Full Description
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
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
