Opening Dooyweerd in new ways
Review of "Reform Your Mind" by Josue Reichow.
Reform Your Mind: The Christian Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd
Josué Reichow
Cantaro Publications, 2022.
Josué Reichow is a bright scholar from Brazil who is opening Dooyeweerd in new ways for a new culture. I first came across Reichow through his talk on a Christian response to Critical Theory, in which he offered a generous and clear-eyed way Christians could ally with the postmodern project of deconstruction and decolonization but also contribute constructive push-back at key points. Such a posture, according to Reichow, rests on the ability to understand Critical Theory from an independent perspective. Seeing the world through the lens of “creation, fall and redemption” allows Reichow to point out that Critical Theory is stuck in the fall. Without the hope of redemption, the project gets stuck in a cycle of negativity.
Josué Reichow wrote Reform Your Mind in Portuguese to introduce the thought of the 20th-century Dutch Reformed philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd to a Brazilian audience. Reichow translated the work into English while living and working in England for the L’Abri Fellowship. He has since returned to Brazil to direct Brazilian L’Abri.
In dialogue with Brazilian Christianity
Summarizing Dooyeweerd for a popular audience is not for the faint of heart. Reichow has done this through four steps of translation – Dooyeweerd’s Dutch into English (supervised by Dooyeweerd) summarized in Portuguese and then translated into English. Reichow occasionally gets a little tangled in the weeds of Dooyeweerd’s technical terms, so some prior familiarity with Dooyeweerd’s thought will make the reader’s work easier.
Reichow’s book emphasises how Dooyeweerd nestles into the neo-Calvinist tradition of Abraham Kuyper. For Reichow, Dooyweerd’s Reformed perspective frees Christians to work in the arts and sciences for their own sake so that Christian witness reaches beyond personal evangelism to embrace “every square inch.”
Reichow also makes much of Dooyeweerd’s understanding of history. He highlights Dooyeweed’s view that modern Western culture is characterised by an oscillation or tension. The one pole of the oscillation is an emphasis on the unchangeable laws of nature that form all human actions and decisions. The other pole of the oscillation is an emphasis on human freedom and the power to choose freely.
Reichow’s book becomes particularly interesting when he sets Dooyeweerd’s ideas in dialogue with Brazilian Christianity, particularly Theology of Missão Integral and Liberation Theology. Here, Reichow shines, both in his attitudes and in his reservations.
Reichow is quick to point out commonalities and ways in which he sees himself as an ally to both movements. He admires Theology of Missão Integral for overcoming the dualism of body/soul and sacred/secular to minister in an integrated way, promoting both evangelism and social justice. As an ally, he nevertheless cautions the proponents of Theology of Missão Integral against being drawn too far into the political left.
Reichow also pushes back at Liberation Theology’s focus on enhancing human freedom as their core value and on their reliance on Marxist social analysis. In the process, one can see Reichow starting the train of thought that led him to his evaluation of Critical Theory the following year.
This slender volume introduces us to a new contingent of Reformed thinkers in Brazil. I will be interested in seeing how Reichow will build on this promising beginning.
