Eunil David Cho

The Rev. Dr. Cho is a pastoral theologian whose research in pastoral theology and spiritual care, especially among immigrant and refugee communities, engages the fields of narrative theories and therapy, psychology of religion, sociology of religion, and intercultural studies. Dr. Cho approaches spiritual care and counseling from the position of an ethnic and racial minority and is committed to teaching out of his personal and academic expertise in a way that contributes to the transformation of personal, communal, and public life. He teaches a range of courses in spiritual care and practical theology to which he brings proficiency in critical race theory, global migration, qualitative research methods, and Asian American theologies and ministry.

His academic and professional publications have appeared in a number of academic journals, encyclopedias, and ministerial magazines. He is in the process of completing a book which is tentatively titled, Making Sense of Life with God: Religious Stories Dreamers Tell in the Face of Uncertainty (Brill’s Theology in Practice Series). Dr. Cho has actively played a leadership role in the academy and guilds by providing lectures, presentations, and consultations at numerous meetings. In 2022, he became the co-editor-elect of Journal of Pastoral Theology. He is also a former editor (2015-2018) of Practical Matters: Journal of Practical Theology and Religious Practices published by the Initiative in Religious Practice and Practical Theology at Emory University.

Prior to joining Boston University, Dr. Cho served on the faculty at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University as Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022). He was also the Director of the Writing Center at Candler School of Theology at Emory University (2017-2019), where he worked as a writing instructor and served as an academic consultant. Formerly trained as a middle school teacher, a counselor, and a chaplain, Dr. Cho has used his expertise and passion to serve congregations in Florida, Georgia, and Texas as a youth and young adult minister. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

 

Publications

Book

Making Sense of Life with God: Religious Stories that Dreamers Tell in the Face of Uncertainty (Brill’s Theology in Practice series; manuscript in progress)

Selected Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

“From the Yellow Peril to the Model Minority and Back Again: Unraveling the Orientalist Representations of Asian Americans in the Age of Covid-19,” Journal of Pastoral Theology 31, no. 2-3 (2021): 175-192.

 “Do We All Live Story-Shaped Lives? Narrative Identity, Episodic Life, and Religious Experience,” Religions 12, no. 2 (2021): 71.

 “Prayer as a Religious Narrative: The Spiritual Self and the Image of God,” Pastoral Psychology 68, no. 9 (2019): 639–649.

 “Constructing Interreligious Identity: Narrative Personality Approach,” Journal of Pastoral Theology 28, no. 3 (2018): 175-188.

 “Issue Intro: Re-Understanding Migration as a Theologizing Experience,” Practical Matters 11 (2018): 1-5. 

 “From the Yellow Peril to the Model Minority and Back Again: Unraveling the Orientalist

Representations of Asian Americans in the Age of Covid-19,” in Justice Matters: Spiritual Care and Pastoral Theological Imaginations in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic, K. Samuel Lee and Danjuma Gibson, eds., London: Routledge, (forthcoming in August 2022).

“Coping with a Double Pandemic of Health Crisis and Anti-Asian Racism in America: The Role of Immigrant Churches,” in Between Pandemonium and Pandemethics: Responses to Covid-19 in Theology and Religions, Dorothea Erbele-Küster and Volker Küster, eds., Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, (forthcoming in August 2022).

 Selected Reviews

 Joyce Ann Mercer and Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, ed. Conundrums in Practical Theology, AAR Reading Religion, September (2017).

Courtney G. Goto, Taking on Practical Theology: The Idolization of Context and the Hope for Community, Homiletic 43, no. 2 (2018).

Kim-Cragg, HyeRan, Interdependence: A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology, Journal of Pastoral Theology 29, no. 2 (2019): 132-135.

Jennifer R. Ayres, Inhabitance: Ecological Religious Education, AAR Reading Religion, March 2021.

Choi, Hee An. A Postcolonial Leadership Asian Immigrant Christian Leadership and Its Challenges, International Journal of Practical Theology (forthcoming).

Wong, Jessica Wai-Fong, Disordered: The Holy Icon and Racial Myths, Scottish Journal of Theology (forthcoming).