David Koyzis

David T. Koyzis

Full name	David T. Koyzis
Born	March 30, 1955
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Byzanrite Calvinism · Political Philosophy
Main interests	Authority  · Justice · Idolatry  · Calvinism  · Ideology
Influenced by Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd, John Calvin

David T. Koyzis is a Christian political scientist and author.

He has graduate degrees from the Institute for Christian Studies and the University of Notre Dame. He has taught at Redeemer University College since 1987. He is the author of the award-winning Political Visions and Illusions^[1] which was Christianity Today's Editor's Bookshelf selection in July 2003.^[2]

Biography

Politically, Koyzis describes himself as a fanatical moderate. While a university undergraduate, he came into contact with the thought of Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) and Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977), and this had a life-changing impact on him. His subsequent studies and academic pursuits have been devoted to understanding and working out the implications of the kingdom of God for politics and other areas of life.

He is married to Dr. Nancy Calvert Koyzis, who has taught New Testament studies at Wheaton College, Tyndale Seminary, King's University College (London), Redeemer University College and McMaster University. She is the author of Paul, Monotheism and the People of God. They have one daughter, named Theresa.

David's interests range widely throughout the humanities and arts. He spent a large part of his childhood at the Art Institute of Chicago, and has developed a love for music. David Koyzis has published original hymn texts and tunes in several hymnals. He has a special love for the tunes of the Genevan Psalter, for which he has written sixty English versifications and composed nearly as many musical arrangements.^[3]

His favourite composers include Maurice Ravel, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Leoš Janáček, George Gershwin, Sergei Rachmaninov and the filmscore composer Bernard Herrmann. He also enjoys various kinds of liturgical and folk music. He has a small collection of rare books and maps, the jewel of which is a King James Bible printed in 1637.

David's ecclesiastical background is rather chequered. He sometimes describes himself as a Byzantine-rite Calvinist.^[4] He grew up in an orthodox Presbyterian church and later worshipped in Baptist, United Methodist, Anglican and Episcopal churches. He has a longstanding connection to the Christian Reformed Church, although he and his family are now members of a local Presbyterian congregation. His forebears were Greek Orthodox. He still has a considerable interest in Orthodox Christianity, with further interests in icons and all things Russian and Greek, including his ancestral island of Cyprus.

Works^[5]

David Koyzis has published a number of essays, commentaries, and a book.

Books

• Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2003), received first place in the nonfiction/culture category from The Word Guild Canadian Writing Awards, 2004. Subject of Mars Hill Audio Journal interview, November–December 2004, "on the modern denial of objective meaning and the exaltation of individual will."

• Currently writing the book We Answer to Another: Authority, Human Personhood and the Imago Dei

Chapters & Articles

• Preparing for Leadership Comment, 1 June 2007, republished at Christianity.ca.

• Persuaded, Not Commanded: Neo-Calvinism, Dignitatis Humanae, and Religious Liberty in Kenneth Grasso and Robert Hunt, ed., Catholicism and Religious Freedom: Contemporary Reflections on Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Liberty (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).

• Introductory Essay in Daniël F. M. Strauss, ed., Political Philosophy by Herman Dooyeweerd (Ancaster, Ontario and Lewiston, New York: The Dooyeweerd Centre and the Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), pp. 1–16, The Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd, series D, volume 1.

• Christianity and Liberalism: Two Alternative Religious Approaches the New Pantagruel: Hymns in the Whorehouse, summer 2004, vol. 1, no. 3.

• Making a Good Constitution Better: A Response to Janet Ajzenstat Comment (Work Research Foundation), winter 2004, pp. 15–21.

• Differentiated Responsibility and the Challenge of Religious Diversity Journal of Markets & Morality, vol. 5, no. 1 (spring 2002), pp. 199–207.

• Symposium: The Future of Federalism Comment, July–August 2001, pp. 14–15.

• Voter turnout and competitive politics Public Justice Report, vol. 23, no. 3, 2000, p. 3.

• Why Political Divorce Must Be Averted in Mark Charlton and Paul Barker, ed., Crosscurrents: Contemporary Political Issues, 3rd ed. (Toronto: ITP Nelson, 1998), pp. 211 ff.

• Canadian Election Accentuates Divisions Once Again Public Justice Report, July–August 1997, p. 2.

• A Call to Reform the Canadian Electoral System Public Justice Report, July–August 1997, p. 3.

• Hannah Arendt on Polis, Nation-State and Federation in Jonathan Chaplin and Paul Marshall, ed., Political Theory and Christian Vision (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1994).

• Reclaiming the Polis: the Anticosmopolitan Vision and the Quest for Genuine Political Community Dianoia: A Liberal Arts Interdisciplinary Journal, 3 (no. 2) and 4 (no. 1) 1994, pp. 83–100.

• Imaging God and his Kingdom: Eastern Orthodoxy's Iconic Political Ethic Review of Politics 55 (spring 1993), pp. 267–289.

• Yves R. Simon's Contribution to a Structural Political Pluralism in Michael D. Torre, ed., Freedom in the Modern World: Jacques Maritain, Yves R. Simon, Mortimer J. Adler, Notre Dame: American Maritain Association and University of Notre Dame Press, 1989, pp. 131–9.

• Progress as an Object of Faith in the Thought of Friedrich A. Von Hayek Christian Scholar's Review, 12 (no. 2) 1983, pp. 139–55.

Popular & Other Publications

• Monthly column on politics, currently titled Principalities and Powers published in Christian Courier (formerly Calvinist Contact, St. Catharines, Ontario) from 1990 to the present. Other publications are too numerous to list in full and have appeared in Christian Courier, Christian Week (Winnipeg), the Catalyst (of Citizens for Public Justice, Toronto), Public Justice Report (of the Center for Public Justice, Washington, D.C.), Vanguard (Toronto), The Reformed Journal, Reformed Worship, New Oxford Review, The Banner (Christian Reformed Church) and Comment (Work Research Foundation, Mississauga, Ontario).

• Hymn texts and tunes appearing in the Christian Reformed Church's Psalter Hymnal (1987), Songs of Rejoicing: Hymns for Worship, Meditation, and Praise (1989), and the Mennonite Hymnal: A Worship Book (1992). Completed a collection of English texts and harmonizations for fifty of the Genevan Psalms, under the provisional title, Psalms set to be sung to the proper tunes of the Genevan Psalter. Currently in search of publisher.

References

1. ^ Koyzis, David. "Political Visions & Illusions", U.S.:InterVarsity Press, 2003
2. ^ http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/juneweb-only/6-16-11.0.html
3. ^ http://genevanpsalter.redeemer.ca/
4. ^ http://byzantinecalvinist.blogspot.com/
5. ^ http://www.redeemer.ca/faculty/david-koyzis.aspx

External links

• Faculty Page
• Acton Institute Review of Political Visions and Illusions
• Biography

Persondata
Name	Koyzis, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 30, 1955
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death