ERASTIANISM IN GEORGIA AND ITS DESTINY IN RELATION TO THE CHRITIAN EAST

Abstract

The interaction between the spiritual and the material, the holy and the profane, has been crucial to human culture since ancient times. A pre-Christian tradition known as erastianism called for the religious realm to be subservient to secular powers. Such a concept was predicated on the notion that the secular ruler was more important and influential. He was therefore required to perform the religious duties as well. Even though the founder of Christianity himself made it extremely evident that spiritual and secular power must be separated (“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s”), the Erastianism model was quite prevalent in Christian nations like Byzantium and Russia. 

Georgian reality also featured traces of erastianism, but it was marked by a particular quality. The Georgian secular authorities' dominance over the church was more moderate, merciful, and did not harm the Church's nature or its doctrinal heritage than did Byzantium or Russia. No secular ruler in Georgia, for instance, composed a theological treatise opposing heresy, did not identify himself as an “external bishop” of the church and didn't announce: “What I wish shall be the law of the Church”. Georgian kings made a concerted effort to maintain Christian sensibility in their interactions with the church, and they hardly ever meddled in church affairs with the same rigour as some well-known Byzantine and Russian emperors, who required that the most significant religious matters be resolved based on secular awareness.