{"id":826,"date":"2026-05-18T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T10:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/thema-and-thema21\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T21:59:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T19:59:53","slug":"thema-and-thema21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/thema-and-thema21\/","title":{"rendered":"TH\u00c9MA and th\u00e9ma21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the Heidelberg Catechism states in its 54th question and answer, the Holy Church is eternal: \u201efrom the beginning to the end of the world,\u201d the Son of God gathers His people into His communion. At the same time, the problems associated with the human aspect of the Holy Church are also eternal. We must speak of both. <\/p>\n\n

Following a <\/span>Barth<\/span>-c<\/span>onference<\/span> on 7 April 1997, a group of pastors from the <\/span>Danub<\/span>ian<\/span> and the Transdanubian<\/span> Reformed <\/span>Church Districts<\/span> discussed how to create opportunities for theological <\/span>discussion<\/span> within the Church, independent of established ‘interest groups’. This marked the beginning of the TH\u00c9MA (Theological Life Today)<\/span><\/span>[1]<\/a><\/sup> Protestant Study Group’s history. Two years later, in parallel with the registration process in 1999, the group launched the<\/span><\/span> \"théma\"\/journal. The journal aimed to create a space in the church’s public sphere that did not previously exist.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

We<\/span> sought<\/span> to<\/span> present<\/span> the<\/span> church’s<\/span> current<\/span> situation<\/span>. <\/span>We<\/span> wanted<\/span> to<\/span> provide<\/span> an <\/span>unvarnished<\/span> diagnosis<\/span> of <\/span>our<\/span> current<\/span> situation<\/span>. <\/span>Theologians<\/span>, <\/span>historians<\/span>, <\/span>sociologists<\/span>, <\/span>lawyers<\/span>, <\/span>psychologists<\/span>, <\/span>educators<\/span>, <\/span>economists<\/span> and <\/span>managers<\/span> all<\/span> contributed<\/span>. <\/span>Looking<\/span> back <\/span>at<\/span> the<\/span> published<\/span> issues<\/span> of<\/span><\/span> \"théma\"\/–, it is clear that the anomalies uncovered in the first ten years following the regime change, and the problems detected twenty years later, have not disappeared. Even after another fifteen years, these issues persist.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Therefore, it is entirely appropriate that we continue to consider how we think about and speak of God today. Do we even talk about Him? Does theological discourse exist, and if so, what is it like? There are no taboo topics, yet we have many questions. Why have people turned away from the Church? The relationship between the church and political power is still\u2014perhaps even more so\u2014relevant to consider. What is the relationship between theology and politics? And so on. <\/p>\n\n

The fact that the TH\u00c9MA study group ceased its activities, including regular community discussions and conferences, after Professor L\u00e1szl\u00f3 K\u00f3sa made public the list of church agents he had uncovered at our 2010 conference and published it in our journal, is significant in itself. Without the association\u2019s activities, the journal also ran out of steam. <\/p>\n\n

Another reason for the association\u2019s decline was that some of its members took up significant positions in the church, politics and higher education following the 2002 church elections. However, as a result, the diagnoses and proposed remedies presented to the public by the association had very little impact on the life of the church. <\/p>\n\n

In 2011, Istv\u00e1n Szab\u00f3, who was then in his second term as bishop, lamented that \u201eOur church has no real forum for debate. Not even TH\u00c9MA is really a forum for debate.\u201d Despite the increasing number of schools of the church, the number of young people in the church is dwindling. Meanwhile, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 T\u0151k\u00e9czky, a historian and chief clerk of the church district, continues to regard the failure to engage the intelligentsia and the lack of their theological education as the most glaring shortcomings.[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n

To this day, there is no active public discourse within the church. Theological and church-political writings appear in traditional channels such as Teol\u00f3giai Szemle, Confessio and Reform\u00e1tusok Lapja<\/em>, as well as on the websites of the MRE and church districts. These are generally devoid of lively discourse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

There are smaller online platforms that are either not well known enough or have become closed off, so they do not reach many readers or listeners who could respond to the issues raised. Podcasts and other online discussions have also failed to foster in-depth theological exchange. <\/p>\n\n

Yet there is a great need for as many open and public forums as possible where people can express themselves, engage in conversation and form opinions if they wish to serve the Church. Only through ongoing discourse can we foster shared theological thinking, process the ever-changing events of daily life and craft responses to them. Moreover, this is how we can move beyond formulating retrospective responses to society forced into a corner by political decisions, and instead offer prophetic, forward-looking statements.<\/p>\n\n

As<\/span> the<\/span> former<\/span> editor-in-<\/span>chief<\/span> of <\/span>the<\/span><\/span> \"théma\"\/journal, I am therefore pleased to support the launch of th\u00e9ma21. I hope it will provide an opportunity for open, honest yet committed expressions and dialogues, both humanly, spiritually and even professionally. The topic (thema) is given…<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Heidelberg Catechism states in its 54th question and answer, the Holy Church is eternal: \u201efrom the beginning to the end of the world,\u201d the Son of God gathers His people into His communion. At the same time, the problems associated with the human aspect of the Holy Church are also eternal. We must<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[73,70,74,71,72],"article_keyword":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-editor","tag-introduction","tag-mission","tag-thema","tag-thema21","author_publications-szerzo-595"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"article_keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_keyword?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}