Shroud of Turin and the Resurrection of Jesus & More

GOD, CHRIST: QUESTIONS & FAITH: Book Review on The Living Church

 

From Episcopal Life Online

London cleric, John Stott, shares what he's learned about faith and the church

In The Living Church John Stott shares with his readers what he has learned. After serving as longtime rector of All Souls, London, Stott is both influential and well-known far beyond the Church of England. His many books, preaching and teaching and 60 years in urban ministry, as well as traveling and speaking throughout the world, have made that a certainty. In 2005, he was honored by Time as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."

GOD, CHRIST: QUESTIONS & FAITH: Book Review on The Living Church

New Book: The Shroud Story

From Catholic News:

Researcher claims fresh evidence of Shroud of Turin's authenticity


A Sydney researcher claims in a new book that the mainstream media is ignoring new scientific evidence which proves that the Shroud of Turin dates from the time of Christ, not the Middle Ages as previous carbon dating suggests.

In a new book, The Shroud Story, Sydney researcher and author, Brendan Whiting, says that the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin is supported by the most recent findings, according to a Catholic Weekly report.

Previous carbon dating of the linen cloth, believed to have been the burial shroud of Jesus, suggested it was from the 14th century, but Mr Whiting's book says the earlier testing was done on samples chemically different to the rest of the cloth - and in fact were actually remnants of invisible mending carried out in the Middles Ages.

He says this information means that there is now no scientific evidence supporting any argument against the shroud, now housed in Turin's cathedral, being 2000 years old.

The carbon dating was carried out in three independent laboratories in 1988. The results were used by skeptics and the mainstream press to label the shroud a fake and a fraud.

"Many people were falsely led to believe that the shroud's life-size image of a naked crucified man is a medieval forgery," Mr Whiting said.

"But recent scientific tests proved the carbon-dating result was anomalous.

"In 2005 the corner of the cloth from which the test sample had been taken was proved [by the late Los Alamos physical chemist Raymond Rogers] to be totally different in chemical composition from the main part of the cloth.

"It was found to contain cotton threads that were woven in the edge of the original cloth during invisible-mending in the Middle Ages, so causing the dating of the shroud to be younger than its true age."

Mr Whiting said this evidence has been ignored by the mainstream media to date.

The book lists the accumulated findings by an international group of 24 scientists that the Shroud of Turin is the surviving evidence of the crucified Christ.

Their studies of the cloth's body-image formation concluded: "the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead cannot be rejected on scientific ground".

Mr Whiting spent four years researching the book which will be launched by New South Wales Minister for Commerce John Della Bosca later this month.

Interesting book review in the Sun Sentinel

There is an interesting book review in the Sun Sentinel (South Florida). The book is The Everything History of the Bible Book by Jeffery Donley. The Shroud is only discussed briefly, as it is part of the book being reviewed.  Perhaps most interesting is the bias on the part of the journalist who is being critical of the bias of the book’s author – I say that even as I share some of the journalist’s bias, myself (the curse of being an Episcopalian). A tiny URL link to the article is http://tinyurl.com/jaw6x

This is from the newspaper book review: “The Shroud is a good example of Donley's bent. He plays up findings that verify the cloth and plays down any contrary evidence. For instance, he doesn't mention that it's one of some 40 shrouds, or that a 14th century bishop said he talked to the man who made it.”

This is the constant problem. Critics of the Shroud’s authenticity will grasp at anything no matter how poorly they understand what they are talking about.

Singing Her Book?

These are the kind of stories that feel good. And good, that the Shroud had a role:

    North shore author helps answer the burning questions of life    

By: Deb Burst

           

                                           

                   

       

After 15 years of research, which led her back to the Episcopal church of her youth, Pamela Binnings Ewen presented her case in “Faith on Trial,” which puts the reader on the jury to judge the four Gospels as eyewitness testimony to Christ’s life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection.

A New Orleans native who lived for years in Houston, Ewen found that reaction to her manuscript was mixed. It was viewed as a controversial, intellectual approach to faith, she said. While her agent worked hard to secure a publishing contract, personal tragedy struck.

Ewen was diagnosed with cancer and faced the biggest battle of her life. The questions of life loomed even larger. She had worked hard to earn the gift of faith and now it was being tested. As she lay on the hospital bed, a priest visited. She suspected the worse. “I thought. 'Oh my God, I’m dying.'”

But the Episcopal priest delivered a publishing contract. “My agent landed the contract and wanted me to have it as soon as possible so she sent it to the hospital,” Ewen explained.

A cancer survivor now for eight years, her faith brings her a core of strength to help guide her through the tough times. She donates all the proceeds of “Faith on Trial” to her local church.

The book, published by Broadman & Holman, is in its third printing and was endorsed by Ewen’s former law partner, Secretary of State James A. Baker. The book gained nationwide press, was on several regional bestseller lists and chosen as a text for a course on law and religion at Yale.

After retiring in 2004, Ewen remarried her best friend of 40 years, James Lott, and moved to Mandeville to pursue a full time writing career. 

Ewen’s new book, “Walk Back the Cat,'” had its roots in earlier research when she read about the  mystery surrounding the Shroud of Turin that bears an image believed to be of Jesus. “No one has ever provided an explanation on how the image was created, so the Shroud of Turin provided a natural vehicle for  the conflict and mystery in “Walk Back the Cat,” she said.

Ewen is now at work on her next novel, “The Moon in the Mango Tree,” a historical piece based upon her grandmother's life as a missionary in Siam in the 1920s.

She will be singing copies of “Walk Back the Cat” at 2727 Prytania St. on Saturday, May 20 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

For information about Ewen, her books, and upcoming speaking engagements, visit her website www.walkbackthecat.com.

Review of the Rape of the Shroud

This review of William Meacham's, book (at Amazon) warrants repeating:

 

The Rape of the Turin Shroud by William Meacham ; Paperback Average Customer Rating: Price: $24.50 *

Review:

William Meacham, an archaeologist at the University of Hong Kong, is uniquely qualified to critique events surrounding the controversial 1988 carbon dating (C-14) of the Shroud of Turin and subsequent events. He is the author of a book with a somewhat shocking title: "The Rape of the Shroud: How Christianity's most precious relic was wrongly condemned and violated." Meacham obviously speaks his mind, has a fascinating story to tell and does it with passion. His presence at a recent Shroud conference had the organizers so concerned, security was hired to be on hand. But he is far from being a rogue investigator. In 1983, he authored the most comprehensive study of the Shroud ever published in a peer-reviewed academic journal (Current Anthropology). In 1986, he was invited by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Archbishop of Turin to advise on the upcoming C-14 dating. At that time, he cautioned that the C-14 sample should be taken from more than one site to insure that it was representative of the main cloth and also warned against too much stock being put in the C-14 results. Both proved to be prophetic as the AD 1260-1390 dates ascribed to the Shroud, at first given a 95% degree of certainty by those who performed the test, have now seriously been called into question by the findings of a scientist who had been given a leftover 1988 sample and who found significant differences with other samples known to be from the main cloth. In 2000, he was invited by the Turin Archdiocese as a delegate to a meeting of a world congress of Shroud experts. In 2002, an invitation from the Turin Archdiocese was extended to him to preview the Shroud after a so-called restoration of the cloth that had been carried out that summer.

Meacham first gives a broad overview of Shroud research and the book contains a condensed version of his superb 1983 Current Anthropology article. The next section describes the events that lead up to the 1988 dating and subsequent events. Part 3 deals with the 2002 restoration, which was also very controversial insofar as it had been performed in secret by the Turin authorities without any input from other researchers around the world, including those like Meacham, who had previously been consulted about important Shroud matters. The last section looks at the current situation and new research proposals.

The book's epilogue deals with the 3rd International Shroud conference held in Dallas in September 2005. It was co-sponsored and attended by several important members of the Turin delegation that had carried out the 2002 restoration and controls the Shroud. Meacham mentions that the conference hired an armed guard. He noted, "One can only reflect on the sad state of affairs that Shroud studies had come to, when an armed guard is employed to impose silence on researchers seeking the truth about a relic possibly associated with Jesus." Politics played a huge role in the death of Jesus. Meacham shows in his book how politics is playing another significant role in Jesus' putative burial cloth. This book is a "must-read" for any Shroud researcher and highly recommended for any reader that has even a slight interest in the subject.

Joseph Marino and M. Sue Benford

The book is outstanding. It provides a very up-to-date perspective on the Shroud.