How Marxism 'Won' the War of Ideas

In the first edition of Political Visions and Illusions, published a dozen years after the historic collapse of communism in eastern Europe and Russia, I treated Marxism as largely a spent force, a casualty of late modernity and of its own internal contradictions. However, when the Portuguese translation was in process, a copy editor at Vida Nova wrote me to disagree with my assessment. My analysis had not taken into account developments in Latin America where Marxism was still a potent force. He persuaded me to make one change in the text which went into the Brazilian edition published in 2014.

Year-end appeal

December 2021

Dear faithful supporter:

Thank you for your financial contribution over the past year. I am deeply grateful for your concrete expression of support for my work with Global Scholars Canada. More than that, I appreciate your prayers for my international academic ministry.

Please consider making a donation at year's end so that I may continue this work. Your contribution provides:

1. a small salary to top up my private and public pensions,

2. equipment and incidentals related to my work, and

3. funding for travel, which I hope will resume once the pandemic is over.

Canadians and others may donate here: http://www.globalscholarscanada.ca/give/.

Once you are in this webpage, please scroll down to the purple bar labelled DONATION DETAILS. Under “Fund” find the name of the scholar you wish to support.

Americans can donate via this site: https://global-scholars.org/donations/give-to-a-fellow/.

Under “Select a Professor” you may “- Select a Professor-” from the list provided.

Up until 31 December 2021, an anonymous donor will match every dollar raised over and above last year's funds up to $8,000. If a particular donor gave $200 last year, what counts this year for purposes of matching is what he or she gives above the $200 amount. All new donations from people who have not previously given count towards the total. This means that if someone gave $500 last year and gives $800 this year, $300 of that will be matched by the donor. A new donor who gives $1,000 this year will in effect be giving $2,000 in total.

Thank you once again for your support, and may God bless you.

Yours,

David Koyzis

Gnosticism and the human body

This morning I received an unexpected note from Meghan Kort, assistant editor at Christian Courier, where I have published a monthly column since 1990. She wrote:

I’m just going through our CC website stats to gather a list of our top 10 articles from 2021 and I found a surprise near the top of the list. It’s not an article from this year at all, it’s from 2018! Your column “Gnosticism and the Human Body” was viewed 1176 times this past year putting it at #7 most viewed article of the year.

I can’t include it in our top 10 list since it wasn’t published in 2021, but I figured you should know about it’s popularity.

I am glad she included a link to the article, which I had forgotten I had written. Here is an excerpt:

Ukraine: Church and civil society

Recently I received a copy of the journal, Християнська думка (Christian Opinion), whose current issue (no. 3(12), 2020) is devoted to "Church and Civil Society" and carries an article of mine, "Recovering Civil Society: Two Traditions." This journal is published by the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary in the capital city of Kiev.

In the same issue Jonathan Chaplin has contributed two articles and James W. Skillen one article.

The coming kingdom

Christian Courier has published my December column, which can be accessed here: The coming kingdom. An excerpt:

While our churches look back to what Christ accomplished for our salvation in the past, we also look ahead during these first two seasons in the church calendar – ahead to the Messiah’s second advent. At his expected return, all human history will be wrapped up, with God’s kingdom finally triumphing over each of its rivals. These rivals include the various political ideologies, each of which tells a redemptive story promising salvation to its followers. But they also include the more subtle desires of our hearts – desires for good things created by a good God but made too much of: career success, sexual satisfaction, fame, fortune and so forth.

Read the entire article here.

December newsletter posted

I have posted my latest Global Scholars Canada newsletter here: DECEMBER 2021 newsletter. As we are in the final weeks of the year, please consider making a financial contribution to my work. Thank you!

The Illusion of Power & Choices

Late last year I was interviewed by the Rev. Dr. James Ellis III, University Chaplain and Director of Student Ministries at Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada. This was shortly after I recorded a chapel talk on Job 11 for the university. The intervew has now been posted online: The Illusion of Power & Choices and can also be streamed Spotify, Google, Apple, and various other services.

 

What is a worldview? Video lectures

My lectures to Brazil were indeed recorded, I am happy to say. Here they are:

What is a worldview? Salvador, Brazil

On 7 and 8 December I addressed the members of the Igreja Batista Vilas do Atlântico in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil on the subject of "What is a worldview?" The first evening I spoke on "A Christian Worldview and Political Ideologies," based on my first book, and the second evening I lectured on "A Christian Worldview and Authority," based on my second. This was part of the church's annual Bible Celebration Week. My host was Roger Freitas, and my translator was Felipe Leite. I do not believe the event was recorded, but if I find that it was, I will link to the posted video here.

Nos dias 7 e 8 de dezembro, falei aos membros da Igreja Batista Vilas do Atlântico em Salvador, Bahia, sobre o tema "O que é uma cosmovisão?" Na primeira noite, falei sobre "Uma cosmovisão cristã e ideologias políticas", com base no meu primeiro livro, e na segunda noite dei uma palestra sobre "Uma cosmovisão cristã e autoridade", com base no segundo. Isso fazia parte da Semana de Celebração Bíblica anual da igreja. Meu anfitrião foi Roger Freitas e meu tradutor foi Felipe Leite. Não acredito que o evento tenha sido gravado, mas se eu descobrir que foi, farei o link para o vídeo postado aqui.

CARE conversation

Today I was pleased to talk remotely with the latest cohort of young people in the CARE Leadership Programme in the United Kingdom. CARE stands for Christian Action, Research, and Education, and its website tells us what it is all about:

For over 20 years CARE has been equipping a generation of Christians to be salt and light in our culture. This 12 month graduate programme gives a unique insight into Parliament, political advocacy and Christian leadership.

The True Nature of Freedom

Last week, on 18 November I delivered a lecture for the Society of Christian Scholars titled, The True Nature of Freedom, which can be accessed by clicking on the link or clicking below. Fellow Global Scholar Stephen M. Garrett moderated the lecture and discussion. An excerpt:

Since at least the French Revolution of 1789, authority has acquired a bad reputation, something that French American philosopher Yves R. Simon (1903-1961) explores in his writings. By contrast, I would like to argue that, far from being polar opposites, freedom and authority are integrally connected to each other. Moreover, what we think of as personal freedom is a type of authority. In the real world we are embedded in a network of authorities, all of which work together to enrich our lives. This network provides the backdrop to our lives, and without it we ourselves would scarcely be able to exercise authority.

Watch the lecture and conversation here:

Christianity and Ideologies

Comment magazine has posted my article on Christianity and Ideologies, with the subtitle, "Embracing the rich diversity of God's world helps us resist distorting it." An excerpt:

Christians, like all of us, are prone to succumb to the temptation to embrace another such story—something that promises earthly salvation on human terms. As such we are not so much living out God’s kingdom in our daily lives as undertaking to build an approximation of that kingdom in our own societies. It is tempting to ascribe redemptive significance to our own fallible goals and policy proposals. Because the regnant ideologies have formulated their own solutions to social ills, and because one cannot simply draw a program of cultural or political renewal straight from the Scriptures, Christians too easily latch onto a ready-made agenda offered by the ideologies, bypassing the hard work of fleshing out the implications of the biblical narrative for our shared life as citizens of a political community. Hence the proliferation of Christian nationalists, Christian socialists, and even Christian Marxists.

Read the entire article here.

Política (SBNE) conversation

Last evening I was privileged to participate in a conversation with Prof. Marcio Ribeiro of Seminário Bíblico do Nordeste (SBNE) in Carpina, Pernambuco, Brazil, which is about an hour or so from the coastal city of Recife. Click below to watch the discussion.

Na noite passada, tive o privilégio de participar de uma conversa com o Prof. Marcio Ribeiro, do Seminário Bíblico do Nordeste, em Carpina, Pernambuco, Brasil, que fica a cerca de uma hora da cidade costeira de Recife. Clique abaixo para assistir a discussão. 

A propósito, eu poderia facilmente pegar o sotaque nordestino em sua fala. A maioria das minhas conversas é com pessoas das regiões do centro e do sul do Brasil.

Global Scholars newsletter posted

I have posted my latest Global Scholars Canada newsletter here: NOVEMBER 2021 newsletter. As we approach year's end, please consider making a financial contribution to my work. Thank you!

Face to Face and Side by Side: A Pluriformity of Friendships

Inspired by John von Heyking's recent address on Christian Faith and Friendship in the Academy, I have now published my own reflections in Cateclesia Forum: Face to Face and Side by Side: A Pluriformity of Friendships. An excerpt:

Then we have the “deep” friendships that approach Lewis’s “face-to-face” orientation yet do not quite conform to his understanding of eros. Here the two people take delight not just in their common interests but in each other, bound by a strong mutual affection and care transcending the pub and the sporting arena.

State and Non-state Communities: How Civil Society Contributes to Constitutional Government

On friday, 12 November, I was privileged to address an online gathering sponsored by ReMind Centro de Estudos, hosted by my friend Arthur Loureiro with Vinicius Pimentel serving as translator. The title of my lecture is "State and Non-state Communities: How Civil Society Contributes to Constitutional Government." Clicking on the link will enable you to see the lecture and ensuing conversation.

Needed reforms

Christian Courier has just posted my monthly column which has a longer title online than in the print edition: Canada’s political institutions need reforms. Subtitle: "Three reforms Canada could make to restore a responsible government." An excerpt:

Efforts to democratize the leader selection process more thoroughly have not really empowered the grassroots, as many would like to see. Instead, they have disempowered the parliamentary caucus, increasing the dominance of the prime minister. The People (with an upper-case P) are too nebulous an entity to exercise effective control over an executive, but a party’s parliamentary caucus is small enough and more intimately associated with its leader to keep him or her in check.

This reality has led to a paradox: an effort to extend the validity of democracy throughout a political system inadvertently contributes to a rise of Napoleonic leadership and an erosion of democracy.

Read the entire article here.

Brazil update: Oak Centre conversation

My Oak Centre conversation took place 10 November, and I have now posted my PowerPoint presentation here in pdf form: Serving God in a Global Academy: An Update on Brazil. Readers will note that some slides are duplicated with versions in both English and Portuguese, others are in Portuguese only, and others in English only. I have not striven for consistency, as will be evident to anyone. Those acquainted with French, Spanish, or Italian should be able to make sense of the Portuguese slides. Among the items covered in my talk are geography, history, politics, religion, the church's future prospects, and my own visit to the country in 2016.

One item of which few may be aware: some contrarians and historical revisionists believe that Christopher Columbus was actually Portuguese and not Genoese. Interesting notion, to be sure.

'Bible Belt' religion

The term "Bible Belt" usually refers to a swath of territory stretching across the American South and into the Midwest characterized by intense religious loyalties, although sometimes paradoxically associated with low levels of church attendance. It is easy to look down one's nose at Bible Belt religion, although Brandon Meeks expresses appreciation for its impact on his own faith: I Survived (Because of) Bible Belt Religion. An excerpt:

Some time ago, one leading evangelical influencer rejoiced over the decline of “Bible Belt Religion,” commenting that it “made bad people worse.” More recently, another Christian pundit took another swing at the cultural Christianity of the South, one of his favorite punching bags, calling it a form of “toxic religion” that is, at best, an expression of the Faith to be “survived.”

Keller on justice

The Rev. Tim Keller, retired pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, New York, here offers readers A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory. Keller is not new to reflections on justice, writing about it elsewhere, especially in his book, Generous Justice. In this particular essay, he offers a brief outline of biblical justice, focussing on community, equity, corporate responsibility, individual responsibility, and advocacy for the poor and marginalized.