«Every Kingdom divided against itself is left desolate, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand»
(The Gospel of Matthew, 12:25)

     So Jesus warns Pharisees. And these words deserve a close attention. Today, the status of the Georgian Orthodox Church causes the big disagreements. The reason of it is, declared in due time Jacobeans and Bolsheviks, a principle of equality of all religious organizations before the law. They equalized people among themselves, but not before the law, breaking it them a recognized principle. What today is called the principle of legal equality, in fact originates from the Bible, the moral imperative that «an eye for an eye» and «a tooth for a tooth» atheists believe brutality and vengeance. Actually, it is imperative that establishes the principle of the proportional awarding of punishment for people with special status.

     Almost all states of the Christianity saw the dangers posed by an identification of equality of each person before the law and equality. «How can anyone enter the house of a strong man and seize his goods unless he first binds the strong man? » (Mat.12:29) – tells Jesus to Pharisees, warning about results of a spiritual robbery of own house, the state.

     It is no secret that some religious doctrines create danger to public morals and state security. And some religions are a part of history and culture of these or those people. Therefore, the authorities are required to undertake relevant activities to be concluded and in the establishment of special rights.

     I have begun work on these issues since 1995, when there was an issue in the agenda on necessity of definition of a legal status of the religious organizations. Search of legal mechanisms of mutual relations of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the state was not easy. Against the background of democracy and the international principles of religious freedom, the issue was very relevant. We thought as the form of law as the introduction of a system of normative acts of the new forms required not only the maturing of the social and political thought, but also the theoretical study and analysis of the issue.

     Several variants have been during the parliamentary secretary of the President of Georgia. The first theoretical substantiation of that mutual relation between the State and the Georgian Orthodox Church should be settled the act similar to the concordat, recorded by me in 1998 in the University collection of scientific works. However, election as a member of Gelati Academy of Sciences inspired me to entrust in the book “State and religion” my reflections and the thoughts accumulated in recent years.

     The aim of the author was not a global study of relations between state and religion. The presented model will help to delineate the state and the church and to create legal guarantees for the regulation of corporate relationships.

     The Constitutional Agreement between the state and the church is absolutely new concept in jurisprudence. Therefore, the theoretical analysis of religious freedom and discussion of the international models of legal guarantees in certain degree are acknowledgement of creation of this act.

     In terms of the importance of the issue, I do not doubt that the people having opposite opinion will appear together supporting also. It, certainly, will promote the further improvement of legal system of mutual relations between the state and religion, but through a profound paradigm: the divine life – serves as a model of human life requires the continuous improvement of civic life.

     And I again will address to Jesus instructions: «And whoever says a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him – neither in this age nor in the age to come» (Mat.12:32).

Mariam Tsatsanashvili - Gelati Academy of Sciences