‘Religion’ in the Middle East

Implicit and/or Invisible

Abstract

A personal, reflective account of a probing for indications in the Muslim Middle East of anything resembling ‘implicit’ religion as noted in the West. Tentative result: initial dismissal of parallels to ‘civil’ religion, followed by argument that Thomas Luckmann’s ‘invisible’ rather than an ‘implicit’ religion theory invites more appropriate consideration when appraising general religious life as observed by a visiting Western religionist during two extended residencies in, first, Gaza and then Jordan. Risking a charge of ‘orientalism,’ the conclusion holds that eventually an evolving, eclectic ‘invisible’ religiousness, responding as it will to steadily seeping Western-powered globalization, will moderate the more extreme forms of reactionary Islamism in the region – as it increasingly empowers individualization and subjectivization.