ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews recent accounts of societal change, emphasizing the emergence of an informational society in recent sociological accounts. It shows the effects of this society in the resurgence of religion—resacralization—and compares them to classical models of mysticism. Contemporary resacralization of culture and the re-cosmicization of consciousness dissolve familiar social boundaries between self and world. The chapter argues that there, increasingly, on the grounds of religion and mystery, an individual and societal revitalization occurs that is transformative and adaptive. A sacred code of meaning is reestablished that encourages communion and fusion as core practices of the revitalization of social interaction. The revitalization of social practice occurs in between the social structure of informationalism and a mysticism of experienced being. Anthropological theorists described revitalization movements ordinarily among colonized peoples, dominated and excluded by hegemonic, modern society. Late postmodern revitalization is a decentered social movement.