Europe-Asia Studies How Soviet is the Religious Revival in Georgia: Tactics in Everyday Religiosity (original) (raw)
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How Soviet is the Religious Revival in Georgia: Tactics in Everyday Religiosity
This article explores everyday religiosity in post-Soviet Georgia based on multi-sited fieldwork and applying a genealogical approach. It looks at the use of tactics in negotiations between priests and believers. The article sees negotiations, prevalent in domestic religiosity and embodied practices, as a continuation of everyday Soviet tactics, particularly informal networks (Blat) and moonlighting (Khaltura). To understand how negotiations lead to greater control and an increase in religiosity, the article explores important features of the Georgian Orthodox Church and its specific development. The article concludes that tactics in this specific context strengthen the more powerful and reproduce dependency.
CHURCH STATE RELATIONS IN POST SOVIET GEORGIA
CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS IN POST-SOVIET GEORGIA: “DEPRIVATIZATION” OF GEORGIAN ORTHODOXY , 2017
This thesis analyzes the relationship between the Church and State in post-Soviet Georgia, and goes on to discuss the growing power of the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) and its impact on secularism, politics and society. It is argued that the power of the GOC, both in Georgian society and politics, is derived from its historical significance and from the role it played in the post-Soviet period. It is argued further that these factors, along with its presence in the public space, constitute a challenge against secularism and Western values. Based on the views of José Casanova, it is suggested that the “deprivatization” of religion experienced in Georgia differs from Western experiences. This thesis makes use of both a documentary research, including the 1995 Constitution, the 2002 Constitutional Agreement, statements of the Patriarch and high ranking priests, reports of national and international NGOs and organizations, and field researches conducted in Tbilisi and Batumi in 2015 and 2017. During the field researches, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with the elites and experts. The field researches revealed that the failure of politicians in the post-Soviet period and their need for political legitimacy contributed to the growth in the power of the Church in the public sphere. Although the process of “deprivatization” of religion in Georgia does not necessarily comply with the three legitimate instances put forward by Casanova by which the Church enters the public sphere, the Georgian Orthodox Church has become a powerful institution in the public sphere. The findings have also demonstrated that although the separation of the Church and state is legally binding, the principle of non-establishment is not fully realized. Keywords: Post-Soviet Georgia, the Georgian Orthodox Church, Deprivatization, Church-State Relations, Secularism
Master Thesis , 2014
The emergence of religious nationalism in post-socialist countries is not a novelty. The relationship between the Church and state has always been the subject of debate. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the raise of religious nationalism in Central and Eastern European countries brought issues and challenges. The dimension of the religious nationalism and the type of the church-state relationships varies from country to country. In Georgia we face the growth of the power and the popularity of the Georgian Orthodox Church. As surveys suggest the Church is the most trusted institution in Georgia, and the Patriarch Ilya II the most popular public figure. On the one hand Georgian political elite strive to join the Western organizations and build a liberal nation-state, but on the other hand the Church interferes in almost every domain of life; including political, social, cultural and even private. My research tends to offer new insights on the topic and examine the possible reasons, conditions under which the Georgian Church became extremely strong political and social institution. I will argue that the Soviet experience greatly contributed to the emergence of religious nationalism. The ideological vacuum that was created after the breakdown of the Union was filled up by the Georgian Orthodox Church, which started to shape a new ideological framework. I will demonstrate that the discourse is Orthodox and is based on the religious sentiment. The ideological framework the Church is trying to provide is antiecumenical and aims to influence on the decision-making process in Georgia. The study will examine the reasons of the sudden turn to religion and the leverage the Church is trying to use in order to demonstrate its authority; as the most powerful social and political institution to mobilize people and make an impact on the social and political life.
Giorgi Gvelesiani - The Religion Policy of the Soviet Rule in Georgia
რელიგია, 2019
In the article we discussed how the religious policy was in the Soviet government of Georgia. What was like Stalin's repression and how hard it was till the Second World War, which led to the mitigation of the repressions. In the post-Stalinist era, physical liquidation has been reduced and the state machine has turned into a more ideological struggle.
Orthodox Religion and Politics in Contemporary Eastern Europe, 2018
This book explores the relationship between Orthodox religion and politics in Eastern Europe, Russia and Georgia. It demonstrates how as these societies undergo substantial transformation Orthodox religion can be both a limiting and an enabling factor, how the relationship between religion and politics is complex, and how the spheres of religion and politics complement, reinforce, influence and sometimes contradict each other. Considering a range of thematic issues, with examples from a wide range of countries with significant Orthodox religious groups, and setting the present situation in its full historical context, the book provides a rich picture of a subject which has been too often oversimplified.
A Tale of Two Orthodoxies: Europe in Religious Discourses of Russia and Georgia
Ethnopolitics, 2018
The article seeks to analyze discourses of two Orthodox Churches-Georgian (GOC) and Russian (ROC)-from the vantage point of their various interconnections with Europe and the ensuing representations of Europe framed in religious terms. Of particular salience are relations between ROC and GOC, on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic Church, on the other, as well as the positioning of both ROC and GOC within the global community of Orthodox Churches. The analyzed political circumstances force religious hierarchs of both institutions, even if they share the similar ambivalence toward the West, to differently reproduce the image of Europe. The broader geopolitical picture puts the GOC in the position of supporting government's foreign policy agenda which goes in opposition to the Kremlin, in spite of the fact that the former has a lot of common with the Moscow Patriarchate when it comes to criticism toward the Western liberal value systems.
Religion in the South Caucasus - Tradition, Ambiguity, and Transformation
Journal of Religion in Europe, 2021
The special issue provides insights into the ambiguity of the political and national dimensions of religions in the region, as well as the varieties of religious beliefs and practices. This issue seeks to demonstrate the complex and varied religious dynamics in the South Caucasus, starting from the privatization of religion, as well as the publicizing of religion, all the way down to diversity in the forms of religious expression (vernacular religiosity, rising political Shi'ism, Orthodox Christian mobilizations, etc.). The three sovereign states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan—comprising the South Caucasus of today—have continued the Caucasian diversity. The Soviet legacy, including the experience of anti-religion policies and the complicated process of the post-Soviet transition, and complex democratic state-building has shaped the transformation of the religious field in all three republics. Yet, despite this shared experience, the three countries making up the territory regarded as the ‘South Caucasus’ are not experiencing the same ‘adventure.’ The South Caucasus remains a space with diverse cultures and religions. This diversity is well represented in the multiple desecularization processes too.
Certain Aspects of Georgia-Russian Relations in Modern Historiography, David Muskhelishvili Editor, Caucasus Region Political, Economic and Security Issues, Nova Publishers, New York, 2014
Khatuna Kokrashvili, The Russian Empires Religious Policy in Georgia (the first half of the 19th century) The turn of the 18th-19th centuries the use of religious factors in political interests noticeably strengthened in the Russian empire. As a matter of fact Orthodox Christianity served as a means of assimilating neighbouring territories and leading its own colonial policy. In the first half of the 19th century after the annexation of the Georgian state the church reform carried out in Georgia by the imperial power, served a definite aim that of the abolition independence of the Georgian church, inculcation of the rules of the Russian divine service and the establishment of the church organization controlled by the state as much as possible. It also implied the radical structural-administrative reorganization of the Georgian church, the commutation of the church taxes i.e., the change from paying taxes in kind to paying money and the secularization of church lands; apart from that the reorganization of the order of the divine service and the change of the position of the lowest layer of the clergy was planned. The result of the church and religious policy, carried out by the imperial power, was that the autocephaly of the Georgian church was abolished, the status of Catholicos-patriarch of Georgian Church was canceled and the position of exarch was established. The rules and principles of governance, structural-administrative form of the Georgian Church also was changed and it became completely subjected to the Holy Synod of the Russian Empire. Consequently, the Ecclesiastical law standards and the legal rights of the Georgian Church was broken; The inviolability of church property was also violated and, alongside it the Georgian clergy found itself dependent on the state exchequer. Apart from that, owing to the reform carried out, the close connection of the church with its parish was severed. With time the church became the means of carrying out the Russianizing policy in Georgia. The appearance of religious sects in Georgia is a direct result of Russia‘s colonial policy. On the other hand, the measures, taken towards the Catholic church conditioned the development of the process of Armenian Georgian Catholics. Thus, at the compulsory and forcible church policy of the Russian power, the establishment of the state control on the church, the attempt to suppress national traditions and the persecution of the national culture, the weakening and very often the destruction of the connection between the church and its folk, all these circumstances became the reason for the development and aggravation of the contrary processes among the local inhabitants of both Christian and non-Christian faith. As could be expected such a policy gave birth to religious indifference, and in other confessional groups to an acute anti-Orthodox reaction.
Soviet religious policy and the Georgian Orthodox apostolic Church: From Khrushchev to Gorbachev
Religion in Communist Lands, 1989
Gorbachev's emphasis on 'the human factor', 'universal human values' and the 'law-governed state' has led to a breakdown of the Marxist-Leninist certainties which have dominated public life in the Soviet Union since the 1930s. This 'de-ideologisation' of Soviet life, although far from complete, has had major repercussions for the churches. It has led to an open reassessment of the ethical and spiritual values offered by, in particular, the Christian religion. Secondly, many of the bureaucratic and legal obstacles to the activity of the churches are, with some notable exceptions, 1 being eased. This is reflected by the growth in the registration of congregations (1,610 in 1988), the annulment of unpublished and discriminatory legislation introduced by the Council for Religious Affairs (CRA) or its predecessors,2 the involvement of churches in charitable activity, the establishment of Sunday schools (still technically illegal), and the return to the church of churches and monasteries. Thirdly, almost all former religious dissidents have been released from prison or labour camp and have' re-entered church life. Fourthly, the present improvements in religious freedom are being supplemented by legal reform. A new draft USSR Law on Freedom of Conscience, which should significantly improve the rights of believers, is presently under itliscussion. 3 *Some sections of this article are based on materials used by the author in previous writings on the Georgian Church.. I For example, the Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches,. banned under Lenin and Stalin respectively, are still officially proscribed, despite dialogue between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church since June 1988 and numerous petitions, hunger strikes and open protests by members of these Ukrainian churches. See Keston