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 1981
African Liberation Theology, Lillian V. Grissen
At the Crossroad: A Visit by Larry Woiwode, Randall VanderMey
Consecration, Mike Vanden Bosch
Dilemma of the Female Christian College Graduate, Lillian V. Grissen
Elegy: Written for Unknown Babies, Mike Vanden Bosch
Farewell, Dear Stan, Mike Vanden Bosch
Homesickness, Hugh Cook
Legal Tender, Randall VanderMey
Psalm 143, James Vanden Bosch
Religion and Commitment, Lillian V. Grissen
Sonnet: To Nick, Mike Vanden Bosch
Strange Chorale, Randall VanderMey
Thief in the Night of Words, Randall VanderMey
Triumphs of the Imagination: Literature in Christian Perspective (Book Review), Randall VanderMey
Untitled, Randall VanderMey
Villanelle for CSI Convention: 1981, Mike Vanden Bosch
White Dog Song, Randall VanderMey
Submissions from 1980
De Boer and Faber Lecture, Lillian V. Grissen
Faith and Fiction: The Modern Short Story (Book Review), James Vanden Bosch
Gypsies (Book Review), James Vanden Bosch
Howells' Debate With Himself About God, Mike Vanden Bosch
Lionel Trilling: Criticism and Politics (Book Review), James Vanden Bosch
Retreat, Lillian V. Grissen
Submissions from 1979
Faith and Victory in Dachau (Book Review), Jack Vanden Berg
Submissions from 1978
Basic English Revisited: A Student Handbook (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Captured (Book Review), Jack Vanden Berg
Country of the Risen King: An Anthology of Christian Poetry (Book Review), Betty Vander Schaaf
Grace Period, Mike Vanden Bosch
I Knew Him Well, Horatio, James C. Schaap
Lawrence Dorr Provides Thaw, Hugh Cook
Masterpieces of Religious Verse (Book Review), Merle Meeter
Mocker, James C. Schaap
What Reading is Good Reading?, Mike Vanden Bosch
Why Johnny Can't Write: The Illiteracy Crisis, Hugh Cook
Submissions from 1977
Alone: A Widow's Search for Joy (Book Review), Jack Vanden Berg
Broad High Way to Heaven, Merle Meeter
Creativity, Imagination, and the Arts, Merle Meeter
Filling Out the Forms, Merle Meeter
Good Samaritans, Mike Vanden Bosch
Johnny, His Teachers, and Their Teachers, James C. Schaap
Red and Yellow, Black and White, Hugh Cook
Reel Thing, Hugh Cook
Restoring the Balance, Merle Meeter
Second Cutting, James C. Schaap
Submissions from 1976
Kroese Lectures on the Christian and Modern Film, Hugh Cook
Pocket of Civility: A History of Sioux Center, Mike Vanden Bosch
Reformation of Journalism: A Christian Approach to Mass Communication (Book Review), Mike Vanden Bosch
Twelve Baskets of Crumbs (Book Review), Merle Meeter
Submissions from 1975
Religion and Modern Literature: Essays in Theory and Criticism (Book Review), Hugh Cook
Submissions from 1974
Everybody Can Know (Book Review), Merle Meeter
Submissions from 1973
Stuff that Literature is Made Of, Larry Reynolds
Submissions from 1972
Insight, Authority, and Power: A Biblical Appraisal (Book Review), Merle Meeter