Toward a Theology of the Professional-Managerial Class: Spiritual Taylorism and the Spiritual Consultant

With the explosive growth of “spiritual consultants,” “ancient technologists,” “sacred entrepreneurs,” and “directors of possibility,” any conversation regarding the ways religion materializes in the workplace demands a critical engagement with such an explicit effort to manage workspace by introducing corporate spirituality. This essay suggests that Barbara and John Ehrenreich’s work on the “professional-managerial class,” or PMC, can offer a useful foothold for understanding spiritual consultation and its role in the reproduction and maintenance of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations. The direct and targeted involvement of the PMC spiritualist is looking to expertly style the spiritual formation of work spaces in such a way as to not only maintain the capitalist order but to increase profits as well. This essay hopes to take seriously the theological and religious work of these “spiritual entrepreneurs” by outlining the basic dimensions of PMC spirituality.