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.
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.
By Laurie Nichols
Last month, I took my 14-year-old daughter to Miami Beach for a girls’ getaway. We had never taken a vacation just the two of us, and she has always loved palm trees, beaches, and pastel architecture.
By Nate Collins
“Everything has a price, son. Just because you don’t have to pay for something yourself doesn’t mean that it’s free.” I’ve had numerous conversations like this with my kids, and they remind me that things that are truly valuable are usually obtained only at high cost.
By John Seel, Ph.D.
In my work with millennials, I’ve often noted that they, the New Copernicans, dislike abstractions. While they are attracted to concerns for social justice, they do not like it when issues affecting real people are approached as disembodied theories or academic abstractions.
By Sarah Withrow King
I am growing increasingly aware that we are living in the dystopian future, where the “new norm” is decidedly not normal and awful things that should shock me, simply don’t. My emotional reaction to horrific events barely registers, so I’m thinking a lot about combatting complacency.
By Amy Julia Harris, Reveal and Shoshana Walter, Reveal
They thought they were going to rehab. They ended up in chicken plants.
The worst day of Brad McGahey’s life was the day a judge decided to spare him from prison.
By Craig Keener
I have been saving for the right time my likely one good shot at the subject of non-Trump evangelicals, and it looks like now is a good moment. The publication of Stephen Mansfield’s Choosing Donald Trump, an attempt to explain why religious conservatives flocked to Donald Trump, seems like the right time.
By Elrena Evans
In the middle of all the ugliness that was the news cycle last week, I stumbled upon something that seemed, at first, like it might be a breath of fresh air. October 5th, apparently, was Bring Your Bible to School Day.
By Jon Carlson
The ancient Romans never wrote an imperial anthem. Historians generally agree that they didn’t have a national flag, either.
In contrast, our nation’s recent controversies surrounding patriotism, national pride, and racial justice have centered on song and symbol.
By Steve Kolb
When my first wife, Virginia, died, I received incredible responses from hundreds of friends, all of which could be encapsulated in the category of “thoughts and prayers.” Lots of folks also sat with Virginia during her decline, shared their frequent flyer miles so we could go to medical appointments, came out to sing or play at her service, brought casseroles, gave me grace as I struggled to meet professional obligations, did our yard work for us, and listened while I worked through what could only be called a family catastrophe.
By Micky ScottBey Jones
Years ago, it was the discovery of praying the words of others that brought me back to praying at all. My faith tradition had taught me to pray whatever came to mind after bowing my head.
By Jon Carlson
Is it genocide?
Cause I can still hear his mama cry
Know the family traumatized
Shots left holes in his face about piranha-sized
The old pastor closed the cold casket, and said the church ain’t got enough room for all the tombs.
By Kenji Kuramitsu
Terror has struck, and once again a great grief has opened before us.
I won’t recount the litany. We know the nausea, the shock, the dizzying cadence of such reckless hate.
By Elli Atchison
The summer of 2014 was an ugly one in Israel and Palestine. The media was filled with reports of a war that devastated Gaza, and filled Israel and the West Bank with anxiety and fear.
By Sarah Withrow King and Rev. Carlos Malavé
The island of Puerto Rico is home to 3.4 million people, and they are suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Many of us want to help, but don’t know where to start.
By Carolyn Custis James
“Christianity has an image problem among American youth.”
–David Kinnaman, Barna Group
In his ominously-titled book, The End of White Christian America, Robert P. Jones (CEO, Public Religion Research Institute) chronicles the decline of the white American church.
From The Many
A moment of beauty to start the week: Watch CSA’s Darren Calhoun and The Many singing “All Belong Here.”
By Chuck Bomar
Life in every community revolves around a different center. College towns revolve around the university calendar. Local restaurants are busy from September through April, and then the rhythm changes during the summer months.