Identity forging in the Hungarian Reformed press in the first part of the 20th century. The example of the Református Figyelő journal

Author(s):  
Réka Kiss

"In my study, I am examining a significant step in the history of the national Re-formed press between the two world wars, i.e., the weekly paper Református Figyelő (1928–1933). It is well known that the interwar period which was also called a “religious renaissance” or the “period of the second confessionalization”, is considered to be a period of renewal of religious and ecclesiastical life, deepening of faith and strengthening of denominational identity for each historical church. My study approaches the issue of church press between the two world wars from the perspective of the process of community identity building of the Hungari-an Reformed people. On the one hand, I am looking for an answer to how the con-tent of the Reformed identity changed during the century, which were the defining phenomena, historical experiences that decisively influenced the Reformed self-awareness, which were its main problems, the central topics of church public dis-course. On the other hand, my research focuses on the role of the ecclesiastical press in shaping public discourses, in building identity, the way its organizational back-ground and internal system of relations developed. Keywords: religious ideintity, Reformed Church, interwar period, church press, Ravasz László. "

Author(s):  
Volodymyr Potulnytskyi ◽  

While studying Polish-Ukrainian relations, outstanding Ukrainian conservative thinkers, namely Vjacheslav Lypynskyi and Stepan Tomashivskyi, focused mainly on the problem of distinguishing the role of Poland in the history of the Ukrainian people and on the issue of orientation towards Poland as a factor in the emergence of the Ukrainian state. The role of Poland in the history of the Ukrainian people, according to conservatives, was twofold. On the one hand, it was Poland that paved the way for Ukraine to Europeanization, providing examples of state-style literature and culture. This constructive role of Poland was especially fruitful in comparison with the Asian influences of Moscow. In this context, the conservatives emphasized that these were the Poles who played a key role in the process of separating Ukrainians from Russia, promoting the rise and establishment of the Cossacks and the Hetmanate, as well as creating the very name “Ukraine”. Conversely, the conservatives negatively assessed the Treaty of Hadiach for Ukraine, which, in their opinion, was very rational, on the one hand, and contributed, on the other hand, to the extermination of the elite and aristocratic democracy, and which disorganized the nobility and made it republican by eliminating its chivalrous essence and adding destructive anarchism instead. The conservatives also sharply assessed the Treaty of Warsaw between Petliura and Pilsudski. Simultaneously, Ukrainian monarchists did not consider Poland a force that could play a role in the creation of the Ukrainian state, although they considered the territorial autonomy of Halychyna under Poland as the first stage in educating the citizens of Western Ukraine in the spirit of the state monarchical idea. They took the position of mutual understanding between Ukrainian conservatives and Halychyna Poles in achieving the autonomy of Ukrainian lands under Poland, although they condemned the concept of a federation of Poland and Ukraine in Halychyna under the conditions put forward by Halychyna Ukrainian National Democrats. Conservatives considered such a strategy doomed to failure without the creation of a conservative territorial group in Halychyna composed of local Poles and Ukrainians. Relying heavily on local Poles not affiliated with metropolitan Warsaw, they placed the main emphasis on the internal organization of the monarchists rather than on external allies, including Poland


1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Britz

This article undertakes a survey of the application of the Formularies of Unity by the Dutch Reformed Church, covering its history from the 18th century to approximately 1935. Although these Formularies were the accepted confessional basis of the church, it did not prevent additional theological accommodation during the 18th century. During the first part of the 19th century an institutional concept of the church put forward a subscribing formula. The confession became important. In principle the way was opened for an institutional and contractual enforcement of the Formu­laries. This happened when the church was involved in the wide-ranging li­beral struggle during the sixth decade. Even before the 20th century a new approach in which the role of the Formularies was seen more dogmatically and confessionalistically came to the fore. And, when the church was once again entangled in a struggle (viz. the well-known 'Du Plessis case' of the 1930's) the dogmatic point of departure played into the hands of a con­fessional fundamentalism. In the history of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Formularies thus gained in ecclesiological emphasis and value and its application was conditioned by the context and theological influence. Most importantly, the underlying problem of its historicity on the one hand, and its scriptural context and intent on the other hand, remained an unpaid account.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Vimbai Moreblessing Matiza

Dramatic and theatrical performances have a long history of being used as tools to enhance development in children and youth. In pre-colonial times there were some forms of drama and theatre used by different communities in the socialisation of children. It is in the same vein that this article, through the Intwasa koBulawayo performances, seeks to evaluate how drama and theatre are used to nurture children and youth into different developmental facets of their lives. The only difference which this article will take into cognisance is that the performances are done in a different environment, which is not the one used in the pre-colonial times. Although these performances were like this, the most important factor is the idea that children and youth are socialised through these performances. It is also against this backdrop that children and youth are growing up in a globalised environment, hence the performances should accommodate people from all walks of life and teach them relevant issues pertaining to life as they live it now. Thus the main task of the article is to spell out the role of drama and theatre in the nurturing of children and youth through socio economic and political development in Intwasa koBulawayo festivals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Béla Mester

Abstract The role of the diaries and memoirs in the process of the conscious self-reflection and their contribution to the emergence of modern individual personalities are well-known facts of the intellectual history. The present paper intends to analyze a special form of the creation of modern individual character; it is the self-creation of the writer as a conscious personality, often with a clearly formulated opinion about her/his own social role. There will be offered several examples from the 19th-century history of the Hungarian intelligentsia. This period is more or less identical with the modernization of the “cultural industry” in Hungary, dominated by the periodicals with their deadlines, fixed lengths of the articles, and professional editing houses on the one hand and the cultural nation building on the other. Concerning the possible social and cultural role of the intelligentsia, it is the moment of the birth of a new type, so-called public intellectual. I will focus on three written sources, a diary of a Calvinist student of theology, Péter (Litkei) Tóth, the memoirs of an influential public intellectual, Gusztáv Szontagh, and a belletristic printed diary of a young intellectual, János Asbóth.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo Johannes Modise

This paper focuses on the role of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in the South African society during the past 25 years of its services to God, one another and the world. Firstly, the paper provides a brief history of URCSA within 25 years of its existence. Secondly, the societal situation in democratic South Africa is highlighted in light of Article 4 of the Belhar Confession and the Church Order as a measuring tool for the role of the church. Thirdly, the thermometer-thermostat metaphor is applied in evaluating the role of URCSA in democratic South Africa. Furthermore, the 20 years of URCSA and democracy in South Africa are assessed in terms of Gutierrez’s threefold analysis of liberation. In conclusion, the paper proposes how URCSA can rise above the thermometer approach to the thermostat approach within the next 25 years of four general synods.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
Andreas Langenohl

Abstract Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology has been written with the intention to offer lessons from the historical trajectory of economic redistribution in societies the world over. Thereby, the book suggests learning from the political-economic history of ‘social-democratic’ policies and societal arrangements. While the data presented speak to the plausibility of looking at social democracy, as understood by Piketty, as an archive for learning about the effects of redistribution mechanisms, I argue that the book, or future interventions might profit from integrating alternative archives. On the one hand, its current line of argumentation tends to underestimate the significance of power relations in the international political economy that continued after formal decolonization, and thus form the flip side of social democracy’s success in Europe and North America. On the other hand, the role of the polity might be imagined in a different and more empowering way, not just-as in Piketty-as an elite-liberal democratic governance institution; for instance, it would be interesting to explore the archive of the French solidaristes movement more deeply than Piketty does, as well as much more recent interventions in economic anthropology that deal with ‘economic citizenship’ in the Global South.


2021 ◽  
pp. 273-275

This chapter assesses Liat Steir-Livny's Remaking Holocaust Memory (2019). This book is the first comprehensive English-language study of the Israeli Third-Generation engagement with the history of the Shoah in documentary films. In analyzing “how Third-Generation documentaries provide new ideas and concepts to commemorate and preserve the memory for future generations,” Steir-Livny contrasts Third-Generation documentary films with the works of second-generation directors and explores an extensive number of films in five key areas. These key areas include the role of gender; the changing attitudes toward Germany; the use and exploration of historical film footage in Third-Generation documentary films; the function of testimonies that feature in Third-Generation documentaries “in more complex ways”; and the representation of perpetrators and bystanders in Third-Generation films. Throughout her study, Steir-Livny discusses the documentaries against the background of documentary film theories, on the one hand, and Israeli/Zionist Holocaust memory, on the other.


Buddhism ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Gutschow

The very existence of a “Women and Buddhism” entry but no “Men in Buddhism” entry implies a set of methodological lacunae in Buddhist studies. On the one hand, Buddhist studies have often proceeded as if the history of men in Buddhism stands in for Buddhist history, with little effort made to mention or recover the significance of women. On the other hand, systematic methodological choices, such as the discounting of feminist analysis and the privileging of text over other sources of knowledge, have exacerbated the tendency to elide the role of women in Buddhism. This elision of women, or their marginalization, in Buddhist analyses where “man” or “male” is assumed to represent “human” has prompted a countersurge of analyses. These latter analyses have found ample evidence for the centrality of gender and women in shaping Buddhist society and soteriology. Although works are now available that cover the role of women and gender in most Buddhist eras or societies, these have only scratched the surface of an extraordinarily rich set of material and questions. It remains to be seen how well Buddhist scholarship can give gender and women their proper place in developing its central concerns.


Author(s):  
Vinh Nguyen

Vietnamese Canadian refugee aesthetics are the diverse expressions of how hundreds of thousands of refugees and their descendants experienced the Vietnam War and its aftermath. They are shaped on the one hand by a history of war in, and forced migration from, Vietnam and on the other by resettlement in multicultural Canada. Significantly, Vietnamese Canadian refugee aesthetics are produced within a distinct context of Canadian “forgetting of complicity” in the Vietnam War. A major shaping force of this aesthetics is the idea that Canada was an innocent bystander or facilitator of peace during the war years, instead of a complicit participant providing arms and supporting a Western bloc victory. This allows, then, for a discourse of Canadian humanitarianism to emerge as Canada resettled refugees in the war’s wake. Vietnamese Canadian refugee aesthetics are produced and received in relation to the enduring narrative of Canadian benevolence. In this way, they celebrate the nation-state and its peoples through gratitude for the gift of refuge. More importantly, however, they illuminate life during and in the wake of war; the personal, political, and historical reasons for migration; the struggles and triumphs of resettlement; and the complexities of diasporic existence. Refugee aesthetics are driven by memory and the desire to commemorate, communicate, and make sense of difficult pasts and the embodied present. They often take the form of literary works such as memoirs, novels, and poetry, but they are also found in community politics and activism, such as commemoration events and protests, and other popular media like public service videos. Produced by refugees as well as the state, these aesthetic “texts” index themes and problematics such as the formation of voice; the interplay between memory, history, and identity; the role of autobiography; and the modes of representing war, violence, and refuge-seeking.


2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignatius W.C. Van Wyk

The article deals with the function and aim of the Apostles’ Creed in the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa – and for that matter, all other Reformed churches. The history of the Credo is carefully described. By so doing the earliest uses of the Creed are established. This information is necessary to determine the present-day function and aim of our confession.The relationship between faith, confession and the catechisms also provides important perspectives on the role of the Creed in the life of the church. The ecumenical nature of the church and the unity amongst Christians are emphasised. Unity with previous generations also receives attention as one of the main functions of the Credo.In the article, attention is further given to a variety of misunderstandings about the Creed. Due to the fact that the confessional documents interpret the Credo, these documents tend to receive a status beyond the original intention. The Reformed understanding of the doctrinal standards is therefore explained.


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