Readers may recall the carbon-14 dating study performed in 1988 supposedly ‘proving’ the shroud was no older than the 1200’s, and published in the prestigious journal Nature. This is all very clearly and simply discussed in layman’s terms, but signifying a deep knowledge of the material. A helpful summary follows, with chapters for each, on the analysis of the Shroud in light of history, computer analysis, the anatomy of crucifixion the textile of the fibres the pollen found within them the controversial carbon dating (see below) an analysis of the blood and the DNA that can be found, and how this may be confounded with the hands of so many others through the centuries whose handled the object. Turning to the Shroud itself, he discusses this sacred relic – for so I hold it – in light of its relation to what we know of Christ, and His suffering, from Scripture, and then history. He also discusses the complementary relationship that should exist between science and faith, the two overlapping to some extent, but each having its own autonomy. Verschuuren compiles his argument under ten headings or chapters, which he summarizes helpfully at the end: He begins with a discussion of the limits and inherent uncertainty in the findings of science that science is not the only path to truth that there is more in the ‘universe’ – that is, all there is – than is open to empirical science. Gerard Verschuuren also has book on the relic or icon, as your beliefs may sway, ‘ A Catholic Scientist Champions the Shroud of Turin‘, (available at Sophia Institute Press), which title sort of gives away his own opinion, one which this writer happens to share: That this is the ‘winding cloth’ of Christ, donated for His burial along with the new tomb by Joseph of Arimathea, the same one in which He rose from the dead on that Easter night, burning – what verb does one use? – His own human image on the cloth with the divine power of that event that changed the world, and human life, forever.ĭr. Here is Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer – one of the good ones – in an interview offering an apologia for the miraculous nature of the Shroud, while refuting the secular argument that it is of mediaeval origin. That is, one can faintly see the image on the cloth, back and front, but when ‘developed’ – like one would a regular photograph- what comes out is all-too-true-to-life, a closeness to God that is palpable. But this is no ordinary cloth, for on it is imprinted – without any explicable scientific means, then or now – a negative image of Our Lord. May the Fourth is the traditional commemoration of the Shroud of Turin, claimed to be the burial cloth of Christ – and there is much evidence that it is.
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