FrancisDavid-What Has Endured of His Life and Work

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FRANCIS DVID

What has endured of his life and work?

by Bla Varga

Translated by Rev. Vilma Szantho Harrington

Budapest, 1981

ISBN 963 00 0425 9

Kiadja a Magyar Unitrius Egyhz H-1055 BUDAPEST V., Nagy Ignc u. 4.

Felels kiad: DR. FERENCZ JZSEF

Sajt al rendezte: SZENT-IVNYI ILONA

LECTORI-SALUTEM

The Hungarian Unitarian Church in 1979 marked the four hundredth year anniversary of the martyrdom of the founder of the Unitarian Church, FrancisDavid.

In this same year the leadership of the church made a new effort to publish someworks relating to his life and work. Most of these were published in Hungarian.

Today we are aware of an interest among the English speaking Unitarians,particularly, and among liberal religionists of our international community, inwhat Hungarian Unitarians have been saying since this religion was founded in

the 16th century.


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To serve this interest we have chosen one of the essays of Dr. Bela Varga,Professor of Ethics and Philosophy at the Unitarian Theological Seminary atKolozsvar (now Napoca), and later Bishop. This study of Dr. Varga's on what is

permanent in Francis David's ideas was written for the three hundred and fiftieth

anniversary of his martyrdom. His conclusions are as meaningful to us today asfifty years ago. What is true is eternal, and what is eternal is everlasting. Weasked the Rev. Vilma Szantho Harrington to do the translation. She studiedunder Dr. Varga, and still considers herself a follower of that great mind andsoul. Rev, Vilma Szantho was married to the Rev. Donald Harrington in 1939 inBudapest, and returned to the U.S.A. Ever since then their ministry has been aclose link between our American and Hungarian churches. For generalinformation let me point out that Hungarian Unitarianism has since 1918 hadtwo branches. The larger branch is in Transylvania, Roumania, where 90% ofUnitarians live. The ministers preach in the Hungarian language. The smaller

branch of 10% is in Hungary, mostly in Budapest. Several of our HungarianUnitarian ministers have studied abroad, in England and in the U.S A. Most ofthem are acquainted with the writings of their fellow Unitarians abroad.

Humbly, and with love, we offer this essay to our worldwide liberal religiouscommunity, in the hope that it may provoke some dialogue between us. We lookforward to discussion, and are ready to answer questions.

Let me quote from one of the sermons of Francis David, which he delivered in

1569 at Gyulafehervr: "bread is to nourish and strengthen our body, likewisethe teaching of Jesus is bread to nourish our soul." May this publication also be

bread to our liberal religious community across all boundaries.

Budapest

Dr. Joseph Ferencz, Bishop

Church historians have still an important task before them, namely to put the lifeand work of Francis David into a proper perspective. Francis David was not only

a Hungarian genius, but Humanism's spiritual enlightenment came to flower inhis work and person. He can be regarded as one of the outstanding figures of


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mankind. There are three reasons that the name of Francis David has not yetentered the Pantheon of intellectual and spiritual giants. First, because he wasHungarian, second, because he tried to stir up the thinking of people in an areawhich still lives today in a pre-Francis David time, and still stubbornly holds on

to those ideas, fearing that one step forward would be the end; the third reason inthat church historians have done a very limited research on his behalf.

To properly understand Francis David's place in the intellectual unfolding ofWestern culture, we have to glance at it dialectically. The first great Europeanthinker was Plato, who searched for the universal and eternal in this world in therealm of thoughts and ideas, ideas which are beyond the senses and beyond theexperiential world, that are not limited to space and time. He taught that theworld we live in and experience is a mere shadow, a faint reflection of the realmof Permanence and Truth. The realm of Truth and Permanence is calledTranscendent, meaning that it is beyond and above the boundaries of humanexperience. All that is eternal and of permanent value belong to thistranscendent realm. God Himself, the highest idea, the embodiement of good,who draws to himself the millions of created beings by the power of love whichHe radiates constantly, belongs to that transcendent realm. This was a great andnew utterance in so long ago as the 4th century B.C. When Plato presented thisidea of the transcendent to the European thinkers, the response to it was two-fold. Firstly, there was an effort to search out the particulars of theTranscendent.

Secondly, the philosophers sought to discover how the transcendent reality isreflected in man's soul, and attempted to understand that transcendent reality

better through man's intellect. This effort was indeed daring-to say that not onlythe transcendent, but also man himself is somehow the possessor of truth, andthat man is capable of expressing the truth. This point of view locating access totruth and the permanent in man himself is called the immanental view,emphasizing human potentiality and human creativity, as contrasting with thetranscendent, which emphasizes the other-worldly, beyond human experience.

The main question of the immanental view is how the divine is reflected inman's soul, or in other words, what is divine in man?

Ever since Plato outlined this challenging idea, ever since he developed theconcept of a transcendent and an enduring truth, humanity has been struggling tounderstand it, to draw closer to it, to unite with it. This struggle towards thetranscendent is the hallmark of the post-Platonian thinking in Western Europe.This desire for the experience of divine immanence is constant, it isinextinguishable in man; to stop it or to squelch it would be death itself. Inenlightened and more intellectually developed man, this desire for knowing thetruth of the transcendent becomes stronger and stronger. It is the divine spirit in


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man which encourages him to struggle for the God within, or even against theGod without. But, even when he battles against God, even then he does it forGod, for the God-like within himself. The first step in this struggle was made byAristotle, and although he does not solve the problem, he introduces the

concepts of evolution and organic unity, which are the main foundations of theimmanental school of thought. The appearance of Jesus was an important turn-ing point in this struggle. He brought the transcendent world quite close to thespirit of man. His method was not to philosophize, nor to deal solely withabstract thought, but rather he presented and portrayed the reality of God, as Heis, and as He is realizable in the Kingdom of God. In the teachings of Jesus theconcepts of the transcendent and the immanent find each other in acomplementary manner, in which the suffering, unhappy person can find hisown salvation in the capability to be re-born, and can recognize the values whichenable man to be perfect. He gives guidelines as to how a human being can

become a true citizen of the Kingdom of God. He points to the fact that thepotentiality for it exists in the human spirit. "The Kingdom of God is withinyou." With this statement the idea of the divine immanence entered into theconsciousness of man, perhaps for the first time. According to Karl Bhm, it is amistake to say that Jesus did not apply his idea of the Kingdom to this earthlyexistence. He realized it within his own small circle, and made it theresponsibility of his disciples to bring it about in the larger community. Thedeath of Jesus and the fact that he did not return as expected, weakened theimmanental idea. Then came Apostle Paul, who took a giant step to make

Christianity totally transcendent. It is undeniable that in the Gospel the tran-scendent idea dominates. Joseph Nagy says that the historian who writes in thevein of transcendent philosophy (theology) really writes of myths and legends.He writes not of every day happenings in the life of his hero, but infuses theevents with transcendent power. This is why in the Gospels the events of Jesus'life are often shrouded in supernatural power. Threads of the "other world" shinethrough the Gospel. In Pauline thinking, these threads are woven into a strongcloth of full theology. Thus, Christianity, the religion of the heart, of love wassoon transferred into a "faith." The next step was the founding of the Church;

then dogma and later theology. These steps led Christianity a few hundred yearsafter Jesus' death almost wholly in a transcendent direction. Christianity in theMiddle Ages was absolutely under the rule of the Roman Church and herdogmas. Philosophy itself served the Church. To mention only one of thedogmas which deeply influenced the thinking of the Christian world, the deity ofJesus was promulgated at the Council of Nicaea. After that, Christianity wascentered on the transcendent. The first three centuries continued to struggleagainst it. It seems to us that men always had a great need of a transcendentconcept of "being." Thus, the Church was upholding and with her dogma

safeguarding it. The Christian world waited a long time for the return of Jesus,waited for miracle, and when it did not happen, the Church created a miracle


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herself, making Jesus God, very God of very God. With this, the transcendentconcept in Christianity conquered. A faint light of the immanental view lived onin the closed, secret rooms of monasteries. Those who were not satisfied withthe dogmas of the Church, but searched for truth themselves, were called

mystics. Mystics are those who tried to find God in their own innermost souls,and not just through the dogmas of the Church. Roman Catholicism has manysaints from the ranks of those monastic persons, although they were the oneswho were seeking in separate personal ways their spiritual union with God, andupheld the idea that the fountain of every theology and religion is in theindividual soul. Thus the mystics kept alive the immanental concept in a veryspecial and particular way. The 15th century rediscovered man, anatomicallyand socially, the 16th century rediscovered him, religiously as well. This is thetime of Christianity's reorientation and reorganization the time ofReformation. In essence the Reformation is the effort to bring man's attention

back to himself after centuries of alienation by the transcendental concept of theChurch. The Reformation's great importance in the spiritual evolution ofhumankind was to bring back the concept of immanence into the consciousnessof each individual. It was not able to totally fulfil this task because it did notdare to do so radically. Luther, the most outstanding figure of the Reformation,did not even want to break away from the established Church. Circumstancesforced him to go as far as he did in helping man to find his salvation evenoutside the Church, by emphasizing the individual soul's potential, which upuntil then was completely in the hands of the Church. Luther worked hard for

the re-establishment of the importance of the individual in every area of society,but walked carefully in the field of theology. Through his ideas of individualism,God was brought nearer to the person. But he dared not to touch the Church's

power as the keeper of the Transcendent. Thus, he replaced the Pope with theabsolute authority of the Bible.

Luther did try to lift Christianity out of the tight grip of the transcendent powerconcept, power centered in and exercised by the Church. He gently re-introduced the ennobling concept of the immanent. But, John Calvin was

concerned that, by going too far, the Reformation itself would be jeopardized.He put himself and the Bible into the seat of authority. Calvin was theconservative power in Protestantism. He is the founder of the Protestant Church,a real Protestant Pope. Dilthey says that Calvin put brakes on the possibility of afully developed Protestant Reformation. He held back the immanental conceptin Christianity. Man was thrown back into the same helpless position he was in

before the Reformation. The pendulum of Christianity swung again towards thetranscendent, from which Luther's teaching had tried to push it forward.

Francis David, when he began his reformation did not fully realize that hiswould be the task of bringing to fulfilment the promise of Protestant


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Reformation, in its highest goal, namely, to bring back into Christianity theimma-nental, the here-and-now potentiality of the Kingdom of God. WhatFrancis David began in the 16th century came to gradual fruition in the freeChristian movements of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Not altogether by

himself, but under the influences of people abroad and at home, Francis Daviddared to touch dogmas of the Church which other reformers did not evenattempt. He lifted the teaching of Christianity from the premises it had rested onfor centuries and placed it upon a new foundation. In this lies his importance asa reformer. He came to his conclusions through many years of study, and

because of his personality and genius, he could not have arrived at any otherconclusions than those he finally proclaimed. Francis David's reformation is theclosest to Luther's ideas, and with the help of Luther's conclusions, he brings tofulfilment the ideas of the real reformation: namely, to re-establish theindividual's worth in the secular and ethical sense. He accomplished this withoutdenying the transcendent power in life. He lived so deeply in the ideology andtheology of the 16th century that he had not even imagined the immanentalwithout the transcendental, without a permanent, all pervasive truth. That laterrationalism and humanism would deny the transcendent power could not have

been foreseen by David. He wanted to enrich Christianity by reaching backbeyond Pauline thinking, to the Gospel itself. He restated the immanental char-acter of Christian teaching. He emphasized again the divine potential of thehuman soul, the noble ideas of man's mind, for which Jesus himself borewitness. Yet, some like Lszl Ravasz, late Bishop of the Calvinist Church in

Hungary, in this century called David destructive. If his teaching is destructive,in the same sense the whole Protestant Reformation could be called destructive.We realize in David's thinking, his work and in the results of his life a veryconstructive synthesis of the transcendent and immanent aspects of Christiantheology. This synthesis is absolutely essential if Christianity wants to remain aconstructive, creative force in the cultural progress of mankind. This was proved

by the religionists of the 19th and 20th centuries. In accordance with theteachings of Jesus, we must give God what is God's and give man what is man's.One other criticism of Francis David's ideas was that he allowed reason to play

too important a role in faith. It is true that David dared to reason about doctrineswhich until then had been beyond the boundaries of reason. Yet, this did notcause him to divorce his ideas from the emotional aspects of religion. It is a fact,though, that Francis David and the religion which sprang from his inspiration,gave more importance to reason than other branches of Christianity were willingto. In Unitarianism sober reasoning became an essential part of the immanentaland the transcendental elements of Christianity. This insistence on reason savedUnitarianism from ever becoming a mere onesided, subjective religion, whichsubjectivity could lead to mysticism.


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We know that in the Middle Ages mysticism was a common factor. Luther andCalvin gave no importance to any kind of mystical experience. Calvin himselfdenied the value of mystical revelation. Yet in the 18th century, mysticism didappear in both Lutheranism and Calvinism.

The Church had to close her eyes to it, because she could do nothing against it.Later this resulted in the formation of many different kinds of sects.

In Unitarianism, such aberrations did not occur, and we can thank FrancisDavid's insistence on the use of reason for this. Only the use of sober reason can

prevent extreme swings from one side to the other, to the objective transcendent,or subjective immanental view of religion. And, any extreme which disregardsknowledge and reason is damaging to the soul. Religion makes its demandsupon the whole person, and requires his whole intellectual self. Thus, it is

impossible to exclude mind and reasoning from religious concepts. In the fieldof religion, as in the field of science, the helpful effects of the use of knowledgeare evident, and any effort which would seek to exclude reason and knowledgefrom the field of religion would resemble the efforts of the man standing on a

branch of a tree who begins to saw the branch from under himself. The narrow,onesided outlook is dangerous whether it be rationalism or emotionalism.

We cannot resist the thought that there is some similarity between Francis Davidand Emanuel Kant's endeavors. What Kant did in opposition to philosophical

dogmatism, Francis David did in the field of theological dogmatism. David isthe founder of theological criticism. The theological thinking which heintroduced is just as opposite to Christian dogmatism as Kant's theory ofknowledge is to metaphysical dogmatism. In David's concept, the ethical im-

perative of the free will plays as important a role as it does in Kantian ethics.Kant's concept of Christianity searches beyond Pauline theology to the Gospel,so does David's. At the beginning of the 19th century Kant is spoken of as the

philosopher of Protestantism. Later the Prussian government forbade him tospeak on religious issues and he was not even recognized as a Christian he

who gave to mankind the most magnificent writings in the field of ethicalscience. In like manner many would deny Francis David the title of being aChristian.

David had no time to put into writing most of his theological theories, but thathe was clear about them is proven by important steps he took. One of these wasthe calling the Diet of Torda which he instituted and which was accomplishedaccording to his concept. This was in 1568, when religious freedom became thelaw of the land. The law said that the ministers of religion were allowed to

preach the Gospel according to their own understanding and interpretation. The

members of the Church were free to accept or not to accept the interpretation ofthe minister. It was forbidden to imprison or persecute anyone for his


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interpretations of religion, because faith is a gift of God. We deem the result ofthe Torda Diet great because it expresses a universal idea, longing for freedomof the human soul. Through the centuries this longing was often squelched, butnever fully, because history lives on. The Edict of Toleration of 1568 is a

document which we must not forget. The Reformation begun by David wascarried forward and developed by the 18th and 19th century thinkers in Europe.Out of the concept of the immanent flows the concept of individualism. Thevalue of the individual, freedom of conscience, freedom of inquiry, of tolerancein religion, in politics these became the basis of modern democracy. Freedom,equality, the peoples' sovereignty, would remain empty concepts if we were totake away from them faith in the nourishing power of the in-dwelling God.These, then were the foundation stones which Francis David set in the structureof European culture. We are interested in this because individualismacknowledges man's spiritual, inner value, which is denied by a one-sided viewof the transcendent. Individualism, as a concept, has been greatly enlargedthrough the centuries, so much so that today it is not even individualism, but

personalism. Personalism which in the beginning had many negativeconnotations, today is a part of every branch of intellectual persuasion.Individualism begins where and when the person discovers in himself theUniversal, when he is able and willing to act beyond his own personalinterest, when he gives his talents in the service of others. This kind of

personalism carries with it the realization of being a child of God. IstvnSchneller is the Hungarian exponent of this idea. Personalism has a larger and

deeper meaning than individualism. Individualism can be a separating divisiveconcept; personalism recognizes the transcendent as an immanental power; thus,the person accepts Jesus' calling, "Be ye the children of God." Freedom ofconscience has two sides one refers to faith and the other to morality. Wherethere is freedom of conscience in the area of faith, the independent moral senseof responsibility is also strengthened, so that morality, faith, ethics and religionare fused into one. Channing is a classic representative of this idea. He empha-sized not only the religious but the ethical aspect of Unitarianism, and thedemands of society on the person if he is to be that noble creature. Bunsen calls

Channing the great prophet of the 19th century. Renan calls him the saint of the19th century. Shall we also speak of Martineau, who deepened the thought ofthe immanental in the field of theology, and further built philosophically onwhat was begun by David ? Otto Pfleiderer calls Martineau the greatest

personality in the field of religion in the 19th century. But perhaps even greaterwas Dostoyevsky, who goes deeper into the sould of struggling, suffering man,where he finds and interprets the immanental power in the conscience, wich isman's passport to immorality. Religious toleration is the natural outcome of

personalism and freedom of conscience. David was the image of this. In his

discussions he was always patient and tolerant towards others, which was ararity in those days. The wording of the Diet of Torda is the best example of


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this. In the name of Unitarianism, there was no blood shed which always resultsfrom intolerance, and in this respect particularly it stood the test of theChristianity of Jesus. It is regretable that after the death of King JohnSigismund, the rulers who followed him Istvan Bathori and Gabor Bethlen

had little regard for the idea of tolerance. But the gift of the Diet of Torda livedon to enrich our lives even today. Francis David is still the greatest teacher ofthe Hungarian people; not only of them, but of all nations. A leading ProtestantChurchman remarked in his writings about Francis David that, "David couldhardly be called a Unitarian because his denomination once excommunicatedhim, but if he were living today he would excommunicate the Unitarian Church.He was undeniably the greatest among them, and one of the greatest intellectualheroes of that age." We know that George Blandrata in 1579 rallied twenty-fiveUnitarian ministers around himself, who represented not even one-tenth of theUnitarian ministry of that time, and they broke with Francis David. The realreason for this could have been that Blandrata's political sense told him that bythis act the future of the Unitarian Church might be protected. This, then, is thesource of the statement that his denomination had once excommunicated FrancisDavid. The statement that Francis Dvid would excommunicate the UnitarianChurch is the author's personal opinion. But as long as this has been said wemust deal with it. The author of this attack on Unitarianism was perhaps moti-vated by the fact, that 20th century Unitarians have greatly advanced fromorthodox theology. They do not, for instance, accept every word and letter of theBible as the only revelation of God; furthermore, Unitarianism lived completely

in the 18th century rationalism, that David, who after all lived in the 16thcentury culture, could not foresee or recognize. The facts are that a goodCatholic cannot believe anything but what his church teaches. It seems to us thata good orthodox Protestant cannot progress any further than the 16th century inthe field of his faith. But the followers of Francis David cannot allow themselvesto stop where he left off in the 16th century. This would, in essence, be a denialof his spirit.

David's main purpose was not just to establish a new denomination which would

be recognized as an absolute authority, and close its eyes before progress of thehuman mind and soul. According to him the individual, and the search for truth,are above all dogmas, and the progress comes from within; it is immanent. Hisfollowers mean to engage in a constant struggle to understand the Gospel, tofind the universal and the permanent in it, beyond any dogma of orthodoxChristianity. This, man can do through knowledge. As the Scripture says "Youwill know the truth, and the truth will make you free." And through improving,

perfecting one's character, again according to the Scriptures, "Be ye perfect, asyour Father which is in heaven is perfect." In Unitarianism the authority of the

church is not as dicisive as it is in the Catholic and orthodox Protestantchurches. This is why Unitarianism demands a high degree of discipline and


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responsibility from those who adhere to it. Thus, those who understand FrancisDavid's spirit must always struggle to deepen the spiritual and ethical life ofhumankind. Unitarians must pay attention to past and present discoveries whichelucidate their understanding of the Gospel, and enhance man's moral and spirit-

ual nature. In this vein we referred earlier to Channing and Martineau. Historycan prove that when an age is controlled entirely by the established church, thereresults a stultifying effect, on culture, on religion itself and on society on thewhole.

For these reasons we find unjustifiable the thought that David wouldexcommunicate present day Unitarians. In addition, we find the statementmisleading and unjust because we cannot and will not recognize the right of histo excommunicate us, as indeed, he did not, as we do not recognize Loyola's orCalvin's right in this matter. The criterion of a Christian is not what kind ofchurch he belongs to. The criterion is Jesus what would he say and howwould he judge our life and faith? In Dostoyevsky's novel The BrothersKaramazov, Jesus appeared before the inquisitor, who represents Christianity,and is the defender of the church. The inquisitor, speaks at great length; Jesusdoes not utter a single word, and departs in silence. We can learn from this thatwith all of our disputing and differing dogmas we can be very far from him if wedo not act in the spirit of love and compassion.

We live in an age where we analyze rather than sympathize, even at the

graveside we discuss rather than grieve. Here we tried to capture the spirit of agreat and kind man who died in the dungeon of intolerance and hate. Humanityhas many martyrs who died because they were not understood by theircontemporaries. We must have faith that they did not die in vain. We mustcontinually strive to redeem their deaths by the power of thought, love andunderstanding.

INDEX OF PERSONS

ARISTOTLE


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(Stagiros 384 B.C.-Chalais 322 B.C.)Greek metaphysical philosopher. His works mainly contain: logical, scientifical,metaphysical, and ethical trends.

BATHORI, Istvn(Somlyo 1533-Grodno 1586)Prince of Transylvania since 1571 till 1575; from 1575 on he was King ofPoland and remained till his death.

BETHLEN, Gbor

(Illye 1580-Alba Julia 1629)Prince of Transylvania since 1613; King of Hungary from 1620 on.

BLANDRATA, Georg(Saluzzo 1515-Transylvania 1588)Italian medical doctor and a religious reformer. In 1563 he was appointed as

physician and counsellor of Prince John Sigismund.He had worked together with Francis David, but later in 1578-79 he opposedDavid, and was partly responsible of his trial.

BHM, Karl(Besztercebanya 1846-Kolozsvar 1911)Hungarian philosopher. He studied in Gttingen, Tubingen and Berlin. Professorof philosophy in Kolozsvar since 1896; member of the Hungarian Academy ofSciences since 1908.

His main work: "Man and his World" (1883)Varga quoted from his work: K. Bohm: The Phenomenology of Values till the16th Century (Athenaeum, 1913)

BUNSEN, Christian(Torbach 1791-Bonn 1860)

German diplomat and theologian. His main work: "Gott in der Geschichte oderder Fortschritt des Glaubens" (1858-70 in 9 volumes)


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CALVIN, Jean(Noyon 1509-Geneva 1564)

French reformer of Geneva. In 1541 he was invited into Geneva by theConsistory. He wrote many sermons and gave many lectures. His mostimportant work is "Institutio"

CHANNING, William, Ellery(Newport 1780-Bennington 1842)American religious reformer and theologian. He became Unitarian minister in1819. He was interested in spiritual and social questions. "Works" (1841)

DAVID, Francis(Kolozsvar 1520-Deva 1579)Founder of Unitarianism and the first Unitarian bishop, between 1568-79.Studied in Wittenberg. After he returned to Transylvania he was minister of theKolozsvar Church, and for a few years waschaplain of Prince John Sigismund.

His principal works are: in Latin: "De falsa et vera..." (1568) in Hungarian:"Rvid magyarzat..." (Short explainment..,, 1567)

DILTHEY, Wilhelm(Biebrich 1833-Seis am Schlern 1911)German philosopher. He made a great contribution to the history of ideas. In1882 he became professor of philosophy in Berlin and member of the Academyof Sciences. He made an important influence on his contemporary thinkers.

DOSTOYEVSKY, Feodor, M.(Moscow 1821-St. Petersburg 1881)Excellent Russian novellist. "Crime and Punishment" (1866)Varga quoted from his work "The Brothers Karamazov" (1880)

JOHN, SIGISMUND (Buda 1540-Alba Julia 1571)


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Shortly after his birth he was elected King of Hungary. Between 1555-71 he wasPrince of Transylvania. About 1568 he became Unitarian and was a very openminded leader.

KANT, Emanuel(Konigsberg 1724-1804)Great German philosopher. Since 1770 he was professor of philosophy.His main work: "Kritik der reinen Vernunft" (1770-81)

LOYOLA, Ignatius (Loyola 1491-Rome 1556)Founder of the Society of Jesus. Studied in Paris. Made lots of travellings. HisChristian doctrine and reforming moral teachings are important. "Spiritual

Exercises" (1548)

LUTHER, Martin(Eisleben 1483-1546)Great German reformer, founder of the Lutheran Church. He studied at Erfurt,was ordained and became professor of theology in Wittenberg.

MARTINEAU, James(Norwich 1805-London 1900) \

English metaphisical philosopher and Unitarian minister. His ethical andreligious philosophical works are important. Professor of philosophy inManchester since 1840, from 1853 he was professor in London."The Relation between Ethics and Religion" (1881) "The Seat of Authority inReligion" (1885)

NAGY, Jzsef, later called HALASY-NAGY, Jzsef (Ercsi 1885-Hajduszoboszl 1976)

Hungarian philosopher. Professor of philosophy in Pcs since 1921. He was an

idealist of theory of values. "History of Philosophy" (1921); "Man and World"(1940) Varga quoted from his work: "The Idea of Developement" (Athenaeum,1929)

PFLEIDERER, Otto (Stetten 1839-Berlin 1908)Lutheran theologian. Professor of systematic theology in Berlin, since 1875. Heopposed Harnack's conception of history of dogmas.


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PLATO(Athen 427 B.C.-Athen 348 B.C.?)Great Greek philosopher. Desciple of Socrates. Philosophical dialogues and

political works.

RAVASZ, Lszl(Bnffyhunyad 1882-Budapest 1975)Calvinist professor in Kolozsvr, later bishop between 1921-48 in Budapest.Important theological writer. Varga quoted from his work: "Homiletics" (1915)

RENAN, Ernst(Tregnier 1823-Paris 1892)

French religious writer and scientist. He was interested in oriental and Christianhistory of religion. Since 1862 he lectured in the "College de France". His mainwork: "Vie de Jesus"

SCHNELLER, Istvn(Koszeg 1847-Budapest 1939)Lutheran theologian and professor of pedagogy in Kolozsvr and Budapest. Hestudied in Berlin and Halle. Pedagogical and historical writer.

The Index was compiled by Rev. Ilona Szent-Ivnyi


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FrancisDavid-What Has Endured of His Life and Work

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