American business is an opportunistic enterprise. When it became profitable to do so, social justice got absorbed into corporate culture. Then, at lightning speed in the past few months, anti-racism has become the new flavor of the year.

Can this happen with religion?

The New York Times just came out with how this can be in a piece headlined: “God is dead. So is the Office. These People Want to Save Both.” The lead is quite clever:

In the beginning there was Covid-19, and the tribe of the white collars rent their garments, for their workdays were a formless void, and all their rituals were gone. New routines came to replace the old, but the routines were scattered, and there was chaos around how best to exit a Zoom, onboard an intern, end a workweek.

The adrift may yet find purpose, for a new corporate clergy has arisen to formalize the remote work life. They go by different names: ritual consultants, sacred designers, soul-centered advertisers. They have degrees from divinity schools. Their business is borrowing from religious tradition to bring spiritual richness to corporate America.

In simpler times, divinity schools sent their graduates out to lead congregations or conduct academic research. Now there is a more office-bound calling: the spiritual consultant. …

From whence cometh such ideas? What is the religious content of these practices?

Although three of the folks — from the Sacred Design Lab — profiled in this piece attended Harvard Divinity School, a fourth, Kursat Ozenc, from the Ritual Design Lab, has no theological background other than as an ‘experience designer’ for The Muslim Giving Project. I could find no evidence of theological education for another, Margaret Hagan.

Before the pandemic, these agencies got their footing helping companies with design — refining their products, physical spaces and branding. They also consulted on strategy, workflow and staff management. With digital workers stuck at home since March, a new opportunity has emerged. Employers are finding their workers atomized and agitated, and are looking for guidance to bring them back together. Now the sacred consultants are helping to usher in new rituals for shapeless workdays, and trying to give employees routines that are imbued with meaning.