ABSTRACT
There have been widely differing views held by Maronites themselves on the question of minority, sometimes with consequent differences over the best political orientation for the community. Maronites constitute the most politically powerful Christian community in the Middle East, despite being far from the largest, due to their overwhelming geographical concentration in one small country, Lebanon. Maronites in the Middle East make up fewer than half of the 3.4 million or more in this increasingly global community. They constitute a numerical minority of the Lebanese, but the label minority is arguably ill-fitting in its social, cultural, and political senses. Ethnic narratives can include other Lebanese communities in a more majoritarian secular nationalist vision. The religious organisation of the community has provided it down the centuries not only with a constant frame of reference, but also with a receptacle for its historical experience.
