Articles

Edited by Ken Chitwood (Bloomsbury, 2026)

Until the pandemic, the Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray was the first person in the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s office every morning. Then 90 years old, he would open the gate to welcome guests looking for career or academic mentoring, advice about how to lead a church or take social action, or simply a compassionate ear.

The founder of the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and prison reentry program in the world is a mystic, a Jesuit priest who does not believe that God has a plan for your life. Having buried 260 young men and women, Father Greg Boyle rejects the idea that it is God’s plan that anyone should die of a gang member’s bullet.

Ms. Mason is a leader in these changes, adopting some practices common to Asian Buddhism and others that reflect her African heritage. Chief among the latter: prioritizing community, honoring ancestors, and embodying spiritual engagement by working for social and political change.

For Fouzia Azizi, long gone are the difficult days as a struggling refugee. But memories of hardship and discrimination remain, fueling a passion to help others.

When Sarah Zouak was a graduate student in France, an adviser told her that the phrase “Muslim feminist” was a contradiction in terms. Not only did she pursue a thesis on Muslim feminism, she went on to co-found French Muslim feminist group, Lallab.

This story map is best viewed on the Arcgis website on a computer.

While our exemplars are extremely different, and they draw on different spiritual tools working in radically different contexts, this same paradox emerges in so many of them that it cannot be ignored. It is the coexistence of radical resistance and radical surrender. 

Catholic sisters are working together across congregations and across the US/Mexico border to better serve people in need of housing, food, health care and immigration services. This video highlights the work of the Sisters Migrant Network for Economic Empowerment and the Sisters Border Network.