Csorba Dávid: "A sovány lelket meg-szépíteni” Debreceni prédikátorok (1657-1711) - Nemzet, egyház, művelődés 5. (Debrecen, 2008)
ABSTRACT
IV. Debreceni Ember Pál hegyaljai prédikációi Catholic, or para-liturgical prayers and piety-texts, which appear in early Modern Age sermons (Sámuel Köleséri, Pál Ember). Three chapters analyze the mentality, the homiletical concepts, and the historical thinking of the three pastors who sank into oblivion (Senior Sámuel Köleséri, István Sajószentpéteri, and Pál Debreceni Ember). The first among them, Senior Sámuel Köleséri was the contemporary of Marton- falvi, earlier both worked in Várad, and then both fled to Debrecen. His case, therefore, shows us how his Coccejan piety was accepted in Puritan Debrecen. At the end of his life he put an emphasis on the symbolic role of the city in guarding values. The two other pastors, István Sajószentpéteri and Pál Debreceni Ember were the ‘real’ Martonfalvi students. The narratological analysis and the examination of the history of exempla reinforce the differences that can be detected in their theology (these are mainly ethical and homiletical differences). Although both of them were inspired by the same spiritual workshop, their ways were different. This can also be explained by the atmosphere of the places where they practiced (villages in the Hajdúság and Hegyalja) and their different spirituality. I study the rhetorical structure of sermons, their uses of exempla, employing methods of mentality history and piety history. I examine the type of speeches allowed before a community, the type of homilethical genres that became stronger (polemic, prayer, dehortation, meditation) as a result, the place of application in the case of pastors occupying different positions in intellectual history (Orthodox, Puritan, Coccejan, or Pietist), as well as the relation between theory and practice of theology. I examine the three different styles of preaching, manners of speaking, and theological understanding represented by these pastors in the light of the relationship with the Martonfalvi workshop; more specifically, with the mentality of Debrecen. The book delineates the effects and the cultural historical background of the Martonfalvi workshop in an education historical way. Separate chapters deal with the political and mental relations between the leaders of Debrecen, the clericals, and the princes of Transylvania. The analysis of a unique diary proves that the generation of students educated in the ‘illustre Collegium’ of Debrecen were given a long-life mental and spiritual basis. My final statement is that the piety of the city and its spiritual leaders differed from the religiosity of those who had lived half a century earlier, not in theological concepts, but in the way they lived their piety. This phenomenon is called Reformed Pietism, and within it István Sajószentpéteri belonged to the precise version, while Pál Ember to the pietist version. 248
