JANUARY 2026 NEWSLETTER

As we begin the new calendar year, I would like to wish God's blessings on all of you receiving and reading this. Thank you to those who made a year-end contribution to my work. I hope you were able to spend good time with family and friends during the holidays, as we celebrated the incarnation of the Son of God.

This month I want to begin by talking about mentoring, which was almost certainly the most rewarding part of my 30 years of undergraduate instruction. After I began teaching in the late 1980s, I quickly discovered that the relationships I was forming with my students meant the world to me and that this would become a major part of my life as an academic. Indeed some of my former students have remained close friends over the decades. When I retired nearly nine years ago, I thought that this part of my life was effectively at an end. However, it seems that God had other plans. I may tell some of these stories, as I receive permission from the relevant persons. But I have highlighted one such personal encounter here: Mentoring young people: a moving tribute. Read it and rejoice with me.

On the fifth anniversary of the 6 January uprising in Washington, DC, I thought it appropriate to register my thoughts on a shocking event after half a decade: January 6 plus 5. A constitutional democracy depends for its well being on office holders' willingness to abide by the rule of law and to relinquish their offices to their successors when they lose an election. This should be basic high school civics, especially in a country with such a long and honorable tradition of constitutional government.

Christian Courier published three of my columns recently. The first of these I wrote in response to the American abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an admittedly tyrannical ruler whose absence is almost certainly better for the Venezuelan people. Nevertheless, this action has implications for national security and how best to maintain it: How seeking security can backfire.

The second column concerns Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since February 2022 with no end in sight: Justice for Ukraine. In a war of attrition, with action on the front lines effectively at a stalemate, the question is which party can hold out the longest. With the US an unreliable ally of Ukraine, and with the President leaning toward Vladimir Putin's Russia, it may be up to Canada and Europe to defend a country suffering from a four-year incursion into its internationally recognized territory.

The third column recounted my guitar journey through the Psalms, which I completed at the end of September.

I have had three recent interviews, one of which has been posted: Schuman talks: episode 60. I enjoyed my conversation with Jeff Fountain in 2021, and I enjoyed this new one as well in which we managed to cover all three of my published books, with a focus on the most recent one, Citizenship Without Illusions. A second interview, with Tommy Lee, is still to be posted.

A third interview occurred on 13 January at the offices of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in Scarborough, just east of Toronto. Brian Stiller, currently Global Ambassador of the World Evangelical Alliance, interviewed me for his Evangelical 360 podcast. I will alert readers when it is posted. My wife and I decided to make this into an overnight stay in downtown Toronto. She was doing research at the main library of the University of Toronto while I was being interviewed. The following morning we took in a special exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum: Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks, an impressive collection of art on loan from The Phoebus Foundation in Antwerp, Belgium. I was especially impressed to see what is thought to be the world's first atlas from 1570 (see photo above right), along with a 17th-century table globe. The exhibit ends this weekend.

Although I do not generally write about Christmas gifts I have received, I make an exception here: Assembly Required: preview. Some of my readers may be aware that I had aspired to be an architect as a child, a career ambition that obviously went unfulfilled. Nevertheless, I retain an interest in architecture, including political architecture. The book I've previewed is long overdue. I'm only sorry it wasn't available when I was still in the classroom, as I undoubtedly would have made use of it there.

I have one speaking engagement and a conference forthcoming in the next few months. I will report on these after the fact. In the meantime I continue to work on projects about which I hope to have more to say in the near future.

Thank you for your ongoing support for my work. A special thank you once again to those who contributed a little extra at year's end. If you have contributed financially on a one-time basis in the past, 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.

Or, if you prefer, Canadian donors can donate publicly traded securities (shares or mutual funds) directly to charities without having to pay the capital gains tax. This is a cost-effective and painless way to make a donation that comes with a substantial tax incentive. By donating securities, donors pay no tax on capital gains, receive a tax receipt for the fair market value of the securities, as well as reduce their taxes. Watch this video for more information about this option: Link Charity Canada: Donation of Securities. If interested, please visit the Link Charity Canada Inc. website, and call for details at 1-800-387-8146. Link Charity Canada is a partner organization of Global Scholars Canada, so Link Charity can easily direct funds for my work. Thank you!

Yours in God's service,

David Koyzis, Global Scholar