Orthodoxy and Nationalism in Georgia

Jvari Monastery, Mtskheta, Georgia, c. 600. Photo: Daisy Alioto. ANNALS OF HISTORY Orthodoxy and Nationalism in Georgia Guram Lursmanashvili Although the Orthodox churches have The relationship between nations and explicitly condemned ecclesiastical (Orthodox) Christianity dates back at racism, or ethnophyletism, they have least to the time of the Apostle Paul, never forbidden Orthodox Christians when Jewish and Gentile followers of of shared language, ethnicity, or geog- Christ first commingled in communi- raphy from using religion as a criterion ties that would come to be called Chris- for who is “us” and who is “not us.” tian. In those communities, under the This kind of nationalism—that is, the guidance of Saint Paul, the Apostle to process by which a group of people the Gentiles, salvation evolved from a becomes recognizable to itself and to process characterized by particularism others as a nation—is not contrary to to one characterized by universalism. Orthodoxy. Furthermore, interactions As Paul proclaimed: “For as many of between Orthodoxy and nationalism you as were baptized into Christ have are not new. Rather, for two millennia, put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor nationalism in this narrow sense of the Greek, there is neither slave nor free, word has interacted with Orthodoxy there is neither male nor female; for in various forms, although it is admit- you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. tedly difficult to decide if this interac- 3:27–8). Paul’s proclamation, however, tion has been, on balance, good or bad should not be understood as a polemic for the faith. against “nations” themselves—not as 18 that concept was understood at that tic forces—nationalism and Ortho- © 2019 The Wheel. time and for the next few centuries. doxy—can cooperate. May be distributed for noncommercial use. Otherwise we would not have such www.wheeljournal.com early examples of “Christian nations” Nationalism and Orthodoxy in Geor- as the ancient nation of Georgia. gia: Beginnings In the fourth century, King Mirian of Kartli (a region in the Caucasus that The Georgian Chronicles, a compendium would come to be part of the Georgian of texts dating from the ninth through lands) converted to Christianity after the fourteenth centuries, provide im- encountering Saint Nino, the baptizer portant information about how Geor- of Georgia. He then proclaimed Chris- gians have historically understood the tianity the official religion of his king- relationship between their national dom. The Orthodox Christian faith and religious identities. The Orthodox became one of the main factors in the Church of Georgia can be traced back formation of the Georgian nation af- to the Christianization of Iberia and ter this event, and remains a signifier Colchis by the Apostle Andrew in the of Georgian ethnic identity. But as first century, and by Saint Nino in the Teimuraz Buadze notes, Georgian as fourth century, respectively. The vita a religious identity preceded Georgian of prominent Georgian churchman as an ethnic identity.1 To what extent Saint Gregory of Khandzta (759–861), this relationship between Georgian written in the tenth century, describes nationality and Orthodox Christianity Georgia as “those spacious lands in has been a net positive or net negative which church services are celebrated for the people of that country is up for and all prayers said in the Georgian debate. tongue.”2 From the fourth through the ninth centuries, this relatively simple Evidence for both positions can cer- criterion encountered several challeng- tainly be found in the annals of the es. country’s history, but in my view, the 1 positive results of the interaction of The Georgian Orthodox Church and Teimuraz Buadze, Orthodoxy and nationalism in Geor- “Georgian Nation the Georgian state faced three com- and Christianity,” gia outweigh the negative ones in both mon issues that affected their relation- August 9, 2012, significance and quantity. In large ship with one another. The first was http://www. part, this is a product of Georgia’s that, after the Council of Chalcedon orthodoxtheology.ge/ relatively small sphere of influence. (451), Georgia’s southern neighbor, ქართველი-ერი- /. Even during its golden age, Georgia Armenia, separated from the unified და-ქრისტიან was never an empire like Byzantium church. From that time until the pres- 2 David Marshall or Russia. Unlike them, Georgia nev- ent day, “Georgian” distinguished Lang, “Gregory er tried to use Orthodoxy as a tool to those who accepted the proclamations of Khandtza and secure its political interests at the ex- of the Council from those who did not. the Georgian pense of other peoples, preferring to In several cases, the Georgian Chronicles National Revival,” direct that influence inward to contain 1999, http://www. identify individuals as “Armenian by angelfire.com/ga/ and consolidate its own polity. Per- faith” despite being, for all intents and georgian/gregory. haps for this reason, nationalism and purposes, legal citizens of Georgia.3 html. Orthodoxy interact quite differently in contemporary Georgia than in the The second issue was that Georgia’s 3 Kartlis Tskhovreba: successor states of the Byzantine and common faith with the Byzantine Em- A History Of Georgia, Russian empires in Europe and Asia. trans. Stephen pire threatened the country’s indepen- Jones et al. (Tbilisi: In Georgia, we find a distinct model dence from Constantinople. The third Artanuji Publishing, for how these increasingly antagonis- was the efforts of the Muslim Arabs 2014), 307. The Wheel 17/18 | Spring/Summer 2019 19 King David IV of and Seljuks to conquer Georgian ter- Georgia. Fresco at ritory and to convert Georgians to Is- Gelati Monastery, lam. From my perspective, the Geor- Kutaisi, Georgia. gian state and the Georgian Church successfully met all three challenges, accounting for the unique relationship between Orthodoxy and nationalism in the country today. From David IV to Tamar In 1089, King George II was confront- ed by a major threat to the kingdom of Georgia when the Seljuk Turks in- vaded Georgian lands. Tbilisi had al- ready been in the hands of Muslim rulers since the eighth century. Seeing his kingdom slip into chaos, George II ceded the crown to his 16-year-old son David, who inherited a dysfunc- tional state, a ravaged countryside, and the enormous responsibility of the church’s welfare. King David IV acknowledged that without a strong church, it would be er George of Chkondidi. King David impossible to reconstruct Georgia. combined two offices—those of court During this period, the church hierar- chancellor and of clergyman—into chy was chosen through nepotism and a single one, Chkondidi-mtsignobar- simony, rather than on the basis of per- tukhutsesi. Henceforth, The Archbish- sonal dignity, education, or piety. The op of Chkondidi (a diocese located in result was a seriously damaged Geor- western Georgia) would be the king’s gian Orthodox Church that had lost the chief adviser and would wield broad trust of the Georgian people and was powers over the state’s domestic and effectively functioning as a state within foreign policy. Generally speaking, a state, clashing with the authority of a King David’s strategy was success- monarch. To find a solution, the king ful: by consolidating political control convened and supported the efforts of over the church, David restored his the Council of Ruis-Urbnisi in 1103 to people’s trust in the Georgian Ortho- restore and to reinforce the authority dox Church, achieving what his father of the Georgian church and to sup- could not. But he did not rest on this press unworthy clergymen and clerical success. hierarchs who had received their ranks through intrigue, who lived in ways David recognized that without an edu- unbecoming of clergymen, and who cated class that could develop science, displayed little or no loyalty to king technology, and culture in Georgia— and country. and, more importantly, could main- tain the careful balance of church-state After this council, the king gave enor- relations—his achievements would mous power to his friend and advis- diminish over time. Hence, from 1106 20 to 1110, the king established an acad- a flourishing of Georgian architecture, © 2019 The Wheel. emy near Kutaisi at Gelati Monastery, painting, and poetry, expressed in the May be distributed for noncommercial use. whose influence would permeate the development of ecclesiastical art as www.wheeljournal.com country and would shape the scientific well as the creation of the first major innovations, social mores, and cultural works of Georgian secular literature. achievements of Georgia’s golden age. Harmony reigned between Georgia’s At Gelati, the most celebrated Geor- Orthodox peoples and those of other gian scientists, theologians and phi- religions, setting a standard for tol- losophers, such as Ioane Petritsi and erance in multiethnic kingdoms. The Arsen Iqaltoeli, taught the classical slaughter of pigs was forbidden in Queen Tamar of Georgia. Icon at the trivium and quadrivium to generations areas settled by Muslims, who, along Metekhi Church of students until the sixteenth century, with the Jews, also enjoyed a lower tax of the Dormition, when the monastery became defunct. burden than Orthodox Georgians. Tbilisi, Georgia. Another monastery David established at Iqalto, in eastern Georgia, also flour- ished. Keenly aware that a rival to Gelati would stimulate a fruitful intel- lectual climate, David installed philos- opher Arsen Iqaltoeli as the first rector of the academy there. According to David’s plan, the mon- asteries prepared educated people to fill the state bureaucracy as well as the ranks of the Georgian Orthodox Church, which remained one of the most important organs of the state apparatus and inspired unity among the populace. David’s successors, Demetrios I and George III, in many cases tried to continue his strategy of closely connecting Orthodoxy and national identity, in order to control the state efficiently.

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