The Formation of Romanian Orthodox Missionary Preaching: Theological Education, Episcopal Leadership, and Ecclesial Identity in Banat and Transylvania in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Romanian Orthodox missionary preaching in Banat and Transylvania during the first half of the twentieth century took shape through the interaction of theological education, episcopal guidance, and the ecclesiastical and national challenges of the period. The theological schools of Arad, Caransebeș, Sibiu, Oradea, and Cluj trained clergy through homiletics, catechesis, liturgical practice, student societies, and ecclesiastical periodicals. Their activity was linked to the pastoral initiatives of Orthodox hierarchs, who promoted preaching as a means of doctrinal clarification, moral formation, and community consolidation. In a region marked by the Great Union of 1918, the Vienna Award, the Second World War, and intense interconfessional relations, missionary preaching became a central instrument of Romanian Orthodox self-understanding and pastoral action. Particular attention is given to the Orthodox response to Evangelical Protestant movements, described in Romanian ecclesiastical and historiographical usage as “Neo-Protestant” groups, and to the way bishops, professors, and students shaped a culture of the pulpit. The 2025 centenary of Grigorie Comșa’s accession to the episcopal see of Arad provides a timely occasion for reassessing the connection between theological formation, ecclesial identity, national consciousness, and pastoral responsibility. The article interprets preaching as a form of ecclesial formation, cultural leadership, and communal consolidation.