The Reformed Theological Academy of Sárospatak is a higher education institution of the Reformed Church of Hungary. It is an independent legal body maintained by the Tiszáninnen Reformed Church District.
As an academic institution of the Reformed College of Sárospatak (founded in 1531), it has trained ministers for centuries. Despite the protest of the Tiszáninnen Synod, its functioning was ceased by administrative decree in 1951. After a forty-year forced intermission, the Church District restarted the Theological Academy in 1991. This was acknowledged by the Government Decree 1991:1059 of the Hungarian Republic.
The Theological Academy, as an educational institution of the Reformed College of Sárospatak, preserves and carries on an intellectual and spiritual legacy that was developed in specific circumstances and which is built on centuries-old creeds and on a commitment to the Hungarian nation.
The purpose of the Theological Academy is to train Reformed ministers and, according to the needs of the Reformed Church of Hungary, to train church workers and to conduct research in theology on a high standard. Given its historic legacy, it bears a responsibility not only to the Tiszáninnen Church District but also to the Hungarian Reformed Churches of the Carpathian Basin.
Its desire is to contribute to the preservation and growth of the intellectual and spiritual values of the region. With its activity it would like to increase the nation-sustaining strength of the settlements of the northern Hungarian region. It co-operates with other institutes of higher education, with cultural institutions and with church organisations.
According to its traditions, it attends to and carries on the spiritual, intellectual and cultural legacy of the Hungarian Reformation and world Christianity. In order to do that it co-operates with other theological institutions both in Hungary and abroad.
Education, training and research are carried out with professional and ecumenical openness, on the basis of the Bible, and in the spirit of the creeds of the Reformed Church of Hungary (the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Second Helvetic Confessions).
All of this is accomplished with the conviction that, by doing so, the Academy obeys the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and the commandment of responsibility for the whole creation (Genesis 1:28).
The institution develops by making use of the given opportunities, so that its purposes can be achieved at a high, university level. With all this it aims at serving God’s glory, the building of the Church and the welfare of the Hungarian nation.