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
158 SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE Poet Árpád Zempléni (1865-1919) was a student in Patak argued, can be learned at home of on one’s own, - these related needs being far outside of the cultural aims of the school. In addition to the above, it is only minor changes in the curriculum which are worth mentioning. In the 1880s, for example, under pressure from the Ministry, public health was added as a subject for theology students. At this time, the disciplines of pedagogy and education theory were placed on new foundations and Lajos Dezső was invited to teach these subjects. 1910 witnessed the implementation of three costly changes, one of these being the inclusion in the curriculum of ‘national economy’ as a new subject, in this way respecting a personal directive issued by the prime minister. The subject material of the topics ‘history of Hungarian Protestant literature’ and ‘Protestant church history’ were separated to be individual courses and practical classes were extended to all four years, where students received training in internal missions and practical pastoral work. At the Academy, students could create their own timetable with the school providing useful assistance to optimize their time. Theology students, much like law students, could choose twelve courses from their own field of study and four more from among the liberal arts courses. The Faculty of Humanities had three professors on staff in 1865. They offered the following courses: János Erdélyi - world literature; Imre Bihari - liberal arts in the modern age, aesthetics and natural law; József Orbán - world history, Hungarian history, Latin literature and cultural history. József Árvay, a professor at the Teacher Training School taught a course in pedagogy. A look at the curriculum of twenty years later, shows that ‘natural law’ as a course was moved to the curriculum of the Academy of Law while ‘basic Hebrew grammar’ was shifted from the theological school curriculum to that of the Faculty of Humanities. During this period in time, József Orbán, Gerzson Szinyei and György Radácsi taught here; from the 1885-86 school year onwards, József Finkey taught pedagogy and the ‘history of liberal arts’. Radácsi was also a part- time professor at the Theological Academy, while Finkey and Orbán bolstered the education program at the Academy of Law with their lectures. Another twenty years later (1905) : György Székely - history of liberal arts, history of philosophical thinking and pedagogy; Sándor Magda - Hebrew grammar; József Rohoska - English; Lajos Nagy - German, Lajos Rácz - French. Zoltán Kun, as medical doctor of the College, also taught ‘public health;’ an external teacher taught a course in agriculture. The seemingly crowded staff list is but an optical illusion for nobody was teaching ‘history of literature’ and ‘cultural history’ that year and György Székely was mostly at the law school and József Rohoska at the theological school and all the language teachers were from the secondary school, meaning that, at the turn of the century, the Faculty of Humanities did not have its own professor. At the theological faculty, in 1865, Gábor Szeremley taught dogmatics, history of dogmatics, symbolism and Hebrew exegesis; József Heiszier - Christian church history and Greek exegesis; Dániel Kolos - liturgy, catechism and Protestant church law; Lajos Szabó was responsible for teaching Hebrew grammar. In 1885, the records show: Gyula Mitrovics - ethics and practical theology; Lajos Warga - church history, symbolism and comparative religious studies;
