Beginning in 1937 under the guidance of founding editor Sister Esther Newport, the magazine was published quarterly for thirty-two years.

The publication centered on the "social character of the arts" for both artists and art educators was seen as a contemporary of magazines like The Catholic Worker and Orate Fratres.

Lewis, Ade Bethune, Thomas Merton, Edward Catich, Sister Esther Newport and Graham Carey.

Newport was appointed editor and the issue was to be published from the campus of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana.

The CAA received church approval from Cardinal Joseph Ritter, archbishop of Indianapolis, and the first issue of the Christian Social Art Quarterly was released in December 1939.