Construction of Culture, Theology and Ethnic Identities in the Second-Generation Korean American Church

Team Members/Contributors

Peter Cha Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Contact Me

About this religious institutions (Discontinued)

This project explores how a second-generation Korean American congregation constructs its unique congregational identity, culture and theology. These processes are ongoing as the congregation strives to meet the particular needs of its members -- needs that are distinct from that of their immigrant parents -- while interacting reflexively with its surroundings. Employing ethnographic interviews and a congregational study methodology, this interdisciplinary study examines some of the significant challenges a group of Korean American young adults encounter in mainstream society and in their Korean families, and looks at how their congregation employs various cultural and theological resources to assist them with their questions of meaning, identity and calling. Particularly, the project probes the ethnicity function of the congregation, examining how it constructs its own second-generation ethnic subculture and how this process, in turn, contributes to the formation of the ethnic, gender and religious identities of its members. The author's desired goal for this volume is not only to contribute to the existing literature in the fields of sociology of religion and of history of immigrant churches, but also to benefit those who serve in Korean American or other immigrant congregations that wrestle with the second-generation challenge.