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 2018
Big Oil and Climate Change Denial, David Schelhaas
Black Sunday: Dust to Dust, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Bleeding Kansas, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Broken Kettle Dawn, When the Past and Present Merge, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Buffalo Soldiers in the Trenches, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Can'ts and Don'ts, Bill Elgersma
Carry A Nation: Prairie Radical, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Chappaquiddick (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Children of God Living in a Groaning Creation, David Schelhaas
Count Your Blessings, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Darkest Hour (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Death and Immunity on the Missouri River, 1851, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Ebenezer, Howard Schaap
Empathy That is Simply Divine, James C. Schaap
Enlist!, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Ents, Bob De Smith
Exit West (Book Review), Howard Schaap
First Man (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Game Night (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Grafting a New Government in Sioux County, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Hammerin' Hank, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Hostiles (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
International Children's Movies: A Review of the Last Thirty Years, Joshua Matthews
Living by Faith Alone, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Looking for Dawn (Book Review), Howard Schaap
Lost to the War Then Lost to Time, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Memories and Magic We Kept in Attics, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Movies Are Prayers (Book Review), Joshua Matthews
Neighbors, Mary Dengler
New Hope at Christmas, James C. Schaap
Not Masters but Stewards of the Earth, David Schelhaas
Odd Exchange: From Ascension Day to Pentecost, Bob De Smith
Oscar Micheaux: Siouxland's Filmmaker, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Our Landscape that Inspired Dreams, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
O West Wind!, Bob De Smith
Policy, Practice, and Dialogue: A Framework for NCTE Action and Relational Strategy, Leah A. Zuidema
Prepopulated Data, Howard Schaap
Ready Player One (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Robin Hood's Little House on the Prairie, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Seared and Bleared, Smudged and Smelly, David Schelhaas
Siouxland Ozymandias, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Suffering, Double Negatives, and the Friday We Call "Good", Howard Schaap
Tekakwitha, The Native Saint, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The 15:17 to Paris (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
The Big Problems with Being Small, Joshua Matthews
The Book of Job and Our Human Suffering, James C. Schaap
The Democratic Embrace of Hermann the German, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Fossil at Cherokee, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Great Killer, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Healing Land and Teddy Roosevelt's Broken Heart, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Home of Standing Bear, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Letter, Mary Dengler
The Liturgical Lives of Pets, Howard Schaap
The Old Professor Discovers the Sweet Egg of Discontent, David Schelhaas
The Path of Dreams and Ruin, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Rider (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
The Toughest Question about Christian Education, Leah A. Zuidema
The War Hero Who Warned Against War, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Too Far From Home, Mary Dengler
Wait, Mr. Rogers Wasn't a Pedophile??, Joshua Matthews
What Happened at Drum Creek, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
When 'The Boys' Came Home, The War Came With Them, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
When the U.S. Supreme Court Decided A Man Wasn't Free, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Who Killed Hennessey?, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Willa Cather, Back Home, 1918, James C. Schaap
Willa Cather's View of WWI from Nebraska, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Faculty Work from 2017
A Broken Monument for Our Past, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
American Made (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
A Miracle in No Man's Land, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
An Iron to the Head, Joshua Matthews
Anthem from the Mud, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Archangel Gabriel's Namesake and Tyrannicide, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Warrior. A Hero., James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Bad Village, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
"Beauty and the Beast", Joshua Matthews
Believing in Creation, Howard Schaap
Blade Runner 2049 (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Buffalo Chip's Heroic Stand, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Children's Blizzard, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Collateral Damage, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Compact Theology - Hymns for Psalm 28, Leah A. Zuidema
Countdown, Howard Schaap
Custer's Gold Rush, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Desperation, Persuasion, and Hope, Howard Schaap
Dromore Farms: When Young Lords Played Polo in LeMars, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Dunkirk (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Email from a Young Poet, Howard Schaap
Epiphanies, Bill Elgersma
Exuberant Peace in the Face of Fear, David Schelhaas
First Suffragette, James C. Schaap
Good Samaritans on the Prairie, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Hacksaw Ridge: A Movie Review, Joshua Matthews
Hairwork, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Haunted by the Father: The Poetry of Li-Young Lee, Howard Schaap
Heavyweight Preaching, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Hell or High Water: Tattered and Familiar, Bob De Smith
How God Enters My Poems, David Schelhaas
How to Pray for Your President, David Schelhaas