English l'Abri lecture: Discerning Visions and Illusions in Political Life

Late last week I addressed a group associated with English l'Abri at the invitation of Josué Reichow, a Brazilian who, along with his wife Lili, is affiliated with the organization. The lecture is titled Discerning Visions and Illusions in Political Life. Here is an excerpt:

Back in 1976 James W. Sire published a book called The Universe Next Door, subtitled, A Basic Worldview Catalog, in which he treated the different visions that animate the lives, not just of individuals, but of entire communities. Beginning with Christian theism, Sire went on to explore deism, naturalism, nihilism, existentialism, eastern pantheistic monism, the new age, and, in later editions, postmodernism, Marxism, and Islam. This may not have been the first worldview book ever published anywhere, but it definitely filled a need at the time.

Alvo da Mocidade (Young Life Brazil)

Yesterday I was privileged to speak to a large group of young people, staffers for the organization Alvo da Mocidade, or Target Youth, the Brazilian counterpart of Young Life. I talked about my own life, my faith journey, and my book, Visões e Ilusões Políticas, which was just released in a second edition. I spoke at the invitation of my great friend Gabriel Lazarotti, who visited me in Canada a few years ago. At least one hundred people were in attendance, primarily from Belo Horizonte, the sixth largest city in Brazil. My principal translator was Gabriel Chaves, assisted by Diego Baião.

Ontem eu tive o privilégio de falar a um grande grupo de jovens, funcionários da organização Alvo da Mocidade, a homóloga brasileira do Young Life. Falei da minha própria vida, da minha trajetória de fé e do meu livro Visões e Ilusões Políticas, que acaba de sair em uma segunda edição. Falei a convite do meu grande amigo Gabriel Lazarotti, que me visitou no Canadá há alguns anos. Estiveram presentes pelo menos cem pessoas, principalmente de Belo Horizonte, a sexta maior cidade do Brasil. Meu principal tradutor foi Gabriel Chaves, auxiliado por Diego Baião.

Interview in Gazeta do Povo

This week Guilherme de Carvalho, the head of l'Abri Brasil, interviewed me on the subject of the second Brazilian edition of Political Visions and Illusions. The interview was posted yesterday in the Gazeta do Povo: David Koyzis e as idolatrias políticas. There are two qualifications needed for reading the interview: a knowledge of Portuguese and a paid subscription to the periodical. For those with neither, here is a small sample in English:

I heard that you like very much Brazil and the Portuguese language! Are you following the local news? How do you read the Brazilian political landscape now?

I absolutely love Brazil and its people! As someone of Greek Cypriot parentage, I easily embrace friends when I see them. Brazil is an entire country of people who do the same thing! In this respect I find the social distancing mandated by the current pandemic deeply frustrating. I look forward to a return to normality. And I hope I will one day be able to return to Brazil and hug everyone I meet!

As for the Brazilian political landscape, I think the biggest issues are threefold: (1) the endemic corruption that has marred political life for decades; (2) the confidence people place in would-be political saviours in the presidency; and (3) the global pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Brazil. I believe these three elements are interconnected. This is where political ideologies play a role. If we are viewing reality through one of the lenses distorted by a false redemptive narrative, we will err in our proposed solutions to contemporary political and social ills. Furthermore, it may be that basic political reforms, along with an enduring change in public attitudes, are needed to break the hold of would-be Napoleonic figures in the public imagination.

As the good news of Jesus Christ continues to spread among Brazilians, let us pray that they will increasingly look to him for their salvation and scale back their expectations of political leaders. At the same time, imagine a Brazil where a public justice movement is in a position to elect candidates to congress and to the presidency. A movement dedicated to stamping out corruption and bringing integrity to the political process. Ora et labora! Pray and work to make it happen.

Learn Portuguese, take out a subscription, and read more here.
 

Visões e Ilusões Políticas: Segunda Edição | David T. Koyzis

É bom saber que os brasileiros estão lendo a segunda edição do meu livro!

May newsletter

I have now posted my Global Scholars newsletter for the month of May here.

VISÕES E ILUSÕES POLÍTICAS (SEGUNDA EDIÇÃO) | DAVID KOYZIS

 

Second Brazilian edition

Last week was the launch date for the second Brazilian edition of Political Visions and Illusions, in Portuguese titled Visões e Ilusões Políticas. It is available from the publisher Edições Vida Nova and from the usual online vendors, including Amazon.co.br.

The book's translator was Leandro Bachega, who is a doctoral student at the Universidade de São Paulo. I am grateful for the hard work he put into this.

I look forward to receiving the author's copies soon. And I pray that this second edition will be a blessing to the people of Brazil, whom I have come to love greatly over the years. Eu adoro o povo brasileiro! Que Deus os abençoe!

Why Liberalism Failed, a review

Just over three years ago, Bruce Ashford and I published a review of one of the more significant books in recent years: Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed. The Gospel Coalition published our review: Liberalism Failed Because It Collapsed Under Its Own Weight. Deneen's book merits mention twice in the 2nd edition of Political Visions and Illusions, which is now out in Portuguese translation. An excerpt from our review:

How and why is liberalism failing? Primarily because liberalism, as a centuries-old political philosophy, is rooted in a defective understanding of the human person. Liberalism ignores the person’s rootedness in local communities and their myriad customs and influences, replacing that rootedness with an inordinate allegiance to state and market, the instruments of our supposed liberation.

As Deneen sees it, the United States as a whole was established on liberal principles, and these have developed over the past nearly two and a half centuries in ways consistent with liberalism’s underlying presuppositions but inconsistent with a healthy social fabric. However, the overwhelming dominance of liberalism has been masked by the recent superficial polarization of the national political landscape into two factions.

Indeed, our most vociferous conflicts have pitted classical liberals, with their affection for a free market and small government, against progressive liberals, who view government as an instrument for the expansion of individual autonomy.

Read the entire article here.

Visões e Ilusões Políticas, 2a edição, ampliada e atualizada

Mudei a fotografia e o link na barra lateral direita da primeira para a segunda edição de Visões e Ilusões Políticas.

I have changed the photograph and link in the right sidebar from the first to the second Brazilian edition of Political Visions and Illusions.

Aqui está a descrição do livro:

As ideologias políticas não são uma mera questão de governança. Elas são intrínseca e inescapavelmente religiosas. Elas reúnem inúmeras crenças sobre a natureza da realidade, dos indivíduos e da sociedade, e formam uma visão coletiva do que é o bem comum. O problema é que as ideologias políticas são também visões idólatras.

Chaplin: Faith in Democracy

My friend Jonathan Chaplin has published a new book that I look forward to obtaining and reading soon: Faith in Democracy: Framing a Politics of Deep Diversity, published by SCM Press in England. Here is the description on the publisher's website:

What is the place of faith in public life in the UK? Beyond 'secularism' that seeks to relegate faith to the margins of public life, and a 'Christian nation' position that seeks to retain, or even regain, Christian public privilege, there is a third way. Faith in Democracy: Framing a Politics of Deep Diversity calls for an approach that maximises public space for the expression of faith-based visions within democratic fora while repudiating all traces of religious privilege. It argues for a truly conversational space, reflecting theologically on the contested concepts at the heart of the current debate about the place of faith in British public life: democracy, secularism, pluralism and public faith.

While the book addresses a British readership, I suspect it will have relevance for Canada and the United States as well. Once I have read it, I will be writing and posting a review.

Abdullah Onar, architect

Abdullah Onar at his office, 1957

My father's best childhood friend was a Turkish Cypriot named Abdullah Onar (1929-2019) who came from a neighbouring village in the Karpas Peninsula. He became an architect who designed many buildings in the island. He was also a competent artist, some of whose works I have posted below. I recently came into contact with his great-grandnephew who lives in England, and I quickly discovered that we are distant DNA cousins, which likely means that Abdullah was related to us as well.

Dampening the culture wars: a review

My series on Dampening the culture wars is now complete. Here is a review of the entire series for those wishing to read it from start to finish:

1. How to get along while agreeing to disagree

2. The features of power-sharing

3. What is to be done?

4. What is to be done? continued

5. The Netherlands

6. Lebanon

7. Belgium

8. Canada

9. Cyprus

10. The United States of America

11. Concluding remarks

 I will likely be returning to this topic in future, but this is all for now.

How does politics shape the way we see the world?

Some weeks ago Andrew Bertodatti, of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, interviewed me on the subject of my Political Visions and Illusions: How does politics shape the way we see the world? This was posted yesterday. Here is an excerpt:

How do you suggest believers approach public justice? In your view, what is the source of our disagreements about what justice requires?

There are two sources of our disagreements. First, we may disagree on basic principles of justice, in which case it may be that we have been negatively influenced by the redemptive stories told by the secular ideologies I treat in my book. Perhaps we have become Christian socialists, or Christian nationalists, or some such. A major reason for my writing this book is to move believers into examining themselves to see whether they are in fact accepting an unbiblical redemptive narrative and whether this might be adversely affecting their approach to political life.

Dampening the culture wars, 11: Concluding remarks

My motive in writing this series has been to explore the ways in which people in leadership, representing diverse and potentially antagonistic communities, have undertaken to co-operate for political purposes. In the 1960s and '70s such arrangements were grouped together under the general rubric of consociationalism, a term borrowed from the writings of 16th-century political philosopher Johannes Althusius, whose Politics represents a minority pluralist stream in the modern age, otherwise dominated by a monistic emphasis on undisputed sovereignty. We noted at the outset that Sir Bernard Crick famously defined politics as the peaceful conciliation of diversity within a given unit of rule. All politics presupposes diversity in some measure: a diversity of political philosophies, a diversity of prudential judgements on practical policy issues, a diversity of legitimate interests, and so forth. But sometimes this diversity is of such an extreme nature that it threatens the ability of the system to accommodate it within a single framework. This is where a consociational arrangement can play a significant role.

Prince Philip's long life and Christian faith

My regular column in Christian Courier was posted yesterday: Prince Philip's long life and Christian faith, subtitled, "From a troubled childhood to the longest-serving prince consort." An excerpt:

Baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, Philip converted to the Church of England at the time of his marriage to Princess Elizabeth in 1947. At the same time he was granted several titles, most notably Duke of Edinburgh.

The writers for The Crown suggest that Prince Philip flirted with atheism in his younger years, but former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, claims to The Yorkshire Post that Philip discussed with him freely his and the Queen’s shared rootedness in the Christian faith: “Of course, the Queen and I are so strong in Jesus Christ.” His remarkable mother, Princess Alice, had founded an order of Orthodox nuns in Greece, spent the war years sheltering Jews during the German occupation, and ended her life at Buckingham Palace with her son and daughter-in-law. Her presence in Philip’s life likely had an impact on his own faith. Nevertheless, he was known to be inquisitive about other religions and was interested in fostering interfaith dialogue.

Read the entire column here.

Dampening the culture wars, 10: the United States of America

Thus far we have examined several countries, most of which have attempted in large or small ways to bridge the chasms separating distinct communities within a single polity by formulating practical means of sharing power at the level of leadership. In the Netherlands the cleavages were religious and ideological. In Belgium they started out religious/ideological but shifted to linguistic after the Second World War. In Lebanon the cleavages were religious—or sectarian, as some prefer. In Canada the cleavage was primarily linguistic, with elements of religion and ideology thrown in. In Cyprus the cleavage was ethnic and religious, greatly exacerbated by nationalist ideology.

Now we turn to the United States, which, over the past two generations, has become increasingly divided along ideological and religious lines. In this respect, the United States, which once stood aloof from the trends affecting Europe, is coming to resemble France in the wake of the Revolution and ensuing Napoleonic debacle.

Dampening the culture wars, 9: Cyprus

Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, located off the coast where Asia Minor turns into the Levant. It has been a crossroads of virtually all the imperial powers in the region, having been controlled successively by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Lusignan dynasty, the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Turks, and finally the British, before receiving independence in 1960 as a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. The population of Cyprus is overwhelmingly Greek-speaking, with the Greek presence in the island dating back nearly 3,000 years. The population has, of course, fluctuated over the centuries and is currently estimated to stand at just over 1 million. Around half a century ago, the island had around 650,000 people of whom 80 percent were Greek-speaking and Orthodox Christian, and just under 20 percent Turkish-speaking Sunni Muslim. The Turkish-Cypriot community was a remnant of the centuries of Ottoman occupation between 1571 and 1878.

In 1878 Great Britain received administrative control over Cyprus as part of the settlement that ended the Russo-Turkish war of the previous year. The first British colonial high commissioner was Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913), who had put down the Red River rebellion in Canada nearly a decade earlier. From 1878 until 1914, the island's residents remained nominal subjects of the Ottoman Sultan, but when Britain entered the Great War against Turkey, she annexed it outright, lest its residents be considered enemy aliens. Cyprus became a Crown colony in 1925. My father was born there three years later and grew up in the Greek Orthodox community, although he had Turkish Cypriot friends, including a boy born exactly one year after he was. This man remained one of his best friends throughout their long lives.

Dampening the culture wars, 8: Canada

Ordinarily we wouldn't think of placing Canada in the category of consociational arrangements, and for the most part we'd be right. The Westminster system of cabinet government seems tailor-made for a polity characterized by a high degree of internal homogeneity, which Canada obviously is not. The current British system, on which Canada's is based, developed gradually over the course of many centuries without the guidance of a constitutional document but under the accumulated deposit of a large number of statutory instruments, including the following:

• Magna Carta (1215)
• Petition of Right (1628)
• Habeas Corpus Act (1679)
  
• Bill of Rights (1689)
• Act of Settlement (1701)
  
• Reform Act (1832)
• Various acts expanding the franchise (1867, 1884, 1928)
  
• Life Peerages Act (1958)
• Scotland Act (1998)
  
• House of Lords Act (1999)
  

England and the 'peculiar institution'

Recently I read an abridged volume of Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, which were published between 1765 and 1769 in four books, titled Of the Rights of Persons, Of the Rights of Things, Of Private Wrongs, and Of Public Wrongs. Blackstone's Commentaries were hugely influential on the American founders, who drew on his analyses as they were establishing their new federal republic in North America. (Blackstone appears to have been less influential in Canada. I find only two references to him in the parliamentary debates leading up to Confederation in 1867, and one of these is negative.) Yet one area in which Blackstone was not followed consistently was on slavery.

Dampening the culture wars, 7: Belgium

These days when we hear of Brussels, we think, not of the kingdom of Belgium of which it is the capital city, but of the European Union and its institutions, many of which are located here. When Europeans complain about Brussels, they generally have in mind faceless "Eurocrats" whose decisions are often seen as needlessly interfering with their lives and livelihoods. But Belgium as a country, so often overshadowed by its better-known capital city, merits examination as an historical example of consociationalism, and one whose character has shifted over the past century, as language has come to supplant religion and ideology as the principal line of cleavage in its divided populace.

Belgium became independent almost by accident. For centuries its fate was tied to that of the remainder of the lowlands of northwestern Europe, a part of the Holy Roman Empire that passed into the hands of Spain in 1556. While the Dutch revolt beginning in 1568 sent shock waves throughout these provinces, the Spanish Habsburgs under Philip II managed to retain control of the southern provinces, cut almost in two by the episcopal principality of Liège, a collection of ecclesiastical lands over which the Bishop of Liège exercised political rule. In 1714 the Spanish Netherlands passed into the hands of the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, who retained control until they were dislodged by the French Revolution.