Ahi Evran İslami İlimler Fakültesi Dergisi

Öz

The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı), which is one of the widespread religious education institutions in Turkey, continues its activities through various units within the organization. Particularly, mosque-centered religious education activities reach more people. One of the common religious education activities carried out in mosques is the sermons delivered during Friday prayers and holidays. Sermons, reaching approximately 17 to 20 million people during Friday prayers and holidays, are an important means of presenting religious knowledge to the public. Friday prayers and holiday prayers are performed in 89,302 mosques throughout Turkey, and sermons are delivered in these mosques. In addition to the audience reached through sermons, the Friday and holiday sermons published in various language options via social media and other media outlets provide the opportunity to reach a much larger audience. In this context, it is obvious that sermons are of utmost importance in terms of raising awareness and the potential impact they will have on the audience. Considering this potential offered by sermons, it is necessary to examine the processes regarding sermons in depth from many aspects. Studies should be conducted on the compatibility of sermon content and language, the quality of sources used in sermons, whether sermon topics meet the needs of the audience, the qualifications of individuals preparing sermon texts, the sociological effects of sermons, and their contribution to the culture of coexistence. In this context, it is necessary to determine the current status and trajectory of existing studies for possible future studies.
This study presents a descriptive analysis of postgraduate theses that focus on sermons. Within this scope, a situational analysis is conducted based on information such as the research orientations, methods used, departments where the studies were carried out, and the year of completion. The examinations reveal that the studies are predominantly conducted in the field of fundamental Islamic sciences, with the majority of them being in the field of hadith. It is observed that there is a limited number of studies in the field of religious education, and a few studies in fields such as sociology, international relations, and public administration. Additionally, it is worth noting that out of the 37 identified studies, only 3 of them are at the doctoral level.