September newsletter now online

My Global Scholars newsletter for September has now been posted. My completed manuscript is now with the publisher, a chapter of mine is in a newly published anthology, and I recommend two books I've recently read.

Discovering Dooyeweerd

Some time ago I was invited to contribute a brief chapter to an anthology on Herman Dooyeweerd's philosophy by my friend Danie F. M. Strauss. The chapter is called, "Political Idolatry: Assessing the Ideologies of Our Day," and runs for about five and a half pages. There are 61 chapters in total, among whose authors are Strauss himself (who wrote 25), Roy Clouser, Michael Goheen, Calvin Seerveld, Harry Van Dyke, Alan Cameron, James W. Skillen, and Gerit Glas. The book is Discovering Dooyeweerd and is now out from Paideia Press and available for purchase.

Dooyeweerd (1894-1977) was a Dutch Christian philosopher in the tradition of Abraham Kuyper who produced a voluminous amount of scholarship in his field. His magnum opus is A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, whose third volume I have found especially helpful for my own discipline of political science. My PhD dissertation at Notre Dame was on Dooyeweerd's political thought as compared with that of the Neo-Thomist philosopher Yves René Simon. See my Introductory Essay to Herman Dooyeweerd's Political Thought for more information on this important 20th-century philosopher.

Publishing Pasternak: a gripping account

Decades ago I read Boris Pasternak's celebrated novel, Doctor Zhivago, along with several other Russian literary classics from the 19th and 20th centuries. Years earlier I had seen David Lean's sprawling cinematic version, which won five Academy Awards and contributed a memorable musical theme to the popular repertoire. The plot follows the life of physician and poet Yuri Zhivago from 1902 until his death sometime after the Russian Revolutions and the ensuing civil war. As a typical Russian novel, its plot is complicated, brings in numerous characters with triple-barrelled names and less-than-obvious nicknames, and has dark overtones. For those unfamiliar with the twists and turns of recent Russian history, the novel can be confusing because Pasternak focusses so completely on the lives of Zhivago and the people around him that the historical events forming the backdrop often go without explicit reference in the text. Thus a preliminary acquaintance with the history is arguably a prerequisite for a satisfying read of the novel.

Mapping Atonement: an appreciation

In February I was privileged to visit Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, to deliver two lectures. This was at the invitation of my longtime friend Bill Witt, who teaches systematic theology and ethics there. We became friends during our graduate studies at Notre Dame in the 1980s and have remained such ever since. While I was at Trinity, he presented me with a copy of his book, co-authored with his colleague Joel Scandrett, titled, Mapping Atonement: The Doctrine of Reconciliation in Christian History and Theology (Baker, 2022). I have no intention of analyzing and critiquing the book, as I am not a theologian, and the subject matter falls outside my fields of competence. But I will say something about the contents and indicate that I learned a lot that I hadn't known or thought about before.

August newsletter posted

I have now posted my August newsletter, which can be accessed here. Included this month is a link to a recent online interview, a link to a video of a June event on Russia in which I participated, and the table of contents for my next book. Thanks for your ongoing support for my work.

A spiritual wasteland

Canada and the United States seem to be outliers with respect to the proportionate growth of evangelical Christianity, as I report this month in Christian Courier: A spiritual wasteland. An excerpt:

In 2010, Operation World published a map showing the growth of evangelical Christianity throughout the world. In the vast majority of countries, including ostensibly secular Europe, the growth in the numbers of believers was outpacing population growth. But in Canada and the United States, the increase in the numbers of Christians was lagging behind population growth, apparently defying global trends. Thus our continent appears to be a spiritual desert as compared to the rest of the globe.

Read the entire article here.

Cardus NextGen event

I've lost count, but I think last evening marked the third year in a row that I have conversed online with Cardus' NextGen cohort on the subject of my book, Political Visions and Illusions, which is one of their assigned readings. The NextGen programme is for young professionals between the ages of 25 and 34. From Cardus' website:

The Fellowship is designed to create a supportive learning community for intellectual and spiritual growth. Fellows will engage in discussions with leading Christian academics and practitioners, as well as receive one-on-one mentorship. Over the course of a year, fellows will participate in four weekend events, one week-long seminar in Ottawa, and monthly Zoom Connects.

The participants posed some excellent questions which I hope I was able to answer to their satisfaction. Some of their concerns, prompted by the desire for practical applications, I will be addressing in my forthcoming book, Citizenship Without Illusions, which I will shortly be submitting to the publisher.

Letters from Moscow: video link

Two months ago I participated in an event titled, Letters from Moscow, organized around a series of letters written by my colleagues Adrian and Wendy Helleman, who taught in Russia for several years around the turn of the millennium. The video of the event is posted below, starting at the place where I come in. Feel free, of course, to set it back to the beginning.

Citizenship Without Illusions: contents

I have circulated the completed manuscript of my forthcoming book to a few trusted colleagues and friends, have made some suggested revisions, and will shortly be submitting it to the publisher. Here is the projected table of contents:

Acknowledgements

1    Introduction

2    To Be a Citizen

        Growing into Citizenship: A Personal Journey
        The Office of Citizen
        Citizenship: the Backstory
        A World of Independent States
        Dual Nationality

Grace in Common interview

Not long ago, I was interviewed on the Grace in Common podcast by my hosts James Eglinton, Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, Marinus de Jong, and Cory Brock. The subject is Neo-Calvinism and politics, with a special focus on my chapter in the forthcoming T&T Clark Handbook of Neo-Calvinism, along with my first book, Political Visions and Illusions. The podcast can be accessed here: Neo-Calvinist Politics with David Koyzis.

Keller's apology for the faith

Because most of my writing is addressed to people who are already Christians, I've not taken much interest in apologetics, which is aimed at sceptics and at those considering Christianity for the first time. Too often apologists assume they can argue people into the faith, whereas in my experience converts have come to Christ for deeply-felt personal reasons and out of a sense of God's leading in their lives. For this reason—along with having to budget my time while I was still teaching—I allowed this book to pass me by when it first appeared in 2008: Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Apologetics is someone else's business, I implicitly figured. However, only months after the author's passing, I have finally read the book, and I can now affirm that it is beautiful in virtually every way and a most satisfying read.

Remembering the life of a loving mother

A tribute to my late mother has been published in Christian Courier: Jane Koyzis (1931-2023). Trying to summarize a life lived for 91 years is no easy feat, and there is so much more that I could say about her. But here is a brief excerpt from my column:

One of my fondest memories is of my mother sitting on the double bed in the master bedroom, surrounded by her children, and reading to us from J. B. Phillips’ New Testament paraphrase. Her love of God was so infectious that her faith became second nature to her children.

Read the entire article here.

July newsletter posted

My Global Scholars newsletter for July is now posted here. Among the items included are mentoring opportunities with which I've been blessed in recent years, the last meeting of a five-week online course for Brazil, the final instalment of a series on political ideologies, and an appreciation of the late Tim Keller. Thanks to everyone for your support for my work.

Letters from Moscow: afterword

Peter Schuurman, head of Global Scholars Canada, has posted an account of last month's event in Oakville, Ontario, including my own remarks: Letters from Moscow: The Opening and Closing of Russia, a Thousand Year History. From the introduction:

What is happening in Russia that it would sacrifice its young men, military budget, Ukrainian relatives, and Western relations in an attack on Ukraine? Global Scholars Canada asked a few of its scholars and some academic friends to weigh in on the larger historical, political, and ecclesiastical context behind the war that continues to rage in eastern Ukraine.

Although there is supposed to be a video of this event, it appears not to have been posted yet. When it is, I will link to it here.

Canada's unworn crown

Christian Courier has posted my most recent column, titled, Canada's unworn crown. Here is an excerpt:

As I watched the King and his consort receive their crowns, my first thought was how uncomfortable they looked. Charles received St. Edward’s Crown, made for his predecessor, Charles II, in 1661. Because it weighs 2.07 kilograms, it could not but place undue stress on our sovereign’s 74-year-old neck. He may need physiotherapy for the next little while as he recovers from the ordeal.

My second thought was how different the coronation was from the installation of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands ten years ago. Since 1948, a Dutch monarch has served, not for life, but until retirement after several decades at the helm, leaving the throne to her heir. This precedent, set by Queen Wilhelmina, has now been followed by Spanish and Belgian monarchs, and even by Pope Benedict XVI. At Willem-Alexander’s installation, the Crown was certainly present in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, but at no time did it rest upon his head – much to his relief, I’m sure.

Read the entire article here.

Beyond liberalism

Since the middle of last year, I have been writing a series on political ideologies for the Politics Network of UCCF: The Christian Unions in the United Kingdom. Today the final instalment in this series is posted: Beyond liberalism. Recognizing that liberalism has failed to account for the true complexity of human society, especially the significant place of communities of all kinds,

has led many observers to abandon liberalism as an account of our society and to seek something different—something truer to reality. But post-liberals, as we might label them, are a diverse lot. The mere fact of moving beyond liberalism tells us nothing of a final destination. Some may embrace a form of socialism or even Marxism. Others may adhere to conservatism, although even the conservative label encompasses a variety of often mutually incompatible stances. Others may move towards a form of political authoritarianism, perhaps based on a traditional religious worldview, as in, for example, Catholic integralism.

Read the entire article here.

One-hundred years of Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism

Already a century ago, many Christians were noticing a seemingly subtle shift in the message issuing from Protestant church pulpits—a shift away from the gospel message and towards a focus on the religious experience of the individual person. This prompted one Presbyterian leader, John Gresham Machen (1881-1936), to write a book that remains relevant today. Here are my thoughts on One-hundred years of Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism, posted at Kuyperian Commentary. An excerpt:

During the 19th century, Princeton Seminary, founded in 1812, was a bastion of Reformed orthodoxy and remained so into the first three decades of the 20th. Nevertheless, by the turn of that century, the supporting denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), was already in the process of changing, and not for the better. Pulpits were increasingly occupied by ministers whose preaching was more influenced by the ideologies of the day than by sound biblical interpretation. The major ideology of the day was scientism, the conviction that the only genuine form of knowledge was that accessible by the scientific method. Other claims to knowledge were to be greeted by a general posture of scepticism. Even Scripture and the doctrines of the Christian faith must be subjected to the canons of science, which in turn were thought to determine what we can and cannot accept of that faith. Claims to miracles, for example, cannot be scientifically vindicated and must thus be relegated to the status of primitive myths. All that remains of Christianity is its supposed ethical core.

Read the entire article here.

Tim Keller's faithful witness

I had intended to write sooner about pastor and author Tim Keller (1950-2023), whose passing was quickly followed two days later by my own mother's death. Now Christian Courier has just posted an article I wrote about him. It takes the form of a tribute and expression of personal gratitude: Tim Keller's faithful witness. An excerpt:

Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1950, Keller grew up in a Lutheran congregation but came to a fuller knowledge of the Christian faith while studying at Bucknell University through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. With his life now redirected towards serving God’s kingdom, Keller went on to attend Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts and Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a confessional Reformed denomination currently observing its 50^th anniversary.

After serving as pastor of a small congregation in Virginia, the PCA in 1989 asked him to start and lead a church plant in America’s largest city. Of course, New York is not a heavily churched community, and trying to maintain a Christian ministry in the heart of a secular urban centre certainly looked to be an uphill battle. Nevertheless, we know that with God nothing is impossible, and he used Keller to grow a vibrant church community in an unlikely setting. Beginning with only 50 people, by the end of 1989, attendance had grown to 250.

 Read the entire article here.

KLC interview

In April Jason Estopinal and I interviewed Hannah Nation, who edited the book, Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement. The podcast has now been posted at the Kirby Laing Centre website: Learning from the Chinese Church Today with Hannah Nation. Indeed, we have much to learn from our brothers and sisters in a country that may one day become the global centre of Christianity.

June newsletter posted

I have now posted my Global Scholars newsletter for June. Among its contents: my recently completed series on Israel's precarious democracy, a new distance course for Brazil, a complete draft of my Genevan Psalter project, and a panel discussion on Russia sponsored by Global Scholars Canada. As always, thank you for your support for my work.