This essay examines extant religious textile artifacts in the Armenian churches of Istanbul. The churches are not only social links, but also repositories for highly perishable material expressions of religious life, which enhanced the community. The pieces, most of which were donated to individual churches by the resident Armenian community, feature intricate designs and rich embellishment. They exhibit a remarkable level of technical sophistication and skill both within the professional artisan class and the lay community, especially Armenian women. The textiles are significant in the study of late Byzantine and Ottoman art, and the movement of Amtenians in the Diaspora The Armenian Orthodox Apostolic Church has long been an anchor of a minority people, and the caretaker of its artistic expression. It continues as an important link between the religious, cultural, and civil life of Armenians in Istanbul and all Turkey,

This essay suggests that literary studies have a crucial role to play in the liberalisation of professional and vocational education and training. Prose and poetry contents of current literature syllabuses demand rigorous moral and ethical explication. Instructive in this regard was the societal interplay of professional texts in medicine with journalistic and fictional works, specifically in relation to spes phthisica, in the nineteenth century. Thus, the works of Willian and Henry James, with their synergies and antipathies, extended the discussion from medical to theological texts. The lectio divina in general and the Carmelite mystics in particular influenced the writings of both James brothers. These considerations highlight the relevance of liberal arts education in the twenty-first century.

This essay explores the conceptual foundations of C. S. Lewis' pilgrimage to a Christian worldview and its implications for Christian scholarship in the Third Millennium. C. S. Lewis' essential Christian worldview has three distinct yet complementary strands: The Tao, Natural Law, or the moral sense; the ecumenical inspiration of Mere Christianity; and the quest for truth and authentic values in the real world. These three strands converge in Lewis' own pilgrimage and witness to the immediacy and relevance of religious experience. Curiously, the reality and truth of the Christian vision finds eloquent exposition in Lewis' lucid prose In the recounting of this consummate storyteller, the Christian worldview emerges as both real and transcendental or "numinous," whose truth is found in historical evidences and lived experience. It is for this reason that Lewis is aptly called an apostle to the sceptics. Lewis' literary imagination thus provides inspiration for a Christian humanist paideia as propaedeutic to renew both liberal arts education and the culture of liberalism.