Religion and Spirituality in Korean America / Edition 1

by David K. Yoo, Ruth H. Chung, Jae Ran Kim, Jung Ha Kim

Overview

Religion and Spirituality in Korean America examines the ambivalent identities of predominantly Protestant Korean Americans in Judeo-Christian American culture. Focusing largely on the migration of Koreans to the United States since 1965, this interdisciplinary collection investigates campus faith groups and adoptees. The authors probe factors such as race, the concept of diaspora, and the ways the improvised creation of sacred spaces shape Korean American religious identity and experience. In calling attention to important trends in Korean American spirituality, the essays highlight a high rate of religious involvement in urban places and participation in a transnational religious community.

Contributors: Ruth H. Chung, Jae Ran Kim, Jung Ha Kim, Rebecca Kim, Sharon Kim, Okyun Kwon, Sang Hyun Lee, Anselm Kyongsuk Min, Sharon A. Suh, Sung Hyun Um, and David K. Yoo

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252032332
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	02/19/2008
Series:	Asian American Experience
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David K. Yoo is a professor of Asian American studies and history at UCLA. His books include Contentious Spirits: Religion in Korean American History, 1903-1945 and Growing Up Nisei.Ruth H. Chung is a professor of clinical education, educational psychology, and marriage and family therapy at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Foreword                                             ix
Roger Daniels
Acknowledgements                                             xi
Introduction                                             1
David K. Yoo and Ruth H. Chung

Section 1. Traditions
1 Korean American Catholic Communities: A Pastoral Reflection                                             21
Anselm Kyongsuk Min
2. Asserting Buddhist Selves in a Christian Land: The Maintenance of Religious Identity among Korean Buddhists in America                               40
Okyun Kwon
3. The Religiosity and Socioeconomic Adjustment of Buddhist and Protestant Korean Americans                                              60
Okyun Kwon

Section II. Passages
4. Waiting for God: Religion and Korean American Adoption                                              83
Jae Ran Kim
5. Liminality and Worship in the Korean American Context                                             100
Sang Hyun Lee
6. The Restoried Lives: The Everyday Theology of Korean American Never-Married Women                                             116
Jung Ha Kim
7. Korean American Religiosity As a Predictor of Marital Commitment and Satisfaction                                             137
Ruth H. Chung and Sung Hyun Um

Section III. From Generation to Generation
8. Replanting Sacred Spaces: The Emergence of Second-Generation Korean American Churches                                             151
Sharon Kim
9. Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals on the College Campus: Constricting Ethnic Boundaries                                             172
Rebecca Kim
10. A Usable Past? Reflections on Generational Change in Korean American Protestantism                                             193
David K. Yoo
Selected Bibliography                                             217
Contributors                                             233
Index                                             235
 

Editorial Reviews

"Of considerable interest and utlity to students and scholars of the important, multifaceted role of religion in the lives of contemporary immigrants in the US. Recommended."—Choice

“This book offers a probing and refreshingly critical lens into [Korean Americans’] religious world . . . . An excellent contribution to the growing literature on religion, race, and ethnicity among new Americans.”—Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

“Readily accessible to the general reader, this book provides an excellent study of post-1965 Korean American religions.”—Religious Studies Review

"A treat for those exploring the landscape of Korean American spiritual experience. The book offers religious angles on such social issues as gender and patriarchy, marriage and singlehood, family practices, and generational change, as well as such more usual concerns as theology, worship, and church practice. Yoo and Chung also highlight dialogue between Protestant, Buddhist, and Catholic religious perspectives. I particularly like the fact that they include a reflection by a Korean American transnational adoptee, a segment of the Korean American community scholars too frequently overlook. There is much here that will provide food for thought and that will stimulate both scholars and students of Asian American religion."—Paul Spickard, author of Is Lighter Better?: Skin-Tone Discrimination among Asian Americans

From the Publisher