Helen Jin Kim
Associate Professor of American Religious History
Degrees
PhD, Harvard University, 2017
MDiv, Harvard University, 2012
BA, Stanford University, 2006
Phone
(404) 727-4073
EMAILDr. Helen Jin Kim studies U.S. religion and history in global context, focusing on U.S. religious connections to Asia-Pacific and transnational histories of Asian American religions. She is the author of Race for Revival: How Cold War South Korea Shaped the American Evangelical Empire (Oxford University Press, 2022), which won the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in History award from the Association of Asian American Studies, and a co-author of Family Sacrifices: The Worldviews and Ethics of Chinese Americans (Oxford University Press, 2019) with Russell Jeung and Seanan Fong.
In 2020 Kim was awarded both the Emory Provost’s Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education and Candler School of Theology’s On Eagle’s Wings Excellence in Teaching Award. She was selected as a “Young Scholar in American Religion” by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (2022-24). Kim’s commentary appears in The Atlantic, the Washington Post and NBC News.
Kim completed her MDiv and PhD at Harvard as a William R. Hutchison Presidential Fellow. She began her research at Stanford in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and with the Asian Pacific American Religion and Research Initiative (APARRI). Prior to graduate studies, Kim worked at Google, Inc.
BOOKS
Race for Revival: How Cold War South Korea Shaped the American Evangelical Empire, Oxford University Press, 2022
Co-author, Family Sacrifices The Worldviews and Ethics of Chinese Americans, Oxford University Press, 2019
CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES
“Jesus and John Wayne and the Shifting Grounds of Evangelical Historiography,” in Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge University Press, 2022
“Generational Transitions and New Conceptions,” in World Christianity: History, Methodologies, Horizons, Orbis Books, 2021
“Reconstructing Asian America’s Religious Past: A Historiography” in Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, University of Hawaii Press, 2020
“Asian American Women’s History is American Religious History,” in Asian and Asian American Women in Theology and Religion, Palgrave, 2020
“Campus Crusade ‘Explosions’: Conversions and Conservatism from the US Bible Belt to Cold War South Korea, 1972-1974,” in Journal of Korean Religions, vol. 9, no. 1. University of Hawai’i Press, April 01, 2018
“Campus Crusade for Christ,” “Epic Ministries,” “Asian American Christianity,” in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the U.S., Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016
Co-author, “Asian American Religious History,” in The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History. Oxford University Press, 2015
Co-author, “Nonreligious Second-Generation Chinese Americans: How Gender Shapes Their Worldviews,” in Chinese America: History & Perspectives, Chinese Historical Society of America, 2014
Co-author, “Asian Americans, Bible Believers: An Ethnological Study,” in Misreading America: Scriptures and Difference. Oxford University Press, 2013
Outstanding Achievement in History from the Association of Asian American Studies for Race for Revival: How Cold War South Korea Shaped the American Evangelical Empire, 2024
Young Scholar in American Religion Award, 2022
On Eagle’s Wings Award for Excellence in Teaching, Candler School of Theology, 2020
Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education, Emory University, 2020
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend to support work on her forthcoming book, Sacred Allies: Cold War South Korea and the Rise of American Evangelicalism, 2020
Louisville Institute First Book Grant for Scholars of Color for her forthcoming book, Sacred Allies: Cold War South Korea and the Rise of American Evangelicalism, 2020
Brewer Award, Emory University, Candler School of Theology, 2018-2020
SWAP Grant, Emory University Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, 2018-2019
Early Career Theological School Faculty Fellowship, Wabash Center, 2018-2019
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2016
Summer Research Grant, Harvard University Korea Institute, 2016
Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Visiting Student, Seoul National University, 2016
Dissertation Fellowship, Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE), 2015-2016
Term-Time Fellowship, Harvard University Charles Warren Center for American History, 2015
Summer Research Grant, Harvard University Center for American Political Studies, 2015
William R. Hutchison Presidential Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2012-2014
Hopkins Shareholders Scholar, Harvard Divinity School, 2011
Ministry Fellow, Forum for Theological Education (FTE), 2010-2011
Bob Cary Memorial Scholarship, United Methodist Church, Cal-Nevada Conference, 2011
Senior Thesis Honorable Mention, Stanford Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, 2006
Piety and Politics: Evangelicalism in America
History of Christianity in America
Japanese American Christianity
Women and Gender in American Religious History
Pacific Crossings: Religion, Race and Encounter
In the media
November 11, 2025
Race For Revival - A Conversation with Helen Jin Kim
The Center for the Study of Evangelicalism
October 18, 2023
As Asian American Christians Decline, Most ‘Nones’ Still Feel Close to Religion
Christianity Today
September 1, 2023
When American Evangelicals Needed a Reputational Boost, They Turned to South Korean Evangelicals
Christianity Today
February 23, 2023
What’s So Special about the Asbury Revivals?
Sightings, University of Chicago Divinity School
