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.
Submissions from 1992
Thousand Acres and The Bridges of Madison County (Book Reviews), James C. Schaap
Submissions from 1991
Centennial Anthem, James C. Schaap
Coffee Time, Lorna Van Gilst
Endurance Test, Lorna Van Gilst
Farewell, Cousin Nick, Mike Vanden Bosch
FourthofJulyreunion, Lorna Van Gilst
Grace, Mike Vanden Bosch
His Hand, Bob De Smith
Homebody, Jeri Schelhaas
Kitchen Table Farming, Lorna Van Gilst
Living Words, Mike Vanden Bosch
Melons in the Seed, David Schelhaas
Memorial, James C. Schaap
Monarchs, Bob De Smith
Monday Morning, Bob De Smith
Old Earth, Mike Vanden Bosch
Only She, Bob De Smith
Rag Rug, David Schelhaas
Song of the Publican, 1990s, Mike Vanden Bosch
Suspicion, Mike Vanden Bosch
To Aunt Grace, Called to Sing for Funerals, Mike Vanden Bosch
Submissions from 1990
Cornerstones, Cannons, and Covenants: The Puritan Clergy as Cultural Guardians, Helen Petter Westra
Forty Acres and a Goat: A Memoir (Book Review), James C. Schaap
History of Dordt College: The B.J. Haan Years, Mike Vanden Bosch
Homecoming Man (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Returning: A Spiritual Journey (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Submissions from 1989
Chinese Wood Cut, Helen Petter Westra
Compound Life, Helen Petter Westra
Fables for God's People (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Forgiving, Mike Vanden Bosch
Giving Birth, Helen Petter Westra
Gophered, Mike Vanden Bosch
Gulf Streams, Helen Petter Westra
Hartman Cemetery, January, 1980, Bob De Smith
Heirloom, Lorna Van Gilst
Illuminated Manuscript, David Schelhaas
Iron Blossoms, Helen Petter Westra
Learning to Wait, Helen Petter Westra
Mother Amuck, Mike Vanden Bosch
November's Thursday, James C. Schaap
Old China Hands, Helen Petter Westra
Ornamental Crab Tree, David Schelhaas
Piano Lessons, Lorna Van Gilst
Pine Haven in March, Bob De Smith
Potato Salad, Helen Petter Westra
Rachel's Dance (a palace coming alive), Helen Petter Westra
Seeing Double, Helen Petter Westra
Stranger in a Strange Land (Book Review), James C. Schaap
To J. C., My Boyhood Teacher, With Love, Mike Vanden Bosch
Submissions from 1988
Chosen for Life: An Introductory Guide to the Doctrine of Divine Election (Book Review), Helen Petter Westra
C. S. Lewis and His World (Book Review), Lorna Van Gilst
Flannery O'Connor: Images of Grace (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Literature and the "Good Society", Mike Vanden Bosch
Through a Glass Lightly (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were (Book Review), Helen Petter Westra
Submissions from 1987
"Able to Keep", Mike Vanden Bosch
Afoot, Mike Vanden Bosch
Church, Mike Vanden Bosch
Cold Meats, James C. Schaap
Companion Sonnets, Mike Vanden Bosch
D'irth, Mike Vanden Bosch
Feathers Bloom, Helen Petter Westra
Fishbowl, Helen Petter Westra
for Jack Vanden Berg on his retirement, Randall VanderMey
I Am Not Ashamed: Advice to Timothy (Book Review), Helen Petter Westra
Iowa Bounty, Helen Petter Westra
Meishan Window Panes, Helen Petter Westra
Mother China, Helen Petter Westra
Nonetheless in Chengdu, Helen Petter Westra
Sonnet to Jack, Mike Vanden Bosch
Victorian Age: An Age of Purity or of Hypocrisy?, Jack Vanden Berg
Submissions from 1986
John Gardner and the Morality of Choice, James C. Schaap
Submissions from 1985
Jonathan Edwards' Sermons: Search for "Acceptable Words", Helen Petter Westra
Looking Back to See Ourselves, James C. Schaap
Submissions from 1984
Cathedral (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Christ and Culture (second part), James C. Schaap
Christ and Culture: William Bradford, John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards in Theological Perspective, James C. Schaap
Submissions from 1983
Campsite, 2 AM, Bob De Smith
Gas-Engine Mike, Bob De Smith
Haiku, Randall VanderMey
Metaphor, Randall VanderMey
Monarch Moves, Randall VanderMey
Scouting the Other, Randall VanderMey
Snow and Thunder, Randall VanderMey
Sonnet to Shakespeare, Mike Vanden Bosch
Stained Glass, James C. Schaap
Walking the Fence, Randall VanderMey
Submissions from 1982
All Hallows' Eve (Book Review), Jack Vanden Berg
Art Lecture Series, Lillian V. Grissen
Dr. Emory Griffen, Lillian V. Grissen
Literature and the Reformed Community, Lillian V. Grissen
Prophecy and Irony, Lillian V. Grissen
Rainbows for the Fallen World and Art in Action (Book Reviews), James Vanden Bosch
Road We Travel, Mike Vanden Bosch
Solzhenitsyn: The Moral Vision (Book Review), James Vanden Bosch
Spiritual Nature of Man (Book Review), James Vanden Bosch
Submissions from 1981
Addicted to Mediocrity: Twentieth Century Christians and the Arts (Book Review), James Vanden Bosch
African Liberation Theology, Lillian V. Grissen
At the Crossroad: A Visit by Larry Woiwode, Randall VanderMey
Consecration, Mike Vanden Bosch