This magazine is taking a big risk. It could win everything or lose everything. I think this because the relationship between the world and the churches is changing today. Not only here in Hungary, but everywhere in the world, people's feelings are becoming more extreme. Some people are turning away from all kinds of churches, while others are searching for the essence of their own being in the teachings of their church. Politics sometimes accepts, or even exaggerates, the consequences of the coexistence of churches and states, while at other times it can only accept a complete separation. The situation is not clear-cut even within individual churches. The renewal of institutions and giving a voice to lay people and women are on the agenda everywhere and are provoking heated debates. Similarly, the emergence of new churches is fraught with serious emotions.

Dialogue

In the cultural sphere in which we live, Jewish-Christian dialogue is faltering. Anti-Semitism is one of the most serious concerns of every civilized being. Added to this is the fact that there are contradictions within Christianity itself. Some are searching for ways to restore unity, or at least to symbolically represent togetherness, while others strive for the supremacy of their own denomination. On the other side of the coin, indifference is growing in both Western and Eastern Europe. At the same time, uncertainty is also growing. When we watch church ceremonies from the comfort of our armchairs, they easily become mere spectacles.

For now, we do not know how all this affects interest in church history. Are people neglecting church history because they do not consider it essential to everyday decision-making? Do they treat it as a curiosity? Do they call on it to help them navigate the endless stream of information? Do they accept its findings in the same way as those from any other branch of historical science? Anything is possible.

Institution

Given these external circumstances, the situation of the old, established church history journals is not easy either. However, they are helped by the fact that they have an established image and audience. The Church History Review, on the other hand, is now looking for its place in the sun. It must now decide who it is addressing and what it is writing about. It must now clarify how it differs from other church history journals, and it is now under pressure to justify its existence.

I find the editors' introductory statement—which can be read below—appealing. I very much hope that their plans will come to fruition. I wish them many readers! Finally, I would like to see several outstanding personalities emerge from among the young founders of this venture, who will guide the research and train their own students and successors. May the Church History Review serve as a link between the past and the future!

(Excerpt from the first issue of the Church History Review from 2000.)

On Writing Church History

Editorial

After a long hiatus, church history has returned to the forefront of historical interest over the past ten years, and not only have studies on church history appeared and multiplied, but new directions have also emerged alongside the earlier ones.

Since the change of regime, there has been a welcome increase in church history research, and fortunately there are now numerous forums for publication, primarily the excellent periodical Magyar Egyháztörténeti Vázlatok (Outlines of Hungarian Church History). Nevertheless, we believe that there is still plenty of room in this market for a publication specializing exclusively in this discipline, which welcomes researchers interested in church history with an open mind in all directions. We do not in any way seek to compete with existing journals and academic workshops; on the contrary, we wish to cooperate with them and establish the best possible professional relationships in order to achieve the primary goal of the journal: to broaden the opportunities for writing church history in Hungary and to expand the forums for publication and expression. In Hungary, the journal Egyháztörténet (Church History), which was launched during the Second World War, died out after its last brief period of activity (1957-1958), and since then, apart from relevant studies published in Protestant intellectual workshops (in the yearbooks of the Ráday Collection, in Confessio, in Protestáns Szemle, etc.), there has been no other journal dedicated to church history as an independent discipline. We feel that such initiatives are necessary in Hungarian historiography, primarily because the improvement of the quality of relevant historical research depends largely on the continuous operation of such initiatives. We feel that such initiatives are necessary in Hungarian historiography, primarily because the improvement of the quality of relevant historical research depends largely on continuously operating intellectual workshops (such as those centered around a journal).

Institution and theological history

For a long time, church history writing primarily meant exploring institutional history and theological history, and accordingly, its practitioners were mostly church figures. Today, the palette is more colorful, and we encounter a wider range of historical research. The Church History Review aims to give space to both old and new approaches. The start of research shows that the exploration of the history of the church as an institution and of ecclesiastical institutions may reveal many previously unknown details, and not only in relation to the past decades, although there is no doubt that the writers of contemporary church history have a particularly large task ahead of them. However, it seems that precisely because of the long-lasting – and perhaps most damaging – break in church history, this segment of historiography has remained the most dependent on data-driven, positivist, or intellectual history methods. The picture we have so far can be made more complete and nuanced by research that also asks, as far as possible, to what extent religion or the relationship to religion influenced the life, way of thinking, values, customs, and position in local society of individuals and communities. Research that uses auxiliary historical sciences can provide important additions to the history of the church in the Middle Ages. There are also many points of contact between literary history, which also examines the history of spirituality, and church history.

Forum

Nevertheless, the numerous initiatives do not render unnecessary the consultations and forums where participants in ecclesiastical history research, which has begun in many places and in many different ways, can discuss their ideas on methodological issues in ecclesiastical history research. It is our intention that the Review should also serve as a forum for this.

As can be seen from the above, according to the editors of the newly launched Church History Review, church history as a historical discipline encompasses all research aimed at determining the extent to which and how people's situation and thinking in the historical past were shaped by their relationship to religion and the church, how this relationship was objectified or manifested, how the definition of the church changed from era to era, and to what extent all this shaped other aspects of human history. In the past, it was often the case that the images presented by representatives of disciplines that did not communicate with each other necessarily suffered from distortions resulting from one-sided representations. Methodological awareness can only be found in the most outstanding examples of older works on church history. Nevertheless, we definitely intend to examine the history of church historiography itself and to publish works on the history of science.

Ecumenism

Although the editors of our journal and their research topics are more closely linked to Protestant church historiography, we do not wish to narrow the scope of our journal. The main criterion is compliance with the general requirements of historiography (source-centered approach, objectivity, content and external form, high standards, etc.). We therefore welcome any publication related to any historical issue of any denomination within the Judeo-Christian cultural sphere (Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, Unitarian, Israelite, etc.), whether it has a Hungarian or universal historical relevance. We wish to pay particular attention to publications that reflect on the internal, religious activities of Christian churches in the past, as well as the social role of religion and the relationship between state and church. We are sincerely delighted when members of the older generation, who have earned well-deserved respect in the field of Hungarian church history, honor us with their writings, but we would also like to provide publication opportunities for young people, Ph.D. students, representatives of the church intelligentsia, etc., who are conducting high-quality research, even if they are just starting out in their careers. Ph.D. students, representatives of the church intelligentsia, etc.

In addition to the usual categories (studies, announcements), we would like to provide space for debates on church history, reports and reviews of conferences, workshops, exhibitions, and other academic events, as well as attempts by researchers working on similar topics to establish contact with each other, etc.

(The editors of Egyháztörténeti Szemle [Church History Review] – excerpt from the first issue, 2000.)