Egyháztörténeti Szemle 16. (2015)
2015 / 1. szám - SUMMARIES IN ENGLISH - R. Várkonyi Ágnes: ’In Nocte Nativitatis Domini…’ Christmas Meditation in Rákóczi’s Work Confessio Peccatoris - Zádorvölgyi Zita: The First Great Awakening in the North American British Colonies
130 Egyháztörténeti Szemle XVI/1 (2015) Finally, the last parts compared the development of the education systems and the reactions to the work and ideas of Comenius. The paper highlights individuals who caught sight of the essence of Comenius’ work in good time, which allowed for the creation of new possibilities for their own nations consequently. ’In Nocte Nativitatis Domini...’ Christmas Meditation in Rá- kóczi’s Work Confessio Peccatoris R. Várkonyi, Ágnes Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II (1676-1735) was the leader of Hungarian freedom fighting against Habsburgs between 1703 and 1711 was a great thinker and writer, too. After his emigration to Turkey he wrote an important meditation on the meaning of Christmas, the greatest holiday of the Christianity. This paper deals with the sources and the circumstances of origin of this important meditation. The manuscript of Confessio Peccatoris had interesting and adventurous fate. The author explains the versions of the Latin language text, reviews the publications and all philological information about it, e.g. the relations between this manuscript and Rákóczi’s other important writings, especially Confessions (‘Confessiones’). The text has close connection to the other Christmas Meditations of the beginning of the 18th century, e.g. ‘Meditation on Adam’. The Confessio Peccatoris is a very interesting and variegated text. Rákóczi often changed the periods of the human life, the past, the present and the future. He compared his life and fate with the biblical events and symbols. Rákóczi thought he was a chosen one by the God for his life and role. The Christmas meant a very important day of the year, so the author surveyed the Christmas evenings from his childhood and the later period, e.g. the years of freedom fighting. He remembered the greetings from his friends and followers, the important events connected to Christmas etc. The Christianity for him was not only a personal celebration but the symbol of the unity of the Christian Europe in a form of a dialogue with God. This work of the Hungarian prince represents the clear forms of Jansenism and the literary Latin language of the 18th century. The First Great Awakening in the North American British Colonies Zádorvölgyi, Zita This paper examines the so-called First Great Awakening, a movement of religious revivalism in the 18th century, one of the most controversial topics in American church history. First, we present how the contemporaries understood, supported or condemned, participated in or even created the movement, then we discuss the trends in 20th and 21st century American church history related to the Awakening and its different interpretations. George Whitefield, an Anglican itinerant preacher from England, emerges as one of the main figures in the spread of the Awakening in the American colonies, while Jonathan Edwards, preacher and theologian
