Putin's recklessness

Christian Courier has posted my article, Putin's recklessness, with this subtitle: "Historic parallels to Putin’s unjust aggression." An excerpt:

Putin has now moved into cliché territory: he has put all his cards on the table, shown his true colours, upended the apple cart. Making comparisons to Adolf Hitler generally elicits finger-wagging because it is done too often by people trying to score political points against opponents. Nevertheless, it is difficult to avoid the parallels with the Nazi dictator’s dismemberment of Czechoslovakia over German-speaking Sudetenland and his pretext for invading Poland the following year.

But we should note the differences too. This war is not popular with ordinary Russians, as massive demonstrations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and elsewhere are indicating. Younger Russians with dim or no memories of the Soviet era will not be wearing “Make Russia Great Again” hats any time soon. Nineteenth-century nationalist dreams of glory are the delusions of an ageing despot living in the past.

Read the entire article here.

The courageous witness of evangelical pastors

Not only are ordinary Russian Orthodox priests protesting Putin's war, but so are many evangelical pastors across the country who have signed an open letter condemning the invasion: Hundreds of Russian Pastors Oppose War in Ukraine. An excerpt:

The open letter is available on the website of Mirt Publishing House, a small evangelical publisher in St. Petersburg, and is signed by mostly Russian Baptists and Pentecostals affiliated with churches or seminaries in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and more than 40 other cities.

The tepid witness of an insular prelate

By far the largest of the autocephalous Orthodox churches is the Russian Church, headed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. Estimates of membership differ widely, ranging from 90 million to 155 million, mostly within the Russian Federation itself, but also in Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. In 2018 a split occurred within global Orthodoxy between the followers of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Kirill over the status of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is possibly the most serious division within the communion since the 1054 schism that ended its ties with Rome.

On the day that hostilities began between Russia and Ukraine, the Patriarch issued a pastoral letter to the hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and all faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church. This would presumably include Russian President Vladimir Putin, of whom he is a close ally.

Global Scholars Canada: special wartime edition posted

It's a little early for my regular March newsletter, but I've now posted an early update: 1 MARCH 2022 - SPECIAL WARTIME EDITION. The outbreak of war in Ukraine last week seemed to me to warrant a special newsletter. Please do pray for the people of Ukraine and an end to hostilities.

Merkel saw it coming

My wife alerted me to a striking passage in the new book by Kati Marton, The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Markel:

A poignant alarm had been recently raised for Merkel in a newly published, nearly thousand-page tome, The Thirty Years War: European Catastrophe, German Trauma, 1618-1648, by German historian Herfried Münkler. The work, which she devoured, reconstructs the savege seventeenth-century war that eventually engulfed most of Europe, from Spain to Sweden, and decimated the continent's population. Merkel invited its author to the chancellery, where, for two hours, she and the historian discussed how war again erupted seventy years after the Peace of Augsburg had ended Europe's bloody religious wars in 1555. After seventy years of peace, few people with personal memories of the atrocities of the earlier war survived. Thus, Europe stumbled blindly into another round of mindless and savage fighting.

Gathara begs to differ

Yesterday I posted the impressively argued address by Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, on this blog. I believe it flows out of a wise understanding of the horrors unleashed when one nation seeks unilaterally to revise existing international borders. Not everyone agrees. Kimani's fellow countryman Patrick Gathara writes in Al Jazeera: The Kenyan UN ambassador’s Ukraine speech does not deserve praise, with the following subtitle elaborating: "While Martin Kimani was right to condemn Russia, he seemed to embrace the colonial legacy in Africa." An excerpt:

Kenya's progressive outlook: a lesson for Russia

Just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, delivered a momentous speech that demonstrates the stark contrast between a progressive nation looking to the future and an ageing one stuck in a faded imperial past.

Here is a transcript of the most significant part of the address:

Putin's gamble

Last month I posted three brief analyses of the Russian-Ukrainian relationship in which I observed that the division between a largely russophone east and a more nationalist west would likely prevent Ukraine moving definitively towards either the European Union and NATO or Vladimir Putin's Russia. The developments of recent days require an update to my earlier observations. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has now altered irrevocably the fraught relationship between the two countries, and it will likely serve to soften the historic division between Novorossiya and the parts of Ukraine once under Polish sovereignty.

The Psalms in wartime

This evening after dinner we read Psalm 27, which I thought appropriate in light of the events of the past hours. Here is something I wrote for the Center for Public Justice eight years ago, which I thought relevant to the current crisis: One Hundred Years Later: The Psalms and the First World War. An excerpt:

Nearly four decades ago, I visited Prague, the capital of what was still communist-ruled Czechoslovakia and, before the First World War, part of Austria-Hungary. During my time there, I purchased in an antiquarian bookshop a Czech-language New Testament and Psalms published in 1845 for “Evangelical Christians of the Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions,” that is, for Lutheran and Reformed Christians. The print was in the old German black letter font, and even some of the spelling was obsolete.

Naked aggression: Putin finally moves

By August of 1914 Europeans had enjoyed just under a century of relative peace, punctuated by smaller regional conflicts such as the Crimean War and the Franco-Prussian War. Trouble had been brewing throughout the latter decades of this era. Nevertheless, Europeans had managed to muddle through these years, and the fact that so many royal families were related to each other appeared to guarantee continued peace. The 19th century had been an age of material progress as railways and telegraphs greatly enhanced transportation and communication. More people were entering the middle classes, and prosperity was more widespread than at any time in history. War? Unthinkable.

February newsletter posted

I have just posted my Global Scholars Canada newsletter here: FEBRUARY 2022 newsletter, with the good news that last year's donation challenge was a great success. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. Your support means a lot to me as I continue my work as a Global Scholar in the service of God's kingdom.

SBNE lecture series

This week I was privileged to deliver three lectures to the community at Seminário Bíblico do Nordeste (Northeastern Biblical Seminary) in Carpina, Pernambuco, Brazil, not far from the major coastal city of Recife. The first lecture was titled "Ideology, Religion, and Idolatry," delivered on monday evening. The second was "The Redemptive Stories of the Ideologies," given on tuesday. And the third was "Towards a Non-Ideological Alternative: Two Approaches," on wednesday. The occasion was the opening week of the new semester. The lectures have been posted below:

My translator for the three evenings was a young man named Carlos Augusto. As someone with only a passing knowledge of Portuguese but with a general interest in languages, I was fascinated by the distinctive Nordestino accent, which hardens the či  sound to ti and softens the final s to š.

Not our own: Noble's critique of self-belonging

Cateclesia Forum has published my review of Alan Noble's You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World, which was published last year. My review is titled: Not Our Own: Noble’s Critique of Self-Belonging. An excerpt:

From social media profiles to our in-person interactions with others, we try to appear distinctive and important, while the world continues to treat us in increasingly standardizing ways. The numerous paradoxes flowing out of this constant quest for authenticity leave us perplexed and even angry at times. We want to define ourselves by ourselves, no matter the consequences for others, and yet we crave those others’ recognition of that identity. Thus, we are left feeling insecure and anxious as we seek to belong while keeping our communities at an ostensibly safe distance to protect our increasingly fragile sense of self.

The synthetic gospel of Liberation Theology

A while back, a friend, knowing of my associations with the Christian community in Brazil, assumed that my contacts would be heavily into Liberation Theology, a praxis-oriented theology that began in Latin America just over half a century ago and reached its peak of popularity during the 1970s and 80s. But, no, most of the people I've come to know in Brazil are fairly negative towards it, seeing that its promises have not been fulfilled and have perhaps made matters worse. Nearly two years ago, I published an article with Kuyperian Commentary to which I did not link at the time but do now: The Synthetic Gospel of Liberation Theology. Here's an excerpt:

Putin's destabilizing ambitions

Yesterday I wrote of Ukraine's impossible dream to maintain its own territorial integrity while allying with the west. Some readers may have interpreted this as a "blame the victim" strategy, unfairly holding Kiev and the west responsible for Russia's threats. This was not my intention. So today I turn my focus to Vladimir Putin and his ambitions for an increasingly aggressive Russia.

Ukraine's impossible dream

Yesterday I posted my thoughts on the fraught relationship between Russia and Ukraine. Then last evening on the PBS Newshour, Nick Schifrin interviewed Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. You can watch the interview below:

While one would not wish to excuse Russian aggression towards her country, Markarova's comments reveal the unrealistic aspirations of the current Volodymyr Zelensky administration in Kiev. This is why NATO would be unwise to take on Ukraine as a full member.

Russia and Ukraine: a fraught relationship

In September 1990 famed novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote an article in the journal Komsomolskaya Pravda titled, "How to Revitalize Russia," which was translated the following year and published as a small book, Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals. This was just prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union into its constituent republics. The essay took the form of a series of proposals for a renewed, post-communist Russia, reiterating his earlier Letter to the Soviet Leaders (1974). Much of what we read here was quickly overtaken by events in late 1991, including the failed August coup d'état and the subsequent end of the Union in December. Yet it is worth rereading the author's proposals for Ukraine and Belorussia during the present crisis between the former country and Russia.

City on a Hill podcast interview

I was recently interviewed for the City on a Hill Podcast by Aeric Estep and Scott Reavely on the subject of my Political Visions and Illusions. This interview concludes a multi-week series they produced on the book's chapters and the ideologies they cover. It has now been posted here: Interview with Dr. David Koyzis. Estep and Reavely are pastors at New Life Church in West Linn, Oregon, United States.

January newsletter posted

I have just posted my Global Scholars Canada newsletter here: JANUARY 2022 newsletter. Thank you to all of you who contributed financially to my work last year.

Incidentally, I have recently discovered that I had not been monitoring the comments on my blog for quite some time. I have now changed the settings to insure that I am informed by email when a comment is posted. My apologies for this oversight and for any frustrations it may have caused.

You Should Know 'Creation Regained'

The Layman's Lounge has published my tribute to Al Wolters' greatest of worldview books: You Should Know "Creation Regained". An excerpt:

Wolters sees worldview playing a central role in the lives, not only of Christians, but of all human beings created in God’s image. A worldview provides orientation and guidance as we live our lives. It is foundational for everything else. Indeed, it is impossible to exist without one. “We need some creed to live by, some map by which to chart our course. The need for a guiding perspective is basic to human life, perhaps more basic than food or sex” (5). Synonyms include “life perspective,” “confessional vision,” “principles,” “ideals,” and “system of values” (2). Another possibility, which I favour, is basic heart orientation in that it describes the centring of our heart on something to which we ascribe ultimacy. For Christians our worldviews must constantly be tested by the Scriptures, lest we unknowingly absorb the basic beliefs and faux-redemptive narratives of the surrounding culture and thereby live divided lives.

Read the entire article here.