DAVID KOYZIS, GLOBAL SCHOLAR

David Koyzis has been with Global Scholars Canada since 2019. He is an academic political scientist with a PhD in Government and International Studies from the University of Notre Dame, where he wrote a dissertation comparing the political thought of Herman Dooyeweerd and Yves R. Simon. David taught political science at Redeemer University College for thirty years, mentoring hundreds of young people who have gone on to contribute to public life in Canada and elsewhere. In recent years he has broadened his academic ministry through contacts in Brazil, Pakistan, Ukraine, Indonesia, Germany, Finland, and elsewhere.

Mission statement: My mission is to disseminate to the larger world the riches of a Reformed Christian worldview, especially as it impinges on social and political life. More specifically, I aim:

  1. to expose the idolatrous religious nature of political ideologies and their implications for our shared public life;
  2. to affirm the role of authority in human flourishing; and
  3. to connect our political cultures with the institutions they nurture.

To facilitate these aims I draw on my three books, Political Visions and Illusions (IVP Academic, 2019), We Answer to Another (Pickwick Publications, 2014), and Citizenship Without Illusions (IVP Academic, 2024), numerous published chapters and articles, and thirty years of teaching experience to reach interested readers in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and elsewhere; to teach seminar courses, both in person and online; to continue to publish in my field; and to travel when necessary.

Koyzis has published three books, one of which has been translated into Portuguese and Spanish:

His new book, Citizenship Without Illusions: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement, is now available from IVP and the many online vendors.

 


Commendations for Citizenship Without Illusions


In an age of heightened political division and widespread insistence on individual rights, often to the detriment of a vision for the public good, this primer on the task of being faithful Christian citizens is a breath of fresh (principled!) air. While reflecting the erudition of a senior political science scholar, Koyzis's book is eminently readable, theologically grounded, and insightfully practical for anyone wanting better to live in the tension between the heavenly kingdom of God for which we pray and the broken earthly political and social contexts in which we all live.

 

David Guretzki, president, CEO, and resident theologian, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada

Citizenship Without Illusions is the best one-stop treatment of political citizenship written by the most significant evangelical political theorist of our day. In it, Koyzis makes a case for political engagement as a divine vocation in which our allegiance to Christ is primary and our allegiance to political parties and platforms is secondary. His ability to turn complex political realities into practical frameworks for action is second to none. Highly recommended.

 

Bruce Riley Ashford, senior fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology

 

One wonderful, essential thing about David Koyzis is that he takes politics seriously without making an idol of it. This book reflects the generosity of spirit and intellectual care that have characterized David's career. Once again, David has offered us a tremendous gift with this book. Read it closely. Consider it deeply. Dispel political illusions. Love God and love your neighbor.

 

Michael Wear, founder, president, and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life and the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life 

 

David Koyzis has done all Western Christians concerned with their civic, political, and social obligations a great service. Rather than accept faulty assumptions about the nature of citizenship, the nation-state, and the relationship between church and state that run rampant today, Koyzis engages with these ideas historically, philosophically, and theologically before ever turning to concrete guidance. This is an outstanding book worthy of serious consideration.

 

Trey Dimsdale, executive director of the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy at First Liberty Institute

At a time when much Christian writing on politics is either enmeshed in the polemics of the day or else abstract and utopian, David Koyzis' Citizenship Without Illusions is a breath of fresh air. Koyzis discusses the practical demands of citizenship in a way that is theologically and philosophically grounded and historically astute. And he does so in an eminently readable way, enriched by pithy examples.

 

Paul Marshall, Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at Baylor University and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and the Religious Freedom Institute

David Koyzis provides one of the most useful, non-ideological frameworks for Christians seeking to navigate their participation in political society I've ever read. Citizenship Without Illusions is the best protection against Christians succumbing to the temptations of pledging allegiance to ideological visions while simultaneously equipping them to make enduring contributions to the common good. Koyzis provides a new standard, guiding Christians to transcend political polarization so they can truly seek the peace and prosperity of their communities and the world.

 

Anthony Bradley, author of the Political Economy of Liberation

As Christians, we are getting lots of sermons on what it means for a Christian to be a church member or parent. But who tells us what it means for a Christian to be a citizen? Thankfully, David T. Koyzis does. With a rich variety of historical and contemporary illustrations from all over the globe, including my own country, he encourages us to be faithful to Christ as members of our civil communities. As former leader of a Dutch Christian party that was part of coalition governments and as a follower of Christ, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thoughtful, biblical, and well-written book.

 

Gert-Jan Segers, former Dutch member of Parliament and leader of ChristenUnie, Christian party in the Netherlands
 

Commendations for Political Visions and Illusions

Definitely the best book I’ve read on the current state of political thinking happening among evangelicals in 2020. . . . I know I've said this before—but on politics, read David T. Koyzis's "Political Visions and Illusions". Very important to understanding the political ideologies at play in American culture. Christianity critiques them all.

— Rev. Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, New York 

If you want to have a coherent view of Christianity and politics . . . you need to read David Koyzis’ book. It’s the best book in Portuguese on the subject, and it will be one of the textbooks for our forum on faith and politics. In these times of ‘divided souls,’ this book presents a Reformed perspective on this complex relationship. Worth every penny!

— Cristiano Franco, Pastor, Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil, 5 September 2018, Facebook

Although the first edition of Political Visions and Illusions has already been praised in Brazil as an invaluable tool of Christian political formation, from young students and clergy to federal prosecutors and career politicians, the new edition confirms itself as a classic . . . . The new edition . . . carries the promise to be an even greater blessing for the Christian political mind.

— Guilherme de Carvalho, L’Abri Fellowship Brazil

It is a profound and at the same time accessible book. It is also balanced, and we sense the author’s quest to hear all the different positions. It is a book that invites dialogue without disparaging either side of the political spectrum. But above all, it makes us rethink our ideologies and where we place our hope, bringing us back to the centre of God’s will. Our trust must be in God, the one who redeems his creation. Our mission on earth is to reconcile all of creation, without leaving a single square centimeter out. This book helps to point the way for political action.

— Luiz Adriano Borges, Professor, Federal Technical University of Parana, Toledo, Brazil

Thanks for this outstanding work. I wish I'd had this book in college. It would have given me the orientation I needed for a liberal arts education that took everything apart with no indication why or plans to put any of it back together!

Dr. Tim Filston, Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Thomasville, Georgia

Rereading Koyzis’ book not only reminded me of how helpful his work was in clarifying issues of faith and politics, but it also provided me the joy of discovering fresh insights from a book that, like all great books, continues to teach new lessons with each reading. Unfortunately, except within the small confines of the Reformed world, Koyzis’ neo-Calvinist approach to political philosophy is not widely known. Hopefully, with the latest edition of Political Visions and Illusions, Koyzis’ work will no longer be hidden underneath a bushel, but instead, its brilliance will reach a wider audience.

Matthew Ng, Physician, PhD candidate, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary 

If you read only one book this year on the Christian's engagement in the political sphere I'd recommend David Koyzis' excellent 'Political Visions & Illusions' (IVP Academic).

David Patrick Cassidy, author, Indispensable: The Basics of Christian Belief

InterVarsity Press put this video together for the second edition:

Vida Nova adapted it for the second Brazilian edition published in 2021:


 

Commendations for We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God

So good: careful & clarifying.

Andy Crouch, Author, Executive Editor, Christianity Today

In this timely and highly valuable book, Koyzis exposes the problems and points the way to solid, balanced answers. The subtitle of We Answer to Another sums it up: 'Authority, Office, and the Image of God.' Humans have been created in the image of God and called to serve the Creator--the One to whom we are ultimately accountable. To exercise a responsibility is to hold an office of real authority as servant-stewards of one another. We can thus participate in holding one another accountable to the responsibilities of those offices. Sound old-fashioned? It's the most contemporary word of wisdom we and our neighbors throughout the world need to hear today!

James W. Skillen, President Emeritus, Center for Public Justice

Liberal societies, regarding themselves as premised on the generative moral autonomy of the individual, have a constitutive problem with authority--freedom needs no justification, only authority. In this highly illuminating, wide-ranging, and exceptionally clear book, David Koyzis shows how this view not only destabilizes authority but actually diminishes our humanity. Authority is not autonomy but 'responsible agency,' exercised individually and corporately in many diverse human settings--'offices'--that arise from our being created in God's image. Recovering authority as 'answering to another' makes us more, not less, human.

Jonathan Chaplin, former Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge

Every prior critical treatment of liberalism I’ve read has had a fundamental failure: it had no answer for why we should see individual liberties as goods worth preserving. Koyzis, it seems, does. . . . Color me deeply, deeply intrigued.

  Chris Krycho

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