In recent research, more attention has been paid to various non-Western forms of secularism that are often labelled as global or multiple secularisms. This trend attests to growing understanding that Western models are not inevitable result of the modernization process. Apart from Turkish secularism, Middle Eastern variants of secularism have so far been hardly analyzed through recent secularism research. The term secularism here refers mainly to institutional state-religion arrangements based on politics of secularism. The paper analyzes the development of Lebanese secularism and inter-related debates since the onset of the second republic. The themes analyzed are debates over citizenship (sectarian versus secular), proposals and attempts to establish civil marriage, and interference in politics by religious authorities. The paper accepts David Buckley’s division between critical junctions of “secular emergence” and “secular evolution.” The basic rules are open for debate during the former, typically after independence or revolution. In the Lebanese case, such junction was evident when the Civil War ended and the rules of the second republic were formed. Significant development also takes place after the establishment of the basic model, during the period(s) of secular evolution. In other words, state-religion relationship remains contested and dynamic during the latter phase as well. Such development typically leads to institutional renegotiation within existing pattern or, sometimes, to the breakdown and replacement of the basic model. The paper argues that at the critical junction of the establishment the second republic, Lebanon accepted a variety of secularism that has been labeled as benevolent secularism in other contexts. Three main elements of this variety are 1. basic differentiation of state and religious institutions, 2. close institutional cooperation between state and religious actors, and 3. a principally equal treatment of various religious groups. Especially points 1. and 3. set the Lebanese model apart from other variants within the MENA area. During later periods of secular evolution, the Lebanese model has been under pressure from different contradictory tendencies: strengthening of a global liberal democracy discourse, emerging sub-national discourses, such as sectarianism, and individualism of consumer culture. Consequently, new understandings of secularism have emerged and the Lebanese institutional model is under much heavier pressure from various coalitions than ever before.