Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Turkish Sermons »

Civil religion encompasses the implicit religious values of a nation manifested through public rituals, symbols, and ceremonies at significant locations and on special occasions. The emergence of new religious symbolisms reflects the evolving structure of religious authority. The Islamic Foundation Netherlands (Islamitische Stichting Nederland (ISN)), the largest mosque umbrella organization in the Netherlands, holds significant influence in shaping the religious beliefs and ethical standards of the Turkish–Dutch Muslim community. Furthermore, the ISN possesses the ability to construct and authenticate discourses that redefine the conceptualization of the ‘self’ and the ‘other.’ In early 2017, following increased criticism of sermons written by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA/Diyanet) in the Netherlands, the ISN, as the Dutch branch of Diyanet, started composing its own Friday sermons in both Turkish and Dutch. This article aims to examine the discursive features of the Friday sermons delivered between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2023 and explore their connection to civil religion. The study employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework and Wodak’s discourse–historical approach (DHA) to analyze the Friday sermons. The findings reveal that the civil religious discourses advanced by the ISN possess both unifying and divisive potential. However, the collected empirical evidence suggests that state-sponsored civil religion, emphasizing Turkish nationalism and Islamism, dominates the liberal and pluralistic form of civil religion.

Drawing on the extant literature on populism, we aim to flesh out how populists in power utilize religion and related state resources in setting up aggressive, multidimensional religious populist “us” versus “them” binaries. We focus on Turkey as our case and argue that by instrumentalizing the Diyanet (Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs), the authoritarian Islamists in power have been able to consolidate manufactured populist dichotomies via the Diyanet’s weekly Friday sermons. Populists’ control and use of a state institution to propagate populist civilizationist narratives and construct antagonistic binaries are underexamined in the literature. Therefore, by examining Turkish populists’ use of the Diyanet, this paper will make a general contribution to the extant literature on religion and populism. Furthermore, by analyzing the Diyanet’s weekly Friday sermons from the last ten years we demonstrate how different aspects of populism—its horizontal, vertical, and civilizational dimensions—have become embedded in the Diyanet’s Friday sermons. Equally, this paper shows how these sermons have been tailored to facilitate the populist appeal of Erdoğan’s Islamist regime. Through the Friday sermons, the majority—Sunni Muslim Turks are presented with statements that evoke negative emotions and play on their specific fears, their sense of victimhood and through which their anxieties—real and imagined—are revived and used to construct populist binaries to construct and mobilize the people in support of an authoritarian Islamist regime purported to be fighting a “civilizational enemy” on behalf of “the people”. Finally, drawing on insights from the Turkish case, we illustrate how the “hosting” function of the civilizational aspect plays a vital role in tailoring internal (vertical and horizontal) religious populist binaries.

While victimhood has been studied from very different perspectives, the question how secular nation states have instrumentalised religion for the politics of victimhood has not been studied. This paper addresses this gap in the literature on victimhood by analysing the empirical case of Turkey. As is well known, the constitutionally secular Turkish state, first under the rule of the Kemalists and now Erdoganists, has been using the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) to propagate the state ideology to the faithful. This paper shows that the Turkish state has recently been using Islam to construct and disseminate a religious victimhood narrative, mainly based on conspiracy theories via the Diyanet’s Friday sermons. To do this, the article investigates the texts, such as the sermons produced by the Diyanet that are read verbatim, in every mosque in Turkey during Friday prayers that are attended by more than half of the adult male population. The paper contributes to the victimhood literature by showing how religion, i.e., Islam, has been instrumentalised by a secular state in the construction of an Islamist populist and civilisationist victimhood narrative. Further studies are needed to see if and to what extent the Islamist victimhood narrative of the Turkish state has been impactful on the mosque-goers in the country.

The publication of the Turkish Common Language translation in 2001 ( Kutsal Kitap) helped Protestant Christians in Turkey develop their own unique subdialect of Turkish for discussing religious and theological topics. Consequently, there is now a kind of language barrier between Christians and the average Muslim. I evaluated a variety of written texts and oral discourse produced by Turkish Muslims as well as translations of the Qur’an. With regard to the names and forms of address used for God, I found that usage in Turkish closely correlates with the Arabic of the Qur’an. I also found that dialogue in Christian sermons and texts also closely corresponds with the translation choices made in the 2001 Turkish Bible. I conclude that where subdialects are sufficiently diverse, a different translation for each dialect or social group will be helpful for the society as a whole.

Blame avoidance has been one of the most applied strategies by policy makers in both democratic and non-democratic regimes to avoid responsibility and accountability in cases of failure and tragic events. It is also known that politicians have used religion for Machiavellian purposes, as exactly advised by Machiavelli. However, a systematic empirical analysis of how religion is used for blame avoidance by politicians has not been conducted. In this article, we aim to address this gap by examining the empirical data derived from the weekly Friday sermon texts produced by Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs and delivered in more than 90 thousand mosques every week to a large segment of the population in Turkey, where the majority claims to be religious. Starting with its violent response to the peaceful Gezi protests in 2013, the ruling AKP has opened up a new phase in Turkish political history by resorting to civilizational populism: it blamed the Western world for financing and masterminding the protests, using the protestors as internal pawns to attack Turkey and the Muslim World, suppressed the protests brutally and entered into a populist authoritarian regime. Our paper shows, following this turn, how the Diyanet sermons started using religion to help with the AKP’s blame avoidance. The Diyanet either parroted the AKP’s conspiratorial narrative or tried to convince the citizens that all negativities are works of God and with these humans are being tested by God. The AKP’s use of religion to avoid blame is a text-book case of how both a religious institution and religious discourse can be used to help the incumbent avoid responsibility. Whenever, there was a problem that would the AKP votes, the Diyanet’s sermons tried to shift the blame to either God or citizens or conspiratorial enemies.

The article analyzes the genre features of selected Polish-language political prose from the Baroque period. It examines works of Tomasz Młodzianowski, Szymon Starowolski, Łukasz Opaliński, Eugeniusz Galiatowski, Melecjusz Smotrycki and other writers of that time. The general and individual characteristics of political writings are presented in a form of brochures, sermons, orations, teachings, dialogues etc. The author pays special attention to their thematic diversity – from anti-Turkish literature to Moscow imperial propaganda and examples of the Sarmatian ideology.

The literature on martyrdom has not, so far, systematically analysed a constitutionally secular state’s extensive use of religion in propagating martyrdom narratives by using state-controlled religious institutions. This paper addresses this gap in martyrdom literature. In addition, even though some studies have analysed how martyrdom narratives have been used for political purposes in Turkey for mythmaking and building a collective memory, a religious institution’s active use by the state for the purposes of mythmaking and collective memory building has not been studied. This paper shows that the contents of the Friday sermons, that reach at least 50 percent of the country’s adult males every week, have moved from Turkish nationalist understanding of militarism and martyrdom to more radical, Islamist and pro-violence interpretations that actively promote dying for the nation, homeland, religion and God. The sermons also emphasise that new generations must be raised with this pro-violence religious spirit, which is also novel.

In the histories of nations, there are people whose names are written in gold letters and whose names are always remembered with pride and gratitude. In Turkish history, one of the foremost among them was Mehmet Akif Ersoy. He is the author of the National Anthem, the national and country poet, a great idea man. He was born in Istanbul in 1873 and died in Istanbul in 1935. He saw the last period of the Ottoman Empire and lived the first years of the Republic. It has not only emerged with its literary aspect, but has also been adopted and loved by the Turkish nation because it is sensitive to all the problems of the society. Mehmet Akif is a person with high moral character as well. He is a devout, patriotic person who defends the religious and national values he believes in, and does not spare his word no matter what. Akif, made a great contribution to the Turkish National Struggle that took place between 1919-1922, both with his pen and with his sermons. He encouraged the people to join the National Struggle. Mehmet Akif Ersoy, with his life and literary personality, influenced many people both in his own time and afterwards. Many articles have been written about him, his life, his contributions to literature, his importance in Turkish history, etc. Various studies have been conducted on such topics as. With this study, the support and benefits of Mehmet Akif during the National Struggle Period were tried to be clarified. The support that Mehmet Akif Ersoy gave during the National Struggle Period was not examined in detail, as the scope and limitations of the study were taken into account, and it was tried to be revealed only in general terms. Keywords Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Poet, Turkish National Anthem, National Struggle Period, The Republic of Turkey.

Turkey as a modern, independent and secular republic and the need to instruct believers and citizens about the ‘new social contract.’ In order to inspire, educate – and control – imams and preachers (hatips) around the country along these lines, political leaders, above all the president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself, initiated the writing of hutbe collections. These were distributed by Diyanet to towns and villages, accompanied by exhortations as to the importance of actively using them. The chapter analyses in some detail the sermons of an edition written by renowned Ahmet Hamdi Akseki, published and distributed in modern Turkish in 1927-28. The discussion is based on a large number of longer quotations translated to English (original Turkish in Appendix). The overall message of these sermons is that of a considerably mainstream form of Sunni Islam (sharia-mindedness), centring on daily life in various local settings (small-scale society), emphasising the need for cleanliness, hard and meticulous work, honesty and communal and national unity and togetherness.

This chapter focuses on conversionary preaching that reflected and promoted early modern Catholicism's innovations and triumphalism. It highlights unusual departures that are best revealed in an untapped cache of over 750 manuscript sermons by Gregorio Boncompagni Corcos. Corcos, a respected conversionary preacher of the late seventeenth century, held his position for nearly forty years and delivered handwritten sermons that introduced unprecedented topics discussing Catholicism's triumphs. The chapter recounts how Corcos formulated influential arguments for the continued importance of sermons to Jews in the Roman devotional landscape, revealing his own personal doubts and insecurities. Corcos's preaching confirms that Judaism directly helped a resurgent early modern Catholicism to define itself, providing a context for the new “others” and new devotional priorities of the early modern period.

In addition to their zeal to modernise society and unite the nation, the Turkish leaders of the mid-war period also wanted to reform the forms of religious worship. Instead of using Arabic, a foreign language, they aimed at using the Turkish vernacular as much as possible. Concerning the homiletical part of the Friday sermon there was no problem, but concerning Koranic recitations there was a strong resistance from learned ulema as well as the common people. Things came to a head in relation to the prohibition against using Arabic in the call to prayer. Instead a ‘Turkish ezan’ was introduced. Based on an analysis of the various turnabouts on these reform efforts the chapter argues that the liturgical rituals were more significant in creating a sense of congregational – and national – unity than the exhortations spent in favour of unity and togetherness during the discoursing part of the sermon.

Abstract To the anxieties of the sixteenth century, whether political fears of internal social disintegration, Turkish advance into Europe, natural catastrophe, or even that of a fraudulent clergy,1 Luther’s answer was to preach the effective graciousness of God. Our two witnesses were actual or symbolic representatives of God’s last call to humanity to accept that grace prior to Judgment. Heinrich Bullinger, and many of the reformers who would take the name “Reformed “ as opposed to “Lutheran, “2 nuanced this answer differently. Without denying the proffered grace of God, their preaching focused more upon God’s promise given throughout the history of his people. Our witnesses became symbols of that promise. Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), reformer of Zurich in Switzerland and successor to Huldrych Zwingli, writes about prophets as they herald God’s promise. The existence of the Christian ministry is a sign of God’s care for humanity. The work of that ministry, of prophets and preaching or prophesying, is to call people to live in terms of this covenant. Prophets are a part of Bullinger’s concern for the restoration of the precepts of the covenant in the sixteenth century. They call God’s people to return to the theological simplicity and spiritual immediacy connoted for him by the covenant. The way in which Bullinger’s ideas of prophets, prophecy, and, indeed, the covenant are handled in his set of sermons on the Apocalypse, a book which he argues is a summary of biblical revelation, offers (1) an affective argument to his conception of the place of the covenant in shaping history, (2) a polemical yet effective vision of the Reformed pastor, and (3) lays an important part of the foundation for the later speculative development of the Apocalypse among Reformed churches and with implications for Protestant historiography.7

Mevlânâ was born on September 30, 1207, in the city of Balkh, one of the old Turkish cultural centers, today within the borders of Afghanistan. His real name is Muhammed Celâleddin. His grandfather, Hüseyin Hatibî, was one of the great scholars of his time. His father, Bahâeddin Veled, was known as "Sultânü'l Ulemâ" (Sultân of Scholars). Sultânü'l Ulemâ, an honest person who did not hesitate to speak to anyone, would say everything he knew right in his lessons and sermons without knowing any boundaries. Language is the symbol of being human. Language, which is the necessity of being human, the development of thought and emotion, indispensable of respect and love, is a legacy that nations inherited from the past to the present and the future. It is a known fact that individuals speaking the same language have the same background, culture and values, that is, a common destiny. Our expressions clearly carry the values, norms and social control elements, beliefs and traditions of our nation and play an important role in transferring the above-listed ones to future generations with the help of the language they are a part of. Mevlana has a very important place in the history of Turkish literature. In our study, there will be a language study on volume I based on the book "All Stories in Mesnevi" prepared by Mehmet Zeren. Based on the auxiliary verbs in the stories in the book, the idioms in the sentence will be determined. The idioms determined in the work, the number of lines and the number of pages will be determined. How often the author has used idiomatic word groups and will evaluate the meaning he adds to the sentence. Key words: Mevlana, Mesnevi, İdiom, Language Study

The projects sponsored by the Gülen-inspired movement are numerous, international and costly in terms of human and financial capital. Critics of the movement often question the fi- nancing of these initiatives – with some convinced of collusion with Middle Eastern govern- ments, others (within Turkey) suspicious that Western governments are financially backing the projects. Aware of these criticisms, in a recent comment to a group of visiting follow- ers, Fethullah Gülen indicated greater financial transparency must become a priority for the movement. This paper addresses the financing of Gülen-inspired projects, based on interviews with busi- ness leaders in Turkey, as well as local businessmen throughout Turkey who constitute the financial infrastructure of the movement. In addition, the paper presents data from one local Gülen movement organisation in Houston, Texas, that collects thousands of dollars annually from local members, mostly students on small educational stipends. The paper is framed sociologically in terms of organisational theories of commitment. Beginning with Kanter (1972;1977) and including subsequent major figures in the organi- sational field (e.g. Reichers 1985; Meyer and Allen 1991; Hall 2002; Scott 2003), scholars have demonstrated a positive correlation between sacrifices asked of members and degree of commitment to the goals of the organisation. Using this perspective, the paper argues that the financial contributions made by members in the Gülen movement both demonstrate commit- ment to the ideals espoused by Fethullah Gülen and generate commitment to the movement. The paper presents empirical evidence, based on interviews with financial supporters both in Turkey and the U.S., of how financial resources are generated, the initiatives being supported and the impact of financial giving on the commitment of supporters. The Gülen movement is a civil society movement that arose in the late 1960s in Turkey, initially composed of a loose network of individuals who were inspired by M. Fethullah Gülen. As a state-approved mosque preacher, Gülen delivered sermons in cities throughout Turkey, beginning with a handful of listeners and gradually drawing tens of thousands of people. His sermons focused not only on religious texts but included a broad array of such topics as religion and science, social justice, human rights, moral values and the importance of education. Gülen repeatedly stressed the importance of educating the youth of society by establishing first-rate schools that expose students to the latest scientific knowledge in an at- mosphere of moral values. The projects sponsored by Gülen-inspired followers today number in the thousands, span international borders and are costly in terms of human and financial capital (Woodhall 2005). These initiatives include over 2000 schools and seven universities in more than ninety countries in five continents (Yavuz and Esposito 2003; Baskan 2004; Tekalan 2005), two modern hospitals, the Zaman newspaper (now in both a Turkish and English edition), a television channel (Samanyolu), a radio channel (Burc FM), CHA (a ma- jor Turkish news agency), Aksiyon (a leading weekly news magazine), national and interna- tional Gülen conferences, Ramadan interfaith dinners, interfaith dialog trips to Turkey from countries around the globe and the many programs sponsored by the Journalists and Writers Foundation. In addition, the Isik insurance company and Bank Asya, an Islamic bank, are af- filiated with the Gülen community. In 1993 the community also established the Business Life Cooperation Association (ISHAD) which has 470 members (Baskan 2004). Questions regarding the financing of these numerous and expensive projects are periodically raised by both critics of the Gülen Movement and newcomers to the movement who are invited to Gülen related events. Because of the large amounts of money involved in these projects, on occasion people have raised the possibility of a collusion between the movement and various governments, especially Saudi Arabia and/or Iran, and including the Turkish government. There has even been suspicion that the American CIA may be a financial partner behind the projects (Kalyoncu, forthcoming). Aware of these criticisms, in a recent comment to a group of visiting followers, Fethullah Gülen indicated that a priority must be proactive financial transparency. In this paper, we address directly the issue of the financing of Gülen inspired projects based on the little that is available in published sources, including an interview with Gülen himself, and supplementing that information with interviews with business leaders in Turkey who constitute the infrastructure of the movement. In addition, we present data from one local Gülen organization in Houston, Texas, that regularly collects over half a million dollars from local members, mostly students on small educational stipends. Our analysis is framed socio- logically in terms of organizational theories of commitment. We argue that the contributions made by rank and file movement members, as well as by wealthier sponsors, both demon- strate commitment to the ideals of the movement and simultaneously generate commitment to the movement. An analysis of Gülen-inspired financial contributions must include the ideological and reli- gious motivations inherent in the concepts of hizmet, himmet, sohbet, istisare, and mutevelli. For an understanding of these concepts, we are most indebted to the superb work of Mehmet Kalyoncu whose study of the Gülen movement in Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey, was very helpful both in understanding these ideas and in demonstrating their applicability to the financing of local projects in the city.