Béla Hamvas

Béla Hamvas (23 March 1897–7 November 1968) was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary.

Béla Hamvas was born in Eperjes into the family of an evangelical pastor. The family moved to Pozsony, from where he completed his studies. Thereafter he entered into voluntary military sevice and was wounded twice on the front line in Ukraine. In 1919 his father refused to take an oath of allegiance to Czechoslovakia, the family was then expelled from Bratislava and moved to Budapest, where he entered the Péter Pázmány University. He was a journalist at the "Budapesti Hírlap" and the "Szózat". In 1937 he married the writer Katalin Kemény. He was called in three times for military service in World War II. In 1945 a bomb hit their apartment; his home, library and manuscripts were destroyed.

In 1948 he was placed on the B-list by the communist regime (i.e. interdiction from publishing) and forced into retirement. Thereafter he was first a land laborer in Szentendre, then an unskilled worker in a power plant, and simultaneously completed his other works. He died of a brain haemorrhage in 1968.

He was a great thinker and essayist who integrated Eastern and Western traditions as well as posing many serious questions about the modern age, together with possibilities of resolving them. According to one of his central thoughts: "The present eon, since 600 B.C. stands in the sign of personal salvation. Only since this time is there a notion of humanity, because there is only one single collective category of personality and this is humanity."

Béla Hamvas found his form of expression in the essay, a genre at once literary and philosophical. His early essays were published in Magyar Hüperion (1936, Hungarian Hyperion), marking the end of his first period of thinking, to be followed by Szellem és egzisztencia (1941, Spirit and Existence), an essay discussing the philosophy of Karl Jaspers, one of the main inspirations for Hamvas’s thinking. He published a selection of essays on literature, psychology, philosophy and cultural history in A láthatatlan történet (1943, The Invisible Story). Analyzing the spiritual crisis of the age, Hamvas read himself into the metaphysical tradition, the collective spiritual knowledge of humanity conveyed by sacred books. His collection Scientia Sacra (the first six volumes, 1942–43) served to direct the attention of the age towards the philosophy of the Far East (The Upanishads, Tao Te King, The Tibetan Book of the Dead and others) and European mysticism. From 1945 Hamvas belonged to the spiritual renaissance for three years, during which he edited the series Leaflets of the University Press, held lectures and published the metaphysical Anthologia humana: Ötezer év bölcsessége (1946, Anthologia Humana – The Wisdom of Five Millennia), the fourth edition of which was banned and pulped by the communist regime. His essays written together with his wife on the history of art Forradalom a művészetben: Absztrakció és szürrealizmus Magyarországon (1947, Revolution in Art: Abstraction and Surrealism in Hungary) survey Hungarian art from KárolyFerenczy, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka and Lajos Gulácsy up to the activity of the “European School.” Hamvassaw in surrealism and abstract art the heritage of magic, the “tremendous presence of a higher existence”,and opposed “realistic” art. This concept of modern art was attacked by the Marxist ideologist, GyörgyLukács, and Hamvas was dismissed from the library and silenced for the rest of his life. His writings werepublished in samizdat.

His essays are grounded in tradition, their sense of humour is granted by knowledge, and humour, in turn, grants their freedom. Unicornis, Titkos Jegyzőkönyv, Silentium (1948–51, Unicorn, Secret Protocol, Silentium) were published as late as 1987, but were written alongside Hamvas’s great novel, Karnevál (1948–51, Carnival, published in 1985). This Magnum Opus, also called a “catalogue of fate”, a “human comedy”, spans continents and ages, Heaven and Hell. Hamvas’s three shorter novels, Szilveszter (1957, New Year’s Eve), Bizonyos tekintetben (1961, From a Certain Aspect), Ugyanis (1966–67, Therefore) were published together in 1991, followed by his collection of essays, Patmosz (1959–1966; Patmos) in 1992, whose title alludes to John the Apostle’s exile to the island of Patmos, and the second part of Scientia Sacra: az őskori emberiség szellemi hagyománya II. rész: A kereszténység (1960–64, Scientia Sacra – Spiritual Heritage of Mankind, part II. Christianity) published in 1988.

About Him”In 1955 in Hungary there lived only one single person who could have not only conversed but actually exchanged views with Heraclitus, Buddha, Lao Tse, and Shakespeare, and that in each one's mother tongue. If these four prophets of the human spirit had gotten off the plane in Tiszapalkonya, and if they had addressed the first laborer they came across, and if this had happened to be Béla Hamvas himself, after talking for three nights straight - during the day Hamvas had to carry mortar, but perhaps his guests would have given him a hand - well then, what might they have thought: if in this country the unskilled laborers are like this man, what then might the scholars be like? But had they looked around the country, they would have understood everything.” (Géza Szőcs )

External links

* [http://hamvasbela.hu HamvasBéla.hu]
* [http://hamvasbela.org/en/friendship.html Hamvas Béla: On Friendship]
* [http://hamvasbela.org/en/music.html Hamvas Béla: The Seventh Symphony and the Metaphysics of Music]
* [http://hamvasbela.org/en/excerpts.html Excerpts from Hamvas Béla's works in English]
* [http://hamvasbela.org/en/indexen.html Biography and photos of Hamvas Béla at HamvasBéla.org]