As we turn the page to a new year, some of us may be adding books to our 2025 reading list. Check out some of CSA’s favorites from recent years! CSA regularly posts book excerpts and reviews; the links below will take you to the review in the CSA Library, where you can find many more book reviews by using the search filters.
If you have a book you would like to recommend to the CSA community, send us an email!
- Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross, by Brian Zahnd (InterVarsity Press, 2024). “Faith that emerged out of the scandal of the cross is not a faith of intellectuals or elites of any sort. This is the faith of abused and scandalized people—the losers and the down and out.”
- Hope Ain’t a Hustle, by Irwyn Ince (InterVarsity Press, 2023). “Are you wearied by our culture of contempt? Are you exhausted by being in a continual state of outrage? Explore Christian hope as the ultimate antidote for the fatigue, weariness, and exhaustion engendered by our current climate. This hope is not a hustle.”
- Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church, by Bridget Eileen Rivera (Brazos Press, 2021). “What would begin to turn this ship around, even if incrementally, so that the church moves in the direction of flourishing for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and physical/cognitive abilities, etc?”
- Disarming Leviathan, by Caleb Campbell (InterVarsity Press, 2024). “Many of us who recognize American Christian nationalism as incompatible with the way of Jesus are feeling deep grief at the fractures within our communities. How do we move forward?”
- Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, by Kaitlin B. Curtice (Brazos Press, 2023). “Deconstruction, through honest questions and critiques, is resistance because it not only involves our stories but actually involves us and the ways we hold space for our own sacredness.”
- Learning Our Names: Asian American Christians on Identity, Relationships, and Vocation, by La Thao, Linson Daniel, Sabrina Chan, and David de Leon (InterVarsity Press, 2022). “Inviting our parents to tell their stories is a powerful way for them to begin opening up about their pain. Just as we all continue to be formed by God, the same is true for our parents. Our desire to be closer with our parents is one of the means God will use to bring healing into their lives.”
- Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, by Tamice Spencer-Helms (KTF Press, 2023). “In the secrecy of hush harbors, African slaves forged a purer faith than their white slaveowners. My ancestors were not converted to Christianity, but they converted Christianity to themselves!”
- From Pandemic to Renewal: Practices for a World Shaken by Crisis, by Chris Rice (InterVarsity Press, 2023). “Just as we cannot grow without people who tell us the truth and guide us on the road to repair what is wrong, we also need people who get this truth into our bones: even when we sin, we are beloved.”
- Join the Resistance, by Michelle Ferrigno Warren (InterVarsity Press, 2022). “Restorative kingdom justice work gives birth to and compels us toward honest action that resists oppression and injustice at every level, especially the oppression of the vulnerable.”
- Finding Our Way Forward: When the Children We Love Become Adults, by Melanie Springer Mock (Herald Press, 2023). “Given the state of the world, we may be tempted to despair, but I hope we will remember this. The passion and creativity of young adults can help save us, if only we relinquish control of what we think they should be doing and how they should be responding to the fears they face.”
Alyssa Sickle joined the CSA staff after more than 10 years of working with faith-based volunteer and mission programs, focusing on fundraising, event planning, and membership support. After graduating from the University of Maryland, she served as a collegiate missions assistant in France with Greater Europe Mission, and she has participated in and led a variety of short-term service trips. She is thrilled to support CSA’s initiatives that promote God’s love and justice. She lives in Maryland with her husband and three young children.