Identity, Youth, and Gender in the Korean American Church

This volume develops an understanding of Korean American girls in the Korean American church between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. Christine J. Hong analyses and evaluates girl's formation around self, gender, and understandings of God in the context of Korean American mainline protestant congregational life. The book utilizes a practical theological qualitative study and develops a hybrid methodology using a feminist ethnography with de-colonial aims and indigenous research methods. Its goal is to facilitate practical theology's aim of enabling transformative experiences in communities of faith. The study asks and answers the question: what is the experience of being a Korean American girl in the Korean American immigrant church? Hong asserts that cultivating a better understanding of how Korean American girls develop concepts of self, gender, and God will help practical theologians, particularly religious educators, pinpoint, unpack, and evaluate the complexities of bi-cultural identity and faith formation.

Christine J. Hong is the Assistant Professor for Worship and Evangelism in the Practical Theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA. Previously she was the Associate for Interfaith Relations at the national offices of the Presbyterian Church, USA.

1. Introduction
2. Immigration: Our Collective History
3. We Are Who We Were: Korean and Korean American Spiritualities
4. Asian American Adolescents: Development and Mental Health
5. Methodology
6. The Study
7. Findings and Emerging Themes
8. Discussion of the Emerging Themes
9. Conclusions