Korean Americans and Their Religions: Pilgrims and Missionaries from a Different Shore

by Kim, Kwang Chung; Warner, R. Stephen; Kwon, Ho-Youn

• ISBN13: 9780271020730
• ISBN10: 0271020733
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

Since 1965, the Korean American population has grown to over one million people. These Korean Americans, including immigrants and their offspring, have founded thousands of Christian congregations and scores of Buddhist temples in the United States. In fact, their religious presence is perhaps the most distinctive contribution of Korean Americans to multicultural diversity in the United States. Korean Americans and Their Religions takes the first sustained look at this new component of the American religious mosaic.

The fifteen chapters focus on cultural, racial, gender, and generational factors and are noteworthy for the attention they give to both Christian and Buddhist traditions and to both first- and second-generation experiences. The editors and contributors represent the fields of sociology, psychology, theology, and religious ministry and themselves embody the diversities underlying the Korean American religious experience: they are Korean immigrants who are leaders in their fields and second-generation Korean Americans beginning their careers as well

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Part I Introduction	1	(52)
Korean American Religion in International Perspective	3	(22)
Kwang Chung Kim
R. Stephen Warner
Ho-Youn Kwon
The Korean Immigrant Church as Case and Model	25	(28)
R. Stephen Warner
Part II Religious Experiences of Korean Immigrant Christians	53	(60)
Pilgrimage and Home in the Wilderness of Marginality: Symbols and Context in Asian American Theology	55	(16)
Sang Hyun Lee
Ethnic Roles of Korean Immigrant Churches in the United States	71	(24)
Kwang Chung Kim
Shin Kim
Religion as a Variable in Mental Health: A Case for Korean Americans	95	(18)
Tong He Koh
Part III Generational Transition of Korean American Churches	113	(96)
A Theological Reflection on the Cultural Tensions Between First-Century Hebraic and Hellenistic Jewish Christians and Between Twentieth-Century First- and Second-Generation Korean Americans	115	(10)
Robert D. Goette
Mae Pyen Hong
The Transformation of a First-Generation Church into a Bilingual Second-Generation Church	125	(16)
Robert D. Goette
Ethnic Identity Formation and Participation in Immigrant Churches: Second-Generation Korean American Experiences	141	(16)
Peter T. Cha
Beyond ``Strictness'' to Distinctiveness: Generational Transition in Korean Protestant Churches	157	(24)
Karen J. Chai
Being Korean, Being Christian: Particularism and Universalism in a Second-Generation Congregation	181	(12)
Antony W. Alumkal
The Intersection of Religion, Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in the Identity Formation of Korean American Evangelical Women	193	(16)
Soyoung Park
Part IV Buddhisms in North America	209	(86)
The Growth of Korean Buddhism in the United States with Special Reference to Southern California	211	(16)
Eui-Young Yu
Turning the Wheel of Bharma in the West: Korean Son Buddhism in North America	227	(32)
Samu Sunim (Kim, Sam-Woo)
Won Buddhism in the United States	259	(14)
Bok In Kim
Intra-Ethnic Religious Diversity: Korean Buddhists and Protestants in Greater Boston	273	(22)
Karen J. Chai
Notes on Contributors	295	(4)
Index	299