MÁTÉ-TÓTH ANDRÁS: AZ IRGALOM KULTÚRÁJA. KONVIVENCIA KELET-KÖZÉP-EURÓPÁBAN [THE CULTURE OF MERCY. CONVIVENCE IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE], BUDAPEST: GONDOLAT, 2024, ISBN 9789635565573

Abstract

As a Hungarian from Transylvania, I am a member of a minority shaped by a wounded historical consciousness, by the inner compulsion of cultural self- preservation, and by the persistent experience of social and institutional dependency. Certain components of the ontological insecurity intrinsic to minority existence resonate with the affective legacy of East-Central Europe – an inheritance that András Máté-Tóth, scholar of religion and theologian, comprehensively interprets in Az irgalom kultúrája. Konvivencia Kelet-Közép-Európában [The Culture of Mercy. Convivence in East-Central Europe], (Budapest: Gondolat, 2024). According to his central thesis, the social and religious dynamics of the region can be adequately understood only if wounded collective identity is placed at the core of the analytical framework. Such wounds, he argues, cannot be erased, yet they may be transformed: the path toward healing is convivence, the cultivated quality of coexistence that transcends the logic of retribution and mere tolerance and locates the social possibility of shared restoration within the culture of mercy.

Book Review history: Received 25.11.2025; Revised 04.12.2025; Accepted 06.12.2025.
Available online: 22.12.2025; Available print: 30.01.2026.