David Koyzis is the author of the award-winning Political Visions and Illusions (2003), which recently came out in a Brazilian edition, Visões e Ilusões Politicas, and of We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God (2014).
One generation's progress may fall victim to the next generation's very different agenda. If there is a lesson to be taken from this, it is that history is not, after all, a singular progressive movement along some grand Hegelian trajectory. Continue Reading »
Americans once regarded socialism with a mixture of fear and bemusement. Why then have so many lost this fear such that they are prepared to put a socialist in the Oval Office? Continue Reading »
Civil society does not represent an effort to “fix” something, whether it be the overweening state or the corrosive market. To think that it does is to miss the point.
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It is not only kings and princes who bear political office. As those created in God’s image, we too bear political authority. Continue Reading »
Since Cardinal Bernardin's death in 1996, his consistent life ethic has been (ab)used more often to deprecate pro-lifers than to expand their apparently narrow horizons. But charges of hypocrisy aimed at pro-lifers on this basis are unfounded.
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A political system, along with such supportive traditions as the rule of law and loyal opposition, is supposed to be a durable fixture on the political landscape and ought not to be changed lightly. It should be amended only when a favorable consensus can be achieved, and if that consensus is not forthcoming, then the constitution remains as it is. Continue Reading »
If we are unclear as to the authority for our cultural transformative efforts, we run the risk of being transformed ourselves by the very culture we hope to change. In which case, there will be little difference between Niebuhr's “Christ transforming culture” and “Christ of culture.” Continue Reading »
A liberal Christian may be able to affirm that Jesus literally walked on the water or rose from the dead, yet he still retains the right as an individual to accept only that which supports his own experience of faith. Continue Reading »
At one time I strongly believed that every published Bible ought to contain the entire collection of books and not just, say, the New Testament. I still believe this to a very large extent, but I've moderated my views somewhat over the years. Continue Reading »
John Paul II firmly believed that we need fear only thoughtlessness and lack of courage. Just as Czechs and Slovaks maintained patience in the face of tyranny for four decades, we ourselves have reason to expect that current trends, however disheartening in the short term, will not endure forever. Continue Reading »
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