Sub-Project Listening Communities (MC 2.2)

Project Leaders: Susanne Enderwitz, Hans Harder

This research project underlined that Islamic sermons have been shaped by transcultural factors throughout their history, and have impacted on transcultural processes as decisively as nearly no other genre has. They lie at the heart of today’s biggest transnational Muslim movements and many of them are broadcasted via new media. Shifts in Islam, such as those between its reformist and Sufic dimensions, lead to and are led by reconfigurations of sermons and their rhetoric. The same is true for transcultural entanglements, be they through media, lay preachers or school networks. A detailed analysis of sermon theory and practice with a focus on aural dimensions yielded important insights.
The focus on sermon theory allowed for different insights within the production of Islamic sermons. These include the domains of argumentation, elocution, as well as important aspects of performance. In this way, sermon theory were linked to different fields of scholarly research, such as argumentation theory, poetic theory and performance theory. From a transcultural perspective different characteristics were explained on the basis of preceding traditions, without, however, overemphasizing this aspect, as by now rhetorical theory is often entangled. Also, rhetorical theory proved to be in some cases the place of discussions about accepting the allegedly “foreign.”
The practice of sermons is decisively shaped by the specific sub-genre. Some genres of Islamic sermons proved to feature a transculturally rather ‘stable’ practice while other genres varied considerably. Even new forms of sermonizing such as TV-sermons are not simply spread globally but often build on prior configurations of genres in the respective local context. Furthermore, the relation between sermon theory and practice proved to vary considerably. Not least, the inquiry into practice revealed aspects not reflected in theoretical discussions. The project built on theoretical discussions in the fields of aesthetics, emotions, performance and ritual.