Detachment from the Metaphysical and the Turn to the Concrete: Religious Transformations Among Religious-Zionist Settlers in the West Bank

Abstract This article deals with the emergence of a distinctive religious trend among Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Based on anthropological fieldwork among two generations of settlers who belong to the messianic-nationalist “Gush Emunim” movement, I examine how a significant segment of the second generation has undergone a process of “detachment from the metaphysical” and a radical turn to the physical realm, which is manifested in an enormous investment in material practices focused on the making of tangible things. In examining this process, this article delves into the implications of this transformation, shedding light on questions concerning material religion and religious mediation, as well as on issues related to religious doubt and ambivalence and the concrete political process unfolding today in the West Bank. Specifically, it suggests a reconsideration of the role of material forms in contemporary religious life, proposing that they may function not as gateways to the metaphysical but rather as anchors to the here and now.