The Sacred-secular dialectics of the reenchanted religious Order - The Lingsu exo-esoterics in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper aims to locate the essence of new religions which manifest themselves as part and parcel of the elusive reenchanted phenomena. It is based on an ethnographic case study of a new religious group, the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics, in Hong Kong. The study unravels how this new religious group reconciles the fundamental disparity between sacred and secular cosmologies. Instead of being pulled apart by the polar opposites between the sacred and the secular, the Lingsu unifies the sacred-secular dichotomy through a dialectical process of 'sacralization of the secular' and 'secularization of the sacred'. The paper investigates how sacred and secular cosmologies are mutually interpenetrating each other and interactively validating each other through the sacralization-secularization process. An in-depth analysis of this dialectical process offers new insights into the societal tide of reenchantment. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd.