Moloch bálvány a templomban. A református öntudat és a reformáció emlékének összekapcsolódása a 18. században a Körös-Maros Közi Szent Társaságban

Hegyi, Ádám Alex (2017) Moloch bálvány a templomban. A református öntudat és a reformáció emlékének összekapcsolódása a 18. században a Körös-Maros Közi Szent Társaságban. Egyháztörténeti Szemle. ISSN 1585-7476 (Unpublished)

Text hegyi-kolozsvar-foszoveg-hu-elszamolashoz.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (331kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Moloch idol in the church. The connection between Reformed consciousness and the memory of the Reformation in the Körös-Maros Region Sacred Society in 18th century Cultural remembrance has a fundamental influence on a community’s identity, which was especially important for the Reformed Church in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th century, because it had to prove with historical data that it had the right for practicing religion. For this purpose many congregations recorded their histories in writing. As in the Southern Great Plain a growing number of congregations were recording the events of their daily lives (registration of births, marriages and deaths, property registration, etc.) in the early 18th century, these church histories can often be found among data in the register of births, marriages and deaths. In 1769 the pastor of the Reformed Diocese in Vadász wrote the history of the congregation, putting it down in the register of births, marriages and deaths that on the eastern side of the church tower there is a Moloch idol. Scientific literature has been writing about a statue with the inscription Moloch for more than a hundred years, but so far no one has clarified the role this statue played in the 18th century life of the Reformed Church in Vadász yet. There is nothing surprising about a Reformed pastor being annoyed by the presence of such a statue in the church building. What is much more interesting is that in the history of the congregation he is trying to prove that Vadász had joined the Reformation movement already in the middle of the 16th century, and that the church decoration that is characteristic of Catholics remained in the building by accident. The Körös-Maros Region Sacred Society was operating in the southeast of the Kingdom of Hungary, fighting Catholicism and trying to justify its historical past throughout the 18th century. In the process of searching for its historical identity, they placed the emphasis on the events of the Reformation and on proving the continuous Reformed presence – examples of this can be found in the histories of several congregations, for instance in Szentes, Hódmezővásárhely, Makó, Vadász, etc. In my presentation I intend to introduce the diocese’s perception of the Reformation and what kind of historical sources they were using for this.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item