Crossroads Podcast: Peter Thiel And Silicon Valley’s Spiritual Seekers

If you know anything about the young, male, Internet-savvy males who are converting to Orthodox Christianity, then you have probably heard of Father Seraphim Rose, founder of the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery north of San Francisco.

This modern mystic’s writings (he died in 1982) are very popular in the United States, as well as Eastern Europe and Russia — especially the book “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future.” He discussed many issues popular in the 1960s, such as the Antichrist, drugs, aliens, UFOs and other signs of the times.

Now, I’m not suggesting that the New York Times team that produced this recent feature — “Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley” — needed to dig into the works of this Orthodox monk. This business-desk feature was the hook for this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.

However, I have to admit that there were passages in this story that made me think about Father Rose. 

Hold that thought.

First, here is the overture for this Times piece:

Everything clicked when Peter Thiel gave the speech about God.

The occasion was a 40th birthday party for Trae Stephens, who is Mr. Thiel’s venture capital partner as well as one of the founders of Anduril Industries, a maker of high-tech defense systems and weaponry. It was a multiday affair, held in 2023 at Mr. Stephens’s home in New Mexico. It began with an evening roasting the birthday boy, followed by another toasting him and then a brunch with caviar bumps, mimosas and breakfast pizza. At the brunch (the theme was the Holy Ghost), Mr. Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and right-wing kingmaker, delivered a talk about miracles, forgiveness and Jesus Christ. The guests were enthralled.

“The room of over 220 people, mostly in technology and venture capital, were coming up to us saying, ‘Oh, my goodness, I didn’t know Peter Thiel was a Christian,’” recalled Michelle Stephens, Mr. Stephens’s wife. “‘He’s gay and a billionaire. How can he be Christian?’”

Those raised eyebrows led to the creation of a nonprofit called ACTS 17 Collective, an outreach program for Silicon Valley seekers anxious to find a safe place to ask spiritual questions in a region known for acidic levels of skepticism.

Consider this chunk of background material a little bit later in the feature:

Silicon Valley executives are accustomed to chasing the elusive — fortune, breakthroughs, power — but God has not tended to rank high on the list. The Bay Area is one of the least churchgoing parts of America, where people have been more apt to meet their spiritual longing with meditation, ayahuasca, intermittent fasting or cold plunges. An episode of the HBO show “Silicon Valley” once satirized this with a gay entrepreneur aghast at being “outed” as Christian. In a place built on stretching human limitations, where people exert dominion over everything from fertility to outer space, even turning mortality into a business opportunity, the divine has seemed, to some, obsolete.

Now, it’s crucial that Thiel declined to be interviewed by the Times, probably because he assumed that he would face 666 questions about his Libertarian convictions and his role in helping the Donald Trump team build bridges to czars in Big Tech.

But Thiel has talked to plenty of other folks, often on camera or in popular podcasts.

Thus, the Times was able to offer this summary:

Mr. Thiel … has said his Christian faith is at the center of his worldview, which he expounds upon with a heterodox approach — fusing references to Scripture and conservative political theory, parsing ancient signs and wonders for their connection to tech wonders today. In recent podcast interviews, he draws on biblical prophecies to warn of an Antichrist who will promise safety from existential threats like artificial intelligence and nuclear war but bring something much worse: one-world government. (Mr. Thiel declined to be interviewed through Ms. Stephens; his spokesperson did not return an email).

OK, I will ask. What did Thiel say during some of these podcasts? Did he quote specific writers, religious leaders or even theologians? What is the source material for some of the questions he is asking?

It’s safe to say that many ACTS 17 (Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society) seekers are digging into similar books and publications, while listening to similar voices. 

I am not all that familiar with Thiel, to be honest. But here are some recent thoughts from my friend Rod Dreher, author of a relevant bestseller — “Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age.”

I just spent time in Oxford listening to Thiel give four lectures about the Antichrist. We were all instructed not to write about what we heard, but in truth, he didn’t say much more than he has already said publicly in interviews with Peter Robinson and Tyler Cowen.

Thiel is by his own admission a heterodox Protestant. He is married to a man, but I learned (not from him) that he attends a conservative Protestant church, one whose doctrine considers homosexuality sinful. In listening to Thiel talk, and in personal conversation with him, I didn’t learn much at all about the nature of his Christian profession, but I came away convinced that however misguided he is from an orthodox Christian perspective, he is utterly sincere. And he really and truly does believe that we are likely living in the time of the Antichrist, and that we had all better take this seriously, learning to read the signs of the times, and not just brushing it off as a pre-occupation of the dispensationalists of pop Evangelicalism.

Thiel is not the only superstar mentioned in this Times piece about seekers and the digital influencers that are influencing them. Podcast superstar Joe Rogan, the omnipresent Jordan Peterson, Vice President J.D. Vance and (#WaitForIt) Elon Musk are also part of this spiritual gumbo.

This brings me back to Father Rose, sort of.

I kept waiting for the Times team to offer some information and insights from some logical Christian voices that probably know a thing or two about outreach programs in Silicon Valley.

What about Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone? He is, of course, the articulate, outspoken, conservative leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. I would be stunned if Cordileone doesn’t have a staff member or three who spends quite a bit of time talking to Silicon Valley leaders. Also, Catholic churches in many strategic zip codes are currently welcoming quite a few converts — especially young men and young married couples.

However, if the Times folks were convinced that the Silicon Valley seekers are evangelicals or evangelical-adjacent, maybe it would have been logical to talk to thinkers at Gateway Seminary, the multi-campus Southern Baptist institution formerly known as Golden Gate Theological Seminary.

Then again, it’s possible that some of these spiritual seekers, while doing Google searches about “signs and wonders,” have bumped into the writings of Father Rose (or podcasts by Jonathan Pageau). It’s possible that someone at the New York Times has noticed recent news coverage of the fact — it’s been a trend for several decades now — that many young men have been exploring Eastern Orthodoxy.

Has Thiel cracked open a few books by Father Seraphim Rose or encountered thinkers in and around Silicon Valley who are familiar with the sermons of this modern mystic? 

I think the odds are good that the answer is “Yes.” It’s a question that I would have asked, for sure.

Enjoy the podcast and, please, pass it along to others.