Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Religious Studies
M.A., 2001, Marmara University, Turkey
M.A., 2005 Temple University
Ph.D., 2008 Temple University
Biography
Dr. Heon Kim teaches various religion courses at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. He also taught Humanities Seminar courses in Intellectual Heritage Program at Temple University, Philadelphia. As a teacher-scholar, Dr. Kim specializes in Comparative Religions, Interreligious Dialogue, and Religion and Spirituality. He has pursued a strong cross-cultural academic career in South Korea, Egypt, Turkey and the USA. Dr. Kim received his doctorate from the Department of Religion, Temple University. His dissertation was awarded distinction by his dissertation committee’s unanimous vote and is under revision for publication. As an extensive study of Sufism today, it critically explores the possibilities and limitations of Sufism as an alternative to Islamic fundamentalist movements and as a dialogical bridge between Islam and other religions. Dr. Kim received his B.A. in Arabic Language from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea. He subsequently studied Arabic and Islamic theology for several years at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. His academic career continued at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, where he obtained an M.A. degree in Islamic Philosophy.
Dr. Kim authored Din Değiştirmenin Entellectual Arka Planı [Intellectual Background of Religious Conversion], which was published in Turkish and is in translation into English, He recently edited two volumes, A Just World: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on Social Justice in 2013, and Making Peace In and With the World: The Role of the Gülen Movement in the Task of Eco Justice in 2012, both of which were published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He also translated two books from Turkish to Korean, and produced a number of single-authored articles and book chapters. In continuation of his previous works, Dr. Kim is currently working on the topic of “dialectic approach and dialogic humanism” to publish it in a book length manuscript in near future.
Dr. Kim’s lived experience and research in diverse religions have been frequently reserved in his invited presentations to national conferences at, to name few, Georgetown University, Rice University and University of Maryland, as well as in many invited lectures for local communities, including the University at Buffalo (SUNY), Moravian Theological Seminary, Lehigh Dialogue Center, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel at Elkins Park, Tabernacle United Church at Philadelphia, and Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church at Bryn Mawr.
Dr. Kim has served and continually serves in various academic fields. He coordinated national conferences on “Religion, Conflict and Peace” at Temple University in 2010 and “Religion and Justice” at Holy Family University in 2012. Since 2010, he continually serves as a manuscript reviewer of Journal of Ecumenical Studies, the first and premiere peer-reviewed journal in the field of Interreligious Dialogue. Dr. Kim is a chair of the wildcard section “Interreligious and Interfaith Studies,” and a co-chair of the section “Religion, Conflict and Peace,” for American Academy of Religion Mid-Atlantic Meeting. He currently serves as the vice-president/president-elect of the PASSHE Interdisciplinary Association for Philosophy and Religious Studies to host its annual conference at ESU in Spring 2016.
Dr. Heon Kim’s ESU Scholar Talks
Books
Heon C. Kim (ed.) A Just World: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on Social Justice. Newcastle UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
Heon C. Kim and John Raines (eds.) Making Peace In and With the World: The Role of the Gülen Movement in the Task of Eco Justice. Newcastle UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
Heon C. Kim. Din Değiştirmenin Entellectual Arka Planı [The Intellectual Background of Religious Conversion]. Işık Yayınları, Turkey, 2004.
Heon C. Kim. 신앙과 인간 [The Belief and Man]. Translation from Turkish into Korean of a part of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s Risale Nur Collection. Alim Publication, Seoul, Korea, 2003.
Heon C. Kim. 현대사회가 이슬람에 던진 질문들 [The Questions: Modern Society Puts to Islam]. Translation from Turkish into Korean of Fethullah Gülen, Min Media, Seoul, Korea, 2001.