Ordering our loyalties
Review of "Citizenship Without Illusions" by David Koyzis.
I first met David Koyzis three years ago at a Tim Hortons in Hamilton. As a fan of his first book Political Visions & Illusions, I recognized his face from across the room and approached him to show my appreciation for his work. Insistent that we meet again in the future, he asked me to write down my email (while making a comment about my messy handwriting), and since then, we’ve made it a quarterly routine to meet at that same Tim Hortons to discuss politics, history, theology, and even more personal matters like faith, family and relationships.
Over the years, I have been privileged to know David Koyzis as more than a mentor and a person of influence but as a friend too. In Citizenship Without Illusions: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement, he presents a truly radical counter-cultural philosophy. He encourages Christians to stand firm against the myths peddled in our political milieu, to have a nuanced understanding of hot-button issues, and to embrace the simple gospel truth of loving one’s neighbour. These suggestions make his book a timely read for our current opposition-centered political culture. The antidote to such thinking is for Christians to present themselves not as citizens who happen to be Christians but Christians who happen to be citizens.
This book is about ordering our loyalties – a theme that dovetails with St. Augustine’s answer to the question of how to be just and righteous: “to love things in the right order” (On Christian Doctrine, 1.27-28). “[A]s followers of Jesus Christ,” writes Koyzis in the introduction, “we claim that our ultimate loyalty is to the kingdom of God and never to a mere earthly community. Yet we recognize that we have responsibilities to the communities of which we are a part.” Christians often know intuitively that we need to be Christians first and citizens second, but that doesn’t always manifest itself in our civic posture. Some Christians take their political identity too seriously to a point where it marginalizes their faith (see my review of The Godless Crusade). Other Christians do not take politics seriously enough, in which citizenship is reduced to nothing more than a piece of paper. This is where Koyzis can correct our posture.
How to order our loyalties
In this book I see three takeaways on what it means to set our loyalties in order as Christian citizens. First, ultimate loyalty to God and loyalty to governments often go hand-in-hand. Citizenship is more than just paying government taxes, participating in elections, or serving on a jury. Good citizenship requires being informed, defending the vulnerable, and extends even to a strong commitment to church: “Christians may best discharge the weighty responsibilities of citizenship . . . by focusing on nurturing their own immediate communities, including their congregations gathered to worship the triune God.” A fortress-like fellowship of believers can be an effective tool in combating political injustice. Koyzis references the Coptic Churches in Egypt as a case-in-point: without their internal strength and cooperation, they would be unable to have such powerful influence in a Muslim-majority society. However, this is not to say that we should politicize the church, nor does it mean that obeying the government always aligns with obeying God. Koyzis recognizes that civil disobedience is necessary in some cases. It is to say that, all things being equal, active participation in our earthly kingdoms prepares us to be members of God’s Kingdom.
Second, ultimate loyalty to God should make us both appreciative and suspicious of partisan politics. “If we find ourselves always parroting one party’s agenda and vilifying the other party’s,” Koyzis writes, “I suggest that something is amiss.” When we vote with spiritual discernment, we will be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each mainstream party in any political context. The common grace of God enables all political parties to capture something beautiful in their pursuit of justice, but sin prevents them from representing the complete justice of God’s intended plan for humanity. This approach helps us acknowledge the shortcomings of our preferred party and the truthful elements of other parties.
Third, ultimate loyalty to God requires political humility. This is a recurring theme throughout Koyzis’ book: “[I]f we acknowledge that we are agents of God’s kingdom . . . we free ourselves of the burden of believing that somehow ‘it’s all up to us’”; “In the real world of politics, we cannot expect to have our way all the time”; “We should keep our eyes open and not assume that we can rest in our larger efforts to secure justice.” If we are inclined to propose quick solutions to complex problems, Koyzis reminds us to trust in God, the ultimate redeemer of all political injustice.
Evaluation
Both personable and educational, Koyzis paints a picture of the Christian citizen in a compelling fashion. On the one hand, he addresses readers in a more relational way than the book’s prequel, given his use of personal anecdotes and hypothetical scenarios to illustrate the practicality of his suggestions. On the other hand, by extracting insights from a variety of academic sources in theology, history, political theory and social science, he continues to showcase his strengths as a career instructor.
Although Koyzis covers a wide range of relevant issues (e.g., civil disobedience, the weaknesses of the electoral college, the dangers of social media), I believe he could have gone deeper by addressing questions pertaining to, for example, citizen’s arrest, the right to bear arms, how A.I. is shaping citizenship, and how Christians exercise their dual loyalties in much more complex environments than the Western world. How might Assyrian Christians, for example, think about their loyalty to the Iraqi state given their distinct history, religion, language, ethnicity, culture, and values?
En route to the City of God
Nevertheless, what some may see as a modest book on a trivial subject has the potential to be transformative for Christians. We often neglect to see how ordinary citizens, not just governments, have the capacity and responsibility to pursue public justice. Koyzis’ work is relevant not solely for those interested in politics but everyday citizens who, whether they know it or not, encounter politics in seemingly mundane areas of life, like the pews of their home church. It is for Christians who desire to ground their political thinking in a Biblical worldview and honour the institution of government beyond paying their taxes and voting for their preferred candidate
Like any good book on politics and Christianity, David Koyzis concludes with some remarks about prayer. I hope to do the same here. I pray that Christians who read this book will use it as a roadmap to navigate through the deceptive illusions they find in their (metaphorical) city on earth en route to fulfilling their calling in the City of God.
