I would offer the Latino/a experience as narrated by Latino/a theology
within the American scene. Since its formal emergence within the theo-
logical academy in the 1970s, Latino/a theology has managed to raise a
number of proposals and thematics to account for the way Latinos/as do
theology and how that in turn contributes to the broader Christian whole.
Both points are crucial: It is important to understand how Latinos/as
undertake theology in their particular contexts, for they do so in a mark-
edly different way from other communities. Understanding them so as
to be able to hear and engage them is an important enough goal of its
own. But as a particular community that renders worship to the God of
Christian confession, what Latinos/as do, say, and believe can have further
ramifi cations for what ultimately trades as and is deemed “Christian.” On
this point, whatever traffi cs as “Christian theology” with all its subthemes
(Christian anthropology, hamartiology, soteriology, and so on) ought to
be framed by more than simply one set of voices, especially majority ones.
Latino/a theology represents a non-majority set of voices that can help in
this overall task of making what constitutes “Christian theology” refl ect
the insights garnered by the whole, that is, the people of God. In the case
of a Theology of the Third Article, Latinos/as have available a theme
that expresses the point on offer by Dabney’s use of Smith’s proposals,
that being the idea that theology is best undertaken en conjunto , that is
“together” or “with others.”
To a majority set of voices, the idea of pursuing theology “in com-
munity” might sound logical enough. “No man is an island” is a phrase
popularized by John Donne, and it is often enough admitted as appropri-
ate and right. 10 However, I would argue that the spirit of Donne’s medita-
tion is exceedingly lost to the Western mindset as it is typically perpetuated
on the American scene. To continue with Donne’s thoughts, one is not
necessarily “diminished” by the death of another in the current North
Atlantic context; there is not necessarily this sense of being genuinely and
truly “involved” in humankind here the way that Donne suggests in his
meditation. Quite the contrary, Robert Bellah and his associates have sug-
gested that Americans (presumably white Americans given their majority
status) on the whole sustain a “Lone Ranger” approach that involves sur-
vivalist but also success-related connotations. 11 White Americans are self-
starters; the “Don’t Tread on Me” of the Gadsden Flag may ring truer
than e pluribus unum in the popular American consciousness. Privileged,
majority-voice Americans are excessively worried about dependence and
weakness, and they subscribe to a rugged individualism. These and other
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