South Korea is home to some of the largest evangelical Protestant congregations in the world. This book investigates the meaning of—and the reasons behind—a particular aspect of contemporary South Korean evangelicalism: the intense involvement of middle-class women. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Seoul that explores the relevance of women’s experiences to Korean evangelicalism, Kelly H. Chong not only helps provide a broader picture of the evangelical movement’s success in South Korea, but addresses the global question of contemporary women’s attraction to religious traditionalism.

In highlighting the growing contradictions ­between the forces of social transformation that are rapidly liberalizing modern Korean society, and a social system that continues to uphold patriarchal structures and relations on both the societal and familial levels, Chong captures the missing dimension of gender in her analysis of Korean evangelicalism. By focusing on the spiritual and institutional dynamics of women’s religious participation, this study reveals how such religious practices serve as crucial channels through which women can navigate, negotiate, and even resist the restrictions and ambiguities of contemporary Korean family and gender relations.

Kelly H. Chong is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas.