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 2020
Soddies: Home, Home in the Range, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Sons of the Prairie, James C. Schaap
Swiss Sisters of Standing Rock, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Symptoms, Mary Dengler
"The Day of Realization": A Review Essay of Abbie Gardner's The Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Abbie Gardner, James C. Schaap
The Little Church, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Novels You Re-Read, David Schelhaas
Then They Shot the Ponies, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Osage Church: Faith, Murder, and the Presence of History, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Presence of the Past: A Review of Abraham Kuyper's On Education, Shaun Stiemsma
The Secret Treasure of Coming Home: Ruth Suckow Park, Earlville, Iowa, James C. Schaap
The Story of Standing Bear - Part 1, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Story of Standing Bear - Part 2, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Story of Standing Bear - Part 3, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Story of Standing Bear - Part 4, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Trying to Understand Memorial Day, Howard Schaap
Two Books that Will Contribute to Your Happiness, David Schelhaas
When Mosa Preserved a History, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Winter Spider, Bob De Smith
Witless, Irritating, Recurring Words, David Schelhaas
Faculty Work from 2019
3.2 Beer at the Buckaroo, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Advent: A Thrill of Hope, Howard Schaap
A Family Plot, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Kindness That Saved the Farm, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Another Day, Mary Dengler
A Town Named Victory, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Winter's Tale, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Bank Heist, Sioux Center, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Black Robes on the Prairie: Dyeing for Tradition, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Black Sunday: Poems (Book Review), James C. Schaap
Bud and Dode and Death in Le Beau, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Byway, Bob De Smith
Cottonwoods for a Better Future, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Digging into Durable Books, Joshua Matthews
Dreamers, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Dvorak in Spillville, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Exposure, Mary Dengler
Faith and Superstition, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Filled with Thanksgiving, James C. Schaap
Fire, Loss, and What Cannot Be Said, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
For Joel on his 60th, Bob De Smith
Giveaway, James C. Schaap
Hope Emerson from Hawarden to Hollywood, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
In Consideration of Three Works of Art, James C. Schaap
Jesse James' Train Robbery and Creation of a Myth, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
John Wick: Chapter Three - Parabellum (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Labor Day, the Side-Eye Holiday, Howard Schaap
Labors of the Prairie, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Learning About Movies, Joshua Matthews
Learning to Ride a Bike, Shaun Stiemsma
Level Bs, Bill Elgersma
Living the Metaphor, Shaun Stiemsma
Magenta Sunset, David Schelhaas
Melville's Moby-Dick: A Lesson in Reading, Mary Dengler
Miss Perception, Mary Dengler
Movie Review: Ford v. Ferrari, Joshua Matthews
Movie Review: Green Book, Joshua Matthews
Movie Review: Roma, Joshua Matthews
Netflix Review: Bandersnatch, Joshua Matthews
Netflix Review: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joshua Matthews
Oahe Dam, the Turtle Effigy, and Honoring Thy Enemy, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
One Night on the Old Missouri Trail, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Outdoor Evening Worship, Bob De Smith
Part One: Reforming Journalism, Lee Pitts
Part Two: Journalism as a Sharing of Stories, Lee Pitts
Pentecost, James C. Schaap
Pilot Rock: A Lighthouse to the Past, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Pure Celebrity, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Retirement, Mary Dengler
Shakespeare and Conceptual Blending: Cognition, Creativity, Criticism (Book Review), Shaun Stiemsma
Some of Us Were Only Spectators, James C. Schaap
Sonnets to the Dust Bowl, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
So You are Thinking about Reading Moby-Dick..., Joshua Matthews
Spark, Shaun Stiemsma
Spenser's Images of Grace and the Canons of Dort: Faerieland Meets the Five Main Points of Doctrine, Bob De Smith
Swallowing the Camel by Wintering in Florida, David Schelhaas
That Big Hearted Virgil Earp, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Algona Nativity, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Battle of Pecatonica, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Comfort Bird (Book Review), James C. Schaap
The Illuminated Path to an Illuminated Bible, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Keeley Cure, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Legend of Jedediah Smith, James C. Schaap
The Missouri: River of Time and Memory, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Secret Treasure of Coming Home, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Shinging, Shaun Stiemsma
The Significance of Story: A Review of On Reading Well, Shelbi Gesch
The Time of Peace and Cats, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Towards a Robust and Scholarly Christian Engagement with Science Fiction, Joshua Matthews
What Do We Do With Our Bad Stories?, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Why Nebraska is a Quintessential Movie About the American Midwest, Joshua Matthews
Faculty Work from 2018
Acculturation Through Education, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Advent Joy: The Joy of the Incarnation is in Tents, Howard Schaap
An Innocent Voyage West and the Trail of Tears, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Peacemaker Enters the War to End All Wars, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Plains Understanding, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Quiet Place (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
As Armistice Approached, War's Engine Roared, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Walk into Nature's Past, James C. Schaap
Battle of the Spurs, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger