BECOMING COLORFULLY HUMAN: A PASTORAL THEOLOGY OF THE IMMIGRANT AND THE COMMUNITY APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE: Dr. Christie Cozad Neuger________________________ Dissertation Director Dr. Joretta Marshall_____________________________ Reader Dr. Namsoon Kang_____________________________ Reader Dr. Jeffrey Williams____________________________ Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Nancy J. Ramsay___________________________ Dean BECOMING COLORFULLY HUMAN: A PASTORAL THEOLOGY OF THE IMMIGRANT AND THE COMMUNITY by Peter Sungjin Kim Bachelor of Psychology, 1992 Binghamton University Binghamton, NY Master of Arts in Psychology, 2001 John J. College of Criminal Justice New York, NY Master of Divinity, 2003 Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton, NJ Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Brite Divinity School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Counseling Fort Worth, TX May 2011 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………..…………..vi Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………………..1 2 Where It Begins……………………………………………………11 Brief History of Research Pastoral Theological Method Qualitative Research Methodology 3 Map for Journey…………………………………………………..42 Qualitative Research Methodology 4 Journey through Life……………………………………………...65 Findings from the Case Studies Findings from the In-Depth Interviews 5 Journey through History and Literature…………………………99 Findings from Autobiographies, Biographies, Memoirs, Essays and Poetry Findings from Novels, Documents, and Works of Historians 6 Human as Creative Neighbor……………………………………..134 Victor Turner and Immigration Understanding the Korean American Immigrant Experience through Liminality Cheong as Embodiment of Creative Liminality Cheong as Embodiment of Creative Tension Human as Creative Neighbor 7 Human as Responsible Neighbor…………………………………160 Letty Russell and the Immigran iv Partnership as an Ethic of Shared Future Hospitality as an Ethic of Shared Experience 8 Putting It All Together……………………………………………189 A Hermeneutic of Co-Authoring From Stranger to Neighbor: From Fear to Trust From Competitor to Partner: From Self-Serving Love to Self-Sharing Love Immigrant Theological Anthropology 9 Becoming Colorfully Human Together………………………….238 For the Immigrant For the Church For the Society 10 Becoming Hopeful………………………………………………..272 Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Research v Acknowledgments I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Christie Cozad Neuger, my advisor, teacher, and friend, who believed in my work even when it was hard for me to believe in it. In addition to being an excellent guide in this academic journey, she made me a believer in Narrative Therapy and also personally shared her Cheong with my family. My deepest thanks to Dr. Joretta Marshall and Dr. Namsoon Kang for their feedback and recommendations in their roles as my second and third readers. Their questions and suggestions helped clarified much of the conceptual fog in which I found myself at times. Also, it was their grace in working with me, despite the tight deadline, that taught me much about hospitality. I credit the Ph.D. seminar on racism taught by Dr. Nancy Ramsay for introducing me to many authors whose works contributed heavily to my theoretical framework. She also privileged me, the only non-white student in the seminar, to speak my voice in our class sessions and taught me the importance of encountering the other as a way of mutuality, growth, and transformation. I also want to thank Dr. Nancy Gorsuch for her encouragement throughout my time at Brite Divinity School. She offered me hospitality through her words and guidance when I needed it the most. I fondly remember the late Dr. Andrew D. Lester whose gentle spirit and steadfast presence, during my first two years at Brite Divinity School, made a significant impact on me both personally and academically. Though he did not get to see its completion, his thoughtful vi comments on all my papers he graded and his insights on hope and narrative theory provided much needed focus for this dissertation. This dissertation could not have come to fruition without the partnership of all my colleagues at Brite Divinity School. Particularly, I thank Jennifer Nicholson, Robert Thompson, Samuel Park, Kang-Il Kim, Ryan Frasor, Judy Yarborough, and J. F. Wickey for sharing with me their knowledge and lives as my colleagues in the Ph.D. program. The countless hours of conversation and interaction we shared provided me with a reservoir of inspiration and imagination. My deepest respect and gratitude to my interviewees to whom this dissertation is dedicated. Their stories brought me to tears time and time again and a profound appreciation of immigrant life. They shared their stories with me so that I can lift up their voice in a vision of a better world. I am forever changed by their words, memories, and hopes. My profound appreciation and love to my family, who were co-authors in this dissertation. My wife, Christine, and our children, Elle, and Aden, encouraged me greatly with their prayers, smiles, and affirmations of love more than they would ever know. It is more than once or twice that I doubted my wherewithal to finish this task of writing a dissertation. My family’s unconditional trust and love for me proved to be stronger than my willpower and confidence. I love you. vii Chapter 1: Introduction There are not many social issues that command more public attention than immigration does in the world today. It is because, whether in the United States or elsewhere in the world, immigration and migration have become ubiquitous and undeniable features of contemporary life, born out of, and reflecting a confluence of, complex factors at work both locally and globally. From major urban centers to remote villages across the globe, the effects of immigration and migration are being proved significant on all levels of the society. Though it has been historically important for humans to be able to move around in search of safety, food, and community, as this mobility was often a factor in survival and prosperity of individuals and groups, the unprecedented scale of immigration and migration taking place currently in the world, and the ensuing wide-ranging implications, reactions, and public policies, require a critical interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of this complex phenomenon more urgently than any time in the past. An examination of the growing debate on immigration within the United States suggests that a comprehensive treatment of the subject is difficult to achieve. Namely, a viable theoretical framework that addresses the person of the immigrant seems to be lacking in the public discussion. A. R. Zorberg states the questions of human identity and agency as, “Who is human?” and “Who is in the position to dictate and control the definitions of human being?” have been absent in the immigration debate.1 1 A. R. Zorberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 12. 1 2 For these reasons, there is a need to develop hermeneutical models that can critically inform the discussion of immigration by perceiving immigration through the vantage point of human identity, agency, and relationality. Specifically, there needs to be a discussion about the ethics of protecting and accommodating both the immigrant and the local2 and a careful analysis of how economic, social, and political policies are being negotiated and implemented presently. Within the field of practical theology, this calls for an understanding of the ethical relationship between the immigrant and the local that brings religious traditions, resources, and practices of informing human dignity and hospitality into an interdisciplinary conversation with other fields of study. Pastoral theology, a branch of practical theology, which has taken a turn for an increased engagement with public matters in the last couple of decades, is strategically situated to address a topic such as immigration. Pastoral theological method can be of particular relevance to the discussion of immigration because it links personal and public experiences in analysis and implication and is conducive to developing norms and practices of care for individuals and communities in social, relational, and political webs. My primary agenda for this dissertation was to test the utility of pastoral theological method as a public theology in relation to immigration. It was to see if speaking to the lived experience of a particular people could challenge the ethical assumptions of public immigration policies and attitudes and lead to more inclusive values and practices.3 Specifically, I was interested in finding out if a pastoral theology of the immigrant and the community could help frame the immigrant and the local as fellow human beings with inalienable rights and a shared future, thereby promoting a collaborative, 2 By ‘the local,’ I am referring to the members of the society who see themselves as the native citizens of the country irrespective of their heritage and see immigrants as newcomers to their society. 3 N. Ramsay, “Pastoral Theology as Public Theology: Revolutions in the Fourth Area.” In Pastoral Care and Counseling: Redefining the Paradigms, ed. N. Ramsay (Nashville: Abingdon, 2004): 45‐64. 3 communal, and resourceful response to this complex and compelling enterprise of human mobility and resettlement. The pastoral theological method makes it imperative to speak to the immigrant’s