Amid yet another episcopal election, it is worth asking the uncomfortable question: how truly Reformed is the hierarchical way of functioning in the Reformed Church in Hungary? How did such strong episcopal and deanly power emerge alongside the Reformed self-understanding, and what historical reflexes continue to sustain this system today?…
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What happens when the election of a Reformed bishop turns into a campaign months before nominations, reducing the community to choosing from predetermined names? The Church’s task is broader: not only to elect but also to nominate – to recognise and approach, as a community, those who are not campaigning,…
The study examines the theological interplay between trust and distrust in the context of the Church’s credibility crisis. The study proceeds from the premise that abuses of power in Christian communities, expectations of unconditional loyalty, and institutional distortions of trust call for a reconsideration of the notion of trust. The…
Throughout church history, moments of crisis repeatedly uncover deeper dimensions of Christianity that remain hidden in times of stability. This essay traces this pattern in the Hungarian Reformation and its later developments, showing how upheaval, material vulnerability, and changing relations to political power shaped the Church’s life. In the decades…
The concept of identity is experiencing a boom. Identity politics, and the demand for the formation of collective identities, has become a strategic instrument of political power in modern societies. Meanwhile, for the self-understanding of the churches of the Reformation, it is no longer dogmatic-confessional and liturgical traditions or differences…
In both ecclesial discourse and personal religious practice, the church and religion are often imagined as existing outside secular culture and society. Through an exposition of Paul Tillich’s theology of culture, Sára Tóth’s article offers a more nuanced account of the relationship between religion and culture, one that resists a…
This study examines the relationship between Protestantism and modern political ideologies, with particular attention to the Protestant theological roots of liberalism and conservatism. It argues that the emphasis on both freedom of conscience and social conformity can be traced back to the Protestant tradition and continues to shape ecclesiastical and…