Korean American Spirituality and Gender

Abstract

This chapter first examines Korean American spirituality in light of American evangelicalism and Korean shamanism. Second, it looks at how its ties to traditional evangelicalism reinforce conservative notions of gender. While scholars contend that second-generation Korean American Christianity is not monolithic and varies from first-generation Korean American Christianity, Hearn offers that an analysis of gender in Korean American spirituality contests this view. Though individuals who hold to more progressive understandings of gender roles exist, there remains, on the whole, a conservatism within second-generation Korean American spirituality around issues of spiritual headship and gender. Hearn combines data from the interviews of second-generation Korean American men with ethnography at Christ Church to make his case.