Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - The Strong Pillar of the College - Education in Theology and in the Liberal Arts
Nagy Gusztáv - history of religion; György Radácsi - Old Testament and New Testament stories; from the Academy of Law, professor Bálint Krüzselyi taught ‘church law’ to the theology students. Another twenty years later, of the teachers listed above, it was only György Radácsi who was still teaching and still the same subjects. In addition to him, the staff of the Theological Academy included Lajos Novák, who taught ‘rhetoric’ and ‘church law’, József Rohoska, who taught ‘philosophy of religion’ and ‘New Testament history’, Jenő Zoványi, who taught ‘church history’, and Béla Nagy, who taught ‘dogmatics’. Student numbers fluctuated in a hectic matter: in 1867 there were sixty- seven students (the highest number in twenty years) enrolled at the Theological Academy, thirty-five at the F acuity of Humanities and ninety-eight at the Academy of Law. The following years these numbers decreased and then increased again. The number enrolled in any given faculty relative to the number in another faculty changed intensively. In the mid-1880s there were three times as many theology students as law students (in 1882, the ratio was one hundred twelve to forty-two; in 1885, eight-seven to thirty-three). The fluctuations were clearly related to the uncertainties of the law colleges in rural sites, something which will be mentioned in detail later. The leadership of the school was concerned about the future of the Academy of Law but were extremely satisfied with the healthy enrollment figures at the Theological Academy, going even so far as to say that any more students would have truly meant a problem. The ongoing war, however, soon caused the number of students at the Theological Academy to also decrease, so much so that, by 1917, there were only thirty-six students in the four different year levels. Though the leaders knew the reasons - the unfortunate effect of the war -, the shortage of pastors was intensified by this temporary drop due to compulsory drafting. This was the first time when the idea of teaching and employing female pastors emerged. After the overview of two, closely intertwined academic faculties, the most prominent teachers with exceptional careers are now to be shortly introduced. It can be stated without hesitation that the most prominent teacher at the Faculty of Humanities in Patak - after János Erdélyi - was Lajos Rácz (1864-1934). He spent eighteen years at the secondary school before he was promoted and taught for another twenty-three years at the academy. He was born in Mád, his father was the local pastor. He was a student in Patak who studied for two years in Szepesség, also. Having graduated from the theological program, he then went to Pest and completed the requirements for a degree in the humanities in two years. He then studied in Leipzig under the famous Wilhelm Wundt. Upon his return to Patak, as a teacher, he became the so-called intellectual leader of the theology students. He was one of the founders of the Sárospataki Ißüsdgi Közlöny (Youth Bulletin of Sárospatak) periodical which was launched in 1884. He was very much appreciated as a teacher while also making significant contributions through his academic work. In pursuing Wundt’s line of research, Rácz became one of the most important proponents of psychology in Hungary. He translated several works from Wundt, Pascal, Rousseau and Leibniz. He regularly travelled to Germany and France to keep up to date with the latest scientific findings. In addition to his translations, he also wrote studies on Descartes, Rousseau, Wundt, Leibniz and Melanchthon. His two-volume monograph on Rousseau was 159 Lajos Rácz
