Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)

1958-08-01 / 8. szám

FRATERNITY

13

It is a very condensed translation by the late Rev. Louis Nanassy, D. D., and was published as a reprint from the Reformed Church Review in 1907. This booklet of 66 pages provides but a mere glance at the colorful history of the Hungarian Reformed Church.

In addition to these three works covering the field of Protestant Church History in Hungary, a few monographs in English were also published, the enumeration of which we may omit.

The very first modern attempt to give an accurate and usable version of the History of the Hungarian Reformed Church is represented by this present volume. Its co-authors are Mihály Bucsay, Endre Toth, Zoltán Varga and Sándor Biro, a brilliant ensemble of younger church historians. Their voluminous book, “A Magyar Református Egyház Története” (History of the Hungarian Reformed Church), was published in 1949. It was prepared and edited under the guidance of the Rt. Rev. Imre Revesz, Th. D., a former professor of Church History at the University of Debrecen and a former Bishop of the Trans-Tibiscan Church District, who is the foremost church historian of Hungary. The preface was also written by him.

The translation and the abridgement of the book was prepared by Prof. George A. F. Knight of Dunedin, New Zealand. Before World War II, between 1935 and 1940, Professor Knight was a minister-in-charge of the Scotland (Jewish) Mission in Budapest where he learned Hungarian (and married a Hungarian lady). From 1941 to 1946, he was minister of a parish in Glasgow. At the present time, since 1947, he is professor of Old Testament Studies in Knox College, Dunedin, New Zealand. It is interesting to note here that Professor Knight is a great-grandson of the Rev. Alexander Somerville who conducted a great evangelistic mission in Hungary in 1887-88. This mission was greatly influential in the renewal of the life of the Reformed Church in modern times.

After the War, Professor Knight returned to Hungary and spent some time there. This is