of thinking they can “make it alone.” Quite the contrary, without others’
help, many Latinos/as would not make it at all.
Another part of the dynamic involves how Latinos/as sustain their
identity in terms of familia. The general aim of la familia Latina is to
sustain and support its members throughout the various stages and chal-
lenges of life. Rather than promoting and privileging such things as “get-
ting a place of your own” or “doing your own thing,” Latino families
typically foster a more collective sense of identity than majority voices
do. Critics may say that such dynamics foster enmeshment and a gen-
eral lack of differentiation among family members, and in certain cases
and in relation to particular concerns those remarks may apply. Generally,
however, those criticisms come from a particular imaginary that is itself
typically not forthcoming of the excesses involved with its own preferred
alternatives, nor does this posture tend to affi rm Latino dynamics that
can foster positive and healthy relationships and outlooks. In a certain
sense, the goal of the Latino family is not so much the emancipation and
self-reliance of the individual as it is the cohesion and interrelatedness of
the family unit. 14
I would argue that on these two fronts, their struggle for survival and
their particular sustainment of family life, Latinos/as are well-disposed to
not simply consider but also to embody a Theology of the Third Article
as Dabney proposes it. 15 In fact, Latinos/as in many ways already live into
that proposal. Latino/a theology is a theology of relatedness; it is self-
understood and pursued as a teología en conjunto. Loida Martell-Otero
highlights what this claim would mean: “If indeed Latino theology is car-
ried out en conjunto , it can only do so because the Holy Spirit has created a
new community, making it one body, one equipped to grow to the stature
of the fullness of Jesus Christ.” 16
I MPLICATIONS FOR THEOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS
Given this need for a Theology of the Third Article (Dabney) and its
embodiment in certain communities of faith and practice (Latino/a the-
ology), what might be some consequent implications for the hermeneu-
tical task in theological refl ection—that work of discerning and making
judgments ( diakrisis ) not only about Scripture but more generally regard-
ing the spirits of the age (1 Cor 12:10) and what constitutes both good
and evil (Heb 5:14)?
DIAKRISIS ALWAYS EN CONJUNTO: FIRST THEOLOGY... 205