The religious themes by wills in the article are incomplete. This is because Wills has failed to clearly show the differences between the various themes that describe the American religion. The reason behind this is that there are various themes and it is difficult to give the difference between all of them due to the fact that they are similar at the same time in a way. Wills has also failed to indicate which group of people is associated with a particular theme. The reason for this is that some themes were practiced long time ago when the people in the society had no enough information about religion and currently, these groups of people would not like to be associated with these traditional themes.
American history was impacted by the themes in various ways. First, the urge to fight for independence was stimulated by religion. From the religion, the people learnt that they had their own rights even before God and this made the people fight for their rights with the leadership of church ministers. In addition, themes by Wills have played a role in persuading the government of United States to allow people to follow religion of their choice.
Dubois describes African American religion as a type of slavery. The beliefs and practices of these people come from what they saw from their neighbors. Consequently, when children are born, they adopt the religion that their parents have been practicing. Therefore African American religion required these people to follow specific procedures during worship and this was a kind of slavery because the activities they performed were dictated to them by other people.
The African American religion has three unique characteristics. First, they usually have a priest who is more of a political leader or an individual who is able to speak a lot. His/her work is to preach to the people. Second, songs are very important in the religion. Many songs are rhythmical in nature that is meant to praise God. These songs are song loudly. Finally, prayers are crucial for the religion. The prayers are noisy because people usually shout in between prayers with the assumption that spirit of God is near them.
DuBois criticizes the African American religiosity in a number of ways. He argues that the African Americans are just slaves who just follow what they saw from other people. This is why some people are very committed in the church while others are not. The church consists of even criminals who get out of the church once identified. DuBois criticizes the fight for power in the church and the discrimination of the people in the church according to class.
References.
David w. (1997) The central themes of American religious history. Routledge Taylor and Francis group.
Du, B. W. E. B. (2008). The souls of Black folk. Rockville, Md: Arc Manor.
