Search for Identity in a Global Society

The search for identity within a global society within a global world may manifest express itself politically in the formation of a global consciousness; it may also manifest itself in religious fundamentalism, civilizational consciousness, and/or ethnonational revivalism.

While AxtmannÆs summary of these options is both concise and articulate, it is flawed in one major way: It assumes that these various pathways are mutually exclusive when in fact they are not. It is perfectly possible, and may in fact be far more common than otherwise, for members of a minority group to select all of these different paths. Some paths will suit some members while other paths will suit other people, and what the most appealing option will be will shift as history and time change around the group.

This paper examines the issue of identity among the Maronite Christians in Lebanon, providing first a brief historical background on these people and then discussing how they have pursued various strategies for d

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will being subordinate to the divine. However, it was not until the 12th century that the Arabic Maronites reestablished communion with the Western church. The Maronite sect is now ruled autonomously by a patriarch, called the patriarch of Antioch, in Lebanon. Their liturgy is an Antiochene rite recited in the Syriac language, with elements from the Latin rite (Wahbah, 1995, p. 34). Since the 9th century, Maronite Christians have found shelter high in the mountains of Lebanon and Syria, using their remote location as a shelter against invading Arabs, Mongols, and Turks. Maronites clung tenaciously to their Christian faith while much of the surrounding population was forcibly converted to Islam. Today most Maronites live in towns and cities, and the (real and perceived) threats to their existence as a community are more subtle. Most are afraid of neighboring Syria, which now dominates Lebanon, and, above all, they are wary of Islam (Yeranian, 1997, p. 7). Such feelings of threat have produced in the Maronites a tendency toward ethnic revivalism. Lebanese Christians make up roughly 1.5 million of the country's 3.5 million population (one of the largest concentrations of Christians in the Middle East) but the population
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Some common words found in the essay are:
, Monothelitism Monothelitism, Christian Lebanon, Druze Christians, Charles Mjeim, Camille Chamoun, Christians Lebanon, Council Constantinople, Lebanon Yeranian, Islam Maronites, yeranian 1995, 1995 7, yeranian 1995 7, yeranian 1997, christians lebanon, wahbah 1995, yeranian 1997 7, maronites themselves, current political, maronite christians, global consciousness, paths suit, christian science monitor, christians middle east, dreaming christian lebanon,
Approximate Word count = 1296
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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