The theological reasons for calvinism's spread in Eastern European countries: The case of Hungary

Even though Hungary is a developed Eastern Europe country, it is still an Eastern European country which has a whole different culture then Western Europe and therefore sets an important example for Calvinism of Western European origin to take place in Eastern European countries. It was interesting that this movement which spread to Eastern Europe as well as Western Europe, spread so rapidly and at similar times between these two different culture blocks. Along with this spreading process, it is also deemed interesting that the movement became so powerful in such a short time, also lost its influence and fell back to being minority. For these reasons, we tried to demonstrate the spread of Calvinism in Eastern European countries, its causes, period of decline and the effective elements on both its rise and decline during this period by focusing on theological aspects. In the first part of our study, Calvinism is introduced, its spreading process is examined, and various types of Calvinism are mentioned. In the second part, the individuals, states, historic events, theological arguments and political movements influencing this event are investigated with special interest in Hungary. In the last part of our study, after examining the Catholic Counter-Reformation movement which we found to be the most important reason for the decline of Calvinism in Hungary, the recent data on religious situation in Hungary and Reformed Churches are provided.