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 2017
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
Humility on the Plains, James C. Schaap
I Am, Leah A. Zuidema
"I Am Your Father", Joshua Matthews
In Defense of Halloween, or in Defense of the Better Story, Howard Schaap
In Defense of Halloween: The Fuller Story, Howard Schaap
Innumerable Hosts of Graves: Death and Fish Along the Missouri, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Movie Review), Donald Roth
Lake Michigan (warmer than you think), Bob De Smith
Law and Disorder in O'Brien County, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Life (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Listening to Grandmothers, Howard Schaap
Little Crow the Hero; or, Little Crow the Villain, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Logan Lucky (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Logan (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Loss of a Child Transcends Time and Language, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Lully Lullay, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Manchester by the Sea: A Movie Review, Joshua Matthews
Miracles and Mystery; or, Medicine Men and Saints, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Multiculturalism on the Frontier, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
My Father's Tears, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
New Promise and a New Agenda, James C. Schaap
No Butter Shall Pass!, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Overwhelming Justice and Mercy, Leah A. Zuidema
Perfume River (Book Review), Howard Schaap
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Plague of Locusts: Word is Getting Out, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Private Associations, Bob De Smith
Q + A with Derek Webb, Luke Hawley
Rashomon (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Remember Sacagawea, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Righteousness and Peace, James C. Schaap
Saints from the Fire, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Saying What Can't Be Said: Modifying Love, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Searching for the Presence of God, David Schelhaas
Silence: A Movie Review, Joshua Matthews
Silence: A Review Essay, Joshua Matthews
Space Travel, Mary Dengler
Stained Forever by a Sanguine Glow, David Schelhaas
Stories from River Bend Church, James C. Schaap
Take Long Looks at Anything, Luke Hawley
Taking My Daughter to Hidden Figures, Howard Schaap
Tales from the Neighborhood, James C. Schaap
Temple Playground, Mary Dengler
The Blessed Sacrament of Potlucks, Howard Schaap
The Bloody Benders, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Case for Christ (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
The Circle (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
The Cottonwood that Bent the Highway, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Dark Tower (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West (Book Review), James C. Schaap
The Grammar of Complicity, Howard Schaap
The Great Loss of the Great War, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Hidden Conditions of Heroism, Howard Schaap
The Importance of Literature, Luke Hawley
The Refugee Down the Pew, Howard Schaap
The Refugees (Book Review), Howard Schaap
The Resounding Voice of What's Not There, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Shack (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
The Villasur Massacre, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
The Voice of His Word, James C. Schaap
The WPA in LeMars, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Thy Word Have I Hid in My Heart, James C. Schaap
Time-Zone Poems, Bob De Smith
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
War for the Planet of the Apes (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Where the Buffalo Roamed, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Where We Put Our Fears, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
White Buffalo Girl's Grave, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
White Buffalo of the Omaha Chiefs, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Who Needs Men? Titania’s World and Shakespeare’s Argument for Marriage In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bob De Smith
Who's Who in the Rogues' Gallery, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Wilderness Vision, James C. Schaap
Willa's New Home on the Prairie, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Wonder Woman (Movie Review), Joshua Matthews
Wooden Shoe Militia, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
You and Me and West Texas: Review of Hell or High Water, James C. Schaap
Faculty Work from 2016
Akimbo Cross, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
A Powerful Medicine, Howard Schaap
Aspiration(s), James C. Schaap
Become a Believer, Howard Schaap
Behold the Power of Gesture, Howard Schaap
Between the World and Me, Michael Brown, and White Imagination, Howard Schaap
Coaching Teacher-Writers: Practical Steps to Nurture Professional Writing, Troy Hicks, Anne Elrod Whitney, James Fredricksen, and Leah A. Zuidema
Deadheading to Firecracker, Joshua Matthews
Ex Machina: Notes for Viewing, Bob De Smith
Exploding the Nuclear Family, Howard Schaap
Faith, Not Confidence, Howard Schaap
For the LORD is a God Who Knows, Leah A. Zuidema
From Small Wonder(s), James C. Schaap
Hand from the Whiteness: When Bears Ear Saved Mary C. Collins, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Hard Midwestern Life and Equal Rights, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
Heorot, Bob De Smith
Hesed: Sunday After Shabbat, Mary Dengler
How Then Shall We Eat?, Tanya DeRoo
Hugh Glass and the Epic Poetry of Siouxland, James C. Schaap and Mark Munger
I Am the Way, the Truth, the Life, Leah A. Zuidema