Zagreb – There is deep sadness among Croatian Baptists at the death of Baptist New Testament and church history professor Dr. Davorin Peterlin.. Croatia’s Baptist Union reports that the 51-year-old leader died very unexpectedly in the capital city of Zagreb on 14 June as he was preparing a lecture for the Lutheran- and Baptist-sponsored Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575) theological faculty.

Peterlin was born in Zagreb in 1959 and was baptised in the city’s Baptist congregation in 1975. He studied philosophy and theology in Novi Sad, Zagreb and Vancouver. He completed his academic studies in 1992 at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen with a doctoral dissertation entitled: ‘Paul's Letter to the Philippians in the Light of Disunity in the Church’. He then worked as a lecturer at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek (Croatia) and later at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) in Prague. He also lectured at other theological schools around the world. He served thereafter in Oxford as Director of Keston College, a research centre for the study of East European churches, as a researcher for Oxford’s Regent Park College and for the Milltown Institute in Dublin/Ireland.

At the end of 2007 he returned home to Croatia and taught at theological schools throughout the country. He was also actively involved in translating significant theological books into Croatian. He also belonged to the committee active in creating the New Croatian Bible. He published two sections on the history of Zagreb’s first Baptists – a third one remains incomplete. He repeatedly also supported the local Baptist churches: In 1992-93 he was a pastor in Rijeka; from 1995-99 he served as Vice-President of Croatia’s Baptist Union. From 2003-06 he was a deacon in Oxford’s New Road Baptist Church. The Croatian Union’s obituary states that his passing leaves a painful gap in theological circles.

IBTS-Rector Keith Jones (Prague) described the deceased as a ‘dedicated theologian’ whose passion was for the local church and the theological training of European Baptists. He was Pro-Rector at IBTS from 1998 to 2000 and was a founding member of the on-campus Sarka Valley Community Church. His death fills the IBTS-community with sadness. His personal friend and mentor, Prof. Peter Kuzmic of Osijek, reported that other friends and colleagues where shocked by the news. His death came ‘like a thief in the night: unexpected, unwanted and unwelcome’.