Urban Megachurches and Contentious Religious Politics in Seoul
Urban Megachurches and Contentious Religious Politics in Seoul
This chapter examines the contentious religious politics of urban megachurches in Seoul, South Korea. It begins with an overview of the urban political ecology of religion in Seoul in the context of the city's complex multireligious geographies. Focusing on the case of SaRang Community Church, it then highlights the uneven urban geography of conflicting aspirations for growth and belonging. Two key moments relating to the SaRang Community Church are considered: the 2007 labor dispute involving a church leader who was also a corporate business leader, and the 2013 grand opening of the church's new building as well as the controversies surrounding its expansion and construction. This chapter examines the successes of megachurch growth as well as the tensions and political conflicts within and across the public sphere.
Keywords: religious politics, megachurches, Seoul, South Korea, political ecology, religion, SaRang Community Church, urban geography, labor dispute, public sphere
California Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
