Communism, Religious Ecumenism, and the Prelude to Revolution (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In 1954 Reformed Bishop Albert Bereczky invited the World Council of Churches to hold a meeting of its Central Committee in Hungary. More than a hundred committee members and visitors convened in Galyatető near the Slovak border in July-August 1956 amidst loosening authority both within and outside the churches. The meeting and the changes it stimulated may have contributed to the outbreak of the revolution. My AHEA paper a year ago focused on this meeting and the ensuing accusation by the Kádár regime of WCC collusion in the counterrevolution. This year I will move back in time to ask why Bereczky extended the invitation in the first place. The date and place of the invitation, the WCC’s Evanston Assembly in August 1954, suggests a connection with the New Course (Új szakasz) of Imre Nagy. My paper will look at Hungarian policy toward the ecumenical churches, and especially toward the WCC, under Nagy as well as before and after his first premiership. Who were the Protestant békepapok collaborating with the government in its opening toward the WCC, and were they the chief partners of the WCC leadership in this opening? For my answers I will take a fresh look at the posthumous memoir of Reformed leader László Pap (1908-83) and records in Hungarian church and government archives.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
James P. (Jim) Niessen earned his Ph.D at Indiana University with a dissertation on religion and politics in nineteenth century Transylvania. He has published several studies on the Romanian and Hungarian national movements. After supervising the digitization ten years ago of a portion of the records of the President’s Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief, he shifted the focus of his research to the reception of the 56ers and has published various studies on this topic in Hungary and the US. Since 2001 he is World History Librarian at Rutgers University. He served two terms as President of AHEA in 2014-18.