The Church In-Between: Armenian Catholics in Post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia

Abstract

This paper examines the recent history and current situation of the Armenian Catholic Church from the vantage point of its in-betweenness. The Armenian Catholics' liminal position in-between the particularity and exclusiveness of the Armenian Christianity and the inclusiveness and expansionism of the Roman Catholicism have created diverse, often contradictory, politics of identity construction and representation; of cultural absorption and resistance; and of belonging and alienation. The paper takes a closer look at these politics at work in formulating, negotiating, and challenging a distinct character of this strand of Christianity in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia, where a large portion of Armenian Catholics live and where the Armenian Catholic Church came back to existence after it was banned for over six decades in the Soviet Union.