AUGUST 2022 NEWSLETTER

This month I begin by asking for your prayers for my health. After I returned from lecturing at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in May, I came down with a virus that lasted about a week. However, the symptoms have now continued for nearly three months. This includes intense pain in the shoulders and mild pain in other joints, along with a general fatigue that comes and goes. An ultrasound revealed that I have two surface tears in my right shoulder muscle and one in my left, although I suspect these predated the virus. I am receiving physiotherapy, which has increased mobility in my arms but has not diminished the pain. I took three rapid antigen tests for COVID, but they came back negative. Naturally I am finding this frustrating, as it is limiting my activities to some extent. Please pray for a return to full health. Thank you so much!

As a result of all this, my work has slowed down as I need to rest for longer periods than I am accustomed to. Yet I have succeeded in participating in several events of note since my last newsletter. Here are some of the highlights:

My blog series on the US Supreme Court's recent abortion decision has now been published at Kuyperian Commentary: Reflections on Dobbs v Jackson.

As promised in my last newsletter, I have now posted a brief analysis of the televised hearings of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol: Lessons from the January 6th hearings. I cut my political teeth on the Watergate scandal in my youth, and I here draw parallels between two presidents separated by half a century who thought they were above the law and saw themselves justified in attempting to subvert an election.

On 22 July I was interviewed by Jonathan Chaplin, author of Faith in Democracy, on the subject of my book, Political Visions and Illusions. This was under the auspices of Thinking Faith Network in the United Kingdom as part of their series, Iron Sharpens Iron. I do not yet know whether the conversation will be posted online, but if so, I will link to it from my blog.

On monday, 8 August, I spoke to the community at the Facultad de Teología Reformada in Santiago, Chile, at the invitation of Jonathan Muñoz Vásquez, a pastor in the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Chile. You can see the entire event here: Remote lecture: Santiago, Chile. Two days later I crossed (virtually) to the other side of the continent and spoke with the Faculdade Internacional Cidade Viva in João Pessoa, Brazil, whose faculty spent several days discussing my book. For my online visit with them, I gave them a first-person account of how I came to write it and my hopes for a sequel, on which I am working now: Remote lecture and conversation: João Pessoa, Brazil. The invitation for this event was from my friend, José Bruno Pereira dos Santos, for whom I had given an earlier talk on thursday, 4 August, titled: "Must the Christian Be of the Right or of the Left?"

Finally, on thursday, 11 August, I returned to Canada where I spoke remotely to the Cardus NextGen cohort for this year. One of the participants posed a question about populism, which prompted me to link to an article I wrote on the subject five years ago whose relevance since then has by no means diminished.

I am, as always, thankful for your financial and prayer support for my continuing work. I would ask you again to consider a regular monthly contribution, as it enables Global Scholars to set an annual budget, including the modest salary I receive from the organization. Not everyone, of course, is in a position to contribute in this way, but if you are, please consider this option seriously. Furthermore, if you know someone with an interest in and means to support my work, I would be most grateful if you could give me their name and contact information. 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. Thank you so much!

Yours in the service of God's kingdom,

David Koyzis, Global Scholar