Christianity in Georgia (country)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In 2020, 85.84% of the population in

Baha'i and 3% had no religious beliefs.[1] Other religious groups include Jehovah's Witnesses and Yazidis. Orthodox churches serving other non-Georgian ethnic groups, such as Russians and Greeks, are subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church.[2]

A

university degree in institutions of higher education (57%).[3]

History

A page from a rare Georgian bible, dating from AD 1030, depicting the Raising of Lazarus

According to Orthodox tradition, Christianity was first preached in Georgia by the

Georgian alphabet was developed for that purpose. As was true elsewhere, the Christian church in Georgia was crucial to the development of a written language, and most of the earliest written works were religious texts. Pre-Christian Georgia was religiously diverse, the religions practiced in ancient Georgia include local pagan beliefs, various Hellenistic cults (mainly in Colchis),[6] Mithraism and Zoroastrianism.[7] The adoption of Christianity was to place Georgia permanently on the front line of conflict between the Islamic and Christian worlds. Georgians remained mostly Christian despite repeated invasions by Muslim powers, and long episodes of foreign domination. After Georgia was annexed by the Russian Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church
took over the Georgian church in 1811.

The Georgian church regained its autocephaly only when Russian rule ended in 1917. The Soviet regime, which ruled Georgia from 1921, did not consider revitalization of the Georgian church an important goal, however. Soviet rule brought severe purges of the Georgian church hierarchy and frequent repression of Orthodox worship. As elsewhere in the Soviet Union, many churches were destroyed or converted into secular buildings. The history of repression encouraged the incorporation of religious identity into the strong nationalist movement and the quest of Georgians for religious expression outside the official government-controlled church. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, opposition leaders, especially Zviad Gamsakhurdia, criticized corruption in the church hierarchy. After Ilia II became the patriarch (catholicos) of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the late 1970s, Georgian Orthodoxy experienced a revival. In 1988, Moscow permitted the patriarch to begin consecrating and reopening closed churches, and a large-scale restoration process began. The Georgian Orthodox Church has regained much power and full independence from the state since the restoration of Georgia's independence in 1991.

Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church

The

Andrew in the 1st century. It is an autocephalous (self-headed) part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Georgian Orthodoxy has been a state religion in parts of Georgia
since the 4th century, and is the majority religion in that country.

The Constitution of Georgia recognizes the special role of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the country's history but also stipulates the independence of the church from the state. The relations between the State and the Church are regulated by the Constitutional Agreement of 2002.

Oriental Orthodoxy

Adherents of

Oriental Orthodox Christianity in Georgia are mainly ethnic Armenians. Communities of Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia are under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, and its eparchy (diocese), centered in the Saint George's Church, Tbilisi. In 2023, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Diocese in Georgia is the Very Reverend Archimandrite Father Kirakos Davtyan.[8] He took over from bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan.[9]

Catholicism

The Georgian Catholic Church (or Catholic Church in Georgia) has always, since the

Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches defines these Churches as under a hierarchy of their own and recognized as autonomous by the supreme authority of the Church.[10]

A small number, estimated at 500 worldwide,

particular Church of any level (exarchate, ordinariate etc.), within the communion of Catholic Churches, and accordingly has never appeared in the list of Eastern Catholic Churches published in the Annuario Pontificio
.

Protestantism

The earliest traceable contact between Georgia and

See also

References

  1. ^ World Religion Database 2020 at the ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-03
  2. ^ "Georgia". United States Department of State. 2022-06-02. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  3. ^ "Religion and Education Around the World" (PDF). Pew Research Center. December 19, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  4. ^ Toumanoff, Cyril, "Iberia between Chosroid and Bagratid Rule", in Studies in Christian Caucasian History, Georgetown, 1963, pp. 374-377. Accessible online at "Iberia between Chosroid and Bagratid Rule by Cyril Toumanoff. Eastern Asia Minor, Georgia, Georgian History, Armenia, Armenian History". Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  5. . Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  6. ^ Lévêque, Pierre (1990). Mélanges Pierre Lévêque. Tome 4 : Religion. pp. 277–288.
  7. ^ "GEORGIA iii. Iranian elements in Georgian art and archeology". Archived from the original on 2011-04-29.
  8. ^ Armenian Church website, retrieved 2023-08-03
  9. ^ "The Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia". Archived from the original on 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  10. ^ "CCEO: Text - IntraText CT".
  11. ^ "Katholische Ostkirchen". www.damian-hungs.de. Archived from the original on 13 July 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Error". www.cnewa.org. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  13. ^ a b c Malkhaz Songulashvili, Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia: The History and Transformation of a Free Church Tradition (Baylor University Press, 2015), pp. 29–34, 47–54.
  14. ^ Steven Runciman, The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence (Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 247–248.

Bibliography