The weeping sermon: persuasion, binding and authority within the Gülen-movement

Abstract

One of the remarkable aspects of the weekly meetings (sohbet) organised by the followers of Fethullah Gülen is the so-called weeping sermon. The visual depiction of the weeping sermon, where Fethullah Gülen bursts into tears, after which his followers intensively weep during a certain period, hardly reveals the implications of the ritual. Weeping sermons are not just emotional performances, or modes of enchantment. They are part of a larger mediating practice common in the Gülen movement. It has persuasive qualities in three regards: (1) participating in a weeping sermon is a form of bodily moral attunement. It is part of a broader trajectory of religious training and disciplining and enhances spiritual and pious competence. (2) The total ritual including preparations has implications for the internal binding between followers and the forming of community. And (3) the ritual reconfirms and reproduces religious authority. We argue that the specific features of the sessions and the ways in which followers are involved in them, demonstrate how religious knowledge production, authorisation and ritual practice are inextricably linked to one another and come together in the sermon.

Keywords::

• weeping sermon
• Gülen-movement
• aesthetic formation
• religious authority
• Turkish Islam
• religious subjectivation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = npS6lMpunJU.

2. The data presented in this chapter were collected during ethnographic fieldwork over the past few years.

3. Abi means elderly brother, or a male elderly person with authority, in colloquial Turkish. Hizmet has applied this very common term to denote the senior members in the movement who act as mentors.

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = QjhJ8Y4fCmc.