Molnár, Sándor (2014) „Föl barátim!” A magyar református egyház belső élete az 1880-as években Alexander Neil Somerville körútjának tükrében ["Hold the ford!"The inner life of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the 1880s in light of Alexander Neil's Somerville's journey]. Doctoral thesis, Debrecen Reformed University of Divinity.
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Abstract
This doctoral thesis aims to examine and present the changes of the internal life of the Hungarian Calvinist Church in the 1880s. Based on the sources and the results of previous researches, we chose an investigation—conducted by the moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, Alexander Neil Somerville—from 1887-88 focusing on evangelization and its mission. Somerville—as a result of several tours in the British Empire—was widely acknowledged as an important figure of the Protestant church in the second half of the 19th century. As a missionary, he could travel to the United States of America and several German-speaking regions as well. It was during his last mission when he could finally come to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In recent years, several researchers dealt with the background of the "Scottish Mission" of Budapest, its effects, and the scholarships provided for Hungarian theological undergraduates. By reinforcing these results and processing a new piece of domestic sources at the same time, we aim to contribute to the research of Hungarian and Scottish ecclesiastic relations. At the beginning of our research, we recalled the contemporary press releases found in the study of Imre Révész Jr. written in 1943. We attached several things to the research: the local publications gathered from the towns of his journey; the systematic review of articles, and critiques found in Calvinist, Lutheran, and Jewish denomination newspapers. As a result, the previously established primary source-list expanded. Our case, regarding the sources available in archives, was however not that simple. During the research process we had to realize that information concerning several crucial Calvinist figures (e.g. Ferenc Balogh, József Szalay, Gyula Garzó) and their lives was barely researchable—we found either none or very little information of their legacy. Furthermore, contemporary archives were scattered; during the 20th century a lot of precious sources were entirely wiped out. New ways of reading and systematically explored archival sources are thus re-evaluated as a result of the success of these side topics. The decade of the 1880s stands for the period of the constitutional unity in the previously divided Hungarian Calvinists Church. It means that the history of the institution and the questions in relation with this field play an important role throughout the whole research. In addition, those efforts that were aiming to reveal the life of contemporary Calvinists did not play a significant role. There are several explanations of course, but the most significant one is the "nature of peace" from the examined era. There may be various reasons, but the most significant one can be the “tranquuliti” characterising the era. Although both ministers and major figures of the ecclesiastic management of the Hungarian Calvinist Church reacted upon the events and challenges of everyday life on theological and sociological levels, these did not evolve bigger disputes. Thus, a status quo was born which meant that operative issues replaced the most significant ecclesiastic and theological debates in newspapers. Albeit the borderlines of different church tendencies remained and even stiffened, the effects that these evolved only became important later. Somerville's journey occurred in the winter of 1887-88. Historians dealing with social history —ever since Gyula Szekfű's "Három nemzedéke"—consider these years to be of at most important, evan the boundary of an era. It is only mere coincidence. Unfortunately, the correspondence concerning the preparation of the mission did not survive (e.g. among the pontifical documents of the Calvinist Church District of Dunamellék). Thought this documents might help as understand better why the moderator of the Free Church of Scotland came to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy et that time. The first part of the dissertation represents the reconstruction of Somerville's journey in Hungary. Taking into consideration the chart based on previous information and the reports of local newspapers, we can elaborate a more accurate picture of Somerville's residence and activity between December 1, 1887 and March 13, 1888. This information shed light upon the reasons and forms of the organization process of the first domestic nation-wide evangelization journey. While we can find accounts of descriptive stories about individual stations in denominational newspapers, we can establish a more profound picture based on the evangelization and missionary work in particular towns' local press. Denominational journals mostly present this reports on events which took place in each station of the journey whereas … based on the reports of the local press. The publications used during the reconstruction thorn our attention to scrutinise the number of Jewish population in specific settlements. In those towns where Jewish population reached a grand scale, there was a reappearing motif, namely the mentioning of some leaders of the religious community or its superior members. We can conclude that the journey's aim was a Jewish mission as well; the towns visited by Somerville and his company support this idea. As we take a lock at the population data of the settlements visited by Somerville and his company, we can conclude that the journey's aim was a Jewish mission as well. Somerville delivered several times his famous speech "What Christianity can thank for the Jews"—which perfectly fits in the program of the Free Church of Scotland. The case of Izsák Lichtenstein is regarded as typical example of the Jewish Mission; the question of his conversion or not conversion has always depended on the historian’s and others point of view. Thus the actual case requires further research by which we could presumably understand the inner struggle of a 19th century rabbi who converted into a Christian. The evaluation of Somerville's Hungarian trip is a reappearing element of the first part of the dissertation. It is verifiable that Imre Révész Jr.'s study of 1943 was published at a time when the ability of reading between the lines was becoming an everyday custom. Somerville's journey became well-known as the first nationwide evangelization tour aiming at the Calvinist Church. Meanwhile, it is important to mention that Somerville and his company visited settlements that, besides Calvinists, had a significant Jews population (exceeding the nationwide average). The second part of the thesis deals with the demonstration of the Hungarian Calvinist Church's press during the 1880s. Until this point, technical literature dealt with official and nationwide ecclesiastic newspapers, for example: Protestant Paper of the Church and School, Protestant Journal of Debrecen, Protestant Journal of Transdanubia and Sárospatak. Whereas it is really hard to find further references to private-fund "pastoral papers" published during the 1880s (e.g. Observer, Free Church, Christian Evangelist)—it is all the more unfortunate, because these papers published crucial scripts of the internal life of the Calvinist Church. Our research is made even more complicated, because the journals mentioned above are really are hardly accessible—entire volumes are only available in the National Széchenyi Library. In order to understand everything, in this thesis we decided to review "pastoral papers" in different charts focusing on the information of the specific issues and their trace-ability, and the investigation of editors' archival legacy at the same time as well. Regarding Somerville's journey it is verifiable that from the board of "pastoral papers" several editors participated in the organization and arrangement of the 1887-88 trip. However, while there are mostly descriptive articles in the official papers of church districts, in "pastoral papers" there are critical texts, too. In regard of our topic the previous statement can be confirmed in a way that the Hungarian Calvinist theological history can be viewed as a "periodical theology". We can also confirm that for those who deal with the ecclesiastical history of the Dualism, these press releases establish a solid base of sources that provide a more detailed and subtle reconstruction of the examined era. evaluating and critical text to The examination of Somerville's sermons in "pastoral papers" is the third pillar of the dissertation. Hungarian church and homiletics barely dealt with the literature of preaching of the 1880s. The currently available elaborations barely contain any analytical work, instead they deal with the description of gathered material. Unfortunately, it is also relevant in the case of the literature of the entire Dualism—we do not possess enough sources. Nevertheless, we decided to attempt placing Somerville's printed sermons in the era's Hungarian preaching literature. Comparing with Hungarian sermons, Somerville established his message on his own experiences and evangelical stories. The peculiarity of such sermons is the use of first person singular and 3 person plural. The use of such style was a novelty for Hungarian people because they most commonly listened to preaching in the third person singular before. For Somerville, the summary of the homily was a way to address people in which—staying faithful to evangelization—he called attention to the choices of personal faith among his audience. Reporters and co-workers of other denominational papers reported on the strength of personal speeches, regardless of their belief. In the fourth part of the thesis the central issue is the matter of songs. One typical example of the cultural transfer is the history and acknowledgement of the song "Föl barátim" (Hold the fort!) in Hungarian folklore. This spiritual song was a re-interpretation of the American army's infantry march and became immensely popular in Protestant Churches (especially in the Calvinist Church) throughout a Carpathian Basin. While in Western countries there were several popular contextualized versions under dictatorships, in Hungary it preserved its canonical role in the 20th century. There are several remaining anecdotes from this period in connection with this song that contribute to the results of hymnological research with cultural supplements. These also help us understand the way the song and its influence upon people changed in specific historical situations and periods. Summarising the task accomplished, we can state that the Hungarian Calvinist Church of the 1880s was significantly influenced by the effects of foreign piety. The majority of significant sources to map these effects were destroyed, or they are extremely difficult to investigate today as well. Nevertheless, the available wellheads provide a possibility to reveal the internal life of the Hungarian Calvinist Church more successfully via analytical research. The sources which are available can still provide as thought a detailed analysis with the possibility to reveal the life of the Hungarian Calvinist Church more successfully.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | A Church/mission history B Mission theology/theory > Theology of revival and renewal B Mission theology/theory > Evangelism/Proclamation of Gospel G Christian traditions/Denominations > Reformed, Presbyterian |
| Divisions: | Central Europe > Hungary |
| Depositing User: | Users 3 not found. |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Oct 2018 18:22 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Oct 2018 18:22 |
| URI: | https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/887 |
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