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Why is a holistic approach critical to examining and understanding African American worship experiences?
A holistic approach is critical to examining and understanding African American worship experiences. This is because the experiences are based on diverse cultural practices, religious diversity, and social and political factors. Different artistic practices with different beliefs and rituals characterize African American worship. Black Americans originate from different African dialects, generating varied cultural practices (Korie 33). These practices include shouts, dance, animated singing, and African rhythms. Thus, the varied cultural practices in African American worship make a holistic approach critical in studying the worship.
Secondly, African American worship comprises diverse religions. The religions include Christianity, Islam, and Jewish, among others. These different religions have diverse practices and beliefs. Therefore, a holistic approach is critical in examining and understanding these different religions in African American worship (Lewis 670). African American religious life involves all the diverse religious practices within black people in the United States. The African American worship explains the three main ideas: the exercise of freedom, a sign of variance, and open-ended alignment. Therefore, the diverse religious practices show the complexity of African American worship, hence the need for a holistic approach to inspecting and understanding it.
Lastly, American African worship is based on political and social factors. American Africans have different outlooks on political ideology as well as social matters, such as homosexuality and abortion. African American worship members hold diverse theological positions from socioeconomic backgrounds, political associations, and schooling levels. Different Social dynamics comprising slavery, political instability, effects of immigration, and the diversities of genealogies contributed to religious developments of African American worship (Korie 33). Black Americans faced many social injustices that contributed to the forming of their African worship groups. These African worship groups have diverse views on social and political matters in the United States (Korie 33). Thus, the diverse political and social factors in African American worship make a holistic approach critical in examining and comprehending the worship.
Works Cited
“Black Liberation Theology.” YouTube, 1 July 2008, youtu.be/K_KF5p57WHE.
Korie L, Edwards. “Race, Religion, and Worship: Are Contemporary African‐American Worship Practices Distinct?” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 48, no. 1, 2009, pp. 30–52.
Lewis, James W. “Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times – Edited by David A. Roozen and James R. Nieman. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2005. viii + 656 pp. $36.00 paper.” Church History, vol. 76, no. 3, 2007, pp. 670–672.
(Lewis 670)