Hopes and frustrations of Lebanese Christians: Al-’ihbat al-masihi – reasons and measures taken

A Monika Langrock ft er the end of the Lebanese civil war (1990), the Lebanese Christian community found itself in a collective identity crisis. The term al-’ihbat al-masihi, meaning disenchantment or frustration, started to be used in order to describe their political and psychological condition. How did the Christians try to cope with it? Th e question of extinction of the Eastern Christianity, asked by the Western public, is oft en asked superfi cially; it is marked by anxiety and fear. However, the Lebanese Christians have been asking the same question since decades.