Minorities Within Minority: The Contribution of Lutheranism to the Richness of Inter-Ethnic Living Together in Transylvania (Romania)

This paper is a follow-up to a presentation given at the study-day 'Religion and Ethnicity in Transylvania' on the 17th of October 2006, organized by the section Kerkinactie of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and Centrum IIMO (University of Utrecht). The article aims to present the positions and the functions of Lutheranism in the contemporary Transylvanian society. It formulates the thesis that Lutheranism in Transylvania has the potential for offering a major theological forum where inter-ethnic living together could be evaluated and explored with a responsibility and mission for the people of Transylvania which considers ethnic diversity not as maius malum but as maius bonum.