The Work of Salvation, the Salvation of Work: Searching for Belonging in an Age of Global Precarity

The Work of Salvation, the Salvation of Work: Searching for Belonging in an Age of Global Precarity

Carolyn Chen, Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley, and Rachel Min Park, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion

While the United States has historically been exceptionally religious, even with the onset of industrialization and urbanization, studies indicate that fewer Americans today claim a religious identity than ever before. Yet as Carolyn Chen argues, this does not mean the disappearance of religion, but a shift in what Americans invest their time and energy into, and where they find meaning: namely, work. In this interview, Carolyn Chen (UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies) discusses the ways work has gradually taken on the functions of religion in modern American life, and how work organizes people’s religious lives—especially in high-skilled, white-collar jobs that belong to the “knowledge economy.” However, the changing nature of religiosity is not limited to those in a specific sector of the economy. By examining the roles religion plays in Asian-American lives—from evangelical Christian immigrants to second-generation Buddhists—Prof. Chen highlights how religious trajectories more broadly are changing as the institutions that once gave us a sense of identity and belonging have shifted in late capitalism.