Abstract

This paper develops a structural account of crisis and renewal in complex systems. It argues that contemporary civilizational tensions are not primarily moral or political failures, but symptoms of a diminished capacity to regulate necessary transitions. Stabilization and dissolution are not opposites but structurally coupled phases within a spiral dynamic of transformation. Where processes of renewed unification lose their mediating structure, differentiation radicalizes into polarization, moral absolutization, or destructive forms of homogenization. Within this framework, spirituality is redefined in functional rather than religious terms. It denotes the capacity to mediate experiences of transcendence and belonging in such a way that they are not particularistically absolutized but proportionally integrated. Spirituality thus appears as a condition for regulable renewal rather than as a private belief system. By relating teleodynamic theory, fourfold structural models, and contemporary crisis analysis, the paper outlines a non-progressivist concept of renewal: transformation does not imply improvement, but the reconfiguration of order under altered conditions. The central task is therefore not the prevention of transitions, but their mediation.