Master’s Degree
Priest
Orthodox Church of Georgia
Tbilisi/Sokhumi, Georgia
ORCID: 0009-0005-5610-9253
tseroge72@gmail.com

The Relevance of King David the Builder’s Legacy in the Context of Contemporary Challenges

The reign of King David the Builder represents one of the most crucial periods in the consolidation of Georgian national identity, statehood, and culture, during which the role of the Church and educational institutions was central to the strengthening of the state. The ontological understanding of personhood and communion developed within Eastern Christian theology allows us to reassess the social and ecclesial unity of David’s era from a new perspective.

Kartvelology, as a multidisciplinary scholarly field, enables the critical study and cultural transmission of David the Builder’s multifaceted legacy. Through this lens, the historical, diplomatic, and economic experience of his reign becomes an intellectual resource for reinforcing the geopolitical and cultural identity of contemporary Georgia and the Caucasus, thus building a bridge between the past and the future.

Keywords: David the Builder, Eastern theology, Orthodoxy, theology, Georgia, statehood, national identity, Church, culture, history, theology, personhood (Zizioulas), communion.