The study gives an insight into the Romanian sociology of religion regarding post-communist Romania. In order to achieve this I have analyzed studies concerned with religious issues in three Romanian sociology periodicals published in the last fifteen years. Besides the overview of these studies, the author presents the structure of the field of religion studies by discussing the significance of respective authors and the system of mutual references among them.
Dénes Kiss is assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
E-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Full text (in Hungarian)

The study presents the terminology within the discourses of religious movements, a brief overview of the standpoints of the research that has been done until present in the respective field. The author’s questions are organized around the understanding of the relationship between the organically linked religious and social elements of this phenomenon. The author, looking through existing theories, aims to discuss the following issues:
a.) the nature of the reactions of the traditional religious communities to social conflicts;
b.) the social background (structure, dynamics) of the collective religious experience occurring in ordinary situations;
c.) society-forming role of the acculturating conflicts: religion/revolutionarism?
d.) mobilizing force of the traditional utopias;
e.) the effect of the social threats on the formation of responsiveness towards traditional ideologies and transcendent sensitivity.
Lehel Peti (Idrifaia, 1981) graduated from Babeş–Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters, specialization Hungarian Ethnology and Literature. Also attended an MA course at the Department of Hungarian Ethnography and Anthropology, at present being a PhD candidate at the same department. Moreover, he is an assistant at the University of Szeged (Hungary) at the Department of Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology. Fields of research: religious life of Moldavian Csángós, economic strategies in Transylvanian villages.
E-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Full text (in Hungarian)

The study aims at presenting a brief overview of a particular field of research within religious social movements, namely the millennial-messianistic movements. The starting point is the overview of the Hungarian research regarding religion and religious movements. Researchers do not recognize the weight and the importance of the millennial phenomenon. There was no mental-conceptual apparatus in Hungarian for capturing the phenomenon. The Hungarian social research dealt with these religious movements in the context of other important fields (saints) of research, which goes along the millennial movement of 1949 in Satu Mare (Máréfalva), described in my PhD thesis.
After presenting the brief history of the researched movements, I turn to the historical, sociological and anthropological literature of millennial movements, and I also present a few general aspects of social movements. Finally, I write about the importance of Victor Turner’s communitas-structure in the understanding of the researched phenomenon.
József Gagyi teaches at the Sapientia - Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Business and Humanities, Miercurea Ciuc.
E-mail address: gagyijozsef yahoo.com

Full text (in Hungarian)

Ernst Troeltsch classified religious institutions into three categories: church, sects and mysticism. The three categories that we might consider as programmatic starting points indicate problematic fields in Troeltsch’s work. In all three fields Troeltsch finds what could be suitable for modern contexts: the non-authoritative church, the sect which provides religious variety and the mystique that grounds and supports the individual. The study is aimed to discuss the third type. In order to understand this type, the author deals with Troeltsch’s (an unfairly forgotten person in the sociology of religion field) path of life, his academic interest, his personal and professional relationship with Max Weber, and his influence upon William James Troeltsch. The mysticism is a cultural-analyzing category for Troeltsch, which, in his opinion, justifies the constructive presence of religion in the formation of modern society and in dealing with its difficulties.
Dr. András Máté-Tóth is the chairman of the Department of Religion of the University of Szeged. E-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Full text (in Hungarian)