James Dekker

Jan 22, 2025 | thebanner.org | James Dekker

Oscar season approaches. Several reviews of Conclave have puffed it as worthy of Best Picture, plus Stanley Tucci and Ralph Fiennes as candidates for best actor nods. No such predictions here. Still I rate this as the best film of my year; until Conclave, I’d never watched the same movie two consecutive days. The deceivingly simple plot: The pope dies; Cardinals flock to the Vatican to elect his successor.

Dec 11, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | James Dekker

Last August, Toronto immigration lawyer Paul Vander Vennen was honoured with the Bikila Award for Professional Excellence for decades-long service with the Ethiopian community. The award is named after marathoner Abebe Bikila, the first African to win an Olympic gold medal. Paul is the son of Mary, a splendid concert pianist and therapist, and the late Robert, long-time staffer at The Institute for Christian Studies. In late October James Dekker and Paul had a conversation via Zoom.

Aug 28, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | James Dekker

In the 1960s and 70s, Calvin Theological Seminary counted among future Christian Reformed Church pastors not a few who ranked anti-Vietnam War demonstrations higher than class attendance. We wanted to “change the world.” I remember how Professor Henry Stob did not oppose social justice, but often sternly criticized public protests that could turn people into thoughtless mobs.

Jun 21, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | James Dekker

I wrote most of this before Synod 2024 began. But I was certain we’d still be talking about it, for good or for ill. In 2022 and 2023, Synod discussed the Human Sexuality Report (HSR) and decided by a majority vote that the seventh commandment forbidding adultery, as explained in the Heidelberg Catechism, includes same-sex relationships. Synod 2024 has now placed limits on how office bearers (elders, deacons and pastors) are allowed to use gravamina to express their theological difficulties.

Apr 17, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | James Dekker

Dawn: A Proton’s Tale of All That Came to BeCees Dekker, Corien Oranje, Gijsbert Van den BrinkIntervarsity Press, 2022. When God Speaks Science: What Neurons, Giant Squid, and Supernovae Reveal About Our CreatorJohn Van SlotenMoody Press, 2023. Two long-time Alberta members of the Christian Reformed Church have recently and pleasingly contributed to the fraught relationship between science and faith.