The English Department of Dordt University believes that "nothing matters but the kingdom of God, but because of the kingdom, everything, literally everything, matters." (Gordon Spykman, Dordt College commencement 1988, "Kingdoms in Conflict")
From that perspective, we teach students how to read poems, stories, plays, and essays. Such reading requires examining how an author uses language to create imagined worlds and to communicate meaning. It also requires that the reader examine how literature from a variety of time periods and cultures challenges or affirms our values and enriches our lives. We aim to foster life-long reading in all our students.
We also demand that students respond to specific selections they read as well as to the broader world in which they live. Thus we teach our students to write poems, stories, essays, and research papers, all of which may help them articulate their Christian understanding of literature and life.
Because we expect all of our graduates will write for publication, we aim to teach them to write clearly, concisely, and forcefully so that the ideas they express and the causes they represent will be advanced.
Faculty Work from 2016
Joseph the Imperturbable, Howard Schaap
Just Add Water, Bill Elgersma
Language of Arrival, Joshua Matthews
Last Buffalo, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Light of the World, Joshua Matthews
Liturgies of the Body: The Jump Shot and Spiritual Practice, Howard Schaap
Love Undone at Blackbird Hill, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Loving God By Making Poems, David Schelhaas
Macondo and Leota, Howard Schaap
Maximillian Sunflowers, David Schelhaas
Miracles and Superheroes, Howard Schaap
Music of the Spheres, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
New Hope at Christmas, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Not Even the Past, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Path to Freedom through Tabor, Iowa, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Political World of Bob Dylan: Freedom and Justice, Power and Sin (Book Review), David Schelhaas
Praise in the Drought, Howard Schaap
Prayer Mercenaries, Howard Schaap
Precision, Howard Schaap
Properties of Conception, Rose Postma
Put Weather In, Howard Schaap
Refugees on the Prairie, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Religion in the Early British Literature Classroom: The Challenges of Teaching Religion and Literature to Students of Faith, Bob De Smith
Resources Preservice Teachers Use to Think about Student Writing, Leah A. Zuidema and James E. Fredricksen
Small Wonders, James C. Schaap
Something Oxymoronic, James C. Schaap
Somewhere Between Tom Brokaw and The Misfit, Howard Schaap
Surprise, Howard Schaap
Talking to Kids about Race: Against the Grain, Howard Schaap
The Emperor's Cut, Rose Postma
The Incarnational Point of View, Howard Schaap
The Left Hand of God, Howard Schaap
The Miraculous Catch of Fish, Howard Schaap
The Pageant of Specificity, Howard Schaap
Thirst, James C. Schaap
Too Young to Marry?, Leah A. Zuidema
Use Your Words, Lester, Howard Schaap
Wage Gaps in Professional Sports, Bill Elgersma
Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jail, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders (Book Review), Howard Schaap
What Does Social Democrat Mean?, David Schelhaas
What Jesus Could Not Do, Leah A. Zuidema
Who Do Your Kids Look Like?, Leah A. Zuidema
Why Are Vacations So Exhausting?, Howard Schaap
Winter Eves in Northwest Iowa, Mary Dengler
Zechariah, David Schelhaas
Faculty Work from 2015
Advent: Ring the Bells that Still Can Ring, Tanya DeRoo
Advocacy Blogging: Writing & Editing for the Public, Leah A. Zuidema
Angels, Joshua Matthews
A Specially Tender Piece of Eternity, Howard Schaap
At-Risk Writer Program that Benefits Both the Students and the Educators, Bill Elgersma and Luke Hawley
Because I Want to Know God's Will, Rose Postma
Christmas Expectations, Howard Schaap
Coming of the Zeroes, Joshua Matthews
Crazy Busy? Overwhelmed? Six Good Reads to Help You Rethink Your Calendar, Leah A. Zuidema
David Fincher's Harsh Mercy: Guns in Hollywood Compositions, Joshua Matthews
Distillation, Howard Schaap
Diversity Question, Howard Schaap
Does This Happen to Everyone?, Bob De Smith
Endless Cycle of Want, Howard Schaap
Exteriority, Howard Schaap
Fish and Bread, Howard Schaap
Four Views on the Historical Adam (Book Review), Joshua Matthews
Frances Burney's Evelina: A Critique of the Ancient Regime and Plea for its Moral Reform, Mary Dengler
Golden Age of TV, Howard Schaap
How (and Why) to Give the Gift of Rest, Leah A. Zuidema
Lent: Behold! Behold! Behold!, Leah A. Zuidema
Living Texts, Mary Dengler
On Never Having Visited Mount Hermon, Rose Postma
Psalm for the Night Shift, Leah A. Zuidema
Reading Mother Teresa: A Calvinist Looks Lovingly at "The Little Bride of Christ", James C. Schaap
Redeployment (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Return of Liturgy, Howard Schaap
Serving the Story, Howard Schaap
Tale of Entrails, Howard Schaap
Targeting Our Fears, Tanya DeRoo
The Art of Rock and Roll Memoir, Howard Schaap
Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Bob De Smith
Up the Hill (Book Review), Howard Schaap
Wave-Rider, Mary Dengler
What Little Remains, Bill Elgersma
Submissions from 2014
Aunts and Uncles (Menagerie), Bob De Smith
Ecology, David Schelhaas
Forum: Teacher-Writers: Then, Now, and Next, Anne Elrod Whitney, Troy Hicks, Leah A. Zuidema, James E. Fredricksen, and Robert P. Yagelski
Frances Burney’s Evelina: A Critique of the Ancien Regime and Plea for its Moral Reform, Mary Dengler
Frances Burney--Without Anesthesia, Mary Dengler
Garnets in Glass, David Schelhaas
House Became a Home, James C. Schaap
In Love with Jane Eyre, Mary Dengler
I Recognized the Mitten, David Schelhaas
I Want To Show You More (Book Review), Howard Schaap
Law of the Streak, Joshua Matthews
Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Myth Education: Rationale and Strategies for Teaching Against Linguistic Prejudice, Leah A. Zuidema
New Leviathan: How I Implemented the AAS’s Periodicals Database in My Traditional American Literature Survey Class, and Lived to Tell the Tale, Joshua Matthews
Or Does It Explode?, Howard Schaap
Please Help Your Teachers Play Hookey With Us, Leah A. Zuidema
Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter (Book Review), David Schelhaas
Reframing Spiritual Memoir, Howard Schaap
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Signs, Bill Elgersma