Baráth Béla Levente: „Földbegyökerezés és égbe fogózás...” A Tiszántúli Református Egyházkerület története Baltazár Dezső püspöki tevékenységének tükrében (1911-1920) - Nemzet, egyház, művelődés 10. (Sárospatak, 2014)

Summary

SUMMARY

’’ROOTED IN THE SOIL AND REACHING FOR THE SKY”

THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSTIBISCAN REFORMED CHURCH DISTRICT DURING THE EPISCOPATE OF DEZSŐ BALTAZÁR (1911-1920)

Due to its’ size, population and organisational peculiarities, the Transti- biscan (Tiszántúli) Reformed Church District has always played a decisive role in the history of Protestantism in the Carpathian basin. At the beginning of the 20th century, when political crisis and secularisation in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had a destructive effect in the Church, too, a widely supported charismatic person with clear concepts of reforms, Dezső Baltazár, was elected as the pastoral leader of the church district. Until the end of his life (1936) Bishop Baltazár was in the centre of attention of the public. His activity provoking extreme responses was seen very often as controversial by his contemporaries, and it has not been fully explored by historians so far. The first decade of his episcopate, which is the ,subject matter of this dissertation, was actually the last years of the ,historical’ Transtibiscan Reformed Church District, as the state borders changed after the World War I, which changed the administrative structures of the Church, too.

The dissertation gives a realistic picture of Dezső Baltazár’s work as well as that of the life of the contemporary church, based on the large scale church press of that time and the vast amount of documents available in the archives of the Transtibiscan Reformed Church District. One of the novelties of this dissertation is the attempt to deal with the issues of interest on the basis of sources neglected before: Another new aspect is to approach the topic in a complex way, namely’ in a broader context of the social and political framework as well as the church history, as indicated in the subtitle. Thus, the new research focus broadens the perspective of the aforementioned age and gives a new context and a fresh’ interpretation to sequence of events during the most influential period of the church district and to Baltazár’s work. Given these new apporaches, the researcher believes that his controversial public role can probably be best analysed from the aspect of his role as the bishop of Transtibiscan region. Beyond his own commitment, in one of the most difficult periods of the region, it was his duty, as a high ranking church leader, to playa complex and, in a sense, a balancing role. The research periods are divided according

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