Diakonia - Evangélikus Szemle, 1989
1989 / 1. szám - Summary, Aus dem Inhalt
90 KULTURÁLIS FIGYELŐ DIAKONIA Lutheran Review Summary The address based on Eccl. 9,11—12 on performance and faith delivered last year by H. H. Schmid, professor of theology and president of Zurich University, at the centenary of the Freies Gimna- sium Zurich serves as a meditation guideline. Its interesting 'timeliness lies in the fact that after close on forty years our church is now in a position to reopen the Lutheran grammar school. The Lutheran World Federation HQ in Geneva has in the past years studied civil religion in 52 countries. Bishop Béla Harmati who formerly worked on this theme as a member of the Study Department reports on the findings under the title ’The Significance of Religion and Moral Values for the Nation and the State’. He explains the definition of civil religion. In the examined countries there was an observable tendency on the part of the authorities to look upon church and religion from the point of view of their usefulness. The author illustrates civil religion with the customs, the national anthems, and the constitutions of the various countries. He indicates on a diagram the connection between state, church, religion, and moral values. The second part of the study addresses the church-civil religion relationship. An analysis of the different countries shows that the church must assess the society it lives in and how it is able to influence the environment through it’s members. As the last of the series presenting Hungarian literature beyond the borders. literary historian Béla Pomogáts contributes a detailed essay on the Hungarian emigration literature in the West. Hallmarked by operating under difficult diaspora circumstances, it does not form a homogenous bloc, it is multicoloured. Hungarian writers living abPublication of the Lutheran Church in Hungary Responsible editor: Dr. Gyula Nagy Editor: Imre Veöreös Editorial and Publishing Office: H—1088 Budapest, Puskin u. 12. Subscriptions to above address. Published every six months. Annual subscription: 130,— Forints. road display different kinds of attitudes in their relations with the mother country. This many-sided literature is spread by publishers and in journals. The greatest publisher in the past years was the European Protestant Hungarian Free University with headquarters in Bern. Various intellectual and literary societies also play an important role in organising cultural events. The author characterises a number of gifted writers, among them István Szépfalusi in Vienna, the Lutheran pastor ministering to the Hungarians and the Transylvanian refugees in Austria. He quotes László Cs. Szabó’s well formulated words: ’The Hungarian writer in the Western reality, while critically analysing without dreams or distortions, looks towards home and creates his own world.’ In his article .Meditation on our Development into Human Beings’ academy professor Pál Rókusfalvy finds, on the basis of three decades of teaching and scientific experience, the answer to the question: are there any grounds for the paedagogic optimism which propagates the developability of man? Yes, there are. This development lies in unfolding and causing to unfold our true human character. Nevertheless, this cannot be achieved merely by recognising the scientific grounds, it will also require moral courage and strong faith to understand that humanness is not a state, but a responsible process. Today the survival of mankind in a manner worthy of man has become the stake of development. Even tiny man setting out on the course of development is a fellow- creator with God. Besides the papers reviewed above also a full Table of Contents is included in the English and German languages.
