James Calvin Schaap

James Calvin Schaap is professor of English at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. He blogs at Stuff in the Basement, part of the CCblogs network.

Articles by James Calvin Schaap

From the CCblogs Network

What I won't forget

Apr 04, 2012 by James Calvin Schaap

The night Dr. Martin Luther King was shot, four of us--small-town white boys--followed the Gulf of Mexico's eastern shore on an all-night trek from south Florida to New Orleans. It was spring break, 1968, only a few months from the summer that seemed, even at the time, to change all of our lives.  Somewhere down south we heard of Dr.

From the CCblogs Network

"Grace and Truth"

Jan 27, 2012 by James Calvin Schaap

Confession time. Once, years ago, when I was a college student home for a break, my mother, who taught piano for most of her life, declared that she would bestow upon her son a 10-dollar bill if he would only sit down at the piano in the den and pound out a hymn, any hymn at all.

Books

Growing Pains, by Randall Balmer

Mar 13, 2002 reviewed by James Calvin Schaap

We have friends who decided to release their children from all obligations to attend Sunday worship when those children turned 18. Their reasoning is self-evident: What's required of each and every believing soul is willed commitment, not social (or parental) obligation. Once their children reached what some old creeds call "the age of discretion," they were, quite literally, on their own.

Books

A Visit to Vanity Fair, by Alan Jacobs

Oct 17, 2001 reviewed by James Calvin Schaap

Because of his uncommonly fine use of language and the gracious character which emerges from his work, Alan Jacobs, who teaches English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, has always struck me as someone who could be both entertaining and enlightening on almost any subject. This book certainly supports that evaluation.