Being Dutch and Christian Reformed

March 20, 2008

People inside and outside of the Christian Reformed Church have in recent years told the CRC to “burn its wooden shoes” and to become a multicultural and multiracial Reformed denomination, says Henk Aay, professor of Dutch Language and Culture at Calvin College.

While this is important, given that the CRC is no longer a predominately Dutch immigrant denomination, Aay says there is something CRC members need to keep in mind.

“Many of the attributes of Dutchness that are bandied about  … hard working, thrifty, family values, etc. … have more to do with the immigration experience than with the Netherlands and are, in fact, shared by many other immigrant groups,” says Aay.

As a result, and what many CRC members don’t fully realize, he says, “is that the strongest part of the Dutch heritage among people with Dutch ancestry in the CRC is Reformed theology, church polity, and church life in general.”

With this in mind, Calvin College will celebrate Dutch Heritage month in April with a slew of activities sponsored by the college and supported by Aay in his role as the Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture.

These events, he says, will help to highlight some of the distinctive qualities as well as tell some of the stories of what it means to be Dutch in America.

"The Netherlands is an important part of Calvin's heritage," he said, "but we have changed in many ways in recent years with students and professors with a much greater diversity of backgrounds. And that's great … Yet I believe that better understanding where the college came from will help us stick to and further articulate our educational and scholarly mission."

Dutch Heritage Month will begin with worship on Monday, April 7, when Aay speaks at 10 a.m. in the lower level of the Calvin chapel as part of a regular on-campus Dutch chapel service.

The next day will feature a public lecture at 7:30 pm in the Commons Lecture Hall on "The Legacy of the New Netherland Colony for the United States" by Janny Venema, associate director of the New Netherland Project.

The project was established under the sponsorship of the New York State Library and the Holland Society of New York and its ambitious objective is to complete the transcription, translation, and publication of all Dutch documents in New York repositories relating to the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland.

Aay said the resource has already proven invaluable to scholars in a wide variety of disciplines, and it serves to enhance awareness of the major Dutch contributions to America over the centuries and the strong connections between the two nations.
On Monday, April 14, the celebrations continue with a 7:30 p.m. showing in the Commons Lecture Hall of the film “Dorp aan de Rivier” (“Village on the River”), a Dutch film with English subtitles.

The final eight days of the month will bring a range of activities, including

  • “A Legacy of Letters: Early Modern Dutch Printing and Publishing” in Hekman Library, featuring David L. Vander Meulen, University of Virginia, and Lugene Schemper, Calvin Tuesday, April 22 -- Second Floor Hekman Library at 7:30 p.m.
  • “Geographical Discoveries: Sampling the New Bosatlas van Nederland” by Henk Aay, Calvin Tuesday, April 29 -- North Hall 078 at 3:30 p.m.
  • Koninginnedag (The Queen's Birthday) with a variety of Dutch festivities on campus. Wednesday, April 30, in various locations.
  • “Sometimes I feel that at Calvin, the Dutch heritage is the elephant in the room that no one wants to or is capable of addressing,” Aay said in a speech in 2006.

“We make self-deprecating jokes about it, keep mum about it for fear offending other ethnicities and nationalities and go out of our way to recognize and appreciate other cultures. By not addressing it, even with tensions, we neglect it; neglecting it, makes it become more and more of an empty shell, an empty set.”

As the result, he says, Calvin College can play a role in helping to provide during Dutch Heritage Month continuing education for those interested in learning more about and evaluating their Dutch heritage.

For more information, visit: http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/dutch-month.htm

--CRC Communications, Calvin College;