Between Tradition and Modernity: Family and Gender Order in Diyanet Sermons—A Qualitative Content Analysis of Theological Perspectives on Decadence, Hedonism and Moral Responsibility of a State-Religious Infrastructure

Abstract This article analyzes the theological, moral, and social imaginaries articulated in the Friday sermons of the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), focusing on gender roles, family, marriage, and moral responsibility within a state-religious infrastructure. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeological theory of religion and Bradford Verter’s concept of spiritual capital, the study conceptualizes sermons as ritualized speech acts that operate as instruments of symbolic governance. Based on a qualitative content analysis of eighteen sermons published between 2011 and 2025 that explicitly address themes of gender and family, the article identifies recurring discursive patterns: the sacralization of a binary gender order, the idealization of patriarchal family structures, and the framing of modern liberal norms as moral decline. By embedding these patterns in a field-theoretical analysis, the study shows how sermons function not merely as theological discourse but as structured interventions that shape religious subjectivities, regulate moral conduct, and consolidate institutional authority. The sermons naturalize patriarchal and heteronormative norms through divine legitimation, thereby reinforcing symbolic boundaries and reproducing moral hierarchies. This approach contributes to the sociology of religion by offering a transferable framework for analyzing how state-aligned religious institutions mobilize theological discourse to structure social order and regulate behavior.