The Syrian Future Movement reviewed the intellectual symposium held by the Syrian Ministry of Endowments, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, entitled “Creating Awareness: The Authority of the Word between the Pulpit and the Mind.” The symposium took place at the National Library in Damascus on July 19, 2025, with the participation of Minister of Endowments Dr. Muhammad Abu al-Khair Shukri and Minister of Culture Dr. Muhammad Yassin Saleh.
We decided to participate in this paper via the open knowledge space, entitled: Creating Awareness between the Authority of the Pulpit and the Mind: A Scientific and Intellectual Methodological Approach
introduction:
Consciousness-building is one of the most important tasks at the intersection of religion, philosophy, and the media, whereby the collective and individual perceptions of individuals are reshaped according to the discourse presented. Between the authority of the pulpit, with its religious and societal emotional influence, and reason, with its instrument of analysis and scrutiny, lies a critical distance within which consciousness is shaped and through which the masses’ attitudes and level of intellectual maturity are determined.
First: The Concept of Awareness Building:
Awareness building is a systematic process for reshaping individual and collective perceptions of reality through cognitive, linguistic, psychological, and value-based tools. It differs from indoctrination because its goal is to create critical awareness, not subservient awareness.
It includes defining concepts, reading context, understanding the relationships between phenomena, and forming positions based on reason rather than instinct.
:Second: The Pulpit and the Power of Influence
The pulpit—religious, political, or media—possesses symbolic power, which derives its legitimacy from the speaker’s status (sheikh, politician, thinker) and the sanctity of the place (mosque, parliament, television).
This pulpit’s power directly influences emotions and directs the masses through:
- Direct, didactic rhetoric presented as unquestionable truths.
- Invoking major texts and symbols to reinforce conviction.
- Using rhetoric to instill emotion, not reasoning.
However, the authority of the pulpit, if it does not intersect with rational criticism, can turn into a tool of superficiality, and perpetuate a culture of conformity rather than creativity.
Third: Reason as the Scale of Consciousness:
Reason represents the cornerstone of building methodological awareness, as it analyzes the discourse of the pulpit, compares it to real-life data, and considers its practical implications.
Reason has methodological characteristics, which are:
- Methodological skepticism as an approach to knowledge.
- Proof and reasoning instead of acceptance and indoctrination.
- Exploring the relationship between text and context, instead of being locked into the literal meaning.
Reason does not exclude the pulpit, but rather places it in a critical context, reevaluating its discourse according to the criteria of interest, higher values, and changing reality.
Fourth: The dialectic of the pulpit and reason in shaping consciousness:
Consciousness is not created in a vacuum, but rather in an environment dominated by one of two discourses: the discourse of the pulpit or the discourse of reason.
If the pulpit dominates solely, repetition, emotion, and passive reception prevail.
If reason operates alone, without a moral or spiritual foundation, it slips into absolute relativism and cognitive disintegration.
Therefore, a balance between the pulpit and reason is the central condition for producing a balanced, profound, and realistic consciousness. This balance is based on:
- Integrating spiritual values with rational analysis.
- Deconstructing sloganeering and exploring its deeper objectives.
- Subjecting everything said on the platform to scientific and systematic criticism.
Fifth: Contemporary Challenges for Awareness Building:
In the age of the digital revolution, platforms are multiplying and minds are fragmenting. New challenges are emerging for awareness building, the most important of which are:
- Hate speech exploiting platform emotion.
- Cognitive triviality on social media, where ignorance is marketed as awareness.
- Lack of systematic analysis and the prevalence of “impressionism.”
These challenges call for rehabilitating the platform to become a platform for reason, not instinct, and for activating the role of schools, universities, and think tanks in building a cohesive knowledge system.
conclusion:
The cultivation of awareness is a battle between platforms of influence and thoughtful minds, between emotion and
understanding, between tradition and innovation.
If societies are to advance, they must free the platform from sanctification, liberate the mind from marginalization, and build a solid bridge between conscious faith and enlightened reason. Only this bridge can lead us to a historical, civil, and liberating awareness capable of building both the individual and the state.
Religious Office
Dr. Zaher Badrani
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