This Online Articles area (formerly our Library) gathers reflections, op-eds, and essays that engage the pressing questions of faith, justice, and public life. Here, you’ll find hundreds of thoughtful and engaging pieces from scholars, practitioners, and everyday Christians — leaders and writers who bring fresh insight and faithful imagination. These articles are meant to spark deeper discipleship, fuel courageous action, and equip the church to embody the gospel in a complex world. We invite you to explore, learn, and join the ongoing conversation toward a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society.
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By Alyssa Sickle
(Editor’s note: As we enter Holy Week, we’re holding space for the parts of the story that feel unresolved — the places where loss lingers and hope is hard to see. These reflections by our CSA staff invite us to pay attention to what God may be doing in the middle of it, not just after it.)
On the second Sunday of every month, the members of my church know it’s time for our favorite fellowship tradition.
By Leah Silvieus
David de Leon speaks to the relationship between the complexities of understanding “Asian American Christian identity,” the interconnectedness of journeys toward justice, and what is next for him in his vocational path as a doctoral student in Systematic Theology at Fordham University.
By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
I’m a list person. Give me a goal and I’ll quickly turn it into a list. Packing lists, to-do lists, booklists, all of it.
This month, as part of Asian American Pacific Islander History Month, we’ll be sharing some lists we hope will be helpful for those within the AAPI community and their friends.
The European TV channel Arte interviewed CSA Director Nikki Toyama-Szeto for a new three-part documentary series that examines the rise of evangelical Christianity around the globe. Focusing especially on evangelicalism’s impact on the public sphere, the secular narrative exposes the uncomfortable relationship between this religious movement and political power structures.
By Vina Mogg
Originally published Jun 26, 2018
I remember the first time I held a watercolor brush in my hand. There was something therapeutic about the weight of it between my fingers, the shape of the brush tapering at the end just so.
By Sarah Withrow King
Originally published Dec 6, 2016
If you’ve cared for an animal through death, you know it’s a sacrificial commitment, both financially and emotionally. Because our commitment to the animals in our homes is lifelong, it means that we suffer loss regularly.
By Miguel De La Torre
What good is the pursuit of the intellect if it does not contribute to the betterment of humanity? Eurocentric scholarship has been reduced to knowing, not transforming. For those who are minoritized by Eurocentric academics, the goal of the scholar who is prophetic is to seek harmony with what the future might bring while remaining faithful to one’s beliefs and/or worldview—providing encouragement when it leads toward justice, dire warning when it does not.
By Victor Andre Greene
Originally published October 2021
We walk and use small talk. How are you? Where are you from? How long have you lived here? That kinda stuff.
I elongate my sentences and leave long gaps between each phrase to give room for processing.
By Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
The holy city of Jerusalem exists as one of the most sacred cities in the world to the three major Abrahamic religions–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Two peoples (Jews and Palestinians) and three faith traditions not only share the entire city but have also shared interest in individual holy sites as well.
By Jennifer Carpenter
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published Jun 27, 2019. Since then, the organization we interviewed has changed its name to Right to Be.
“Hey, baby, come over here and let me look at you a minute.” “Smile, beautiful.” “What’s your name, little mama?”
I never know what to say when I hear this kind of stuff while walking down the street.
By Andre Henry
You can listen to an audio version of this piece here.
I imagine the weekend of Jesus’ execution might have felt something like the fall of 2020: the feeling of watching a revolution die.
By Christine Sine
You can listen to an audio version of this piece here.
I love gardening and one of the things I love about living in the northern hemisphere is that Easter coincides with the spring blossoming and planting seasons.
By Cyndi Parker
Originally published Mar 7, 2022
I did not grow up observing Lent. I knew “those other Christians” gave up their favorite things during Lent, which made me feel sad for them.
By Jacqueline Bussie
What if the most astonishing greatness about Flannery O’Connor is not some moral life she lived but the grace her own writing brought into her own airless, privileged box of whiteness? The way grace liberated much of her writing from her own bias, prejudice, and racism?
By David de Leon
You can listen to an audio version of this piece here.
I did not grow up in a church that observed Lent, but I did grow up around altar calls.
By Rev. Letiah Fraser
A Public Confession: You were made out of soil, and you will once again turn into soil.
-Genesis 3:19b (CEB)
The Lenten season is a good time for confession.
By Kaitlin Curtice
The word story is defined as “an account of past events in someone’s life or in the evolution of something.” I think about this a lot when I travel and speak: How does our story evolve, change, and become?