Religious Experience Among Second Generation Korean Americans

This book explores the ways through which Korean American men demonstrate and navigate their manhood within a US context that has historically sorted them into several limiting, often emasculating, stereotypes. In the US, Korean men tend to be viewed as passive, non-athletic, and asexual (or hypersexual). They are often burdened with very specific expectations that run counter to traditional tropes of US masculinity. According to the normative script of masculinity, a man is rugged, individualistic, and powerfulthe antithesis of the US social construction of Asian American men. In an interdisciplinary fashion, this book probes the lives of Korean American men through the lenses of religion and sports. Though these and other outlets can serve to empower Korean American men to resist historical scripts that limit their performance of masculinity, they can also become harmful. Mark Chung Hearn utilizes ethnography, participant observation, and interviews conducted with second-generation Korean American men to explore what it means to be an Asian American man today.

Mark Chung Hearn's Religious Experience Among Second Generation Korean Americans is a valuable addition to the rapidly growing body of scholarly works in the field of Asian American theology and religious history. The strength of this book springs from Hearn's clever demonstration of the importance of interpreting Korean American men as 'sociohistorical constructs' in a cutting-edge interdisciplinary work. Hearn's book makes a vital contribution to the studies of Asian American practical theology. (Eunil David Cho, Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, June, 2017)

Autorentext
Mark Chung Hearn is a second-generation Korean American. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Contextual Education and Ministry and the Director of Contextual Education at Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry, USA. In addition to serving as an educator, he has ministered as a pastor, athletic coach, and church consultant.

Inhalt
Introduction.- 1. Situating Korean Men in Asian America.- 2. Listening to Korean American Men Tell Their Lives.- 3. Sports and Korean American Men.- 4. Korean American Spirituality.- 5. Forming Korean American Men: What Can We Do?.