APRIL 2024 NEWSLETTER

I am at the end of three very full weeks, two of which involved travel to the United States and back. At the moment I am trying to catch up on work that piled up in my absence, including getting this newsletter out later than usual. I am glad to have made these trips, but I am happy once more to be back home in Hamilton, where spring is bringing out the blossoms on our flowering trees and the leaves are beginning to appear.

My first trip took me to Calvin University for two back-to-back conferences: the annual Kuyper Conference and the biennial Henry Institute Symposium. I usually make it a point to attend the latter, although this year marked the first time I've attended since 2019, the year before the pandemic. Such events present a valuable opportunity to catch up with friends and acquaintances in my own and related fields, and these two conferences were no exception. You can read more about them here: Calvin University visit. A transcript and video of the Kuyper Lecture, for which I served as a respondent, can be accessed at the Center for Public Justice's website. Among those I was pleased to see were philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff, whom I've known for a long time, and Emily Brink, who chaired the committee that compiled the 1987 Psalter Hymnal, which includes my own metrical versification of Philippians 2:6-11.

I had a week between trips, and then on the 15th I drove to Grove City College in Pennsylvania, where I spoke on "Citizenship as a Calling: Christian Citizenship in a Fallen World," adapted from the second chapter of my forthcoming Citizenship Without Illusions. This was the first time I had visited Grove City, and as much as I saw there left a favourable impression. My great friend and former colleague Russell D. Kosits began teaching there last year, and I was pleased to see him again. More details about my visit can be found here: Grove City College stay. The weather was beautiful during my time there, although I was told that that part of Pennsylvania typically sees more overcast days than Hamilton sees in a year.

Two days after I returned from Grove City, our family drove to Hillsdale, Michigan, for a family event, and we just returned home last evening.

I have begun to go through the manuscript of my next book to collect keywords for an index. As this is a shorter book than my Political Visions and Illusions, I expect that the index will be briefer as well. However, I understand that there will be another index for the scripture passages quoted.

I will briefly mention three more publications of mine that recently appeared: a chapter in the T & T Clark Handbook of Neo-Calvinism, titled, "Political Theology"; an Easter meditation, titled, An enduring hope; and a retrospective on our late prime minister: Mulroney's contested legacy.

Finally, as I woke up this morning, I learned the sad news that Christian economist Bob Goudzwaard died two days ago at the age of 90. I was privileged to learn personally from Goudzwaard in 1980 as a graduate student at Toronto's Institute for Christian Studies, and I count him a major influence on my own thinking. He is one of three significant persons who shaped my own approach to life in general and to political life in particular, as I indicate in the preface of Political Visions and Illusions. I will shortly be publishing a tribute to Goudzwaard. Stay tuned.

Thank you once again for your support for my work. Please consider a regular monthly contribution, as it makes it easier for Global Scholars to set an annual budget, including the modest salary I receive from the organization. GSC's page for giving can be found here. Once you are in the page, scroll down to the heading marked DONATION DETAILS, and then choose one of the options under FUND. Americans may donate through our sister organization in the US.

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Yours in God's service,

David Koyzis, Global Scholar