Péter Török

Dr Péter Török was co-founder and editor-in-chief of Religion and Society (RASCEE) in Central and Eastern Europe. He passed away on 11 February 2022 after a long illness. His death was an enormous loss for the entire religious studies community in Hungary and the US. Péter Török was born in 1959. He graduated from the University of Agricultural Sciences in Gödöllő in 1983. After serving in the military, he left Hungary as a dissident, he studied sociology at the University of Toronto from 1986–1991 and obtained his PhD under the mentorship of Dr Roger O'Toole in Sociology of Religion in 2000. The title of his dissertation was "Hungarian Church-State Relationships: A Socio-Historical Analysis". Peter entered the Jesuit novitiate in Canada. Though he did not become a monk, he remained in a close relationship with the order until his early death. In 2007, he habilitated at Lutheran University in Budapest. Péter Török was an assistant professor at the Sociological Institute of the University of Toronto between 1990 and 1999 and a research fellow at the Hungarian Institute for the Sociology of the Church in Vienna between 1991 and 1993. After returning to Hungary, he taught at various universities. Péter was the director of the Institute of Mental Health at Semmelweis University from 2008–2013 and deputy dean of the Faculty of Health and Public Administration from 2011–2014. Since 2016, he had been an associate professor at the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, where he was head of the Department of Social Work and Social Studies since September 2017. This was his last workplace. In addition to his various positions at the International Study of Religion in Eastern and Central Europe Association (ISORECEA), he held numerous other positions, most notably as president of the Sociology of Religion Section of the Hungarian Sociological Association between 2010 and 2017. His main field of research was new religious movements. One of his most significant scientific achievements was a comprehensive mapping of all religious communities in Hungary, the results of which were published in his volume Magyarországi Vallási Kalauz 2004 [Hungarian Religion Directory 2004]. As Péter Szentpétery wrote in his review of the book in the very first issue of RASCEE, "This pioneering book is a must-read for anyone working within the liberal arts and religion in the region".More recently, he researched a Catholic youth community formed around a charismatic priest in Budapest, the so-called 'Pálferi' Phenomenon. In recent years, he also published research on Roma youth in Hungary and issues related to family research. In addition to his academic work, he was also highly interested in Jesuit spirituality and served as a translator of Anthony de Mello's books and other spiritual literature. Péter bore his illness and the suffering with which it came with great dignity and faith in his Creator. His dedication is exemplified by the fact that he continued to teach online at the university, even in the last few weeks of his illness. During a visit to the coalfields of Southern West Virginia in 2018, Peter inspired organization of the Appalachian Hungarian Heritage Project (AHHP) and was an active member of the AHHP team until his health began to fail. In Péter Török, we lost a highly knowledgeable scientist, a deeply committed teacher and mentor, a colleague dedicated to the sociology of religion in Central and Eastern Europe, and an always helpful and warmhearted friend. Péter is survived by a sister, Kati, his wife, Ágnes, and children András and Kristóf of Dunakezi. -- Obituary written by Gergely Rosta with edits by Briane Turley. Mindig is a legjobb barátnőm lesz. -- Fr Briane K. Turley