Un „sfânt” baptist

Titlu: Viața misionarului Mihály Kornya
Titlul original: Kornya Mihály baptista úttörő parasztapostol krónikája
Autor: Bertalan A. Kirner
Traducător: Péter Havas
Localitate: București
Editura Uniunii Bisericilor Creștine Baptiste din România
Anul apariţiei: 2009
Nr. de pagini: 186
ISBN: 978-606-92273-2-9
Preț: 15 RON

Recenzie de Teofil Stanciu

Viața misionarului Mihaly Kornya este o adevărată hagiografie contemporană. Poate că sună ciudat, dacă ne gândim că e vorba despre un misionar baptist, însă scrierea are toate atributele unei hagiografii.

Nu încape vorbă că și personajul principal al cărții este unul absolut remarcabil. Mihaly Kornya (sau, pentru români, Mihai Kornya) a fost un pionier al baptismului din zona de vest a României și cea de est a Ungariei. Păcat că nu a fost inclusă în carte și o hartă a localităților pe unde a evanghelizat și botezat, dar e de ajuns să menționez câteva dintre reperele cele mai îndepărtate, pentru a contura un perimetru de acțiune: Cluj, Brașov, Hunedoara, Reșița, Timișoara, Arad, Curtici, Oradea, Nușfalău, Gyula, Berettyóújfalu, Debrecen.

A botezat în jur de 10.000 de oameni (dintre care vreo 5000 de români), a făcut zeci de mii de kilometri, mai ales pe jos și cu căruța, într-un interval de aproximativ 40 de ani. Era un om simplu, agricultor autodidact din Salonta, cu un har deosebit în cunoașterea și înțelegerea omului. La asta a adăugat și o temeinică aprofundare a Scripturii.

A avut de înfruntat nu numai toate intemperiile vremii și dificultățile pe care le presupuneau călătoriile de la cumpăna dintre secolele XIX și XX, ci și ostilitatea localnicilor, pedepsele oficialilor, adversitatea liderilor altor confesiuni.

Cu un profil de sfânt rătăcitor dârz, a câștigat simpatie chiar și printre adversari. De pildă, episcopul reformat de Debrecen îi dă mână liberă, iar preotul ortodox din Tulca

Read Full Post »

The Theme of Love in C.S. Lewis’ writings, especially in “The Four Loves” (II)

Continuare de aici.

Articol de Valentin Teodorescu

5) Charity (agape)

5.1 The insufficiency of the natural loves

As we saw until now, natural loves are not self-sufficient. Something else – which Lewis consider to be the whole Christian life in one particular relation – must „come to help of the mere feeling if the feeling is to be kept sweet”.

He considers that the natural loves are similar to a garden. A garden „will not fence and weed itself, nor prune its own trees, nor roll and cut its own lawns”. It will remain a garden, as distinct from a wilderness, only if someone does these things to it. When God planted the garden of our nature and caused the flowering, fruiting loves to grow there, He set our wills to „dress” them. Compared with the loves, our will is dry and cold. And until God’s grace comes down, like the rain and the sunshine, we shall use this tool (the will) to little purpose. But its laborious- and largely negative – services are indispensable.

Until now we saw that the loves prove that they are unworthy to take the place of God, by the fact that they cannot even remain themselves and do what they promise without God’s help: Affection can be distorted „when it becomes a need-love that demands affection in turn, as a right, and thus producing hatred”; Or when, in „living for others”, makes their lives unbearable. Friendship can be distorted when the shared interest is evil; or produces arrogance and isolation when the group becomes an „inner ring”. Eros is like Love Himself, in a reflected form; and therefore more liable than the other loves to corruption, to becoming a sort of religion; the god Eros dies or becomes a demon unless he obeys God.[1]

The conclusion is that, even for their own sake, the loves must submit to God if they are to remain the things they want to be: Affection needs a real disinterested charity for the other if it wants to avoid becoming obsessive. Friendship needs to have charity also as a guarantee that the shared interest will not become egoist and evil, and that it will not produce arrogance and isolation, hurting and neglecting the others. Eros needs charity if he wants to keep his promises, especially when the selfishness appear, or when one or both partners become, at least in some respects, unattractive or unworthy of love.

Read Full Post »

The Theme of Love in C.S. Lewis’ writings, especially in „The Four Loves” (I)

Titlul original: The Four Loves
Autor: C.S. Lewis
Localitate: New York
Editura: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Anul apariţiei: 1991
Nr. de pagini: 156
ISBN: 9780151329168

Articol de Valentin Teodorescu

Introduction

C.S.Lewis starts The Four Loves confessing that when he first tried to write this book, he had a wrong image (or rather a very simplistic image) of the subject.

It seems that the-view he had then is common among Christians; before I read his book I had the same image too: the idea that the only true love is the love that gives, because the love of God is a Giving love (a Gift-love by definition). For that reason – in that perspective – we really love just in so far as our love resembles that Love which is God. In that respect, when we tell to our beloved: „I need you, I cannot live without you”, we do not really love him (or her). The real love is that love which says: I do not need you, I can live without you; in fact, exactly because I can live without you, and I am a complete person, perfectly fulfilled in my relationship with God, I can enter in a love relations hip. The goal in that relationship will be not to find my fulfillment, not to receive something (I am already fulfilled by God), but to give, to make the other happy.

This image is not bad (in fact the final arguments of C.S.Lewis are very close to these ideas), but it is not perfectly good because it is not complete. The reality of love is more complex – says Lewis. It is difficult, in his opinion to affirm that the Need-Love is not a real love, firstly because our love for God is – more than everything – a Need-Love. We come to God utterly aware that our whole being is one vast need, crying out for Him when we need forgiveness or support in our tribulations, or many other things.[1]  On the other side, even in our daily situations, it is difficult, for example, to affirm that a child’s love for his mother, which is more than anything else a Need-love, is not a real love.

Thus, understanding the complexity of the situation, Lewis begins to analyze more deeply five kinds of loves: Loves for Sub-Human, Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity (Agape). In this essay, my interest will be especially focused on the last two kinds of love, Eros and Charity. But I will present also shortly the first three kinds of love, in the measure in which to understand them is absolutely necessary for a better comprehension of the last two loves.

As we will see, Charity (Agape) still remains the most important love; but the other four loves will be also accepted as true loves. In that way God’s Creation (in the area of affections) will be honored and redeemed.

1) Loves for the Sub-Human

Read Full Post »