On March 12, at Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary, the teacher of TTAS, Master of Theology, Giorgi Gvasalia gave a talk as part of the project “Weekly Public Lectures”. The topic of his talk was “The Biblical Essence of Society.” It discussed the essence of Christianity as a personal religion which preaches salvation of an individual; he spoke about the mystery of the Church being the unity of a community of individuals - a society where individuals do not lose their personalities, but rather reach the uttermost of their personal expression.
Here we offer a few excerpts from the aforementioned talk: “...As the Church exists in a space encompassed by earthly time, its existence and strength are directly reflected in the state of lay society. In the Bible, society is often visualized as a Creation of God, where people are obligated to help, support and love each other. In the biblical sense, society is a community of people which functions based on God’s Laws, principles of love, truth, and justice. In this sense, the biblical vision of society is based on the idea of the essence of an individual’s personality, and is opposed to the idea of the collective body of society locked within the boundaries of individualism.”
“Confrontation between society and a collective body of people is considered in the context of human spiritual life, and this hostility originates from the moment of man’s fall into sin. The animosity that was cast between the seed of the woman and that of the serpent finds expression in both private and public relations. If the unity, which is considered to be genuine, is characterized by mutual love, unity, service, support, high moral categories and so on, a closed collective life remains beyond these very spiritual or ‘civic’ virtues”.
“A biblical community is not just a social unity, but a spiritual union where people serve each other with love, justice and obedience to God’s Commandments. This is God’s Providence - to create a society where truth, mercy and unity will be the main values.”
The meeting was attended by students and teachers of Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary. At the end of the lecture, they asked interesting questions which were answered exhaustively by Mr. Giorgi Gvasalia.
