A Pilgrimage to the Motherland: Understanding Pilgrimage Experience as Embodied Religious Education for Korean American Youth and Young Adults

Abstract

This article explores how pilgrimage shapes the ways in which Korean American youth and young adults develop their sense of intersectional identities by visiting their motherland. The coauthors begin by highlighting the limitation of Korean American churches’ emphasis on text-based education, suggesting how pilgrimage as a spiritual practice could be more implemented for more embodied and experiential learning. By analyzing the Trip to the Motherland program run by the Presbyterian Churches in Korea and North America, the article demonstrates how transnational pilgrimage enables young pilgrims to gain a renewed sense of intersectional identities, which integrates their racial, ethnic, and religious lives.