John Molnar

* Garammikola, January 16, 1938 – † November 27, 2020 / Reformed pastor, historian of religion, university professor ; ; János Molnár was born on January 16, 1938 in Garammikola. He studied theology at the Comenius Evangelical Theological Faculty in Prague (now the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Charles University) between 1958 and 1963. From 1961, in parallel with theology, he also studied Semitology and Arabic at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University, and completed his studies in 1968 at the Faculty of Humanities of Comenius University in Bratislava. He received his doctorate in 1973 from Charles University in Prague. ; In Bratislava he worked as an assistant pastor from 1965 to 1968, then in 1968 he became an associate at the University Library in Bratislava, where he was initially a lecturer in linguistics and literature, as well as theology, and later a scientific associate. He processed Judaic literature, a collection of Arabic-Turkish and Persian printed matter, which he published in 1980. From the beginning of 1985 to the end of 1990 he worked in the Middle East, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq as an interpreter, expert and consultant, studying the culture and history of the peoples there. In addition to the Muslim religion and customary law, he mainly studied the history, church life and everyday life of the Eastern Christian communities. ; From January 1992 to September 1995 he taught religious history, homiletics for Reformed students and Hungarian church history as an assistant professor at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Charles University. From 1995 to 1998 he taught history of religion at the Faculty of Humanities of the Comenius University in Bratislava. Since the founding of the Calvin J. Theological Academy, he has been the head of the Department of History of Religion and Philosophy of the institute since September 1994, and the dean of the institute since 1997. ; Since 2004 he has been a professor and dean of the Reformed Theological Faculty of the Selye János University. He has processed and published Judaic, Arab-Turkish and Persian printed materials owned by the University Library in Bratislava. ; Author of numerous studies and books. His field of expertise is the history of religion, including the issue of Islamic and Christian communities, as well as the Arabic and Hebrew languages. He defended his habilitation thesis, entitled Christianity, Christian religions and denominations from a religious historical perspective, on November 4, 2004 at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava. ; Married, has three children. For 18 years he was the pastor of the Reformed mother church in Réte-Boldogfa and the daughter church in Senc, a member of the board of trustees of several social organizations, and a synodal representative. ; ; Main work: Christianity, Christian religions and denominations from a religious historical perspective (habilitation thesis), 2004