«We Speak the Truth!»: Knowledge and Politics in Friday Sermons in Lebanon

Volume 6|Issue 22| Autumn 2017 |Articles

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between religious knowledge and the social sciences. To achieve this, the author conducts interviews and a discourse analysis of the Friday sermons of religious preachers in Lebanon and their sociocultural features - with a focus on the actors and their knowledge. Several research questions are posed: What are the general features of preachers in Lebanon and their academic qualifications? What subjects do they raise in their sermons? When they comment on and analyze political and social affairs, do they use the tools of the social sciences? What kinds of argument do they use to persuade their audience? Based on analysis of 42 semi-structured interviews with Sunni and Shiite preachers, and the contents of 210 Friday sermons from the period 2012-2015, this study adopts a Weberian approach to understand the discourse structures of Friday sermons in Lebanon and their close relationship with power structures.

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Professor of Sociology at the American University of Beirut.

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