Washington, DC – The “Hungarian Review”, the English-language affiliate of the bi-monthly journal Magyar Szemle, edited by Gyula Kodolányi and John O’Sullivan, has published its first issue for 2018.
On the cover: Last Supper altar cloth from the Nemescsó Lutheran Church. 1650, silk embroidery on silk. All photos referring to the Hungarian Reformation are by the courtesy of the Hungarian National Museum, Budapest.
Much of this issue is devoted to reprints of major speeches delivered to the recent “International Consultation on Christian Persecution” in Budapest on October 11-13, 2017. Convened by the Hungarian government and addressed by the Prime Minister, it was attended by senior Christian churchmen, mainly from the Middle East, to discuss an issue that is a matter of life or death for their congregations. In his editorial note entitled “Culture and its Issues” John O’Sullivan writes: “Estimates differ but credible experts claim that approximately one hundred thousand Christians are killed annually around the world for their faith; the Middle East is being “ethnically cleansed “of Christians; and that governments in 128 countries have committed abusive and repressive acts against Christian minorities. Yet despite the scale of this anti-Christian savagery – a kind of religion-based genocide – governments and international organizations have been slow, reluctant, even queasy, about combating what Ján Figel’, the EU’s special envoy at the Consultation rightly called a “long-neglected crisis””.
The ‘Current’ section contains the keynote speeches of Zoltán Balog, Hungarian Minister of Human Capacities (“In Pursuit of Answers to a Long Hidden Crisis”); Bashar Matti Warda, Archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church of Erbil (“Four Forms of Assistance to the Christians of the Middle East”); Ignatius Aphrem II, Syriac Patriarch of Antioch (“The Unspoken Religious Persecution”); Ignatius Joseph III Younan Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch (“Christians: The “Aborigines” of the Middle East”).
This section includes other articles from Donald Tusk, EU Council President (“Europe: A Common Responsibility and a Common Good”); EU Special Envoy Ján Figel’ (“Finding the Appropriate Answers to a Long Neglected Crisis”); and Géza Jeszenszky (“Ukraine’s Blunder – A Nationalist Education Law Leads to International Uproar”).
The periodical then continues with an ‘Essays’ section with contributions by Reinhard Olt (“Magyars and Tyroleans – The Autonomy of the Province of Bolzano as a Role Model for Hungarian Minorities”); David Martin Jones (“International Legal Norms and Their Limitations”); and Sir George K. Radda (“Biomedical Knowledge in the Service of Man: The Social Responsibility of the Scientist”).
Finally, ‘The Arts and Letters’ section features articles by Attila Balázs (“On the Road After Sixty Winding Years – In Memoriam Jack Kerouac”); Ferenc Bónis (“Béla Bartók: Pictures of a Life – Part II); Zoltán Balog (“The Reformation Today”); Gyula Illyés (“On Seeing the Reformation Monument, Geneva”); Nicholas T. Parsons (“The Reformation in Hungary”); and Osip Mandelshtam (“New Year’s Greeting- A Translation by Tony Brinkley”).
Currently, 42 issues of the Hungarian Review from 2010 through 2018 can be ordered fromamazon.com; or directly from the publisher; or by calling the Coalition office in Washington.