Content area
Full Text
Religions in Asian America: Building Faith Communities, edited by Pyong Gap Min and Jung Ha Kim. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002. 275 pp. $69.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-7591-0082-9. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 0-7591-0083-7.
For social scientists, Religions in Asian America is the best overall introduction to a neglected topic. It comes at an appropriate moment when a wave of studies of immigrant religion has been completed and will provide a good summary of the field for the next wave of researchers. Its clear style also makes it desirable as a supplementary text.
The strength of each chapter generally depends on the author's own research, though there is extensive use of the literature. Some chapters give little history of the Asian religions in America, and a few chapters are mostly history.
The volume does not consistently meet the editors' lofty goals:
[to examine] the roles that an immigrant congregation plays in preserving ethnic culture and identity, facilitating fellowship with co-ethnic members and providing service for church members . . . [with] special attention to gender, race, and transnationalism. (p. 8)
Another theme of the book is that Asian...