Unitarian Church Transylvania

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The Unitarian Church of Transylvania ( Hungarian : Erdélyi Unitárius Egyház , Romanian : Biserica Unitariană din Transilvania ) is a Unitarian church in what is now Romanian Transylvania . The church was founded in 1568 and is mostly Hungarian . The Transylvanian Unitarians are a founding member of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists .

history

The Reformation in Transylvania was mainly Lutheran in the first few years . Johannes Honterus , who introduced the Lutheran Reformation in Kronstadt in 1542, can be named as an important reformer . Reformed positions later gained influence. It was only with Giorgio Biandrata and Franz Davidis that anti-Trinitarian ideas spread. In January 1566 Davidis gave his first anti-Trinitarian sermon in St. Michael's Church in Cluj , which was to remain one of the main churches of the Transylvanian Unitarians until 1716. With the Edict of Torda in 1568, the Unitarians, together with the other Reformation denominations and the Catholics, were formally recognized by the Transylvanian state parliament as a religious community with equal rights. At that time, Unitarian communities formed mainly in the Hungarian Szeklerland . The Transylvanian Unitarians had great influence at times. The conversion of the Hungarian King Johann Sigismund Zápolya can be named as an example. The positions of the Unitarians in Hungary and Transylvania were essentially similar to those of the Polish Brothers in Poland and Lithuania. However, the Polish Unitarians were even more influenced by the radical Reformation Anabaptist movement , which was reflected in their rejection of military service. After the Polish-Lithuanian brothers were expelled by the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the middle of the 17th century, some of them joined the Transylvanian Unitarians as exiles.

From the internal church dispute about nonadorantism (≈ not worshiping Jesus), the Sabbatarians split off at the end of the 16th century , celebrating the Sabbath instead of Sunday and later approaching Judaism. In 1782 the Unitarian confessional Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios was published, which should summarize the main points of the Unitarian faith. After Transylvania was annexed to Romania, the first Unitarian community was established in Bucharest in 1933 .

The Unitarians in Transylvania are one of eighteen recognized religious communities in Romania today. The number of members is around 80,000. There are five dean's offices (seniorates) with a total of around 125 parishes, which are mainly located in and around Cluj-Napoca and in the Szeklerland. The seat of the superintendent is Cluj-Napoca . Here the Unitarians also run a high school (János Zsigmond Unitárius Kollégium) , which was founded in 1557 and named after the first prince of Transylvania, Johann Sigismund Zápolya . The Protestant Theological College, shared with Reformed and Lutherans, is also located in Cluj-Napoca. One of the Unitarian church buildings in Transylvania is the fortified church of Dersch , which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999 along with six other fortified churches in Transylvania . The Unitarian Church in Transylvania also included the Unitarian congregations in Hungary until 1948/1971 . Since 2010 these have again been linked to the Church in Transylvania.

theology

The theologian József Ferencz wrote a Unitarian Catechism in 1864, which was supposed to summarize the theology of the Transylvanian and Hungarian Unitarians and is now available in a revised edition from 1991. In terms of structure, the catechism is built up dialogically and with 136 questions follows a classic type of question-answer catechism.

The catechism emphasizes the importance of love and reason right from the start . Also, the free will is highlighted (Question 51). God himself is understood as spirit and love (question 32), the ban on images from the Old Testament is confirmed (question 33). Jesus Christ is understood as a human being (question 72), the idea of ​​a Trinity is thus rejected. The Holy Spirit is also not understood as a person, but exclusively as a force (question 88). The idea of original sin is also rejected (question 107). As ceremonies ( sacraments ) are as in the other Protestant churches , the baptism and the Lord's Supper called (question 115). With regard to baptism, in the sense of a Christian spiritualism, it is emphasized that as an external act it does not make one a Christian. Rather, it is faith itself that is decisive. Nonetheless (unlike, for example, the majority of the earlier Polish-Lithuanian Unitarians), infant baptism is maintained because Jesus himself did not leave a preferred time for baptism (question 119). The baptism is later followed by a confirmation (question 123). The Lord's Supper is celebrated purely as a commemorative celebration (question 125), which should take place four times a year (question 134). The idea of ​​a transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ ( transubstantiation ), as taught by the Catholic Church, is rejected. Instead, bread and wine are understood as symbols or symbols (question 129).

Theologically, the Transylvanian Unitarians are in parts close to the Remonstrants (free will, belief in reason), the Reformed (ban on images, symbolic understanding of the Lord's Supper) and the Anabaptists (free will, symbolic understanding of the Lord's Supper, emphasis on confession). As a Christian church, the Transylvanian Unitarians must be distinguished from the humanistic Unitarians who emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Transylvania . In: Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Krause and Gerhard Müller (eds.): Theologische Realenzyklopädie . tape 31 . Berlin 2000, p. 250 ff .
  2. ^ János Zsigmond Unitárius Kollégium
  3. ^ Institutul Teologic Protestant Cluj
  4. ^ József Ferencz: Unitarian Catechism. (pdf)