POSTMODERN EPISTEMIC FRAGMENTATION AND THE RE- ENCHANTMENT OF CULTURE: Mysticism, Superstition, and the Limits of Postmodern Rationality

Abstract Postmodernism emerged as a critical response to the epistemic absolutism of Enlightenment modernity, successfully exposing the limitations of foundationalism, scientism, and totalizing metanarratives. However, beyond its well-documented epistemological impasse, postmodernism has produced unintended cultural consequences—most notably the resurgence of pre-modern mystical, esoteric, and superstitious belief systems. This paper examines how postmodern scepticism toward objective truth, hierarchical knowledge, and rational normativity has contributed to a broader process of cultural "re-enchantment." Drawing from philosophy, sociology of religion, cultural theory, and critiques of postmodern rationality, the study synthesises empirical findings from major studies, including the Kendal Project (Heelas & Woodhead, 2005) and theoretical frameworks from scholars such as Weber, Taylor, Gane, and Josephson-Storm. Significantly, this paper reframes the postmodern condition as fundamentally a failure of epistemic governance rather than merely a disagreement over facts or methods. It introduces the Metadisciplinary Knowledge System (MKS) Thronaxis framework as an analytical lens for understanding how the apologetics-polemics dialectic—the offence-defence dynamics of traditional religious and philosophical discourse—has contributed to epistemic fragmentation rather than genuine knowledge integration. The MKS framework, grounded in stratified ontology and operating through hierarchical epistemology (Revelation → Inspiration → Reason → Sanctified Opinion), provides governance without domination: a metadisciplinary architecture that vertically orders disciplines according to the ontological depth of their objects while preserving fallibility, plurality, and critical rigour. The paper situates these developments within contemporary debates on post- postmodern and metamodern thought, arguing that what is required is not another method of synthesis, but a re-engineering of how disciplines are related—an ordering that clarifies domain-specific authority, limits, and dependencies without collapsing plurality into uniformity. The study concludes by outlining how MKS-Thronaxis enables responsible re-enchantment: critical engagement with spiritual phenomena that avoids both the reductive dismissiveness of crude scientism and the uncritical acceptance characteristic of postmodern spirituality.