Evangelical population growth in Brazil

The seventh largest country in the world by population, Brazil is also the largest Catholic country in the world, but that status is changing quickly, according to this article in The Guardian: Catholics now make up little more than half Brazil’s population, by Tiago Rogero. An excerpt:

Thirty years ago, Catholics made up 82.9% of Brazil’s population but now account for just over half, 56.7%, according to the 2022 census – whose results on religion were only released on Friday.

Meanwhile, the number of evangelicals has continued to grow, rising from 9% of the population to 26.9% over the past three decades.

Although the growth rate has slowed slightly – rising by 6.5 percentage points between 2000 and 2010, and 5.3 since – the new data shows that, for the first time, at least one in four Brazilians identifies as evangelical . . . .

Beyond Lament: George Grant and Canada's distinctiveness

Christian Courier has just posted my monthly column, titled, Beyond Lament. An excerpt:

After John Diefenbaker’s Conservative government was defeated by Lester Pearson’s Liberals in 1963, [George Parkin] Grant was convinced that Canada’s days as a distinct nation were numbered. Diefenbaker’s reluctance to accept American nuclear weapons on Canadian soil had irked the “ruling class,” whose members determined that he had to go. But Grant believed that Diefenbaker’s only offence was his conviction that Canadian defence policies should be made in Ottawa and not Washington.

I couldn’t help recalling Grant’s Lament as we have been subjected to Donald Trump’s repeated trolling comments about Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States. Grant would express anger at this, of course, but it’s far from clear that he would have rallied the (literal and metaphorical) troops in opposition. His professed purpose in his book was not to make “practical proposals for our survival as a nation,” but simply to lament – to grieve the loss of those traditions that had once made Canada distinctive.

For more than two decades I had my students reading Grant's Lament and writing a paper on it. But at some point I put it aside because of the author's tendency to underestimate the importance of political factors in human motivations. I explain this more fully in something I wrote for Comment just over two decades ago: George Grant and the Primacy of Economics.

U.S. Catholic review

My new book has been briefly reviewed by Alexander Pyles in U.S. Catholic: What we’re reading this month: May 2025. An excerpt:

Citizenship is not at odds with being a Christian. For Koyzis, the reverse is the case: To be a good Christian, one must also be a good citizen. He references the parable of the Good Samaritan and other examples from scripture on taking care of your neighbor and, by extension, your community. This message is important and bears repeating in the months to come, so Koyzis’ encouragement is welcome.

While the book thoroughly covers the idea and issues of citizenship, it is not exhaustive. Koyzis stops short of going into the weeds of political culture and the nation-state superstructure. He focuses on defining conservative and progressive movements, not just in the United States but in Canadian politics as well.

U.S. Catholic is a publication of the Claretian Missionaries USA-Canada Province, "a global Roman Catholic congregation of priests and brothers who tend to the religious and pastoral needs of vulnerable communities."

The King's Throne Speech

In my personal library I have a copy of the June 1959 issue of The National Geographic Magazine which my parents received when I was a small child. In that issue is a colourful article, titled "Queen of Canada," written by journalist Phyllis Wilson with photographs by Kathleen Revis. It recounts the visit of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Ottawa in 1957. The final photograph in this article is of the Queen and her consort Prince Philip seated on their red thrones in the Senate chamber as she reads the Speech from the Throne. Seated to her right is Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who had only recently been elected as head of a minority Conservative government. The Queen would repeat this event in 1977 on the occasion of her silver jubilee.

This week her son King Charles III was in Ottawa to read the Throne Speech opening the 45th Parliament in the Senate's temporary facilities in the Senate of Canada Building at 2 Rideau Street. Suffice it to say that, although the monarch is entitled to read the Throne Speech and perform any number of monarchical duties relevant to Canada, most of these functions are handled by his Governor General, currently Her Excellency Mary Simon.

Recent activities for May 2025

I have now posted my Global Scholars Canada newsletter for May 2025. Included are two podcast interviews, a Canadian election postmortem, my initial thoughts on the new pope, and a board meeting in suburban Washington, DC. Thank you for your support for my work!

Canada votes 2025

Canadians went to the polls on monday, 28 April in the 45th federal election since Confederation in 1867. The final results were not unexpected, but they nevertheless represented a stunning turnaround from where we thought a few months ago we would be today. Under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberal Party had become hugely unpopular, with pundits predicting an easy victory by Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives in the election expected sometime this year. Throughout most of the life of the 44th Parliament, the Liberals ruled as a minority government, a supply and confidence agreement with Jagmeet Singh's New Democrats keeping them in power.

Late last year, it became clear that the New Democrats had wearied of this arrangement and threatened to pull the plug on the government. For readers unfamiliar with Canadian politics, parties with only a plurality of the seats in the House of Commons rarely form coalition governments with other parties. The closest we have come to this at the federal level was the Union Government of Sir Robert Borden formed during the Great War between the ruling Conservatives and dissident Liberals outside Québec. It is exceedingly rare for a party to receive a majority of votes cast, and in recent years it has become difficult for a single party to obtain a majority of Commons seats as well. In many other democracies, a party lacking majority support would negotiate with other parties to form a multiparty coalition government. But not in Canada.

Pope Leo XIV

Now that our daughter is married as of last saturday, I will be gradually getting through a backlog of items that have accumulated during the period of preparation for this event. These include the recent Canadian election, on which I will shortly publish my thoughts; the political chaos south of the border; and the new pope. In many ways, the third item is more readily addressed than the first two, so I begin with that.

I have now lived through eight papacies. Given that successive conclaves of cardinals generally choose older men to fill the office, the length of a particular papacy is typically fairly short. Pope John XXIII reigned for only five years, yet his legacy has endured in the form of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The recently departed Pope Francis was on the papal throne for a dozen years. John Paul II reigned for an unusually long 27 years, during which he managed to contribute to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and its bloc of client states, including his native Poland. In the 19th century, Pius IX broke the record for length of tenure, reigning for 31 years, during which he convened the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), setting the agenda for the Roman Catholic Church into the mid 20th century.

God's Story Podcast interview 2

Earlier this year I was privileged to talk for a second time with Brent Siddall on his God's Story Podcast. Here is the new interview, which is now posted: David Koyzis — Political Visions and Illusions. I would love one day to travel to Brent's native New Zealand (Aotearoa) and spend some time taking in the spectacular scenery of this stunning if remote Commonwealth realm.

Carmen LaBerge interview: church splits

My recent conversation with Carmen LaBerge aired today, on Maundy Thursday. The subject is my recent Cateclesia essay, By Schisms Rent Asunder: The Four Seasons of Church Splits. My previous interview with her can be found here. The programme is called The Reconnect on Faith Radio. I've set the video to begin at approximately ten minutes into the broadcast when our conversation begins.

Recent activities for April 2025

My Global Scholars newsletter for April is now posted. Included are a guitar performance of a beloved Holy Week hymn, another review of my Citizenship Without Illusions, speaking at a local church function, and posts on the Bible and eschatology.

Holy Week: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

'Bob on Books' review: Citizenship Without Illusions

Bob Trube reviews my new book on his Bob on Books blog: Review: Citizenship Without Illusions. An excerpt:

For years I’ve found myself in this place. I recognize that we need good governance from the officials we elect. But I cannot fully endorse what either of our parties propound nor give unquestioning allegiance to person or party. What is difficult is that I have friends on both sides of the partisan divide who seem to give unflinching allegiance to their party and the people they have elected or want to elect. Often, I find conversations with such individuals futile. There is no questioning allowed and only one side is right on everything. It is particularly disconcerting when my friends resort to lies and character assassination to buttress their political allegiance. I grope for a different kind of political engagement or want to just withdraw.

Citizenship Without Illusions is written for people like me.

Why I'm Not a Postmillennial

Although I'm tempted to make a punny reference to the generation born in the 1980s and 90s, my recent Christian Courier column actually has to do with the finer points of Christian eschatology: Why I'm Not Postmillennial. An excerpt:

Only in recent years have I made the acquaintance of postmillennialists, who expect a gradual advance of the kingdom of God in the present age to be followed by a long period of widespread obedience to his will before Christ returns. As attractive as this prospect appears, I do not find the position persuasive.

Find out why.

Incidentally, I have also written on the topic here—more than can be fitted easily into a 500-word column: Revelation 20 and the thousand years. As for one of the best books on biblical eschatology, you would do very well indeed to read James Skillen, God's Sabbath with Creation, which I reviewed here.

Bible versions

My latest column has been posted at Christian Courier: Bible versions. Here is an excerpt:

Having grown up with the King James Bible, I was briefly enamoured of the paraphrases of the Bible, including J. B. Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, from which my mother read to us. Ken Taylor’s complete Living Bible was published when I was 15. (My parents knew him slightly, as we lived in the same town.) I received a copy for Christmas. Over the next months I eagerly devoured it from cover to cover. As easy as it was to read, I was put off to read that “your words are a flashlight to light the path ahead of me” (Psalm 119:105) and repeated references to Asia Minor as “Turkey.” Such obvious anachronisms ruined the paraphrases for me. 

Read the entire article here.

Recent activities for March 2025

My Global Scholars Canada newsletter for March 2025 is now posted. Included is a 30th anniversary celebration of the organization I serve, podcast and radio interviews, and an essay to mark the 1,700 anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.

The Idolatry of Politics

Last summer Peter Bell interviewed me on the subject of my two best-known books, Political Visions and Illusions and Citizenship Without Illusions. In this conversation I discuss two events in my youth that pushed me to the study of politics and, much later, how I came to write my books. The length is just under 50 minutes.

Faith Today review of CWI

Another review of my Citizenship Without Illusions has been published in the March/April 2025 issue of the Canadian periodical Faith Today. The author is David Daniels, a retired Baptist minister. An excerpt:

Balancing political engagement with ultimate allegiance to God’s Kingdom has always challenged Christians. Tackling that challenge, Koyzis draws from the experiences of people and movements ranging from biblical antiquity to the present. He addresses the legitimacy (or not) of civil disobedience, providing guiding principles for those who choose to resist governments. He warns readers of the ever-present danger of falling prey to political illusions imbedded in an over reliance on ideologies such as liberalism, socialism, conservatism and nationalism, to name a few. He reminds Christians that allegiance to the Christian gospel “may come to be regarded as an affront to the jealous gods of expressive individualism” so evident in western democracies today.

The full review can be found here.

Assessing 'Hopeful Realism'

One of the benefits of being an author with InterVarsity Press is that the publisher occasionally sends me other books it has published in my field. One of these is Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics, written by my esteemed colleagues Jesse Covington, Bryan T. McGraw, and Micah Watson, whom I regularly see at the biennial Henry Institute Symposia at Calvin University. The co-authors here undertake to address the relative paucity of evangelical political reflection and the tendency of flesh-and-blood evangelicals to embrace dubious political positions without engaging in the due reflection necessary for wise political judgement and action. Thirty years ago historian Mark Noll wrote that the "scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." As we approach the quarter-century mark, our co-authors express a similar lament:

Kesler on national conservatism

I have written before in this space and elsewhere on the American-Israeli political philosopher Yoram Hazony and his distinctive approach to nationalism and conservatism. A principal difficulty with Hazony's approach is that his defence of his purported national conservatism, as he calls it, is basically historicist, assuming that norms for political action are reducible to traditions specific to given national communities. This leaves him fundamentally unable to challenge injustices occurring elsewhere in the world and leaves him without any norms to judge these traditions.

First Things articles archived and reposted

The journal First Things recently revamped its website and in the process deleted virtually everything I wrote for them as an occasional blogger between 2009 and 2023. Although many of these posts were already crosslisted with this blog, others were not. I have thus created a page with links to nearly 40 of the more significant of these: First Things posts. An archived list of links to the original posts can also be found here. (Oddly enough, even the temporally-specific pop-ups have been archived too!)

I assume that items written by other past bloggers have been deleted as well and that my 21 January post, FT's evolution: 'populism' overtakes 'highbrow', didn't play a role. But who knows?