Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
DINBILIMLERI AKADEMIK ARASTIRMA DERGISI-JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN RELIGIOUS SCIENCES, cilt.25, sa.2, ss.1133-1170, 2025 (ESCI, TRDizin)
This study was conducted to develop a scale to assess religious officials' attitudes towards Sufism and to conduct an application study with this scale, which was carried out in & Ccedil;orum province in 2023. The psychometric properties of the scale developed in the first stage of the study are as follows: In this direction, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed, and it was determined that the scale had a four-factor structure consisting of 23 items and explained 65.96% of the total variance. As a result of the analysis conducted with the Promax oblique rotation method, it was determined that the factor loading values varied between 0.90 and 0.45. The factors in the scale were named as follows: First factor (8 items): individual religious development; second factor (6 items): professional development; third factor (5 items): religious approach; fourth factor (4 items): social communication. According to the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results, X2=1.94 and RMSEA=0.07 were calculated. When other fit indices were examined, SRMR=0.08, CFI=0.92, IFI=0.92, TLI/NNFI=0.91, PGFI=0.67 and PNFI=0.75 values were obtained. The reliability analysis calculated the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the entire scale as 0.90. In addition, the Cronbach's Alpha values of the four factors were found to be 0.92, 0.82, 0.89, and 0.84, respectively. As a result of all these analyses, it can be stated that the "Religious Officials' Attitudes to Sufism Scale," consisting of 23 items, can be used as a valid and reliable measurement tool to reveal the attitudes of religious officials towards Sufism. In the second stage of the study, the scale developed to reveal the attitudes of re-ligious officials towards Sufism was applied. The following results were obtained in the application: In the study, it was determined that the attitudes of religious officials towards the professional development and social communication dimen-sion of Sufism were at a whole level, and their attitudes towards the individual development dimension were at a high level. Their attitudes towards the reli-gious approach dimension were at a moderate level. The results of the study re-veal that the attitudes of religious officials towards Sufism vary in different di-mensions and that they are more positive in terms of professional development and social relations, but more cautious in terms of religious approach. The study determined that religious officials in the city center resort to the Sufism ap-proach more to establish effective communication with people and undertake the role of social guidance. In the study, Quran course teachers came to the forefront in the professional development and social communication dimensions of Su-fism, as they were more involved in individual education and guidance process-es. In contrast, imams came to the forefront in the religious approach dimension, as people who convey religious information to the congregation through ser-mons and provide religious guidance. In the study, it was determined that the at-titudes of female religious officials towards Sufism were higher than those of male religious officials in the professional development, religious approach, and social communication dimensions. When the findings were examined in terms of age, it was seen that religious officials in the 18-24 age group had attitudes to-wards Sufism regarding professional development that were lower than those of religious officials in the older age group. In the seniority variable in the profes-sion, it was seen that religious officials with less seniority came to the forefront in the individual religious development dimension. It was determined that edu-cational status was the only variable that did not cause a significant difference between the groups in the attitudes of religious officials towards Sufism. In line with the research findings, considering that religious officials' attitudes towards Sufism vary depending on their professional roles, in-service training programs can be organized to convey the basic principles of Sufism, especially in social communication and professional development. It would be beneficial to increase the number of qualitative studies to examine the effect of Sufism on re-ligious officials in more depth. In particular, field studies can be conducted on how religious officials interpret Sufism values in their professional lives, the con-tribution of Sufism to professional guidance processes, and the spiritual support mechanism. By investigating the effects of Sufism on professional burnout, spir-itual satisfaction, and professional motivation, Sufism guidance approaches for religious officials can be developed. As a result, because Sufism can be a spiritu-ally supportive element for religious officials, it is important to encourage aca-demic and practical studies to ensure that this field is used more effectively in professional processes.