Library

Filter by Topic
198 Methods of Nonviolent Direct Action
Advent
Animal Welfare
Book Excerpt
Book Reviews
Church
Compassion & Relief
CSA History
Current Events
Disability Advocacy
Economic Justice
Environmental Justice and Creation Care
Faith & Public Life
Film Reviews
Foreign Policy
Gender Justice
Heroes of the Faith
Holistic Ministry
Human Rights
Human Sexuality
Immigration and Seeking Refuge
Interview
Lent
LGBTQIA
Mass Incarceration
Nonviolence & Peacemaking
Oriented to Love
Podcasts
Politics and Public Policy
Prayer
Racial Justice
Reconciliation & Dialogue
Ron Sider
Simple Living
Social Justice
Spiritual Formation
Suffering
Filter by List
Black/African American Authors
Covid-19 Pandemic
Women Authors
Women of Color Authors

Subscribe to the CSA Newsletter
CSA’s free weekly publication, a carefully curated collection of original articles at the intersection of spiritual formation and social action.

The Futility of Lent

By Elrena Evans

Originally published Mar 1, 2017 

The alarm clock rings early, and I am still asleep when it rings—an oddity, for an erstwhile early riser. But I am full from stacks of pancakes and fastnachts consumed last night at our church’s Shrove Tuesday celebration, and the surfeit of starch makes me sleepy.

The Benefits of Dust

By Deborah Watson

Dust gets a bad rap. We chase it out of our homes, or we think we should. So why a meditation on the benefits of dust? Even in the Bible, of the 100 references to “dust,” almost all of them are negative.

Can I Be Black and Christian?

By Micky ScottBey Jones

After the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, I was forever changed. Nothing could remain the same—not my mothering, not my relationships, not my faith. I needed more than The Power of a Praying Wife.

Church on the Margins With My LGBTQ+ Friends

By Katie Hays

For almost two decades I served small, traditional congregations where heteronormativity was the unspoken rule. In those churches we were attentive to our ethic of hospitality: How can we be more welcoming to them, the people who are our guests?

Oriented to Love: A Playlist

Compiled by Kristyn Komarnicki and OTL alumni

Like loving dialogue, like the Holy Spirit, music has the ability to connect people across deep differences. While the music we cherish is deeply personal, and we don’t all enjoy the same kinds, it can still provide a window for us to access and start to understand each other’s deepest loves and longings.Below are listed a handful songs that I associate strongly with the OTL experience.

A Prayer for When People Terrorize

From: “A Booklet of Uncommon Prayer” by Kenji Kuramitsu

A Booklet of Uncommon Prayer, from which this prayer is taken, is now available electronically.

Be Human

By Micky ScottBey Jones

For all my activist, organizer, social justice warrior, touched-by-the-pain-in-the-world type Beloveds out there:

The air feels heavy today. So many agonizing headlines and painful hashtags it’s hard at times not to just scroll and spiral.

Liberty’s Miscarriage

By Megan Malkemes
Oh america!
you shakespearean tragedy,
liberty’s miscarriage,
an anthology of blasphemies.

Racism Is a Gospel Issue

By Jonathan Walton

In 2008, I felt like an American for the first time because I saw a leader who looked like me. All of my life I hoped my education and accomplishments would free me from the history of my skin color as inherently inferior and forever intimidating.

Black Boy

By Marissa Mack
Black boy
I cry for you every night
This world has
No love for you