Faith, Nation, and Freedom: the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Politics of Religious Diversity

Abstract

Freedom, as a political value, is never negotiated in a vacuum. In post-Soviet Georgia, the boundaries of religious freedom have been systematically shaped — and constrained — by the dominant position of the Georgian Orthodox Church within both the constitutional framework and the broader political culture. This paper examines how the institutionalization of Orthodox Christianity as a marker of national identity has produced a contested understanding of religious freedom in contemporary Georgia, one that privileges the majority confession while generating structural pressures on minority faith communities and secular actors alike. Drawing on three decades of church-state relations (1991–2025), the paper traces how the Georgian Orthodox Church evolved from a suppressed institution under Soviet rule into a politically influential actor capable of shaping legislative outcomes, electoral behavior, and public discourse.