wfn.org | Vilmos Vajta passes away at 80

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Rich intellectual and spiritual legacy after a long and varied career

GENEVA, 2 November 1998 (lwi) - Vilmos Vajta died in the night of October
20 to 21 in Sweden at the age of 80. Born in Hungary, Vilmos Vajta worked
for years as director of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department of
Theology and the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France.

During the Second World War he left Hungary to study theology with Anders
Nygren, in Lund, Sweden, and to obtain a doctorate. He was called to Geneva
as the first director of the Department of Theology, which had been created
by the second assembly of the LWF in 1952. He guided the activities of this
department and of the Commission on Theology until his departure in 1964.
During this time he was one of the initiators of the Luther Research
Congress, whose work he followed closely and molded for several years. In
1964 he was asked to go to the Institute for Ecumenical Research in
Strasbourg, where he stayed until his retirement.

Harding Meyer, former director of the Strasbourg Institute, in his obituary
article, emphasized the lasting mark Vatja left in theological research and
literature. Vajta's 1952 study, Die Theologie des Gottesdienstes bei
Luther, is one of the standard works in Luther studies even today. This was
followed by, especially during his stay in Geneva, publications on the
history, constitution and life of the Lutheran churches worldwide.

His work as an observer during the Second Vatican Council, his activity at
the Institute for Ecumenical Research and his participation in the
international Lutheran-Catholic dialogue reinforced the ecumenical
dimension of his thinking and acting.

Despite a long and bitter conflict with his church in Hungary, Vajta
remained attached to the church, retaining a sense of responsibility and
concern. After the resolution of this conflict, which ended, appropriately
enough, in 1990 by his receiving an honorary doctorate in theology from the
theological seminary, he dedicated to his Hungarian church a considerable
portion of his theological work, throughout the years following his
retirement.

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