the lot of HIV-AIDS orphans in Africa. Was the theologian at the podium giving her a clear criterion for deciding? I think not. If “liberating the oppressed” is going to function as our overarching rubric for scholarship, we need to be sure we are operating with a fairly broad sense of “oppression.” People are oppressed by many things. We do the economically deprived and the politically persecuted no favors if we act as if they do not need access to knowledge and beauty. A Christian understanding