understanding of clerical persecution during Hungary’s postwar political transformation.
- ItemOpen AccessA zsíros Újszövetség – egy kárpátaljai lelkész lágert megjárt Bibliája(Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar Egyháztörténeti Kutatóintézet, 2025) Székely MariannaIf we look at Barna Horkay’s life, we can see that the Bible, the Word of God, played a central role in his life from a very young age, especially after his coming to live faith. Therefore, after he was tried by an atheist, religiously oppressive power and then sentenced to prison in a camp, one of the most severe sentences for him, in addition to exile, starvation, cold and hard physical labor, was the prohibition of the use of the Holy Scriptures. He had to go without the Bible for many months before he was able to read it again, thousands of miles away from home, thanks to his wife’s ingenuity. Even after being released from the camp, it was a matter of his heart that in a country where the publication and use of religious books is prohibited, the Reformed people could get a Bible with the help of foreign supporters.
- ItemOpen AccessSoos Géza külügyi tevékenysége(Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem Hittudományi Kar Egyháztörténeti Kutatóintézet, 2025) Hornyák Máté JánosBased on recently discovered sources, this study sheds light on previously unknown details of Géza Soos’s (1912–1953) wartime resistance activities, focusing on the period of his life when he played an important role in the foreign affairs administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Reformed Church in Hungary.