What was the religious beliefs of Georgia as a colony?
- Religion: The English went to Georgia to escape the Catholic Church.
- John Wesley, John Oglethorpe's Brother, founded the Methodist church.
- The First Baptist Church (literally) was founded in Georgia.
- Georgia had religious freedom and was home to many different denominations (Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc.)
- Jews also lived here.
What was the official religion for colonial Georgia?
In 1758, the Church of England was made the official church of the Georgia colony. The churches began to build colleges so that there would be enough ministers to serve the religious needs of the colonists. With such dramatic changes in religion, the colonists realized that they had more in common with each other than they thought.
How did religion affect the Georgia colony?
The impact of the Anglican Church, or Church of England, in Georgia reaches beyond religion, for it was largely due to the political influence of the church’s key members that the English established the colony of Georgia in 1733.
What religious groups lived in the early colony of Georgia?
Georgia welcomed large groups of Puritans, Lutherans, and Quakers. The only religious group that was not allowed in Georgia was Catholics. The Church of England was the established church in Colonial Georgia. What was the only religion allowed in Georgia?
What is the main religion in Georgia?
Religion in Georgia (country) Orthodox Christianity is the main religion in Georgia. Here, the icon by Mikhail Sabinin depicts the history of the Georgian Orthodox Church, which, to this day, is recognized as the country's majority religion. The wide variety of peoples inhabiting Georgia has meant a correspondingly rich array ...
What religion do people in Georgia practice?
Today most of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily in the Georgian Orthodox Church, whose faithful make up 83.4% of the population. Around 1% belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, ...
How many Muslims are there in Georgia?
Muslims constitute 9.9%, or 463,062 of the Georgian population. There are two major Muslim groups in Georgia. The ethnic Georgian Muslims are Sunni Hanafi and are concentrated in Autonomous Republic of Adjara of Georgia bordering Turkey.
What was the Christian church in Georgia?
As was true elsewhere, the Christian church in Georgia was crucial to the development of a written language, and most of the earliest written works were religious texts. From the first centuries C.E., the cult of Mithras, pagan beliefs, and Zoroastrianism were commonly practiced in Georgia.
Where are the Jewish communities in Georgia?
Jewish communities exist throughout the country, with major concentrations in the two largest cities, Tbilisi and Kutaisi . Azerbaijani groups have practiced Islam in Georgia for centuries, as have Adjarians and some of the Abkhazians concentrated in their respective autonomous republics.
Where do the majority of Jews live in Georgia?
The majority of Georgia's remaining Jews today live in Tbilisi and are served by its two synagogues. Because the size of the community is now so small, and for economic reasons, the two congregations are now housed on two storeys of one of the formerly separate synagogues.
When did Georgia adopt Christianity?
In the first half of the 4th century Christianity was adopted as the state religion. This has provided a strong sense of national identity that has helped to preserve a national Georgian identity, despite repeated periods of foreign occupation and attempted assimilation.
What religion was forbidden in the Georgia charter?
Although Catholicism was the only religion expressly forbidden in the charter, the Georgia Trustees also decided to forbid Judaism in the new colony, but the harsh realities of colonial life opened the doors for Judaism to enter Georgia. The first summer the colonists lived in Savannah they suffered from the heat and illness that accompanied it.
Why did the Spanish deny Catholics the right to worship in Georgia?
The Charter specifically denied Catholics the right to worship in the Georgia colony. Historically, the Spanish were Roman Catholic and Georgia’s founders feared that Catholic settlers might be sympathetic to the Spanish if conflict erupted between the two world powers. Prior to English settlement in Georgia, the Spanish operated multiple catholic ...
When did the Salzburgers arrive in Georgia?
The first group of Salzburgers sailed from England to Georgia in 1734, arriving in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 7, then proceeding to Savannah on March 12. Boltzius was met by General James Oglethorpe when the first group of Salzburgers arrived in Georgia from England in 1734. Oglethorpe assigned Boltzius and his group about twenty-five ...
How many colonists were sick during the first summer?
The first summer the colonists lived in Savannah they suffered from the heat and illness that accompanied it. At one point, 60 colonists were dreadfully sick, and it was thought they wouldn’t be able to recover. There was no real doctor, except for Noble Jones who himself had taken ill.
What was the original Georgia charter?
The original charter granted to the Georgia Trustees in 1732 contained only a few words about what religious practices would be allowed in the new colony. And for the greater ease and encouragement of our loving subjects and such others as shall come to inhabit in our said colony, we do by these presents, for us, ...
Who was the senior minister of the German-speaking Protestants in the Georgia colony?
Born in Forst, Germany, John Martin Boltzius is best known for strongly opposing slavery during the early years of the Georgia colony, and for serving as senior minister to the colony’s German-speaking Protestants called Salzburgers.
Who were the two brothers that Oglethorpe brought to Georgia?
When Oglethorpe returned to Georgia from his first trip back to England he brought two young men with him to minister to the people of the new colony. John and Charles Wesley were brothers, and both were ordained ministers in the Church of England. John came to minister to the people of Savannah, and his brother Charles came to minister to ...

Overview
The wide variety of peoples inhabiting Georgia has meant a correspondingly rich array of active religions in the country. Today most of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily in the Georgian Orthodox Church, whose faithful make up 83.4% of the population. Around 1% belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, while about 3.9% of the population follow the Armen…
Religious demography
The country has a total area of approximately 25,900 square miles (69,700 km²), and a population (as of 2014 ) of 3.7 million people.
According to a 2014 census, 83.4% of the Georgian population identified themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christian, 10.7% Muslim, 3.9% Armenian Apostolic, and 0.5% Catholic. Orthodox churches serving other non-Georgian ethnic groups, such as Russians and Greeks, are subordinate to the …
Christianity
According to Orthodox tradition, Christianity was first preached in Georgia by the Apostles Simon and Andrew in the 1st century. It became the state religion of Kartli (Iberia) in 337. The conversion of Kartli to Christianity is credited to St. Nino of Cappadocia. The Georgian Orthodox Church, originally part of the Church of Antioch, gained its autocephaly and developed its doctrinal specificity progress…
Islam
Islam in Georgia was introduced in 645 AD during the reign of third Caliph of Islam, Uthman. During this period, Tbilisi (al-Tefelis) grew into a center of trade between the Islamic world and northern Europe. Islam's history continued in Georgia throughout the late 14th and early 15th centuries with Timur's invasions of Georgia and during the 16th and early 19th centuries, the Iranians (Safavids,
Judaism
The Jews have a history in Georgia extending back over 2000 years. Today there is a small Jewish community in the country (3,541 according to the 2002 census), although the Jewish population was over 100,000 as recently as the 1970s. Especially following the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost all of the country's Jews have left, mainly to Israel. The majority of Georgia's remaining Jews today live in Tbilisi and are served by its two synagogues. Because the size of the commu…
Baháʼí Faith
The history of the Baháʼí Faith in Georgia begins with its arrival in the region in 1850 through its association with the precursor religion the Bábí Faith during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. During the period of Soviet policy of religious oppression, the Baháʼís in the Soviet Republics lost contact with the Baháʼís elsewhere. However, in 1963 an individual was identified in Tbilisi. Following Perestroika the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly in Georgia formed in 1991 and Georgian Ba…
Religious freedom
The Georgian Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in practice. Citizens generally do not interfere with traditional religious groups; however, there have been reports of violence and discrimination against nontraditional religious groups.
See also
• Secularism and Irreligion in Georgia
• Religion in Abkhazia