Manisha Agarwal, MRPL ’26, on Bridging Spirituality, Ethics, and Business
At HDS, Manisha Agarwal explored the connections between spirituality and business, developing a framework to help business leaders make ethically informed decisions.
For over two decades, Manisha Agarwal, MRPL ’26, thrived as a successful management consultant.
Throughout her career, Agarwal’s excellence in the business world stemmed from a passion for driving innovation and leading corporate strategy. Running parallel to this has been another interest, one seemingly disconnected from the world of business: religion.
“I’ve always been fascinated by different religious traditions, and in the past I’ve done extensive reading into some of these faiths,” said Agarwal. “For a long time, I’ve had these two different areas of interest: business and trade, on the one hand, and religion on the other. I didn’t know there existed a program that could bring these together.”
The longer she spent in consultancy, the more curious she became about potential convergences between these two areas—particularly in relation to how decisions are made. After different life experiences left her seeking spiritual grounding, she had a conversation with her nephew, HDS professor Swayam Bagaria, who introduced her to the Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL) program at Harvard Divinity School (HDS)
“Although I thought I was done getting degrees, I looked at the program and discovered that this would give me a platform to bring these two areas together. Honestly, it has exceeded my expectations,” she said.
Building a New Framework
In the fall of 2025, Agarwal arrived at HDS with a plan to create a new framework that would enable her to integrate a religious dimension into her consultancy practice. During her time as a MRPL candidate, she not only built this framework, but her thinking evolved, thanks in part to a broadened perspective on religious studies.
“I came in with a somewhat narrow conception of religion as ‘religious traditions,’” she said. “But then I read thinkers like Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Friedrich Schleiermacher. I realized there’s a breadth of thought within the field that transcends the bounds of the traditions, which has been helpful.”
Terrence Johnson was influential in facilitating this broadened perspective, pushing Agarwal to integrate questions of justice into traditional business priorities.
“Professor Johnson encouraged me to think deeply about justice,” said Agarwal. “How do we incorporate justice and the perspective of marginalized communities into business strategy? He helped me realize the importance of thinking through these questions alongside the day-to-day ROI analysis and other priorities typical within the business world.”
I looked at the MRPL program and discovered that this would give me a platform to bring together religion and business. Honestly, it has exceeded my expectations."
The teaching and mentorship of Agarwal’s capstone advisor, David Hempton, also shaped the development of her project. Through Hempton’s course on evangelicalism, “Evangelicalism and Political Culture in the United States since c. 1950,” Agarwal linked corporations and religious communities, specifically related to questions of culture and how communities function.
“Professor Hempton’s course was one of the best I’ve ever taken as a student,” she said. “In this class, I began to draw links between corporate culture and religious traditions, particularly evangelicalism in the U.S. It’s helped me think about businesses in a new way.”
She credits the support of her MRPL cohort in helping her complete her capstone and persevere in her project.
“They have been a warm place for me to test out my ideas and to get feedback, and I’ve also enjoyed getting to contribute to the development of their respective projects,” said Agarwal.
Helping Business Leaders Make Ethical Decisions
After Commencement, Agarwal will return to the consultancy world where she will continue developing her capstone project into a program for business leaders to help ground their work and decision-making in spirituality and ethics.
“Corporate leaders already think about ethical questions, but sometimes they’re unable to name or frame them,” she said. “What I want to do is just that: help them name these implicit ethical commitments and provide sources to strengthen them.”
From her decades-long work in the corporate world, she believes that many companies and business leaders are open to increased religious understanding and expanded spiritual frameworks.
“I think business decisions can be very logical, which is necessary,” she said. “But there is a side to those decisions that may not change the decisions but can add an expanded lens. I think there is a real hunger for that right now.”
Banner photo by Alex Bayer.