The news of the untimely death of Dr. Davorin Peterlin

Dear Colleagues!

With great sadness, and a feeling of "this cannot be true", I received the news of the untimely death of a dear friend and colleague of ours, Dr. Davorin Peterlin, Professor of Early Christianity and History of Minority Religious Groups, Head of the Research Department and Academic Resources Officer at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Osijek, Croatia, died at the age of 51, on the 14th of June, 2010, in Zagreb, Croatia.

I just called Prof. Dr. Peter Kuzmic, the President of the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Osijek, Croatia, to express my condoleances. Dr. Kuzmic, a lifelong friend of Prof. Peterlin stated: ‘The unexpected passing of Prof. Davorin Peterlin is a great shock to all of us his friends and colleagues. To use a biblical metaphor, death came to him as a thief in the night – unexpected, unwanted and unwelcomed. It robbed him of a life full of anticipation, research and writing, teaching and mentoring. Davorin was an effective leader, a constructive team player and a scholar who had the capacity to think critically and comparatively. The academic community at the Evangelical Theological Faculty will miss him greatly for we were all convinced that along with all of his many accomplishments his best work still lay ahead of him’.

Davor died of a massive heart attack, just a week after he remarried.

For the first time I met Davor in 1985 in the Netherlands at an IFES conference on evangelism, and since then many many times. I greatly respect him as friend, as a colleague, as a scholar. I have no words to express my grief, and with you I pray that our Lord will comfort his wife, his children, and those who have been working so closely with him ont he ETS staff.

In the sudden passing away of Dr. Peterlin, we are all reminded of the fragility of our lives, that this life is „just a passing through”, „shadow lands” (C.S. Lewis) and to live each day with a view to eternity and to set our priorities from that perspective.

The funeral service will be held on the 17th of June at 10 AM at the Zagreb Crematorium, in Zagreb, Croatia. A Memorial Service will take place in Osijek at the Evangelical Theological Faculty on the 24th of June at 11 AM.

Yours sincerely in Christ,
Dr. KOOL Anne-Marie
Professor of Missiology, Director
Central and Eastern European Institute for Mission Studies (CIMS),
K?roli G?sp?r University of the Reformed Church in Hungary
H-1461 Budapest, K?lvin t?r 7./ II, Pf. 73