Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014 Historical Magazine of The Archives Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 pagepage 8 page 20 (616) 526-6313 Origins is designed to publicize 2 From the Editor 20 Simple Farm Life— and advance the objectives of Graafschap, Michigan 4 C. Kuipers, Mission Novelist— The Archives. These goals Carolyn Van Ess include the gathering, A CRC Story organization, and study of James Calvin Schaap 30 Journalist, Author, and Zionist historical materials produced by —Pierre Van Paassen the day-to-day activities of the Gerlof D. Homan Christian Reformed Church, its institutions, communities, and people. Richard H. Harms Editor Hendrina Van Spronsen Circulation Manager Tracey L. Gebbia Designer Janet Sheeres Associate Editor James C. Schaap Robert P. Swierenga Contributing Editors InnerWorkings Printer page 3377 pagee 45 36 An Immigrant with Pretensions 45 Book Notes L. Vogelaar 46 For the Future 42 Book Reviews upcoming Origins articles Cover photo: Richard Harms, Eunice Vanderlaan From Deep Snow 47 Contributors from the editor . Homan. Homan traces the develop- Dame, known for his work in the ment of Van Paassen’s career and his philosophy of religion, epistemology, support for Zionism and later paci- metaphysics, and Christian apolo- fi sm. L. Vogelaar traces the careers getics. The teaching and research of Pieter Court Woerden—preacher, papers of Dr. Irene Brouwer Konyn- chemist, and charlatan. dyk, professor emerita in French at Calvin College, were also opened for This Issue News from the Archives research, as were the papers of Dr. Our current issue begins with a Origins co-published Minutes of the Timothy M. Monsma, missionary, discussion of the fi ction written by Christian Reformed Church Classi- scholar, and pastor, from his twelve Cornelius Kuipers by noted author cal Assembly, 1857-1870; General years working in Nigeria, beginning and emeritus professor of English Assembly, 1867-1879, and Synodical in 1962. We processed papers from at Dordt College, James C. Schaap. Assembly, 1880, extensively annotated Dr. Janel M. Curry, currently Provost Before he was ordained as a minister, by Janet Sjaarda Sheeres, transcribed at Gordon College, and previously Kuipers wrote three novels dealing from the handwritten Dutch by professor in Geography at Calvin with the tensions faced by Zunis who Hendrick K. Harms, and translated by College and holder of the Byker Chair were being introduced to Christian- Richard H. Harms. We continue our in Christian Perspectives on Political, ity. Carolyn Van Ess gave a copy of work on indexing the birthday, obitu- Social, and Economic Thought. We her memoir, “My Medical Memories,” ary, marriage, and anniversary records also organized the records of three to Heritage Hall some months ago, from the Banner. The URL (uniform discontinued Christian Reformed and our second article is an extract resource locator) for the data, from congregations, First (1867-2013), (about ten percent of the total) from 1984 through 2013, is http://www. in Muskegon, Michigan; Immanuel this memoir, which describes her calvin.edu/hh/Banner/Banner.htm. (1887-1974), also in Muskegon, youth and adolescence during the Since last spring we have pro- Michigan; and Central Coast (1982- 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s in Western cessed the papers of analytic phi- 1996), in Arroyo Grande, California. Michigan. The colorful life of jour- losopher Dr. Alvin Plantinga, John New collections received include nalist and author Pierre Van Paassen A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy the journals of Dr. Glenn W. Geel- is presented in the article by Gerlof Emeritus at the University of Notre hoed, surgeon and educator, who 2 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014 has led more than two hundred Staff health care missions to the develop- Richard Harms is the curator of ing world, including Africa, Asia, the the Archives and editor of Origins; South Pacifi c, and South America. Hendrina VanSpronsen is the offi ce He was named Humanitarian of the coordinator and business manager of Year by George Magazine in 2000 and Origins; Laurie Haan is the depart- received the American College of Sur- ment assistant; Robert Bolt is fi eld geons’ Volunteerism Award for Inter- agent and assistant archivist; and national Outreach in 2009. Christian Anna Kathryn Feltes is our student Reformed Home Missions transferred assistant. Our volunteers include Phil 12.5 cubic feet of fi les dealing with Erffmeyer, Ed Gerritsen, Ralph Haan, its outreach work, 1962-1980; and Helen Meulink, Clarice Newhof, with the change of provost at Calvin Gerrit W. Sheeres, Janet Sheeres, College, we received eight cubic feet Jeannette Smith, and Ralph Veenstra. of records (2005-2012) from that Colleen Alles has joined our staff in a offi ce. Finally, we received records temporary part-time position.% of the Kalamazoo Diaconal Confer- ence, 1985-1989, and of the Christian Reformed Church’s Inter-Church Relations Committee, 1988-1989. Richard H. Harms 3 C. Kuipers, Mission Novelist—A CRC Story James Calvin Schaap ecause I was an English teacher, Well, sort of. Some of the books Bit was assumed by team leaders I I judged irrelevant ended up in my knew something about books. Books suitcase—like Rooftops. Just because there were by the hundreds in Cary the good folks of rural Mississippi Christian Center, Cary, Mississippi, wouldn’t fi nd them interesting didn’t the summer of 1977, because Chris- mean I wouldn’t—or didn’t. One of tian Reformed church libraries from those I saved was a Depression-era hither and yon had sent the Center novel in a brown cover titled Roaring the books that no longer moved from Waters, a book written by someone I’d their shelves. My job was simple: once met—a C. Kuipers. He was one while the northwest Iowa kids I’d of several retired New Mexico mis- come with put on a Bible school out sionaries who spent retirement years in the country, while others from the in Arizona, where my wife and I had team built latrines or painted walls or lived. I remembered a small, thin man strung up chicken wire for a ball fi eld with sharp facial features and a ready backstop, this Dordt prof would rifl e smile, a wiry, excitable personality through the library and toss titles I still spewing missionary-level energy thought should go. despite his years. The Center’s library, back then, I stole Cornelius (Casey) Kuipers’s was heavy laden with books Baker, Roaring Waters (1937) from Cary Zondervan, and Eerdmans used to Christian Center and then promptly publish, mid-twentieth century— when all three were almost exclu- sively CRC publishers: anything by Marian Schoolland, church and community histories, Navajo and Zuni for Christ, the kind of authentic CRC books that fi lled my family’s library, books no one had checked out any longer at First, Kalamazoo, or Bethel, Sioux Center, rejects, mission barrel books. James C. Schaap is an emeritus Call me prejudiced, but I assumed professor of English of Dordt College few African-American residents of and an award-winning author of Cary’s Black community would be twenty-three books that include novels, interested in, say, Rooftops Over Straw- short-story collections, nonfi ction, and town, the story of Dominie Scholte’s collections of essays. Recently Schaap high-falutin’ spouse and her diffi cul- authored Rehoboth, A Place for Us, forgot aboutbdlb it. It stayed in my library, which tells the stories of twelve families ties adjusting to frontier, windswept associated with the Rehoboth Mission Pella. I didn’t consult, simply tossed along with a collection of similar CRC in New Mexico. what I thought entirely irrelevant to books, until 2012, when I was culling the Center’s mission and clientele. my shelves. I picked it up, read it, and 4 Volume XXXII • Number 2 • 2014 was fascinated by a man who, I then I loved reading all three novels, not good question, because most boys discovered, took it upon himself to because of their art but because I who were educated as he was back write three novels—not just one—in came to respect deeply, even love, the then were determinedly bound toward the depths of the Great Depression, novelist. the ministry. After the Academy he “mission novels,” he called them, all traveled to central Iowa, to Grundy of them about the CRC mission ef- Mission Fest, circa 1910, Center, where he attended Grundy forts in New Mexico. Orange City, Iowa Junior College, graduating in 1919. I would have been better served When Kuipers was still a boy in After graduation there followed by starting the Kuipers canon with Orange City, Iowa, his father told him a few two-year stints in Christian his fi rst novel, Deep Snow (1934), or that the family was going to the Mis- schools in Dutch-American enclaves even his second, Chant of the Night sion Fest, an event held every sum- (Baldwin, Wisconsin, and Sheldon, (1934). But not until later did I learn mer in a shaded grove just outside of Iowa). His children claim that a kind he’d written more, including a non- town, an event more beloved to a ru- of boredom set in at that time, enough fi ction study titled Zuni Also Prays: ral church community than anything Month by Month Observations about we can imagine today. Kuipers himself the People (1946). I would have been doesn’t remember the year exactly, better served starting elsewhere, but he was a boy, so a good estimate because Roaring Waters is a sequel to would be about 1910. Deep Snow—the two novels sharing a At that year’s Mission Fest, he protagonist, a young Zuni man named likely drew his bottle of pop from Koshe.