Sponsored by the Lamorinda-Orinda Presbyterian Church, the First Friday Forum speaker series presents Professor Carolyn Chen on Mar. 1, when she asks what happens when work takes over the traditional institutions that shape our souls.
The Lafayette-Presbyterian’s popular First Friday Forum Speaker Series continues this month with a presentation by Carolyn Chen, professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Chen is also co-director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative.
Chen spent more than five years in Silicon Valley, gaining unprecedented access to the “best and brightest” of the tech world while conducting a wealth of in-depth interviews in her quest to discover how the workplace is replacing religion.
The result is her 2022 book, “Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley,” a penetrating account of how tech companies are blurring the lines between work and religion and transforming the very nature of spiritual experience in modern life.
“Work,” said Chen, “has become a spiritual practice that inspires religious fervor” because work is where today’s employees, particularly in the tech industry, “go to find their souls.”
With so many relatively young people flocking to Silicon Valley, thousands of miles from the rites and rituals that once supported them, traditional family worship is jettisoned: gone are the days of attending synagogue, temple or church with neighbors and relatives. And today’s tech companies, quick to recognize the need for the comfort of religion within an intense work culture, have been only too happy to fill the void.
During her extensive research Chen came across executive coaches, with job titles like Chief Spiritual Officer and Chief Mindfulness Officer, who were hired as “spiritual advisers” to senior leaders and employees. She even met with the founder of a start-up who called himself Head Pastor because “management,” as he explained, “is a lot like a ministry.” This businessman apparently quotes the Buddha more than he does Andrew Carnegie.
In fact, Buddha is big in Silicon Valley: Salesforce brought in 30 monks to chant and teach at their 2017 and 2018 conferences.
Not that Silicon Valley’s desire to “nurture souls” is an entirely altruistic move. Chen soon discovered that offering pastoral and spiritual care was a way to make employees more productive and companies more profitable.
But at what cost to society?
Chen answers this question as she guides her audience through the compelling story of what can happen when work takes over the traditional institutions that shape our souls.
The First Friday Forum takes place at 1:30 p.m. on March 1 in the Sanctuary of the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church at 49 Knox Drive, Lafayette. Contact lopc.org/first-friday-forum/ to sign up for in-person attendance, register to stream on Zoom or to enjoy previous presentations.
