Routledge Press

Amazon

To be published in the International Bulletin of Mission Research in 2021.

February 2020 (Abingdon Press)

A part of the Holy Living Series edited by Elaine Heath

Abingdon Press

Amazon

November 2019 (Pickwick Press)

Pickwick Press

Amazon

EDUCATION

Columbia University, New York, NY (Ph.D., 2009)

Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ (M.Div., 1999)

Clark University, Worcester, MA (B.A., 1993)

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

High Point University, Department of Religion and Philosophy

Adjunct Professor of Religion (2016-2017, 2018-present)

Instructor of Religion (2017-2018)

Assistant Professor of History, Nyack College, 2011-2016

Adjunct, Alliance Theological Seminary, 2012

Adjunct, William Paterson University, 2011-2015

PUBLICATIONS

1. Monographs

Understanding Korean Christianity: Grassroot Perspectives on Causes, Culture, and

Responses (Pickwick, 2019)

Study: Spiritual Practices for Building a Life of Faith (Abingdon, 2020)

2. Book Chapter

“Interpreting Korean Bible Women from a Terracultural Model of Mission,” in Methodist Mission in an Era of World Christianity, eds. David W. Scott and Darryl W. Stephens (Routledge, 2021).

3. Journal Articles

“Revisiting Lamin Sanneh’s ‘Western Guilt Complex’ from a Korean Grassroots Perspectives,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research (forthcoming in 2021).

“‘Noxious Weed’: Persecution in the Development of Korean Christianity,” International Review of Mission 106:2 (December 2017), 400-422.

“‘The Women, the Mothers Mould the Nations’: The Christian Home, Korean Women, and WFMS Missionaries,” Methodist History 65:1,2 (October 2016 and January 2017), 47-60.

“Christian Model Minority: Asian Americans and American Culture,” Journal of Religion, Race, and Ethnicity 7:4 (November 2016).

“Korea’s Confucian Culture of Learning as Gateway to Christianity: Protestant Missions in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” Studies in World Christianity 22:1 (April 2016), 37-56.

“‘I Shall Make You Free”: Church, Nationalism, and the, Korean Community in Hawaii.” Journal of Asian and Asian American Theology 11 (2011): 102-117.

“American Missionaries and the Korean Independence Movement in the Early Twentieth Century.” International Journal of Korean Studies 15:2 (Fall 2011), 171-187.

“Hawaiian Connectionalism: Methodist missionaries, Hawaii Mission and Korean Ethnic Churches.” Methodist History 50:1 (October 2011), 3-15.

“Immigrant Churches: Korean Methodist Churches in Eastern Pennsylvania.” Annals of Eastern Pennsylvania 7: 3-12.

4. Essays

“Mission and Trump’s Pivot to North Korea,” UM & Global (March 23, 2018) “Speaking for the Persecuted,” UM & Global (July 14, 2016).

5. Book Reviews

Review of Reel Inequality, by Nancy Wang Yuen, ChristianityNext (Winter 2018), 119-121.

Review of The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America, by Rebecca Kim, Sociology of Religion 76:4 (Winter 2015), 476-477.

Review of Ecologies of Faith in New York City: The Evolution of Religious Institutions, edited by Richard Cimino, Nadia Mian, and Weishan Huang, Sociology of Religion 76:1 (Spring 2015), 123-124.

Review of Empire of the Dharma: Korean and Japanese Buddhism, Hwansoo I. Kim, International Journal of Korean History, 19:2 (September 2014), 281-284.

6. Encyclopedic Entries

“Evolution of Christian Beliefs in Asia” (pp. 272-273) and “Leadership in Asia” (pp. 452-453). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, ed. Mark Lamport. NY: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018.

“Asian American Athletes and Christianity,” Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History, eds. Edward Park and Xiaojian Zhao. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2013.

HONORS AND AWARDS

2018-2019 Florence Ellen Bell Scholar Award, Drew University

2017 United Methodist Racial/Ethnic History Research Grant

2015 David M. Stowe Fund for Mission Research Award, Yale Divinity School

2015 Special Recognition Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Nyack College

2015 Women in United Methodist History Research Grant

2014 Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE), Diversity of American Evangelicalism Grant, Wheaton University

2014 Library Research Award, Columbia University

2014 Summer Fellow, “The Next Generation: World Christianity, Immigration, and the Transmission of Faith,” Summer Seminar, Calvin College

2014 Emerging Scholar of the Year Award, College of Arts and Science

2013 Summer Faculty Scholarship, Nyack College

2012 Faculty eCompanion Enrichment Grant, Nyack College

2009 Summer Wesley Seminar, Duke Divinity School

2000 Harvard-Yenching Library Grant, Harvard University

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

“Purification Rites: Understanding Recent Social Movements as Religious Confession and Cleansing,” Sociology Religion, August 7-10, 2021.

“The Other Plantation Religion: The Oral Transmission of Christianity Among Asians on the Hawaiian Islands,” Yale-Edinburgh Group on World Christianity and the History of Mission, June 22-24, 2021.

“The Unfolding of Multiple Identities in the Hybridization of Christianity: The Korean Experience.” American Society of Missiology, June 18-19, 2021.

“Combustible Reactions: Interpreting Persecution through the Hybridization of Christianity.” Association of Professors of Mission, June 17, 2021.

“Toward a Terracultural Understanding of Mission: the Korean Bible Women Experience.” Currents, Perspectives, and Methodologies in World Christianity, Princeton Theological Seminary, March 5, 2021.

“Working Group: Koreans and Korean American Christianities.” American Society of Church History, New York City, January 3-6, 2020.

“The Interiority of Methodist Mission: The Case of Women Missionaries and Korean Women.” Methodist Mission Bicentennial, Atlanta, GA, April 8-10, 2019.

“An Ethnographic Analysis of Korean and Korean American Christianity.” World Christianity Conference, Princeton, NJ, March 15-18, 2019.

“Ethnicity and Minority Religious Communities.” 50^th Anniversary Conference of United Methodist Church, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, OH, July 9-12, 2018.

“Constructing Borders of Legitimacy and the Assimilation of Ethnic Communities.” Wesley Theological Society, Cleveland, TN, March 8-10, 2018.

“National and Communal Deliverance as Catalyst: Korean Christianity in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Currents, Perspectives, and Methodologies in World Christianity, Princeton Theological Seminary, January 18-20, 2018.

“Neo-Confucianism and Christianity in Korea: Points of Commonality and Intersection.” Southeast American Academy of Religion, Raleigh, NC, March 5, 2017.

Chaired Session: “Our Ethical Purpose.” Mid-Atlantic Regional American Academy of Religion, New Brunswick, NJ, March 10, 2016.

Chaired Session: “Tranreligious Encounters in Asia.” New York Conference on Asian Studies, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 16, 2015.

“Confucianism’s Existential Dilemma and Christianity in Korea.” New York Conference on Asian Studies, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 16, 2015.

“Augmenting Native Religions: Confucianism and Protestant Christianity in Late Nineteenth Century Korea.” Yale-Edinburgh Missions Conference, New Haven, CT, June 25, 2015.

“Creating Readers and Breaking Barriers: Literacy as Essential for Conversion in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Korea.” American Society of Missiology, Wheaton, IL, June 20, 2015.

“Woman’s Foreign Mission Society Missionaries and Moral Agency in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Korea.” United Methodist Women’s History: Voices Lost and Found, Delaware, OH, May 30, 2015.

“Critical Reads on Global Sustainability.” Center for Scholarship and Global Engagement, Nyack College, February 25, 2015.

“Environmental Christian Ethics: A Christian Approach to Ecology and Sustainability.” Center for Scholarship and Global Engagement, Nyack College, November 9, 2014.

“Enemies in the Pews: Targeting ‘Unpatriotic’ German, Swedish, and Norwegian Immigrant Churches during the First World War.” World War I: Dissent, Activism, and Transformation, Lakewood, NJ, October 18, 2014.

“Outside of Evangelical Mainstream: Jeremy Lin and Asian American Evangelicalism.” Third Symposium on Asians in the Americas, New Brunswick, NJ, October 2, 2014.

“‘The Women, The Mothers Mould the Nations’: The Construction of Modern Womanhood in Korea in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.” New York Conference on Asian Studies, Hempstead, NY, September 19, 2014.

“‘Sins of My Father’: Ethnicity, Culture, and Theological Purity in the Asian American Church.” American Academy of Religion, Baltimore, MD, November 25, 2013.

“‘Enslaved by Culture’: The Problematic Relationship with Ethnic Culture in the Second Generation Asian American Church.” American Sociological Association, NY, NY, August 12, 2013.

“Outside of Evangelical Mainstream: The Rise of Jeremy Lin and the Globalization of Asian American Evangelicalism.” Sociology of Religion, NY, NY, August 11, 2013.

“Confucianism and Korean Christianity: Religious Reflections and Cultural Analysis.” New York Conference on Asian Studies, New Paltz, NY, September 28, 2012.

“Finding God in the Margins: The Experience of Dislocated European Immigrants in America.” International Association for Missions Studies (IAMS), Toronto, Canada, August 18, 2012.

“Separatists and Accomodationists: The Problem of Ethnicity in the Korean and Asian

American Church.” Association for Asian American Studies, Washington, D.C., April 12, 2012.

“Religion in America: Defining ‘Correct’ Faith in a Democracy.” Mid-Atlantic

American Academy of Religion, New Brunswick, NJ, March 15, 2012.

“Patriotic Christians: Militant Protestantism in Korean Christianity.” Mid-Atlantic

American Academy of Religion, New Brunswick, NJ, March 14, 2011.

“Unpatriotic Worship: The Silencing of European-Ethnic Churches in Early Twentieth

Century U.S.” Mid-Atlantic American Academy of Religion, New Brunswick, NJ, March 12, 2010.

“Lost in Translation”: A Theological Defense of the Korean Immigrant Church by

Bishop Hae-Jong Kim.” American Society of Church History, New York, NY, January 4, 2008.

“Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds: the Korean Immigrant Church’s Struggle for a

Place within a Mainline Protestant Denomination.” Association for Asian American Studies, New York, NY, April 5, 2007.

ORDINATION AND COMMISSION

Ordained Elder, United Methodist Church, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, 2004

Commissioned Provisional Elder, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, 2001

Commissioned Domestic Missionary, GBGM, New York, NY 2001

Licensed Local Pastor, Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, 1999

RECENT PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL CONGREGATIONS

2017-2020 Senior Pastor, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church (Trinity, NC)

2017 Guest speaker, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church (High Point, NC)

2017 Guest speaker, Christ United Methodist Church (Greensboro, NC)

2013-2016 Senior Pastor, Suffern United Methodist Church (Suffern, NY)

2016 Guest speaker, Spring Valley United Methodist Church (Spring Valley, NY)

2015 Guest speaker, Thiells United Methodist Church (Thiells, NY)

2015 Guest speaker, New City United Methodist Church (New City, NY)

2011-2013 Dir. of Christian Education, Korean Community Church (Englewood, NJ)

2005-2010 Senior Pastor, St. Peter’s United Methodist Church (Saylorsburg, PA)